Matt Maisel still covered the Syracuse-Pittsburgh football game Saturday.

The former HillTV sports director still served as the lone reporter for the debut of ‘Orange Press Pass’ – the first live television postgame show ever produced by SU students.

He still went on camera because Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor allowed all former HillTV programming except ‘Over the Hill’ to continue on the Orange Television Network after she disbanded HillTV on Thursday.

And on the surface, it appeared as though he still filed the same report, regardless of the station’s name.

But for Maisel, something didn’t feel right. Nor should it have.

While there is no question ‘Over the Hill’ should have been canceled for its highly insensitive nature, Cantor’s decision to disband the entire station was inappropriate and damaging to those members unassociated with ‘Over the Hill.’ Cantor must establish a new student-run television network as soon as possible, provided the right organizational guidelines are in place. OTN, managed by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, is not viable.

Maisel is a prime example of a dedicated former HillTV member whose future is now much less certain.

Maisel came to Syracuse because of HillTV. Long anticipating a career in sports television, his college list naturally included SU because of Newhouse. But when an SU grad and HillTV alum from Maisel’s hometown of Harrisburg, Pa., told him to watch HillTV’s sports shows on the Internet, Maisel was hooked. He hardly believed students could travel across the country to cover sports, all for the nation’s longest tenured student-run television station.

The junior excelled in covering nearly every Syracuse sport in his first two years. He was named HillTV sports director on Oct. 3. With the start of ‘Orange Press Pass,’ HillTV Sports was destined to grow under Maisel’s leadership.

But the sports department’s development may be stunted by OTN. Though all of HillTV’s former shows will be produced with the same equipment in the same studios – now called Watson Studios instead of HillTV – access to the station could be reduced.

Maisel and many of his sports co-workers often worked more than 40 hours in the studio each week, often a nine-to-five shift. That’s 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. But that may not be possible anymore. While some students, including Maisel, owned keys to the studio, only OTN general manager Andy Robinson can open the doors now. Maisel said discussions on that point are ongoing.

Without full access, Maisel and his co-workers can’t exert as much energy into producing the sports department’s three weekly shows: ‘On the Bench’ – a Tuesday review of all SU sports; ”Cuse Countdown’ – a Thursday football, men’s basketball or men’s lacrosse preview show; and ‘Orange Press Pass’ – a Friday, Saturday or Sunday live postgame follow-up to ‘Countdown.’

Even so, reduced access is a tangible change with OTN. A far worse effect of HillTV’s cancellation is harder to grasp – the loss of someone’s identity. Like so many other former members, Maisel and HillTV went hand in hand.

‘Even though it seems like we copied everything from HillTV and pasted everything to OTN,’ Maisel said, ‘it’s not that because there was a certain essence about being completely student-run that we really prided ourselves on. It’s almost as if that pride was stripped.

‘You were working in the same studios, but it wasn’t your studios anymore. It was like walking into your old home if you moved away.’

In a sense, though, that old home is gone forever. Cantor’s biggest miscalculation in disbanding HillTV was forever polluting its name. A Newhouse professor told a colleague of Maisel’s that having HillTV on a rsum now almost requires the potential employer to share HillTV roots. When that’s not possible, it’s as if one of the most highly renowned, student-run television stations in the country never existed.

But at least the shows are continuing. Maisel praised Robinson for letting former HillTV programming air on OTN. He also commended the Syracuse athletic department for agreeing to continue its partnership. Problem is, no professional employers know the OTN name.

Maisel’s HillTV experience landed him an internship last summer at WTAE, the ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh. He fears former HillTV members, including himself, will now face difficulty applying for internships and jobs.

‘It’s a horrible feeling to have,’ Maisel said. ‘It’s almost as if saying what you’ve done for the past three or four years means nothing now. At times when I think about that, it’s almost nauseating. Hopefully people can look past that and see the work that’s done – the rsum tapes – but I don’t know.’

The rsum tapes are all he has left. Along with his co-workers in sports, Maisel’s dedication shows in the mileage he has logged. No department at HillTV had a travel budget. Between all of the road football, men’s basketball and men’s lacrosse games, the members of the sports department constantly reached into their own pockets to create their own experience.

Maisel and seven of his co-workers even filmed a 2005 American League preview show from Fenway Park in March. They had the hallowed stadium all to themselves.

‘Here we are sitting at Fenway Park the spring after the Red Sox won the championship and the stadium is completely ours,’ Maisel said. ‘No one else is there. We kind of all looked around at each other and realized this is a cool, cool thing that we’re doing. You can’t get this anywhere but (HillTV).’

That’s why HillTV’s successor should start operation immediately if structured with more oversight than HillTV. While Cantor’s decision to eliminate HillTV was rash and reactionary, her June 2, 2006, deadline for the Task Force on Student-Run Television’s final report is even more outrageous. A new student-run station is needed much sooner.

Again, no words can say strongly enough that ‘Over the Hill’ deserved its cancellation and those involved deserve punishment.

But the bottom line for former HillTV members like Maisel who were not aware of ‘Over the Hill’ – and young Maisels throughout American high schools who were set on upholding HillTV’s legacy – is that the chance to start a successful television broadcasting career has diminished at a university where it should always rise.

Ethan Ramsey is an assistant sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear every Tuesday. E-mail him at egramsey@gmail.com.

Published on October 24, 2005 at 12:00 pm