Meyer brings years of news experience to Journalism and Digital Media Department
As Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose walked into the AUTV studio for an interview, the atmosphere buzzed with excitement among the students and faculty in the control room above.
For the newest faculty member of the Journalism and Digital Media Department (JDM), Kelly Meyer, it felt like she was back at her previous job producing news for Cleveland’s FOX 8 in a lot of ways.
“I want to bring those real elements to make it realistic for the students,” said Meyer, who started working at AU this academic year. “They are working under pressure, and they have a deadline, and that’s similar to the real world.”
The interview with LaRose will be part of the JDM’s live coverage on Election Night on Nov. 5.
One of the classes Meyer teaches is preparing for and producing this show.
“I’m really excited for our election show,” Meyer said on Oct. 15 when LaRose visited campus. “For the last few weeks, I have been teaching the students, little by little, all that goes into a newscast. We will start coverage at 9 p.m. since the polls close at 7 p.m. That will give us some time to get our graphics updated. We are scheduled to go to midnight, but are prepared to go to 1 a.m.”
A lot has changed at AU since Meyer was a student
In some ways this is similar to when Meyer attended AU in the mid-2000s. The 2008 graduate was an electronic media production major who did anchoring, reporting and producing for the university’s TV station, AUTV, which was known as TV2 then.
WRDL, the university’s radio station, hasn’t changed. It actually got Meyer interested in electronic media production, which began in the 1960s as a radio/TV program.
Meyer came to AU as an education major wanting to eventually teach high school English. But when she hung out in the radio studio with a friend of hers, her career path changed to broadcast media.
In a lot of ways, the AU that Meyer attended is a lot different than it is today. The electronic media production program became communication arts, followed by merging with journalism to form the JDM Department in 2011 arrival of the Department’s chair, Dave McCoy.
“So, it’s been 13 years with JDM,” McCoy said. “We started with 16 majors and now we’re at 65 and growing.”
McCoy reached out to Meyer, who had been an adjunct professor at AU from 2015 to 2019 teaching broadcasting and multi-media classes while also working at FOX 8, to fill the full-time position the department had available.
“Her coming from FOX 8, this is her forte,” McCoy said as he watched Meyer supervise students in the control room during the LaRose interview. “That’s why she’s teaching this class and is also the adviser to the Collegian (AU’s student newspaper). We want to get more digital content on the website for the Collegian.”
Meyer helping to bring a convergent media approach to JDM
Bringing a convergent media approach to not only the Collegian, another class she teaches, but to the entire JDM Department is what Meyer said she and the rest of the faculty envision will help grow the department, which includes Digital Media Journalism and Digital Media Production programs.
“A lot of students overlap in newspaper, radio and TV,” Meyer said. “That’s a realistic approach to the industry. If you can write for the paper, that means you can write for the web. When reporters are putting together their package for TV, they have to put together a web script as well. It’s really beneficial that these students are learning all mediums.”
Joining Meyer and McCoy on the JDM full-time faculty is Derek Wood. John Skrada also is a full-time staff member of the department as the JDM director of broadcasting and operations.
“I had always prided myself in being the hardest-working person, but now I think I’m the fourth hardest-working person behind Kelly, John and Derek, and that’s OK,” McCoy said. “They have a youthful energy.”
Former AU Professor Gretchen Hoak had Meyer in a couple of her classes when she started at Ashland University in 2006 and said she was such a standout.
“She had, and still has, this absolutely exuberant personality that is just infectious to be around,” said Hoak, who is now an associate professor of journalism at Kent State. “She’s high-energy, inquisitive, smart and talkative – all the things you want from a student. And honestly, all the things you want from a professor when you are a student.
“I’ve known her for 18 years now, and I’m proud to say she’s become a wonderful friend, and I’m so glad I’ve been able to help her along the way throughout her career,” Hoak added. “She is going to be such an asset to the JDM students at Ashland. AU made a fantastic choice in hiring her.”
Meyer has a lot of news experience
Meyer said Hoak helped her get her first job as a news producer for a TV station in Toledo, where she met her husband, who was a sports producer.
Now covering high school and college sports for a video production company based in Twinsburg, Meyer’s husband has a shared understanding of the hectic media business with her.
They live in the same community, Medina, as Hoak, who also helped Meyer get her adjunct job at AU.
Before working at FOX 8, Meyer spent almost a year producing a morning show for a Salt Lake City TV station.
After a couple of years at FOX 8, Meyer left to pursue a Master of Arts in Communication Studies at the University of Akron as a backup plan, and then returned a few years later when the FOX 8 news director asked her to produce the 4 a.m. news show.
With her basically working a weekly night shift then and her husband working evenings and weekends, they didn’t have to use childcare much for their son and daughter, who are now 8 and 4 years old, respectively.
After about 10 years of that crazy, grueling schedule, Meyer was ready to turn her backup plan into a change of career.
The one drawback to that decision was having to find childcare, said Meyer, who grew up in Cleveland. Several family members in the area have helped with that, said an appreciative Meyer.
“I’m excited that she decided to take the leap from the newsroom into academia because she is just so well suited for this role,” Hoak said. “She has so much to offer not only in experience but in her own ability to mentor and help these students grow.
“I’m also excited for her to be able to teach at her alma mater,” Hoak added. “I know it was so special for me to be able to do so, and I’m so happy that she gets to have that opportunity as well.”
Just as AU faculty helped her, Meyer hopes to be a mentor
Just as Hoak has been a mentor to her, Meyer said she hopes to “pay it forward” and do the same for her students.
So far, JDM students are excited to have Meyer on the faculty.
Senior Bryann Meisse even said she’s disappointed now that she is graduating early this December.
“The two classes I have with her have already taught me so much about creating a true TV show,” Meisse said. “She has shown us how to create a proper run-down sheet and professional TV packages. It really feels like I am working in a newsroom because of her.
“She brings real-world experience into her teaching, which is beneficial to us students because we know what to expect from television jobs,” Meisse added.
What Meyer, her students and the rest of the JDM faculty expect with the live Election Night show will be a bustling, converged newsroom in action in the TV studio and control room, radio station and the JDM lounge. Next to the radio station is a new studio for podcasts.
“We didn’t have these facilities when I was a student here,” Meyer said from her office while looking at the lounge area, which overlooks her office, minutes before LaRose’s visit. “There weren’t couches and computers in a room to just hang out.
“All the JDM facilities are amazing,” she added. “The technology and the equipment that these students have access to is really incredible. There are really good opportunities for the students, and I’m really excited to see their passions grow.”
JDM’s Election Night show is available on AUTV (channel 220 on Armstrong Cable), the JDM Streaming Channel (https://www.ashland.edu/jdm-streaming) and WRDL (88.9 FM).
