Brittany after her first "Thursday Nite Live" episode as co-Executive Producer on May 3rd, 2018.
5 Internships, 4 Honors, 3+ Years of Professional Experience, 2 Organizations, 1 School
Brittany McGowan is a May 2020 graduate of the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Video/Television & Film which was completed in association with the Hofstra University Honors College. In her 4 years at Hofstra, Brittany joined the Phi Eta Sigma National Honors Society, the Lambda Pi Eta National Communications Honors Society, has Dean's and Provost's List recognition, and graduated Cum Laude.
She's had a wide variety of experiences in her short time at Hofstra between five internships, multiple freelancing positions, Executive Producing an 18-season live sketch comedy television show, producing, anchoring, and hosting hundreds of radio broadcasts, being a Gracie Award-winning, Associated Press-award winning and College Television Award (College Emmy) Winning producer, Program Director for a 3-time Marconi Award-winning radio station, and more.
Brittany standing in for Anderson Cooper ahead of the first 2016 Presidential Debate on September 25th, 2016.
Getting Started
As a new Hofstra University freshman, Brittany was immediately thrown into professional media, working with CNN for the first Presidential Debate in the 2016 election cycle, Hofstra's overall third debate hosted on campus. She assisted with lighting, sound, and she stood in for the journalists during pre-production. During this time, Brittany joined the live cast of Thursday Nite Live season 15, and was chosen to participate in the 88.7-FM WRHU fall 2016 training class to become a full-fledged station member. She began reporting traffic and weather for WRHU's daily afternoon-drive newscast, Newsline, by December 2016, as well as ending her first semester on the Dean's List, and started producing WRHU's alternative music program, Alternative Nation, by February 2017. Brittany ended her second semester on the Dean's List, and started producing and anchoring Newsline by May 2017.
While being dedicated to her studies, she began interning after her freshman year. She started at Telecare TV (now called Catholic Faith Television) in Uniondale, NY in June of 2017 as a Master Control and Studio Production Intern. There, she primarily worked in master control and their Programming Department, and also had the opportunity to technical direct show tapings, operate lighting and sound equipment, edit shows for distribution using Final Cut 7, and work as a Production Assistant on field shoots. Brittany continued to anchor and produce Newsline over the course of the summer. She also went on-site to do a feature entertainment report at Vans' Warped Tour at Jones Beach.
Brittany's bumper photo in TNL season 15.
Gaining Traction
In the fall of 2017, Brittany started doing news updates for WRHU's weekday morning drive-time talk show, Hofstra's Morning Wake-Up Call. As a prominent member of WRHU, she was asked to join the group of dedicated students to take a photo with Hofstra University's President Stuart Rabinowitz after the station won its 2nd Marconi Award in 2017. She also rejoined Thursday Nite Live's live cast for their 16th season, was brought on as an Associate Producer that December. During this time, Brittany was also accepted into the Phi Eta Sigma National Honors Society, and ended the semester on the Dean's List. Starting off the new year, Brittany was hired as the new Morning Wake-Up Call Senior Producer for WRHU, and began to host the show simultaneously, while still producing and anchoring Newsline.
Starting in January 2018, Brittany was brought on by the Long Island Nets, the NBA G-League affiliate of the Brooklyn Nets, to do in-house promotional shoots for their family events. These videos were used for marketing and social media purposes to advertising programs, deals, and special events hosted by the Long Island Nets and the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, lasting throughout the remainder of their season in March 2018.
In April 2018, Brittany was promoted to Executive Producer of Thursday Nite Live, and produced the final episode of season 16. In May at WRHU, Brittany's hard work was recognized and she received WRHU's Leadership Award at the annual spring banquet.
Brittany standing in for journalist Kate Snow on a promotional shoot for Oxygen's Dateline: Secrets Uncovered at The Art Factory in Patterson, New Jersey on May 29th, 2018.
A Productive Summer
In May of 2018, Brittany started her second internship at Definition 6 in New York City as a Post-Production Intern. There, she assisted on shoots alongside Def 6 producers for clients such as Oxygen's Dateline: Secrets Uncovered and Sesame Street digital. In the post-production department, she edited long-form serialized content and short form promotional content for projects including Nickelodeon's Kid's Choice Awards, Netflix's Big Mouth, and promos for SYFY's new ownership of the Harry Potter film series.
In June, Brittany won her first professional award for her coverage of Vans' Warped Tour from the previous year. She took home First Place in Radio: Arts and Entertainment at the 2018 Press Club of Long Island Awards. She also received 3rd place from the CBI Awards (Collegiate Broadcasters, Inc.) for the same report. Brittany also participated at the Talkers conference in New York City with major New York radio broadcasters, producers, and talent.
All while continuing to produce and anchor Newsline and while still working as the Senior Producer and a host for the Morning Wake-Up Call, Brittany went back out into the field to complete two long-form features. The first featuring new research being done at Loch Ness in Scotland, and the second featuring Vans' Warped Tour at Jones Beach on its final cross-country run. Simultaneously, Brittany produced in collaboration with WRHU's News Department a special Morning Wake-Up Call broadcast on the New York State Democratic Gubernatorial Debate what was held on Hofstra's campus.
Brittany just after winning First Place at the 2018 Press Club of Long Island Media Awards on June 7th, 2018.
Also pictured: former WRHU Sports Director, Nick Faria (left); former WRHU Personnel Director, Madison Wright (right)
Trying It All
Brittany began her third internship in September 2018 at NBCUniversal in their Cable Entertainment unit assigned to Bravo in their Digital Video department. Here, Brittany experience the entertainment industry with new content and new platforms, and soon became well-versed in short-form digital interview production and editing for reality programs. She created short-form video content for bravotv.com and related social media sites, and was as a production assistant in shoots, worked camera and audio, and assisted talent. Brittany used this opportunity, from a production standpoint, to learn how to create graphics in Adobe After Effects for the videos.
Simultaneously, Thursday Nite Live's season 17 was in full swing with Brittany as the Executive co-Producer. Kicking off the first week of the semester with general interest meetings, and then getting right into holding auditions and callbacks to fill a 25-person cast, and separately recruiting potential staff writers, package members, and crew. Working closely with her co-Producer, Production Manager, Head Writers, and Package Producers (Film Unit), she dove right into putting on the best live sketch comedy show with a roughly 130-person crew, complete with a closed writers room, package (film unit) creators, cast, news/desk segment, live musical guest, and full studio and control room crews, complete with a packed live studio audience for each episode.
In her final semester as the producer for The Morning Wake-Up Call on WRHU-FM, Brittany began to apprentice to become the station's next Program Director of Talk. She started creating monthly preemption lists, learning the internal database (Zetta) and the program log (GSelector). During this time, Brittany also reformatted the Morning Show Department, successfully adding show requirements and segments to increase participation and listenership, while also training her successor.
That November, through a connection with WRHU, Brittany had the unique opportunity of freelancing with the Alliance for Women in Media to film their Gracie's Leadership Awards at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. Around the same time, Brittany participated in the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication's first-ever election night simulcast, 'Hofstra Votes Live". This production incorporated all media outlets in the Herbert School, primarily WRHU and the HEAT Network. Brittany's role was taking behind-the-scenes photos of WRHU's side of the broadcast.
In December, Brittany was officially announced as WRHU's next Program Director of Talk to serve as a paid member of the 2019 WRHU Executive Board. She ended the semester on the Dean's List.
Brittany (far right) taking behind-the-scenes photos of WRHU's in-studio side of the "Hofstra Votes Live" 2018 election night simulcast in WRHU's middle studio, the Mix Site, on November 6th, 2018.
Also pictured: Former WRHU News Anchors Ben Abrams (left) and Kimberly Donahue (right)
A West Coast Winter
As Brittany began her term as Program Director of Talk at WRHU and got back into producing and anchoring "Newsline", she was also preparing to embark on a ten-day networking trip to Los Angeles in January as a participant in the Hofstra in LA study-away program. Brittany was selected with 15 other juniors, seniors, and grad students out of over 100 applicants throughout the Herbert School of Communication to participate in the competitive program.
Brittany and her classmates networked with Hofstra alums and connections to learn about the various areas of the Entertainment Industry, from News to PR to Production to Development to Representation and everything in between. Documenting every day's adventure on a blog, each day was jam-packed with meetings and seminars, questions and answers. The group got to briefly experience how business is done on the West Coast while also experiencing West Coast culture, and even got to meet the school's namesake, Lawrence Herbert.
Brittany and her classmates saw live productions, animation studios, development offices, and so much more. The program concluded with a reception at the Director's Guild of America where the group got to meet more alums and partners, and solidify their newfound connections. Brittany returned to New York with a new idea of what she wanted to pursue professionally and got straight to work at WRHU preparing for the 60th Anniversary.
Brittany (back row, 4th from right) on her first networking day with the Hofstra in LA group after meeting with Paramount Pictures' publicity team on January 10th, 2019.
Also pictured (back row, left to right): Ben Gregory, Program Advisor Dr. Peter Gershon, Sean McNally, Kristin Krupski, Sara Whitman, Shayla Sales, Antreise Lacey, Kelly Wells, Izzy Falkovich, Cassie Passantino, Sam Thor, Mackenzie Carroll, Associate Dean Adria Marlowe; (front row, left to right): Leah Lane, Sophie Kabel, Ben Abrams, Emalia Hindon
A Successful Spring
While working for WRHU and producing Thursday Nite Live, Brittany started her fourth internship at SiriusXM as a Talk Programming Intern with "The Jenny McCarthy Show". Brittany was able to put her segment producing skills from producing WRHU's morning show to work in a professional environment! She researched and booked guests, wrote questions, created fun non-interview segments, and more. Brittany, having a production background, also edited all of Jenny McCarthy's interviews to be put on the show's Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as the SiriusXM app. Brittany built an archive of video interviews from the show that is currently available on-demand on the SiriusXM app. She also created a GIF library that is available on GIPHY under the tag "JMS". She met and interacted with celebrities in addition to Jenny McCarthy herself. Her biggest accomplishment was teaching the show's producers how to use Zetta - a database for radio elements that Brittany has used since January 2017.
Back at WRHU, as a working member of the station's Executive Board, Brittany was part of the team that coordinated the 60th Anniversary weekend and Banquet. With an overall attendance of over 500 alums, partners, connections, and more, Brittany and her Executive Board planned seminars, memorials, an event celebrating the historic career of New York Sportscaster and WRHU Professional-in-Residence Ed Ingles, and a banquet to culminate 60 years of excellence at Radio Hofstra University. At the banquet, in front of over 500 connections, Brittany was recognized as a dedicated radio student and awarded the Jeffrey C. Kraus Endowed Radio Award from the Hofstra Radio Alumni Association. Her name now resides on a plaque outside of WRHU's office among other Kraus Award winners.
Additionally, in April 2019, Brittany was recognized as a finalist in the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards for a Newsline broadcast that she produced and co-anchored. Also on the award was her co-anchor Nick Faria, Sports Reporter Kenny Conrade, and Engineer Madison Wright.
Brittany continued to produce the second half of Thursday Nite Live's season 17, with the 5th show occurring the week following the WRHU banquet. Multitasking between two large on-campus roles and an internship in New York City is a thing of ease for Brittany and something she thoroughly enjoyed doing. At the end of April, Brittany wrapped up her internship and TNL's season the same week, while also becoming an inductee and member of the Lambda Pi Eta National Communications Honors Society.
At the end of the semester at WRHU's annual awards, Brittany was recognized once again for her management skills and received the station's Leadership Award for the second year in a row. Academically, she ended the semester on the Dean's List.
Senior Summer
Despite turning down a few internship offers to work each day at WRHU, Brittany's rising senior summer kicked off quickly. Brittany, still going beyond her duties as the first Program Director of Talk to schedule the station thoroughly in 14 years, jumped right back on the Newsline train to produce (and anchor) local, national, and international news.
In June of 2019, Brittany traveled to Saratoga Springs, New York for the New York State Associated Press Club Association's Awards. Brittany's aforementioned Newsline broadcast won 1st Place for the Bill Leaf Memorial Award for Best Regularly Scheduled Local News Program - a huge honor. The following week, Brittany attended the Press Club of Long Island awards where the same Newsline broadcast won 1st Place again, this time in the Student Journalism College News Radio Broadcast category.
July picked up speed. Brittany covered a local political event that detailed Nassau County's firework and explosive policies and safety regulations ahead of the 4th of July at Eisenhower Park in Westbury, New York. Here, Brittany interviewed Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick J. Ryder, among others. Roughly a week later, Brittany reported from the East End Foundation's Rell Sunn Annual Benefit Surf Contest in Montauk, New York, creating a feature on the history of women's professional surfing and the Long Island female surfing community. The following week, WRHU was announced as a Finalist in the 2019 National Association of Broadcasters' Marconi Awards for the 4th time. WRHU was a finalist in 2014, 2016, and 2017 prior, and won in 2014 and 2017.
Roughly a month before the semester started, Brittany and her new Thursday Nite Live co-Producer began to prepare for Season 18, getting all promotional materials ready and booking equipment and crew for the intro and photo shoots.
In August, Brittany spent 2 weeks training for a new fall internship at NBC with Late Night with Seth Meyers as a General Production Intern. These two weeks were insightful, but not entirely what Brittany was looking for in a Senior Year internship. This, combined with an unfortunate schedule change in her capstone/thesis class, resulted in Brittany re-entering the internship market in search of the perfect opportunity for her.
Full Speed Ahead
After searching for the perfect internship, on the first day of Hofstra's fall 2019 semester, Brittany was hired as an intern at then-Viacom (now Paramount) with Nickelodeon International Programming and Global Acquisitions. Her 5th official internship worked between two teams in the same department, requiring a lot of organization, attention to detail, multitasking, and being an overall liaison between the two. One of her tasks was to compile industry and competitor news into a report to present on a bi-weekly basis. On the Programming side, Brittany communicated with regional contacts around the world to organize language adaptation requests and translations, she updated the network's internal database (IAN) with series and episodic information based on delivery schedules and rollouts, and she collected series and episode launch plans from regional contacts, and more. On the Global Acquisitions side, Brittany created content overview and distributor decks from pitch conventions such as MIPCOM and Kidscreen, as well as regularly submitted pitches, and rated pitch submissions and acquisitions for the Nickelodeon International Programming Council.
While getting acclimated to the new opportunity, Brittany was preparing to travel to Dallas, Texas with some members of WRHU's Executive Board to participate in the Radio Advertising Bureau and National Association of Broadcaster's Radio show and subsequently the NAB Marconi Awards. In a room full of talented radio professionals from around the country, Brittany witnessed first-hand WRHU's Marconi win and was the first to publicly announce the achievement to the Hofstra community via the Herbert School's Instagram story. Utilizing her expert multitasking skills, just a few days following the Marconi win, Brittany produced Thursday Nite Live's Season 18 premiere episode.
The week of the premiere, Brittany and her new co-Producer decided to submit an episode of Thursday Nite Live to the Emmy's Foundation/Television Academy's College Television Awards. The episode was from Brittany's previous season; Season 17 Episode 5. After producing the last episode of the season (Season 18 Episode 3) in December 2019, the Television Academy announced Thursday Nite Live and the submitted show's board, including Brittany was a Finalist in the 40th Annual College Television Awards. The same day, Brittany posed once again with President Stuart Rabinowitz and other dedicated WRHU members for a photo with all 3 of WRHU's Marconi Awards.
Throughout the semester, Brittany was also involved in starting a new digital/social series for Hofstra University, called "Hofstra NOW!". Primarily for Instragram Reels, the series detailed events and news in the Hofstra community.
Brittany spent the end of the semester training her successor for Program Director of Talk, as the position only lasts a year. At her internship, Brittany witnessed the merger of ViacomCBS (now Paramount). Academically, Brittany completed all of her Hofstra University Honors College requirements and ended the semester on the Provost's List with a 4.0 semester GPA.
Brittany (middle) holding WRHU's 3rd Marconi Award with members of WRHU's Executive Board right after the awards ceremony in Dallas, Texas on September 26th, 2019.
Also pictured (left to right): General Manager, Bruce Avery; 2019 Personnel Director, Eli Finkelson; 2019 Station Manager, Kenny Conrade; Operations Manager, John Mullen; 2019 Sports Director, Liane Sousa; 2018 Personnel Director, Madison Wright
The Final Chapter
Brittany continued her internship at Nickelodeon International Programming and Global Acquisitions into the Spring 2020 semester, starting in January. Brittany worked more heavily with Acquisitions, organizing the pitch tracker, managing the Acquisitions inbox, and coordinating stunts and releases with regional contacts around the world (SWEMEA, Asia, MENA, LatAm, Benelux, GSA, UK, etc.).
After completing her term as Program Director of Talk, Brittany jumped back into the WRHU News Department, producing and anchoring Newsline. Simultaneously, Brittany produced Thursday Nite Live Season 18 Episode 4 at the end of February. Unfortunately, COVID-19 suspended her internship 3 weeks early, and canceled all like productions, both radio and television, at the Herbert School of Communication. WRHU and TNL moved remotely.
Brittany is produced her last Thursday Nite Live episode, the season 18 finale. The episode, "Thursday Not Live", was entirely comprised of pre-filmed packages and other pre-recorded elements, and aired on Thursday, May 7th, 2020. Simultaneously, Brittany is anchored and produced Newsline on a bi-weekly basis remotely from home via BlogTalk, bringing the WRHU listeners the latest on COVID-19 locally and around the world. Her final Newsline broadcast was Friday, May 8th, 2020.
Brittany graduated Cum Laude from Hofstra University on May 17th, 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Video/Television & Film as an Honors College Associate and as a member of the Phi Eta Sigma National Honors Society and the Lambda Pi Eta National Communications Honors Society. Upon graduating, she and her "Thursday Nite Live" team won at the College Television Awards, a first for Hofstra University. She also received a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media for a long-form feature centered on women's surfing in Montauk, NY. "Hofstra Now!" received a Silver Telly Award for a Social Video, News & Information Series. She was also named WRHU's All-Around Air Talent of the Year.
Brittany (right) holding her Jeffrey C. Kraus Endowed Radio Award at the Radio Hofstra University 60th Anniversary Banquet with Hofstra Radio Alum Butch D'Ambrosio (left) on March 30th, 2019.
Brittany at the New York State Associated Press Awards holding her 1st Place award in Saratoga Springs, New York on June 1st, 2019.
Brittany in the Nickelodeon office with the Empire State Building in the background.