One year after its original conception, Syracuse University’s Orange Television Network is finally on the air.

OTN, which broadcasts shows produced by HillTV, a student-run television station separate from OTN that caters its programming to the Syracuse campus community, officially began broadcasting on-the-air programs in an attempt at what HillTV General Manager Chris Milkovich labeled a ‘soft launch.’

‘(OTN is) putting content on the air to see how the technology works,’ Milkovich said. ‘It’s like a practice run.’

Milkovich said OTN has been on the air since Monday and carries all of HillTV’s content.

‘HillTV is geared toward the Syracuse campus audience,’ he said. ‘It is entertainment programming, sports programming and news programming that has to do with what revolves around the Syracuse community. … The issues we talk about and the jokes we make pertain to (SU students).’

Though the idea for a television network geared toward an SU audience was conceived of last year, Milkovich said it really didn’t take that long for the network to get its feet off the ground.

‘Creating your own closed-circuit television network is a lot harder than you may think,’ Milkovich said. ‘The general manager of OTN is working with a skeleton staff and has done an amazing job at getting the content on the air. It’s never easy to find original programming for every day of the week.’

Andrew Robinson, general manager of OTN, was unavailable for comment.

This isn’t the first time OTN has tried to broadcast to the SU community. In early April of last year, it made its debut broadcasting shows provided by HillTV. It aired until April 23.

Cristina Redondo, executive producer of the show ‘On the Bench,’ a HillTV show similar to ‘Sportscenter,’ also takes part in a class at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in which students work with the OTN and said she was excited about the OTN launch.

‘I feel like it’s a good thing,’ she said. ‘I know it’s a good outlet to have our programming go out to the student body.’

Dave Griffiths, an associate producer of ‘Courtside,’ a sports show produced by HillTV that specifically follows the Syracuse Orange basketball team, showed the same sentiment about having something he helped create be broadcast to the SU community.

‘It’s definitely cool; it isn’t something all students get to do,’ he said. ‘It isn’t just going to be me, but all of us are looking forward to it.’

Both Redondo and Griffiths agreed it might take some time for students to get used to the new show selections they have.

‘They’re still working the kinks out at OTN,’ Redondo said. ‘It’ll be something great for students to see programming that’s aimed directly at them.’

‘Eventually it’ll be something they’ll catch on to,’ Griffiths said. ‘It’ll be something a lot of students watch, at least I hope it is.’

Though a recent water leak in Watson Hall, where the HillTV studios are located, did hinder production for a short time, Milkovich said the station was still able to release all of its content on schedule.

‘It stopped production for about half a day,’ he said. ‘ … It wasn’t really a flood; it was a minor leak in the studio and it was contained quickly.’

HillTV programming is also available on the Internet, at uutv.syr.edu.

Published on April 12, 2005 at 12:00 pm