Del Mar College’s Radio-TV program began in the Fall of 1980, offered by the speech communication department ran by Jack Ashford and Dr. Lorayne Doegey.
A history building classroom was remodeled into a TV studio, with a news set, interview set and black and white and two-color cameras that rolled around the cement floor on heavy mountings. Floor to ceiling drapes on a three-wall track gave a backdrop along with muffling echoes. An adjacent office was turned into a control room with turn tables and control board along with tv monitors.
“Rooms H117 and H117A will be converted this summer into a studio and consisting of two separate areas, the audio and video control room, which is the operational nerve center for production,” said Alan Harwell in the Foghorn newspaper on April 30, 1980.
Dr. Doegey, chairman of the department in 1980 described the studio as “a training studio where students will become familiar with basic equipment and develop basic skills and techniques of operation and performance.” Doegey said their goal was to not just teach basic skill and techniques but also the disciplines of production and performing, those “intangible professional attitudes and behaviors involving responsibility and dependability, self-control, initiative, and respect for self and others and for equipment.”
Only 18 students were permitted to enroll in each of the three courses offered, to ensure maximum student usage of both equipment and facilities.
After a full year of operation, Mac Aipperspach was hired in 1981. Aipperspach started out on the radio but made a career change to education. “I wanted to stay in the field some way, and teaching was the answer,” said Aipperspach. He attended graduate school at North Texas State, later accepting the position at Del Mar College in 1981.
Aipperspach described the RTV programs growth in 1989 due to the inclusion of a new building with art and drama, “thanks for then-Dean of Arts and Science, Dr. Everett Powell.” The new facilities caused the program to greatly increase in numbers, with classes often maxed out. The equipment was much more up-to-date, and students could easily move from a classroom setting to a professional radio or television station.
“What stands out most in the history of the RTV program, in my opinion, was having facilities built specifically designed for radio/television,” said Aipperspach. “The facilities were unmatched by the other area universities at the time with A&M-Corpus Christi, or CCSU as it was then known, having none and A&M-Kingsville, or Texas A&I as it was then known, having very primitive equipment.” He described the TV studio with a high ceiling for a lighting grid, room for permanent sets, a legitimate TV control room plus four other rooms for audio and editing. One side had tiered seating, so it was also a classroom.
Over 40 years of teaching Aipperspach went through many changes with the program, “We went from VHS videotape editing to computer editing. From shooting on VHS to SD cards. There were numerous transitions, so I learned a lot of new things as well as the students. Obviously, there were some issues along the way, but it was a fun time. Lots of memories and friendships with former students to this day.”
In that first decade numerous students went onto successful careers in the broadcasting industry, working for CNN in Atlanta, NASA in Houston along with radio at KEYS in Corpus Christi and later an FM station in Chicago. Many students stayed local as well working for KRIS, KIII, KZTV and KORO. Aipperspach said, “moving into areas not radio- or television station-oriented took place in later years as audio and video became more commonplace in communications-oriented organizations such as college relations offices.”
“I did see students move into other careers, even one going into A&R for a record company in Houston, and so I was pleased for them. Eventually, though, some did show up locally as anchors, but they had to work their way into the positions and that takes time,” Aipperspach shared.
“Seeing students advance in their chosen careers was gratifying,” Aipperspach expressed. Some student success stories he shared, still on the air locally, are Kelly Trevino, a manager at SGI and was a student in the ‘90s. Roland Rodriguez and Jennifer Lira were local anchors for quite some time and Tara Babcock who was on KIII but has since moved onto another market along with plenty of students in San Antonio, Austin, and Houston.
