Student station can carry CNN footage

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 1998 | 11:06 a.m.

Students at the UNLV Hank Greenspun School of Communication will soon be honing their journalist skills with actual CNN television footage.

UNLV recently purchased a $900 decoder from CNN, which will allow broadcast students at the university's television station, UNLV-TV, to edit actual raw footage and do voice-overs.

Dennis Mazzocco, an assistant professor at the school who was instrumental in arranging the agreement, said he hopes to start a news program next year. Students will for now, he said, work with the film in classrooms.

Mazzocco said CNN has similar agreements with more than 200 universities and colleges nationwide. Not all, he said, use the footage on campus television stations.

"Now that we have a regular relationship with CNN, our students will know their procedures in Atlanta," Mazzocco said. "Students will be able to approach them for job opportunities."

There are currently 650 students enrolled in the Greenspun school, Mazzocco said. He estimates that about 500 students that are majoring in journalism, telecommunications and public relations will be using the raw footage.

UNLV-TV is broadcast on cable station Channel 4. It shares the station with Clark County and can be seen from 6 p.m. to midnight on Thursdays and Sundays.