San Bernardino Valley College changes name of its radio, television and film program

Since inception of the program over 40 years ago, the San Bernardino Valley College Radio, Television and Film program changed its name ahead of the 2020-2021 school year.

The program, which is now titled Film, Television and Media, was initiated to encompass a full range of inclusivity for all areas of media.

“We changed the name of the program because we needed to broaden our program’s scope, to evolve with the landscape of the media industry. When the program started over 40 years ago, it focused heavily on radio and today radio has been, in a sense, replaced with platforms such as podcasts and music streaming services,” said Lucas Cuny, program co-chair.

Today, the hands-on program is focused on film, media and production, with an array of equipment for students to reserve and use at home.

“With the upgrades that our department has received in the past year students have the ability to come in and make a short film, a documentary, a podcast, or even shoot a live sporting event,” continued Cuny. “If a student wants to take three cameras out into the field, they can do that. We have the technology for them to accomplish all of that.”

What makes this program stand out on a nationwide scale is that it’s one of four colleges in the country to provide students the opportunity to garner hands on experience with a 35mm film camera.

“Our program’s 35mm film camera was funded through the bandwidth of KCVR and now we are one out of four college campuses to offer this experience to our students, out of University of Southern California, New York University and Chapman University,” Cuny said.

For those wondering how the program is operating through the pandemic, its running just fine, according to Cuny.

“Our program is lucky because we were a bit ahead of the curve. With our program’s upgrade that happened in the last year, we now have enough equipment for our students to check out cameras, iPads or some of our other tech to gain the hands-on experience that they need, but at home,” continued Cuny.

At the beginning of the current 2020 fall semester, the program was only forced to drop one advanced radio production course; but it’s still operating 12 classes and 13 sections.

Students of the program will soon participate in the Inland Empire 48 Hour Film Festival in November and the 2^nd Annual Wolverine Con, potentially slated for a virtual format if virtual learning is still in effect.

The San Bernardino Community College District will announce the status of virtual or in-person learning for spring 2021 on September 18.

For more information, visit valleycollege.edu.