While working alongside television industry professionals for her 2010 internship in Los Angeles during Winter Break, Crystal Barkley discovered she wanted a career path where her ‘heart and soul were in it.’ She wanted to host her own entertainment show.

Little did she know, she would jumpstart that career where her heart and soul lay months later. The broadcast journalism major would get the opportunity to get to the root of the controversy and passion that lies within Syracuse University and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry bands.

The ‘Loud & Clear’ music show on Orange Television Network will provide Barkley, the show’s host, with precisely that. And it’ll do so while also providing the same heartfelt real-world experience for the show’s production and broadcast team, as well as the local bands profiled.

‘Not only do we film and record the artists performing their music, but we also interview them, which helps to create a better understanding of their personalities and individual stories,’ said John Anthony Fontanelli III, the show’s executive producer and a television, radio and film graduate student.

‘Loud & Clear’ is a music show where SU and ESF students showcase 30 minutes of artists’ interviews and performances. It is the first of its kind at the university and the brainchild of Fontanelli. Six bands in total will be profiled across six episodes airing weekly on OTN. The shows will also be available on YouTube.

The show will premiere between March 20 and 27 and will begin its first — and most likely last — semester of existence, due to Fontanelli and Barkley’s impending graduation, Fontanelli said.

Fontanelli said he wanted to create a unique show that provides a medium for broadcast and music students alike to practice their craft. His two-goal system speaks to that.

‘The first goal is to create the best possible content for music lovers and, by doing so, raise the standards for student programming at Syracuse University,’ Fontanelli said. ‘The second is to offer the opportunity for students to work on a project that mirrors and prepares them for a career in the highest quality of television production.’

With the filming of two episodes under his belt, Fontanelli feels he has done just that.

Ryan Whitman, a junior music industry major, was the artist showcased on the pilot episode of ‘Loud & Clear,’ during which Whitman — a former SU Idol winner — was the first artist to experience what will become the show’s routine. Just like Whitman, each of the other five artists will perform three songs and then sit down for a custom interview with Barkley.

The six artists lined up for ‘Loud & Clear’ are Whitman, The Vanderbuilts, The Fly, Andy Gruhin, Nate Stein and Sophistafunk. The six musical groups were hand-selected by Fontanelli himself, who introduced them to the project during Winter Break.

‘I liked the interview section because I have an opportunity to explain my songs and where they came from,’ Whitman said.

It’s in the interview when Fontanelli creates a place for Barkley to have that prodding real-word experience, practicing the exact thing she hopes to do. The career path she discovered in Los Angeles.

The show’s overarching theme focuses on unearthing the heart behind the SU bands and their music.

Experienced SU artists, such as Whitman, are using the show as another chance to practice their act while at SU. ‘Loud & Clear’ will give Whitman and the other groups the opportunity to broadcast their crafts to the rest of the SU campus. No longer will Whitman and the other five acts be relegated to spreading word of their music solely through live shows.

Whitman realizes someone running on a treadmill at Archbold Gymnasium might come across his act on OTN. And for a guy like Whitman, who aspires to be on shows just like ‘Loud & Clear’ after he departs SU, this is exactly the next step he was looking for.

‘I was just excited to have another venue to get my music out to,’ Whitman said.

What students would be tuning into is that specifically designed show structure where Barkley’s personal questions are at the heart of everything that goes on in the show.

Whitman vouched for that personal feel and said there was an eased, relaxed vibe between artist and host.

It all stems from Barkley’s extra effort of setting up preinterviews and developing a relationship with the artist prior to being on screen. By getting to know the bands and what they are about prior to filming, Barkley knows how to approach each artist and gets to the bottom of the passion and controversies within each band on screen.

‘These are not mainstream artists,’ Barkley said. ‘They’re putting music in a new direction.’

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Published on February 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm

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