Southern University is entering into a historic media partnership that could very well define the Marshall Faulk era at the institution. Local ABC affiliate WBRZ has now become the official television station of Jaguar Athletics, per a Friday announcement by the CEO of the company Ralph Bender.
Bender broke the news during the Jag-A-Thon annual fundraising event.
“There are two major universities in this town, and we are the only locally owned and locally operated TV station in southern Louisiana, and it's important to support the community,” Bender said, per WBRZ. “It's not just about airing stories; it's about putting back the good fortune we had with dollars into our local community to allow the local community to continue to grow.”
The new arrangement with WBRZ is similar to the media partnership already done with LSU Athletics. Under the current partnership with LSU, the athletic department has several local shows covering the teams on broadcast and digital, as well as behind-the-scenes features. The partnership will also invest in Southern University's mass communications program.
Chris Powers, the voice of Southern University Athletics, spoke about the significance of the deal.
“I'll tell you why this is important to be a locally owned and operated station like they are. So the other ones that are, and I'm not bashing…but the other ones…for instance, we got a new story, we wanna put it…or we got a program that we want to put on. They gotta go through whatever their corporate office is. Or whether it's in Dallas, Atlanta or whatever. Here at WBRZ Channel 2, the corporate office is right here. So these are the guys that make the decision that we want it on. This involves our community of Baton Rouge. Those guys in Atlanta, those guys in Dallas or wherever their headquarters are, they don't know how to peel crawfish and suck the heads.”
