By Lindsay Gross
Contributor

“And the Emmy goes to.” Sitting, waiting, crossing fingers and toes, you anxiously await to see if it is your name that they call.

For Tony Sanchez, Benjamin Cruz, Micaela Arroyo, and Jon Aiello that is what they will be feeling the night of June 16 when they attend the NATAS-Pacific Southwest Chapter. They are not your typical television students though.

They are the producers of “Newscene” and “Newscene en Espanol,” a 30-minute show that is made up of the week’s biggest stories and packages that happen on campus and around the city.

Every Friday they head to the studio to film their programs that later air at 6 p.m. on i16TV on Cox Cable.

Laura Casta§eda is the professor that helps get her students ready for the real world of producing a TV show. Casta§eda produces and hosts her own show that recently aired on KPBS-TV and Cox Channel 4.

She has won two local Emmys for her show, “Stories de la Frontera,” one in 2005 and the other in 2006.

She is able to use the experience that she has and pass it on to her students so that they also are successful producing their own shows.

It seems that Casta§eda’s dedication to her students’ success has paid off.

Unanimously, the four students that are nominated said that they credit Casta§eda for their achievement in receiving the nominations. “She not only encourages us that anything’s possible but is the motivating drive behind us all and she makes sure we stay focused on our goals,” said Jon Aiello.

The Emmy award is exact same award that we have seen on TV, except this is regional, meaning it covers only the Pacific Southwest including San Diego, Las Vegas, Santa Barbara, Bakersfield, and Palm Springs.

“I think with the ‘Newscene en Espanol’ we have a great chance to win, especially because it is the first city college student produced Spanish show and it has great human interest stories as well with sports and entertaining stories with great graphics. We worked really hard on it and you can just tell. It is a great show,” said Micaela Arroyo on whether or not she has a good chance at winning an Emmy.

Certainly, Casta§eda has something to gloat about.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to see my students’ successes. Even though I am there to guide them, this really their nomination — I always tell them, I am here to help and guide but it’s their show each week, good or bad. When they have a great show, I’m proud of them, and when they have a bad show, I’m still proud of them for trying if they did their best and learn from their mistakes,” said Casta§eda.

There is a lot of hard work that goes into making just a 30-minute show. As a producer you have to oversee everything from being on time, accuracy of information, having great camera people, good video footage, and having a great team of broadcast writers. If you think you have what it takes to be a producer then the RTV 145 class is what you are looking for.