MCN87 television is beginning a new show called “What’s Up, MU!” to keep students in-the-know about  events on campus.

The show is hosted and produced by sophomore communications major Mike Gombita. Biochemistry major Tom Scott and Nursing major Steph Shultz  will share in the hosting duties. The show will be recorded in the studio in the basement level of Walsh Hall.

Gombita and the crew are excited to get the show going. “’What’s Up MU!’ is a weekly show that members of Students Today, Alumni Forever, who are in the alumni department, will be giving the viewers a list of calendar events that students may be interested in attending,”Gombita said.

Gombita said the format is similar to a talk show. “[The hosts] have a little open discussion of their day, almost like if you wake up in the morning and you tune in to a morning talk show. After the short discussion, it immediately goes into the events on campus. We do this in less than three minutes,” said Gombita.

The show will be broadcast on the Facebook page of STAF on Sundays at 11 a.m. in order to give the Misericordia community a rundown of the week ahead. The link is www.Facebook.com/misericordiaSTAF.

The crew had made two shows already and Gombita said they are making refinements. “Progress has been great, to an extent. There’s always is improvement to be made. Our talent as of right now, Tom Scott and Steph Schultz, have never read from a teleprompter or been on camera.”

Gombita said he also needs more students to volunteer to join the crew.

“We are short-staffed on the production side, working with three people, and typically the studio is a six-person set-up. So I myself have to cover two jobs, running teleprompter and running audio,” Gombita said.

Senior communications major Matt Scanlon helps Gombita every way he can.

“The show is filmed live, and that can be challenging with a limited amount of crew members. It can be anything from running the cameras, audio or the teleprompter,” said Scanlon.

Gombita hopes that the new show helps students in a number of ways. “We are dedicated to providing informative and entertaining television. This seemed to fit our mission and goals towards the station, and we are happy we are doing this. I feel as though by providing information like this to students in an efficient way, we’re not only helping our students develop application skills that they can use in the field of mass communications and design, but also benefiting the students who are on campus looking for something to do,” Gombita said.

Scanlon hopes the show elevated the notoriety of the entire department. “I’m really hoping the show will grow our audience towards Mass Communications and Design. [‘What’s Up MU!’] is released weekly, which helps supply the students with content more frequently. We are working hard with STAF make this goal possible,” Scanlon said.

 When asked why the show is so intriguing, Scanlon said it is a news broadcast created by MU students for MU students.

“It’s clear and informative, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s upbeat music in the background, we have two great hosts in Steph Schultz and Tom Scott and it’s straight to the point. The show won’t run out of content anytime soon because there’s always something going on around campus,” Scanlon explained.

Gombita offered his version of a verbal advertisement for the show. “Want a short informational video that tells you some of the campus events going on at Misericordia University? ‘What’s Up MU!’ gives you the agenda you can reference all week just from your computer or smart-phone! Get your weekly update every Sunday with ‘What’s Up MU!’” said Gombita.

Gombita also believes the show is a good opportunity for non-communications students to get involved and fill out their resumes.

“My favorite part of the show is that we are able to collaborate with other groups on campus other than the communications department students. Little do people on campus know that we are available to students who serve in any clubs or organizations on campus. We have always offered students to be a part of our radio station, newspaper, marketing and public relations organization, and the television station. I am always willing to help students with any media needs, but they need to know that this is available for them to use with proper meetings and qualifications,” Gombita said.

Scanlon believes that the show allows students to keep in touch with the happenings on campus. “It’s easy to fall out of the loop. Students want to stay connected with each other, and the show is a fun and fast way of doing that,” said Scanlon.

Gombita said the show is easy for all members of the university community to access and, therefore, facilitate greater attendance to campus events.

“The simple feature of sharing on Facebook can get the message out quickly. Our first post reached about 1,000 people in looking at the Facebook statistics. That’s reasonably 50% of the campus. We can get more people to events if we reach our target audience and our demographic. That way, students will find more opportunities to enjoy campus and possibly create new friendships and make new connections with faculty, staff, and visitors that come to campus with these events,” he said.

Scanlon said potential student crew members should know the show isn’t all work, however. “It’s always fun to bust Tom Scott’s chops about hosting the show. It’s all in good fun though because we’re friends. The show itself is ambitious when you think that we haven’t committed to creating a weekly show before, besides Sports Reporters,” Scanlon said.