“Game On,” Liberty University’s 30-minute weekly sports television program produced by the Liberty Flames Sports Network (LFSN), hit a grand slam at the National Capital Chesapeake Bay chapter of the 60th National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Emmy Awards in Bethesda, Md., on June 23. The show, which received a network record of seven nominations, won a total of four Emmys.
“We’ve never won more than one in one year, so it was exciting,” said “Game On” anchor Matt Warner. “It’s a huge market — Baltimore and Washington, D.C., included — so to beat those guys, that’s pretty big. The first couple of years, we were trying to get our feet underneath us and figuring out what we wanted the show to be. Now the quality has continued to rise to where we feel like there are more segments deserving of being entered into a competition like this.”
Warner said the greatest accomplishment was receiving an Emmy in the general Sports Feature/Segment category, for a story on Flames Men’s Basketball superfan J.J. McCracken, produced by Features Producer Matt Atkins.
“That was our first sports award outside of the religious category, so to win against all the other big affiliates and pro teams that we were going up against was really exciting to see,” Warner said. “Those guys know what they’re doing, so to beat an NFL franchise like that gives credibility to what we are doing.”
Both of the “Game On” nominations in the Religion: Program Feature/Segment category received awards — for stories on former Flames Men’s Soccer Head Coach Bill Bell, produced by Warner, and former Lady Flames javelin thrower Yana Babbitt, produced by LFSN Unit Production Manager Jonah Jabbour.
The show also won in the Audio category for work by Sound Designer/Audio Mixer Alex Short, who attended the ceremony and received his award in person. The award was based on a composite of different stories; the primary story featured Liberty swimmer Alicia Finnigan and included underwater sound effects.
The LFSN studio, located near the School of Communication & Digital Content, has enabled “Game On” to offer students more technical production experience.
“There is a lot more student involvement, especially on show days in the studio and the control room,” Warner said. “It’s not just us doing this. We are also training students to do high-level work themselves so they can go on to do great things.”
Watch the Emmy Award-winning episodes, as well as new and archive shows, at GameOnLU.com.
About Liberty University
Liberty University, founded in 1971, is the world’s premier Christian university, the largest private, nonprofit university in the nation, and the largest university in Virginia. Located near the Blue Ridge Mountains on more than 7,000 acres in Lynchburg, Va., Liberty offers more than 600 unique programs of study from the certificate to the doctoral level. Approximately 350 programs are offered online. Utilizing its world class infrastructure and Christian faculty, Liberty’s mission is to train Champions for Christ with the values, knowledge, and skills essential for impacting tomorrow’s world.
SOURCE Liberty University