Freddie P's Blog

November 26, 2007 @ 08:35

I'll be honest, I almost didn't bother to write this posting because it involves some people in the broadcasting industry who I admire, but after giving it some serious thought, I just had to.

Something called the "College Of Sports Media" has opened in downtown Toronto and it describes itself as "Canada's most elite institution for radio and television sports broadcasting."

Wow. That's something.

They have a website that's up and running so you can go there to get all the details except how much it costs but according to Chris Zelkovich in Friday's Star its $17 thousand dollars. Apparently, it's a 17 month course at a thousand dollars a month.

Wow. That's something.

I'm of two minds when it comes to this. And neither is that encouraging.

I can understand a kid wanting to take this course because it appears to be a fast tracking, intensive course that gets right to the point, unlike the community colleges that continue to be co-coordinated by people who never really had much success in the business and who stretch very little instruction over way too much time.

I've always felt that any college broadcasting course that lasted more than two years is a waste of time, and over the years it was re-enforced by the kids who came through these courses and then interned on the Humble and Fred Show.

In many cases most of they couldn't believe how they learned more interning for a couple of months, than they did at college for three years.

It was my experience that most of the kids in the colleges took radio and/or TV broadcasting because it looked cool and they didn't know what else to take.

I've stood in front of classes of thirty kids where maybe ten were really into it, ten weren't sure and the rest could give a shit, and it was reflective in the pathetic papers they turned in.

If there was any consensus among the kids, it was this. None of them felt they were getting their monies worth, so from that standpoint I can see a kid being attracted to something like the College of Sports Media.

But at seventeen thousand dollars?

What concerns me about this is how restrictive it could be. A two or three year college course might cost a kid upwards of seventeen thousand dollars but only if they need housing and food to go along with it. If they live at home, it's not even ten thousand.

Not only that, but they have summers in between to raise the money to pay for the next year and they get invaluable college life experience.

Seventeen thousand in seventeen months is way beyond what most kids can handle so you know who will end up in this course, rich kids or kids who will end up with humongous loans and this has got to affect the eligibility process.

There's another broadcasting course in Toronto outside of the colleges that continuously tells kids with little or no talent that "they have what it takes to be Canada's next great broadcaster" and often his is done during an initial phone conversation.

But hey, there's rent to pay and bills to pay, they need tuition money to stay afloat and that's what concerns me about the College of Sports Media.

Given the facilities that have been built the overhead must be astronomical. What if the response isn't that overwhelming but bills have to be paid? Who gets in that maybe shouldn't get in? Who is led to believe they have a future when really they don't?

Hey, don't get me wrong by the time someone is finished high school or they've reach their early twenties they should be able to make intelligent decisions and given the fact most kids are coming out of the community colleges having twiddled their thumbs for two or three years something like the College of Sports Media must look pretty attractive, but there is so much to consider.

With big corporate take-overs, convergence, networking and the new era obsession with the bottom line, there are a lot less jobs in the broadcasting industry than there used to be and I feel bad for those kids who sign up for these programs when they don't stand a chance.

And believe me; the majority don't stand a chance.