Tube City Online unveils new studio
It was created through a $25,000 grant from the Department of Education.
A ribbon-cutting was held Tuesday as Tube City Online celebrated its new digital media and podcasting studio.
The studio was made possible by a $25,000 grant from a state Department of Education job training program. It is located inside the former McKeesport Daily News building.
State Sen. Jim Brewster, who helped obtain the grant, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony and unveiled the new studio along with Jason Togyer, executive director of Tube City Community Media Inc.
“When I worked at the Daily News, this building was a hub of activity, with many young, eager reporters being mentored by experienced community journalists,” Togyer said. “Working at the Daily News and other small newspapers and radio stations gave me my real education.
“I’d like to bring just a little bit of that energy back to this building, and thanks to the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the encouragement of Sen. Brewster, I think it’s going to be possible.”
Labor was donated to Tube City to build the new studio, which Togyer said used to be a storage closet.
Local and regional officials at Tuesday’s ceremony included state Rep. Matt Gergely, state Rep. Nick Pisciottano and McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko.
Togyer started the non-profit Tube City Online in 2012 in hopes of inspiring and attracting young journalists to the new location.
“We started Tube City Online to fill in the gaps in media coverage of the McKeesport area, which we felt was contributing to the negative perception of the region,” Togyer said. “When the McKeesport Daily News closed in 2015, we ramped up our efforts to keep the area from becoming a news desert.”
Togyer aims to reach out to local schools and invite them to use the equipment and studio. He believes there is a lack of newsrooms in the region that can provide young journalists a place to start. “There were little radio stations all dotting around these little communities, Washington, Monessen, Charleroi, McKeesport and they’re almost all gone now,” Togyer said. “So you can’t get that basic experience. And if you can’t get the initial experience, how do you get into the bigger jobs?”
With the grant money, Tube City was able to buy new equipment like a network switch with a reliable firewall, mixing board, CD players, digital recorders, turntables, new microphones and more.
Togyer said they’re planning to buy a radio transmitter so they can be reached through AM and FM for those who lack access to the internet.
“The biggest thing that we run into is people in the Mon Valley don’t have good broadband, so they can’t hear us,” Togyer said. “That’s actually in the grant application, too, and we haven’t done it yet, but in the grant application, eventually, is funding to put a small, and I mean very small, transmitter on this building, so that you could at least hear it like if you’re downtown here in a block or two of the building.”
In addition to the new equipment, the studio houses a large music archive and other materials, giving volunteers and community members a chance to come in and learn about journalism and radio. Parts of the new studio are lined up with old music records and equipment that is used by volunteers.
Brewster said Tube City is an essential part of the region and McKeesport community. He encouraged Togyer to apply for the grant after noticing that Tube City was in need of newer equipment.
“This is a positive thing, this is an opportunity for the media to communicate with the public to find out things that maybe they wouldn’t know otherwise,” Brewster said.
