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It's not NBC, it's not CBS, it's WHOO TV. And as its slogan says, it is "revolutionizing communication at the University."

For the last year, third-year College students Sarah Jennings and Nicholas Holden have worked to bring WHOO TV, a student-run television station, to the University.

So far the station only has a news show and a sketch comedy show, but its founders have big dreams for the future.

"Our short-term goals are to get some money from appropriations next semester and get an office space," said Jennings, a third-year College student. "In the distant future we're hoping to raise enough money to get a studio and some equipment."

Currently the station, which has been granted CIO status, borrows its equipment from the Robertson Digital Media Lab in Clemons Library.

But the station's founders understand there will be challenges to confront when starting a project from scratch.

"All of freshman year and most of that summer I'd just been whining about how there wasn't a TV station," Jennings said. "Then over the summer I was working at this theater and one of the women said, 'Why don't you just do something about it?'"

WHOO TV's co-founder, Holden, came to the first interest meeting she held, got drawn in, and the two worked closely together thereafter.

"I had gotten excited about the whole thing," Holden said. "I told her that if we got in touch with enough people, we could actually get this thing started."

The first step Jennings took was to ask the Darden School for access to its television channel.

"They have a whole channel and they don't even use it," Jennings said. "But they said no" to letting the undergraduates use it.

Other student-run and University organizations were similarly unhelpful.

"Basically everybody told me that we couldn't do it," Holden said.

Eventually the two got in touch with the public access channel in Charlottesville, as well as Information Technology and Communication, which gave WHOO TV their on-Grounds channel.

The combination of the two channels means that WHOO shows on channel 14 on Grounds and on channel 13, the public access channel, off Grounds.

Channel 14 airs the news show "Hoo Knows?" at 7 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Friday the news show is followed by the comedy show, called the Grover Cleveland Dance Party. Off Grounds, the news show airs Friday at 7 p.m., and the comedy show airs Monday at 10 p.m.

"Hopefully we'll get more programming," Jennings said. "Currently we have at least two people who want to propose shows for next semester."

Eventually the station hopes to have constant programming and its own equipment.

"I don't think I'll be here to see it," Jennings said. "I'll be able to come back and say 'I remember when we were having to fight everybody else for equipment from the library.'"

Jennings and Holden encountered many obstacles in their effort to jumpstart a television station on Grounds, but borrowing the equipment proved to be their largest obstacle.

"News doesn't happen only when you can reserve a camera," Jennings said.

Any new equipment will have to be purchased through money from either grants or underwriting, as the station does not show commercials.

"There's a question as to whether we would even be allowed to have a University channel if we had advertising," Jennings said.

New shows air on Fridays. "Hoo Knows?" is new every other week, while Grover Cleveland Dance Party airs a new episode every month.

These long intervals between shows are also the result of the enormous amount of work involved in producing a new segment.

"Until you jump in there and do it, you don't even realize how much of a time commitment it is," Jennings said. "It's insane."

Jennings estimated she spends seven or eight hours a week on the news show, while Holden said he puts in closer to 20 hours.

Many of these hours are spent filming segments for "Hoo Knows?"

Every Wednesday at 8 p.m. in Rouss 101 a brainstorming session for news ideas is held. Reporters take the ideas and put the segments together themselves, including all of the editing.

Then third-year College student Karin Frantz, producer of "Hoo Knows?" coordinates the filming of the anchor portions and edits the whole show together.

The group is working on credentials to film at football games and maybe even gain access to the Outkast concert.

Holden, who, like Jennings, came in with no prior experience, was the producer of the news show until early in the semester, when he realized that he was needed in an administrative role and asked Frantz to step in.

"You don't need prior experience," he said.

By contrast, the producer of the comedy show, third-year College student Lisa Jensen, has been in charge from day one.

"I really wanted to do sketch comedy," Jensen said. "And I've always played with cameras."

Jensen and three friends take submissions for the show, approve and edit ideas, and then put the final product together. As with the news show, individual segments are filmed and edited by the writers themselves.

"We want to let people have their own artistic vision and not interfere too much," Jensen said.

She foresees the comedy show continuing, perhaps under a producer that she could groom while she is a fourth year.

"I just wanted to do sketch, and then I had to create my own group," she added.

This kind of legacy is important to Jennings.

"I feel like we've done something really important for the University," Jennings said. "I can't wait to come back in 40 or 50 years and they'll have a whole studio and a teacher who's just in charge of the TV staff."

Until then, the group will continue to give the University the best product it can with limited resources. But Jennings says the effort is worth it.

"It's been a lot of work and a lot of headache," Jennings said. "The whole process is like labor. It's a lot of work, but then when you see it, it's like 'Oh my God, look at this beautiful thing I've made."

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