Kayla Marafiole, YSU student and technical director of 'Light the Wick,' works in the control room in Bliss Hall.

You're a busy member of the STEM faculty without much time to find out what's happening on the other side of campus. You'd love to put down your ring stands and slide rules every so often to get more in touch with your creative side.

Lucky for you, YSU telecommunication students are now producing "Light the Wick"—a weekly, live–to–tape show about people and events in Youngstown's own arts corridor. New episodes are uploaded Friday evenings to www.lightthewick.blip.tv.

"Interesting people are what we're looking for. We're about the lifeblood of Wick Avenue," said Fred Owens, communications professor and supervisor of the show. Junior telecommunications major Keith Stinson added, "We want to try to brand our show as the place you would go to find out what's fun and different at Youngstown State."

Each episode of "Light the Wick" runs only seven to eight minutes, but the first show alone was packed with stories on the new dean of Fine and Performing Arts, upcoming Dana concerts and YSU theater productions, Music at Noon at the Butler, swing–dancing students, the lighting of the AT&T tower, the M–2 parking deck, Homework Express and the YSU Marching Pride drum line – to name a few.

"Pretty much every aspect leading up to the actual production is incredibly stressful – from assigning stories, to putting the scripts together, to making sure everything gets done," said Cheri Jones, senior telecommunications major and executive producer of the show. "But when Friday comes and everyone is in position and ready to go, it makes the whole thing worth it."

Jones and Stinson said that producing the show teaches what cannot be found in a book: experience. Owens added, "Our students are on a one–week production turn–around schedule, which is extraordinary because live–to–tape TV is high pressure and deadline sensitive. Students become extremely competent and capable problem–solvers, and it gets them out of their comfort zones."

"It's exciting to think that we're putting together a show that might one day rival the productions from Kent State or Ohio University," Jones said. "We just want to give the students, faculty and alumni from YSU something to be proud of."

"Light the Wick" is also available through the Fine and Performing Arts homepage, http://fpa.ysu.edu/index.shtml, and the community can e=mail the show at light.wick@gmail.com.

In addition to "Light the Wick," the telecommunications students are also working with the YSU Athletics Department on a new project that ensures TV coverage and live broadcasts of YSU Olympic–style sports. This September, YSU became the first school to stream a live broadcast of a game (womenÕs volleyball) from the Horizon League's web site.