SUTV Honored With National Pegasus Award

Published: October 05, 2005 | Author: Lee Byers | Read Time: 2 minutes

The Communication Department within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Southern Utah University has received numerous accolades recently from prestigious award programs of the broadcasting industry.

First, SUTV, SUU’s student broadcasting lab, has been awarded two 2005 Pegasus Awards—one for a 30-second parody of Disney’s Lion King that promotes SUTV as the “Cable King,” and two, for SUU’s recruiting video. SUTV is the television production unit of the Communication program. Its programming can be seen on Channel 9 on the Bresnan Cable system in Cedar City.

The Pegasus Awards are the video industry’s premier competition for recognition of exemplary work. The productions were assessed by a distinguished panel of judges representing industry professionals from around the country.

The Cable King won an Award of Honor in the Educational Access Channel Promotion category. Dr. Jon Smith, SUU communication professor and department chair, wrote and produced the commercial after he saw a spectacular rock formation in Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada that looked like the Pride Rock used in the popular Disney movie. He brought a student crew, including one in a monkey costume, on location to act like Disney characters celebrating SUTV’s arrival as the king of cable television. The Pegasus Awards made note of its “cute spoof” and effective acting and pacing.

The SUU Recruiting DVD won also won an Award of Honor. Lee Byers, SUTV station manager, directed, edited and produced the six-minute recruiting video and authored the multiple-award winning DVD that highlights SUU’s campus and variety of program offerings. The recruiting video also won two Communicator Awards and two Videographer Awards, for video and DVD authoring, and was a finalist in the Telly Awards. The video is shown during SUU’s high school tour to see students all over the state of Utah and mailed to thousands of high school students across the country. Jake Johnson, formerly of the SUU Admissions Office, co-produced the video. Jake is now pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Nebraska.

Smith has another award to add to his mantle for his production of the documentary "Miracle at Kap Yong: The Story of the 13th." It most recently won a Platinum Best of Show at the 10th annual Aurora Awards. See http://www.suu.edu/news/archives/view_archive_articles.asp?Referrer=Find&HS=May%202005%20Archives&ID=236
for details of the documentary and other awards Smith has won for this production.

--SUU—

Through its more than 100-year history, Southern Utah University has evolved from a teacher training school into its current role as a comprehensive, regional university to 6,000 students from across the globe. It serves the southern region of Utah and contiguous counties in surrounding states with undergraduate and graduate programs in six colleges. People of the region look to the University for outreach services, culture, economic and business development, higher learning, regional history, public affairs, major academic specialties, and significant entertainment and recreation. Accentuated by the notable, economic value of its services, SUU's hallmark is its quality staff, faculty and academics.

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