The St. John’s television station is up and running again in the dorms
after a two-week hiatus due to technical difficulties.

Until Wednesday of last week, channel 36, which airs WSJU radio and
WRED-TV was totally down. A cablevision technician later came and fixed
the video but the station remained mute.

An engineer at the radio station, Anthony Costa, realized and fixed the
problem on Tuesday. He said that the modulator had been damaged,
leaving the wires to stick out two inches.

“Someone had a panel set up on front of the rack,” said Costa. “Someone
must have kicked the rack.”

The television station provides facilities for the whole university,
meaning that any department can produce and air a show. But to students
going into the fields of television and radio, the station is most
vital. It provides them with hands on experience and readies them for
the work field. The studio also allows students to showcase their
talent.

“It’s important that the dorms get the feed from the T.V. station
because it’s something done for the St. John’s students by the St.
John’s students,” WRED-TV cameraman and sophomore communications student
Joe Pinanti said.

WRED-TV airs “Eye of the Storm,” a news television program every Friday
at 5:30 p.m. both on campus and locally in Queens, the Bronx,
Westchester, Manhattan, and Nassau County. The radio station is only
wired on campus to Marillac Hall, The University Center and the
residence halls.

The university recently supplied the television station with three hundred thousand dollars worth of new equipment. Costa said that he will request also that they upgrade the current mono modulators.

“People are doing surround sound,” Costa said. “I’m going to recommend
stereo modulators.”

Pinanti agreed that an upgrade of the systems audio would be a good
idea, saying; “If every other school can do it why shouldn’t we be able
to?”

“We’re in New York City where this is probably the best school for
television, other than Syracuse,” Pinanti said.