CSBN: where sports broadcast lovers call home

The control room at Dodge College is hard at work while talent and field cameras operate to perfect the viewing of the football game. Photo courtesy of Calista Kirk

As students endure October and celebrate the spooky season, November lurks just around the corner. November serves as a reminder to give thanks and appreciate the cooler weather, but with November comes big football games and sporting events that are on every family’s TV. 

These games bring families together as everyone gathers around on the couch. But broadcasted games aren’t just bringing families together this fall. 

In an effort to pursue their love of sports broadcasting, Chapman University students have created a club similar to ESPN where they can broadcast all of Chapman’s home games on a professional scale, including live graphics, live commentary, and multi-camera directing. 

The best part? It’s completely student run. 

Calista Kirk is one of these passionate broadcast students who serves as both the president and executive producer of CSBN, the Chapman Sports Broadcasting Network. A senior majoring in broadcast journalism and documentary, Kirk told The Panther how CSBN has become a benefit to the Chapman community in terms of a prime involvement opportunity. 

“The purpose of CSBN is to offer a creative outlet for students interested in sports broadcasting,” Kirk said. “The film school and university as a whole has shortcomings when it comes to the world of live television, and most people don’t know that it is a career option during their time here. CSBN provides a way for like-minded students to meet and work together and feel less alone in their interests.”

Although the club peaks the interests of many fellow broadcast majors searching for experience in their field, the club is open to anyone and everyone who loves sports and technology. There’s something for everyone, whether it’s producing feature packages for homecoming or watching the game and recording live statistics.

“If you are not a broadcast major, this offers the opportunity to learn about live television outside of a classroom,” Kirk said. “You may not be able to take a course in anything related to the unscripted or film industry due to prerequisites or priority registration, but this club is open to any one with a passion for sports, broadcasting or both.”

Ben Sherman, a sophomore broadcast journalism and documentary major, also has a lot of involvement in the organization as the treasurer. With a profound dream of going into sports broadcasting, Sherman explains how he found his home within CSBN the first semester of his freshman year. 

“I became interested in broadcasting sports because I liked doing live theater when I was younger, and I’m a huge sports fan,” Sherman said. “When I heard about this, I thought I’d give it a try and I fell in love with that. I had gotten involved the first week of my freshman year by attending the first meeting that I learned about in my orientation group. The benefits are endless.”

Kirk also mentions how much the club has grown in its time at Chapman, and has become more than just a club, but a welcoming, diverse family.

“It started from nothing, and it is, at its very core, just a bunch of students realizing that they are not alone in their passion,” Kirk said. “I have used CSBN and the skills that CSBN have taught me to unite people who also exist in that in between or who are in different majors or programs where they don’t know if that space exists for them.”

Aside from being a safe haven for ambition, one of the aspects of CSBN that makes it stand out is the equipment access. The cameras used to showcase plays are industry standard and the graphics operations and switcher board are ones that are used on many professional broadcasts, such as NBC. 

“For our biggest productions, there are many positions to take on such as camera operating, replay, graphics, producing, audio, technical directing, directing, commentating, stage managing and camera engineering,” Sherman said. “For someone who’s never done it I think it can take some getting used to because it’s so fast paced and there’s a lot of pressure that goes into it, but there is always time to learn.”