By Erin Shanahan
After a rocky start to the semester, Fordham’s student TV station Fordham Nightly News (FNN) is slated to be back up and running in the coming weeks.
Last week, the station’s future appeared uncertain as the program was put on an “indefinite hiatus,” as FNN’s student coordinator Dan Grbic, FRCH ’16, called it. That potential hiatus was due to a reported “retooling” to better accommodate a new journalism major, which would start next fall, according to Rose Hill professor Mat Schottenfeld.
But now, it seems, that plan has changed.
Tuesday night, Grbic sent out a celebratory email alerting students involved in FNN that the program would return within the coming weeks. This good news, Grbic said, came about through the hard work of Fordham’s Communications department, and in particular, Department Chair Jacqueline Reich and Associate Chair Beth Knobel.
When reached for comment, Grbic said he, and the rest of the students who work at FNN, owe a lot to those faculty members.
“On behalf of all students involved, we are very thankful for our faculty in the Communications department who took the time to make sure FNN can continue,” he said.
Although the program will return, it will not be in its full, previous capacity. Shows will air only three days a week now, where last semester, the program ran four days a week.
“However, everybody on and off-air will still have the same opportunity to be involved as before,” Grbic explained in his email to the staff.
Grbic also detailed more information about training and times FNN’s new airtimes. He said further information about Fordham Mornings and Overtime will be provided soon.
The initial announcement over the summer that FNN would be undergoing major changes came as a shock to Grbic, and later, to the rest of the staff, as they had not been directly informed of the overhaul prior to the start of the semester.
Coming back to school this semester, student coordinators learned they had no access to the TV studios or the station’s email accounts. In the resulting confusion over the organization’s status, FNN was not represented with a club fair table to welcome freshman applicants, as it normally would.
Despite these setbacks, and despite the downsized studio time they are being allotted, FNN participants say they are excited to return to informing and entertaining the student body through their newly announced future programs.
Grbic, for his part, said he is just happy FNN seems to finally be out of the woods.
“I know this has been a tumultuous time for us all, starting a new year on top of not knowing the future for FNN,” he said. “However, now we have an opportunity to prove how important this club is to all of us and I expect us all to be ready and excited when we get the ball rolling soon.”
