March 16, 2015
‘alt.news 26:46’ earns another CTA nomination
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s “alt.news 26:46” will have the opportunity next month to earn a third consecutive honor as the best collegiate television magazine news show in the nation.
The student-produced program received a nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation’s College Television Awards earlier this month. The 36th annual event will be April 23 in Los Angeles. A win will give the program an eighth CTA award. In addition to winning in 2014 and 2013, the program took top honors in 2000, 2001, 2008, 2009 and 2011 to go along with two second-place finishes and one third-place finish.
Episode 16.03 features “Repair Days” at the Metal Museum in Memphis, Tenn., a look at the annual Skunkfest in North Ridgeville, Ohio; the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point, Ind.; the non-profit “Cleaning for a Reason,” and the world’s only underground zipline course at the Louisville Mega Cavern in Kentucky. The episode is available at https://vimeo.com/114436048.
Dallen Detamore and Holden Jones are the program’s executive producers.
“It's an honor to be nominated,” said Jones, a junior from Jacksonville who is a double major in cinema production and television production.
“Every previous season of this show has set a high standard of quality, so this year's nomination serves as a recognition that we as a staff and crew have maintained the quality of production that this show has come to be known for.”
Detamore and Jones point to the hard work and dedication of the 10 staff members and more than 30 students, including many freshmen, who work on the crew, for making the nomination possible.
“They are constantly wanting to produce new content and have been instrumental in the success of this season and the vision that was set out at the beginning of the year for what we wanted the content to look like,” said Detamore, a senior from Germantown, Tenn., who is majoring in radio, television and digital media.
“We have been lucky to have a core group of new students who have wanted to jump in to alt.news immediately and begin taking on more and more responsibilities,” he said. “Anywhere from motion graphics, to making posters, to running cameras -- our crew wants to do it all and has helped us immensely in creating a really great season of the show.”
Jan Thompson, a professor in radio, television, and digital media, is also faculty adviser.
“This is a terrific achievement that our students continue to produce high caliber programming that is recognized nationally,” she said. “They are rigorously judged by industry professionals and are able to continue to compete at the same or higher level than the most acclaimed media programs in the United States.”
Since 2001, the program has earned 30 regional Emmys -- 28 from NATAS’ Mid-America chapter in St. Louis and two from the Chicago Midwest Chapter. The program has also earned several Hugo Television Awards.
Alt.news 26:46 airs on WSIU-TV Channel 8/16. The next episode will air at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, March 21. More information about the program is available at altnews2646.com/.