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PTV Station Managers Take on Prime Time

Three female station managers make PTV history.

While Purchase College students may be well known for their individuality, sometimes it’s important to find a close-knit community to call home. For 30 people on campus, that home is in the basement of Campus Center North, where Purchase College’s television station, PTV, is located.

PTV was founded back in the early 2000s by a group of students, including well-known musician and alumnus Dan Deacon ’04, but this is the first time PTV has had three female station managers.

Summer Clevenger ’17, a playwriting and screenwriting major, says that while television has been a boys’ club for so long, “We’re tangible proof that it doesn’t have to be that way.” She plans on working in television after graduation, and is grateful to PTV for teaching her about the entire production process. “As a writer, I didn’t know how exciting it was.” 

Hannah Sheinkopf ’17, who is studying new media, has long had a passion for film and television. Since working at the station, she has expanded her skill set. She says that although some people still think women and technology don’t belong together, she has rewired the booth three times. “My interns come in surprised. ‘You fixed that’, they said. I’ve handled all sorts of technical disasters. Somehow, it all comes together. We have a great staff.”

Having interned already for Nicholas Bruckman ’06 at the People’s Television studio, she hopes to go into television and be an assistant director, a job she knows she can handle —because she has already done it at the station.

The third station manager, Katie Gilmartin ’17, came to Purchase from Vermont to study theatre and performance and arts management. She plans to focus on theatre after graduation, and notes that the experience she has gained at PTV will help her create multimedia experiences for the theatre. Katie, like her co-managers, started interning at the station and got hooked. “Everyone was so kind. For me, it was all about the community and the people.”

The growing and thriving PTV community includes interns, television hosts, and those working behind the scenes on pre- and post-production, public relations, and other jobs that help the station operate.

If students are interested in working at the station, they can attend an information session at the beginning of the semester, or stop by the station anytime during the year, to learn more.

In the meantime, the managers encourage the campus community to check out the station’s shows, especially Music Tuesdays, which features student bands, and will soon expand to present the work of visual artists on campus.