A third year from Orland Park, Illinois Alex Sotiropoulos has always been enamored with the media, specifically television media. Alex channeled his passion for television just last year with two friends, Alex and Vicente, and has since pioneered Maroon TV: a UChicago program that broadcasts all sporting events.
An American Idol aficionado, Sotiropoulos was first exposed to the broad world of television media when he reached out to a Fox News anchor that publicly bashed his then-favorite Idol, John Stevens.
“I told her she [Tamron Hall] was wrong to be hating on Stevens. She mentioned something about a bet on the air, so after a few e-mails, I was in studio for a good five-minute sit-down interview with Tamron,” explained Sotiropoulos.
Sitting under the bright lights among a group of professionals all dressed in suits may be intimidating to some, but Alex welcomed this exciting environment without hesitation. “I knew it was the setting I wanted to be in my whole life.”
Sotiropoulos has been writing for The Maroon Sports section as well as participating in the Sports Business Team, but with the help of his fellow talented friends and a beyond helpful University staff, he made his dreams of a UChicago Sports television program a reality. The Uncommon Fund was a huge factor in getting their idea off the ground.
“We had a strong marketing campaign and did everything we could to get the most votes in the video portion of the Uncommon Fund voting.” Sotiropoulos knew the Uncommon Fund contest is not a simple process, noting that, “It took up a lot of time to make sure our proposal was feasible and spread the word.
Maroon TV strives to please its staff members and vast audience. As a pioneering organization, Sotiropoulos and his co-founders strive to make sure they are giving their viewers what they want and most importantly what they deserve; With such a small staff, this goal is actually much more difficult than they had anticipated.
“To have a successful television station, you need a lot of members, and I thought that everyone that had shown interest in Maroon TV was going to be a part of it…I had to do a lot of things like field work, camera-work, and broadcasting for a lot of programs and shoots I did not initially I think I was going to have do.”
Although running a television station poses various difficulties, the real rewards lie in an outsider reaching out to the team to praise their quality of work. “I got an e-mail from NYU’s Assistant Sports Information Director saying that the quality of our broadcasts of our games against NYU were the best he has seen in NCAA Division III.”
While Maroon TV is still working out the logistics of getting the program running on cTV, Sotiropoulos is pleased to close the gap between friends and families of UChicago athletes who do not get the chance to watch the games in person. The events can be viewed online at www.ustream.tv/channel/maroon-tv until the program airs on cTV this quarter.