To many fourth-year students, sleep is not a common activity. Priorities such as finding a job and solidifying a career path come first. However, SGTV station manager and multi-talented broadcast journalism major Paul Critzman likes to take this to the next level. “I’m running on four hours of sleep,” he explains. “Previously I was up for 36 hours because I was working at the WUSC radio station.”
Paul’s primary responsibility, the Student Gamecock Television, is a relatively young 24/7 television station. When he took over in December of 2012, he envisioned friendly relations between all the student media groups. “I wanted to create an atmosphere that people could latch on to. I’ve made friends with many of the leaders of the student media groups,” says Paul. “My goal when I came to USC was to get SGTV some live productions. I since then have streamed my radio show, Student Senate, created a live weekly news show, and started a live interview talk show.”
In addition to managing SGTV, Paul co-hosts two different talk shows on WUSC and XTOX-SGTV. XTOX, a live video game talk show, involves students being interviewed while playing video games. “It’s difficult to keep the conversation going while interviewing,” remarks Paul. His creative approach is prevalent in all of his media work. “I think every single media project is its own unique project and should be treated as such,” he adds.
Paul’s responsibilities during his tenure have included managing staff, maintaining overall organization, balancing the budget and filling the program with new people, all of which requires extensive media knowledge and leadership skills. Is Paul an expert on a hundred different media tools?
“Not at all,” he answers. “There are so many tools out there that can be used and each one can be take years to use decently”.
So what is the next step for the campus’s current media man? “I have no idea!” laughs Paul. “All I know is I’m tired of class. Ideally, I would like to be a Director of Photography, which is someone who directs a camera crew with their own ideas”. Paul also says that he likes news journalism, especially live video productions.
Paul is clearly passionate about his work. His impressive resume includes filming the World Series and creating an archival system for SGTV resources. With the dedication displayed by Paul and the experience he’s gained, he undoubtedly has a bright future ahead of him.
