About

ATV Overview

ATV is the student-run television station at American University, located in northwest Washington, DC. The station brings quality news and entertainment to the AU campus, as well as providing coverage of the many events happening on campus.

ATV operates out of the second floor of Mary Graydon Center. Our offices, studio, control room, editing suites, equipment, and broadcast control are all located in MGC 256, a location that we also share with WVAU and AWOL.

ATV is an exclusively student-run organization. All of our programs are hosted, produced, edited, and managed by students, and students are also responsible for the management of the station, its studios, and its technical equipment. Programs on ATV air 24 hours a day on campus channels 2 and 15, and streaming live on our website.

Getting involved in ATV is open to any American University student, regardless of school or major. Many students who have been active in ATV have reported that the experience they gained here opened them to numerous internship and career opportunities. One of ATV’s core missions is to provide students with a hands-on environment to learn many different types of skills, from Broadcast Journalism and Film/Video Production, to Public Communication and Public Relations, to Business Management and Accounting, and much more. All kinds of roles with different levels of commitments are available for students to take on, so everyone can make their experience at ATV mean as much or as little as they like. And perhaps most importantly, working at ATV is lots of fun!

If you’re interested in getting involved with ATV, please fill out our Get Involved form and we’ll get in touch with you. Absolutely no experience is required to join us.

ATV History

Founded in 1979, WAVE-TV was first recognized by the AU Student Confederation (the predecessor to the AU Student Government) in Spring 1981 and began full operation that Fall on campus-wide closed circuit television. Its offices were located in Mary Graydon and would broadcast three nights a week from the AU Broadcast Center. It was funded by the Student Confederation and by local advertisers.

In the early 1990s, WAVE was renamed to A-TV2, later shortened to ATV. Most of the shows were broadcast in the Letts Hall Basement and the Broadcast Center. Other programming included syndicated subscription feed programming from the National Association of College Broadcasters and the College Life Television Network. ATV also expanded to AU dorm rooms during this time and saw a significant expansion of its programming. ATV was also recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, receiving the first place Mark of Excellence Award in sports reporting, sports photography, and overall newscast. Notable alumni who worked for ATV during this time include David Gregory (’92, now moderator of Meet the Press on NBC) and Chris Noll (’98, host of The Chris Wylde Show on Comedy Central, picked up directly from ATV!).

Following AU’s renovation of Mary Graydon Center in 2002, ATV moved its studio and offices to the new location on the second floor, where it remains today. ATV also began airing 24/7 programming following the move to MGC. ATV launched its first website in 2007, and relaunched its website in 2009, introducing new websites for each of its shows and streaming its on-air programming live on the internet for the first time.

Now in 2010, ATV is taking great strides to redefine itself as a legitimate television station and a unique environment for students to gain hands-on experience working within a television environment. ATV has expanded to include over a dozen shows covering a wide variety of interests, and a number of departments providing services to our shows and working to expand ATV’s outreach to the AU community. ATV has also taken on a number of upgrades to its tech infrastructure in order to accommodate its accelerating growth.