Located in the basement of the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College is the largest and oldest student-run television station in the world, Ithaca College Television. ICTV is home to 25 shows stemming across several departments, such as news, sports, entertainment, and scripted. Over 600 students participate in the station from on-air roles, to behind the scenes. 

Nine of the 25 shows are sports programs produced by students in the sports department. Within those nine shows are 28 producers, seven of which are women.

Women in ICTV

Sports director Melanie Heim and senior at IC, said how the sports department is more of a male-dominated section of ICTV and explained what it means to be a woman in the department.

“Being a woman on ICTV, especially in the sports department has been such a fun experience.” Heim said. “There’s not too many women in the sports department here; it is more of a male-dominationed section of ICTV.”

“The women that are here are so awesome,” Heim said. “We’re always all together, coming up with ideas and trying to uplift each other in all different shows.”

Finding your place

Cece Gabriel, a sophomore sports media major and active on-air talent in ICTV sports said how being a woman in the organization means uplifting each other and understanding how to work together in a more male-dominated arena. 

“Being a woman, I can understand how it is to be in a male-dominated industry so of course that not just affects us but other women that are in the industry,” Gabriel said. “So me being passionate about uplifting so many other people out there, I want to talk about the WNBA, NCAA Women’s Basketball, so that gives me the voice to do so.”

Gabriel has held a multitude of on-air positions in programming ranging across six different shows in the sports department. Positions she has held include sideline reporter, analyst, and anchor. 

During her time as an anchor she was on ICTV’s “Next Player Up” which she will now be producing come next semester. In this role Gabriel is now in charge along with her co-producers of the entire show  including cast  and  crew auditions,  graphics,  programing,  and organization.

“I feel like with working with all the people that I have been working with that are males, I feel so supported in everything I do and so the fact that I have people that are not only going to say ‘hey take this over’ but that are going to trust me to take over this job,” Gabriel said. 

Gabriel will be the second woman ever to produce “Next Player Up.”

Justin Antonucchi, a senior sports media major, producer, and on-air talent in ICTV said how he thinks it’s important to have women not just participating in sports media, but also holding those higher level and decision-making roles.

“I’m a big believer in if you are good enough to do the job you should be rewarded with opportunity,” Antonucchi said. “Now I’d be naive to say that, that is always how it works. Unfortunately, we live in a world where that is not the truth. I think it is of vital importance to give females roles because it proves to all of the deniers that they can in fact do every job as good, if not even better than men.”

Antonucchi has always been working with women in the sports department, across a variety of different sports programs. There has not been even a single show that he has been on without a female crew,  producing position, or on-air role. Antonucchi said he has had the opportunity to learn a lot from working alongside these women in ICTV Sports and how it has changed his own approach to his work.

“I like to surround myself with hard working and driven people because they push me to become better,” Antonucchi said. “I have worked with a multitude of women who have pushed me to become better and work harder.”

Covering women’s sports 

Women’s athletic coverage is another important factor for the sports department, as it tries to give equal coverage for men’s and women’s sports. Five programs cover both men and women’s sports depending on the season. 

Antonucchi said the current state of women’s sports coverage on ICTV is not perfect, but  said it has been able to change since he first was involved and mentioned how shows like “The Diamond Report,” “Big Red Faceoff,” “Sports Final,” “Bombers Live,” and “So You Think You Know Sports” have been able to contribute to women’s coverage. 

“I would say it’s good but not amazing,” Antonucchi said. “It’s definitely gotten better with The Diamond Report covering softball and even having a Bombers Live softball game broadcasted. Even with these efforts, male topics are a majority discussion topic more times than not.”

Heim also expressed her thoughts on how ICTV can better cover women’s sports.

“I think there could be more coverage for women’s sports,” Heim said. “We did one softball broadcast this semester, which was super awesome to see them do softball over baseball and get that women representation out there. I think more things like that in the future could really benefit ICTV.”