From Renda Media and the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters
The Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters (PAB) in cooperation with Renda Media of Indiana, is pleased to announce that the Homer-Center School District and Indiana County Technology Center are receiving grants for their comm media departments.
Homer-Center will receive a $50,000 grant earmarked for the high school’s IT/Digital Media Communications Department. The grant was announced at the districts board meeting on June 20th by Renda Media Regional Vice President Mark Bertig who is also on the PAB Board of Directors. The ICTC grant will be announced on Tuesday, June 25th at their monthly board meeting and is in the amount of $10,600.00.
“Local broadcasters are the most trusted sources of critical information and are an indispensable part of our local communities,” said Vince Benedetto, Joint Board Chairman of the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters.
“With these grants, the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters is proud to support the next generation of broadcast and media leaders in our Commonwealth,” Benedetto added.
“Homer-Center and the Indiana County Technology Center have been great partners of Renda Media in many ways over the past few years,” says Mark Bertig, Regional Vice President for Renda Media. “We have enjoyed a great relationship with Homer-Center’s Chris Garritano and ICTC’s Melaney Brubaker. As a board member of the PAB, through our capital reserve committee, we have made grants available to schools across the commonwealth for upgrades to their comm media departments. Mr. Garritano and Ms. Brubaker formulated a list of equipment to advance their curriculums that unfortunately didn’t fit in their schools overall budget. Both grant proposals advanced through our capital reserve committee, and then gained formal approval by our executive board,” Bertig added.
Bertig spoke with Brubaker about the grants, and they posed for the grant check presentation.
The grant will pay for cameras, various audio equipment, including the biggest ticket item, a Tricaster that will cost approximately $20,000.00 alone.
“The Tricaster that will be purchased is an all-in-one production hub that will allow for students to produce professional quality productions,” said Chris Garritano, Instructional Technology Media Teacher at Homer-Center Jr. Sr. High School. “The system allows for multiple audio and video inputs, real-time graphic building/publishing, and will be able to stream directly to our district YouTube channel for both live and tape-delayed programming.”
The grant will also fund additional broadcasting equipment and software for students interested in the field of broadcasting.
“Renda Media’s goal is to give students hands-on training in the field of radio and video broadcasting and production of games and events,” said Bertig. “There are so many good jobs in our industry, and recently Mr. Garritano’s students participated in our PAB Broadcast Now competition and they did a magnificent job of highlighting the many opportunities in the field of broadcasting.”
“When I was hired four years ago, I spoke with Deanne (Magolis, English/Media Teacher) about the media curriculum,” Garritano added. “Together we laid out a five year plan. Some of those goals were to re-write and organize the curriculum so we could both include the areas of the field we specialized in before becoming teachers, replacing outdated equipment, increasing the course offerings, improving the overall quality of our productions and the variety of projects being produced, and continuing to grow the relationship between the school and the community. The circumstances surrounding COVID allowed for an immediate partnership with Renda Media to produce football games in the fall of 2020, and that relationship has continued to grow to the point where we were able to work with Mark Bertig and Renda Media to write and obtain a $50,000 grant! We couldn’t be more excited for this opportunity, and thank Mr. Bertig and the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters for their support of our program.”
“We are thrilled to be able to financially support The Indiana County Technology Center and the Homer-Center High School Media department,” said Mike Sherry, Radio Chairman of PAB Board of Directors and Vice President of Sales for Forever Media. “We continue our commitment to pay it forward for the benefit of all our member stations across the state. Local partnerships like this allow us to prepare interested young people for the rewarding careers in Broadcasting.”
Jody Rainey, Principal at Homer-Center Jr. Sr. High School said students at the school enjoyed working on the Broadcast Now project and visiting Renda Media, and sees the partnership growing in the years ahead.
“Although a smaller school, Homer-Center takes pride in offering a plethora of advanced placement and career readiness programming to prepare our students to enter the workforce or enter post-secondary schooling with a solid foundation for success,” Rainey commented. “The PAB grant will enable us to grow our Media Communications programs from exploratory to a comprehensive and fully inclusive program that will provide our students with a deeper understanding of the various careers and the acquisition of the skills necessary to succeed in the fields of broadcasting and production. Homer-Center is grateful for our long standing partnership with Renda Media and look forward to working together in developing greater opportunities for students that the PAB grant will provide.”
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