Troy University broadcast journalism students can now hone their craft in a new state-of-the-art television studio.
University representatives joined alumnus Earl Hutto and his family Saturday to unveil the Earl Hutto Studio in Wallace Hall at the Troy Campus.
The studio will be the site of TROY TrojanVision, the University’s television station, which provides news, educational, entertainment and sports programming.
“This studio will play a major role in the preparation of future generations, and we thank the Hutto family for that,” said Troy University Chancellor Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr.
The studio is named in honor of Hutto, a renowned news broadcaster who went on to serve eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, who alongside his wife, Nancy, donated $100,000 toward the renovation of the TROY TrojanVision studios.
“It means everything to me,” Hutto said. “This is a wonderful thing. The good Lord has blessed me for so many years, and to have this named after me is a great honor. TROY has always been great to me, and I hope this leads to good careers and lives for the students.”
The studio includes numerous upgrades, including new monitors, lighting equipment, desks and more.
“In terms of having a look on-air and in-person, this gave us an opportunity to get up to date and contemporary in competitive terms of what a TV studio looks like,” said Kyle Bozeman, TROY’s television manager. “The monitors enable us to illustrate stories in a way we never could before, in the way you see on stations like CNN, Fox News and ESPN. The lighting gives us the capability to get a lot of different looks for different shows out of a relatively small group of sets. It will show both current and prospective students we are the real deal.”
Hutto is a 1949 graduate of then Troy State Teachers College, where he enrolled after serving in the Navy from 1944 to 1946.
He discovered he had a talent for broadcasting when he began to host shows on WTBF in Troy, and became sports director for WEAR-TV in Pensacola, Florida, just five years after graduating.
Hutto moved from WEAR to WSFA in Montgomery from 1961 to 1963 and WJHG in Panama City, Florida, from 1973 to 1979.
In 1972, he won a seat in the Florida House of Representatives. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1979 and served for the next seven terms.
“We are tremendously grateful to the Hutto family for their gift,” Bozeman said. “I’ve already seen students up their game in this new environment to match the look of the new studio.”
