Monday, May 12, 2008

College Radio on TV

I keep thinking about writing about depictions of college radio stations on television (90210 and Felicity are the first shows that come to mind) since I'm a huge fan of teen and college-themed shows.

Who can forget all the radio drama experienced by David Silver and Donna Martin during their stint on CU's radio station on Beverly Hills, 90210? The initial story lines revolved around their witty (?!) on-air banter when they did a team show. Then, when David went solo, the plot centered around his off-air drug abuse, spawned by the station manager offering him speed to help him stay awake after graveyard shifts.

Imagine my surprise when today I ran across the blog of a writer (and former college radio staff member) who is working on a script for a television pilot about college radio. Here's her initial idea:

"So, I'm writing an original pilot now, a half-hour dramedy about my experience working for a college radio station. Originally I wanted it to be a mockumentary a la The Office, but I think it would be kind of a pain to write it that way..." (July 2007 post)

And here she is a bit further along in the process:

"Before I left Ithaca, I started working on a pilot about my experience with college radio. The problem: I couldn't think of any good plots...lots of fun characters using cool radio jargon with not much else happening..." (August 2007 post)

And, her post from yesterday:

"So for my next pilot I said screw research, I'm going to write something I know completely: college radio. And though I'm still struggling with rewriting, it's kind of nice to write something I feel that I'm an expert about. In a way my challenge is that I have so many ideas, so many directions to go in, so many real-life experiences that I can pull from." (May 2008 post)

So, aren't you dying to hear more about this script? What kinds of tales from your own college radio experiences would make for good television?

Can you think of any other college radio stories that have been on television before? And were they realistic? Personally, every time I saw 90210's take on radio (whether high school or college) I was always yelling at the screen, taking issue with the most minor details (HE ISN'T EVEN TALKING INTO THE MIC!) and inane (and unrealistic) mic breaks.

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