Sam Schauer

Welcome to Coffee with COJO, a podcast produced by the School of Communication and Journalism at South Dakota State University. This week, student host Anna Poul talks to former student host Sam Schauer. Sam and Anna talk about his experience working with Jax News and the Prairie Dog, as well as going with the pride to Frisco, Texas. Sam, welcome to Coffee with Kojo. It's good to have you back on the other side of the microphone, in fact.

So how's it feel being on the other side? Oh, my goodness. It feels weird. You know, you're in my spot, so of course, people can't see this. It's like. So I am looking over here. It's like, oh, my goodness, you know, this is this is what it feels like. Now, on the other side, I get to talk about myself. So this is crazy, but I'm glad to be on the show. All right. And we're glad to have you here. So why don't you start off by telling us where you originally from?

What's your major miners and why did you choose to use you? I am from Aberdeen, South Dakota, a little northeast town up in South Dakota. And pretty much I came to us to pursue it because I really at the time, I wanted to be a physical therapist. You know, you see my career change. You can realize that didn't happen. But, you know, I mean, I really wanted to, you know, go into physical therapy because I just thought like and I enjoyed I enjoyed, you know, lifting, working out.

I knew I pretty much all the muscle. So I'm like, Oh, why can't I help people? And that first semester of biology, chemistry is fine. But biology, that was that was rough. Something I did not want to do. And when I when I realized I was like, you know, physical therapy is a lot of like biology, a lot of muscles, stuff like that. It's like, okay, this is what I want to do. So I switched over to communications and then eventually journalism came later.

And then now my current major is journalism with a communication minor. Very nice. And on campus, what organizations are you part of? So I am I'm not as involved as I was last year. Last year I was involved in everything. I was involved in college. I did The Collegian. I wasn't told about my current job. I'm called Prairie Dog until much later, but I started to get involved with that. I also do this podcast, which we have mentioned earlier.

I saw earlier Episiotomy too, and you know, I did all of those that I did feel I was busy, but at the same time it was good experience. And I do recommend that new journalism or communication majors, you know, just try out everything. Try out what you want to try out what you need. You know, I mean, you may think that, you know, you want to go into broadcast journalism and then all of a sudden you work for The Collegian and you enjoy it so much.

It's like, I want to go on to print, you know, giving yourself that option, those abilities, you know, that's that's really what benefited me and what my current path is of, you know, I did all this stuff. Now I want to slim down what I want to do and focus on this. So I am currently involved with on called Prairie Dog and I love it. It's been fun. That's why I stuff I'm involved at the school, also involved in the band and the pride at SDSU, which is been very fun.

I enjoy it. I've made a lot of friends. The band just, I love it. I've made some my friends and I feel like that the last year you were pretty involved. How did you balance that involvement with keeping up on your academics? I on it was a struggle at first because, you know, I'm in my freshman year of college. I came in in the fall of 2020. And if anyone knows about fall of 2020, you know, that was school.

It was completely different. It was it was not like it is today, you know, like freshman coming today. You'll never have to know what fall 2020 was. You know, you had to wear the masks everywhere. You couldn't leave your room. There was no activities going on, no hobo day, no nothing like that. No football games. It was Monday through Friday. Every day you would wake up and open up your computer and just go on zoom to go to your classes.

And it just it was not fun. So I really felt like I never had homework. That's all I did. So then when I switched over and, you know, became what I am now, it was it was a lot. It was a very big struggle at first.

But eventually you kind of just develop a rhythm, which I'm kind of glad for, because when I was involved so much, I realized if I want to keep good grades as well as doing everything I have to do, I have to put aside my personal time, which, you know, make some people may not like, but I guarantee you that helps a lot that if you just put aside some time and you can just focus on, you know, what you need to do, you need to focus on homework and I need to focus on SDG.

And I get this. Yeah, that this radio showed on today. You got to focus on your writing, the story you're going to get, you know, for The Collegian. And then I also got to write a paper for one of my classes today. I got to do that quickly. And eventually you just get into a rhythm. And I advise that people who who are very busy to just really just set up a planner and just be like, all right, I want to set the next 2 hours and just work on whatever.

And then when the 2 hours is up, do something for like an hour, 30 minutes, whatever, I just get back to it. So that's how I managed it. It was a lot, but it helped. I enjoyed it and it yeah, like I said, it has helped me so much now. Today. Yeah. And this year with being less involved. Have you picked up any new hobbies in your free time? Yes, I actually have been working on golfing. I have a good friend who's a golfer and he's been helped me a lot.

But, you know, it's it's something that like I look back on, it's one of the probably one of my regrets that. Like thing. I really wish I was little. I would just told my parents like, yeah, I want to go golfing because I'm not really the greatest have the greatest form yet and I go to top shots here or there and you know, I just work on swings and everything and I've enjoyed it. And, you know, I just it's been fun. And so that's one of my newest hobbies. I also really enjoy hiking.

But the problem is and if you've ever been to Aberdeen, South Dakota, you know, I tell people it's the flattest place on Earth. There's no hills at all. There's only one hill and it's a manmade hill. So it's like it's like there's nothing there. So come the Brookings. Ah, that's a little bit more of a walking around. But you know, I mean, I go to Rapid City, I go to the Black Hills and I love I love hiking, I love walking up the hills and everything that really, really makes me feel good.

And so that's cool. My hobbies I've picked off, it's far and few between, but most of the time I'm working and trying to improve my skills of being on the job I want to do. Awesome. It's glad to see that dedication. Speaking of walking, you do quite a bit of walking with the marching band. It was a pretty big year for band. So how was that year for you? How is New York? How is Frisco? If you went, Oh my goodness, it was it was amazing.

So throughout spring 20, 21, in my freshman year, again, I'm like, Man, this year was awful. Why is it this is what college is like? Whatever. And then we get put in this room, we see cameras all around, you know, all the pride members, we see cameras around. That's when they announce that we're going to New York for this year pretty much. And it was like, oh, my goodness. So that was kind of like reinvigorating.

So, you know, then we practiced a little bit more my sophomore year and, you know, just really enjoyed making deep root connections. And then eventually we were training for this year my, you know, my goodness, you know, usually, typically the pride is around to 32 to 60 members average last ten years. You know, Dr. Kessler has done an amazing job with that. This year we were around 340 members, so we jumped up.

Not only do we lose like graduating seniors, but we also gained all these new freshmen, new transfers to be in the pride. And, you know, it was it was a struggle for us because there's just so many people. But eventually we developed a rhythm and it was amazing. And then we went to New York. You know, New York was just the best time. I I've never been in New York before.

So seeing the Big Apple, you know, just seeing all the iconic buildings, the one regret I don't I have is I didn't get to see the friends apartments. I feel like they would've been a cool place, but, you know, that's okay. I saw a bunch of other stuff in that time and it was amazing. And of course, you know that the parade, all the parade was amazing.

That's that was definitely the highlight, just seeing all these people, especially what we were I mean, I think there was like 13 bands there, like college, high school, middle school, you know, and we, we, we just trumped them because of just how large our size. And I think our determination. I was told that a lot of the people where like half the bands were like spaced out because they couldn't keep up with the speed or whatever.

And, you know, our our big strength was, you know, we kept it together. We really lost, I think like two or three people. But, you know, even that and it was they kept through the whole parade and that, of course, you know, that end when we were on TV and I, I couldn't believe how many people after that texted me saying, like, I saw you on TV, you know, for the pride. I really it felt like a real, real honor, you know. So then after that, I thought we were done.

Honestly, I thought we go back, we can relax, we'll watch some football games, you know, we'll play for some. And we kept waiting and we kept running around the Montana State Games like, oh my gosh, we could we could do this, we win. And, you know, I'm worried all game. We lost them last year. So it's like we got to we have to, you know, pray. And it's also like it's also feels like -20 outs are horns are just not working at all.

So we're watching and then we blow them out, you know, it's like it's amazing. And all of a sudden that realization is like, we're going to Texas. So then of course, Christmas break comes and we come back and we're ready to go. We go to Texas and you couldn't believe the shock of people's faces. We're leaving Sioux Falls. There's like snow eight feet high. Once you get to Omaha, it's just like no snow. And then you keep going down more south of Kansas and then eventually Texas.

I mean, we left Brookings when I was like maybe five degrees. We got to Frisco in a 75 degrees like that. Body shift of temperature is just is amazing. I had felt the feeling. So then the football game. My goodness. I mean, that was that was so fun. I don't know if you went or not because you were also part of the pride, but I mean, it was amazing just to see the atmosphere.

I mean, Jack's fans are everywhere. There's the Bison, the Jackson, and just looking over, it was weird how they said the bands because the pride we had like these bleachers you know this is the base of bleachers. The NTSC band was next to us and they just filled the whole bleachers and no problem, no big deal. We couldn't even fit like half our people in like the percussion had to be on a separate side. It was just so we were so large packed together, but it was such a good atmosphere.

And winning a mic like that when that's that's a highlight definitely of the year for sure. Just seeing all those people, the football team that was amazing. And you know, I really I really do miss that atmosphere. And I'm just hoping, you know, we can get Frisco again next year. But, you know, just that whole that whole year, that was that was something special.

And I really will cherish that. I will agree there was a lot of energy at the game and for us going out to go as well with the marching band and. I didn't know Jack's fans could get that excited about one football game, but wow, we really brought it for that game. It was amazing. So you got to be on TV in New York, but you also get to do some call work with the Prairie Dock. So you mentioned that a little bit earlier.

So could you tell us some more about what you do with that, how you got that position and what kind of stories you've covered? Yeah, so far, how I got the position pretty much is a good friend of mine who actually introduced me to the job, Carter Schmitz. He's been a guest here on the show, too. You know, I think he was a host at one point, too. But, you know, he's a good friend of mine. He works like [INAUDIBLE] currently. He was working as the reporter, which is my current job.

And I was a freshman and Jim's, you know, a sophomore in Jim's media writing class. And he came to class talking about, you know, TV production broadcast and see what it's like. And he brought up and called Prairie Dog, and they were looking for guests. And, you know, I was really into interested in broadcasting. So I'm like, yeah, sure, I'll go, Why not? So I learned a little bit, you know, I learned and it's an amazing job.

You get to learn behind the scenes of like how to work audio, how to work visuals, you know, you really do know camera work. So you're not in front of the camera, but you get to learn everything behind the camera, which is an invaluable trait that anyone in broadcasting is interested in doing. It's just it's something amazing. And, you know, then Carter graduated, and I had told my producer a little Haig.

I had told him many times that, like, I would love to be the reporter next year. So then, you know, he called me the summers. I want to be the reporter. And I said yes. So I got the reporter job. And it is it was quite a lot of firsts just because of our mentality. So we had a new I would call a director. The previous director was very like news like where it's like, all right, we're going to get the stories of the week of my new director.

She is very like, we're going to get the story and we're going to record it months in advance. So that first two months was like, Man, we're recording interviews for December. Like, Why are we doing this so far ahead? But now, looking back on, it's like, that's kind of nice. It doesn't simulate the newsroom that well, but I mean, still, it's just the knowledge you get. And then, of course, you know, all my script writing has improved dramatically.

You watched some of my first ever stories I've written, you know, on the on called Prairie Dog YouTube page. You'll see that like in my speaking, it's very monotone. The story's very basic because I was new at it and I was doing and that constant support from them has helped me so much. Even Carter has helped me sometimes on some stories, so I do that really well. I take pride in it. And, you know, I think it's helped me so much.

And my stories today are nothing like they were at the beginning, which I take pride in because it's like, yeah, I grew, I grew a lot. So what I love about being a reporter is, you know, on a Tuesday afternoon we'll drive. The Sioux Falls will be with the doctor I never met. And we'll talk about anything from glaucoma to prostate cancer. You know, I just saw such a wide variety and I used to learn so much from it. And that's why I love this job. It's like, man, I did not know about that stuff.

So, you know, it's crazy. I love, you know, I just I love the process. I love the script writing because you get to it's like a puzzle for me, you know, you can really just piece together like, all right, I want this to go here and here and here, and then you watch it and it sounds perfect and you keep going. So I will say that one of my strangest interviews, which I feel like a lot of people are asking I have one of my strangest ones I have ever had was a couple of weeks ago.

And she was she was amazing and she was really crazy, not because of, like, crazy like nutjob kind of thing, but just how nice of a person she was. She saw the the role one was about was about transplants. And she pretty much gave her kidney like she's transplant a kidney just because of it.

She felt like, you know what, I'll just give my kidney just because, you know, and usually people are like, you're just going to donate a kidney just because I mean, like usually like she said, like the doctors first said that like, you know, they usually ask like, are you sure no one's, you know, you're like in money from this. There's no one someone blackmailing you, is anyone. Because like you just you don't give it away.

So I said, like someone you know. So she gave a kidney away and she's a wildlife EMT. I mean, like she she'll be she's in Montana for like five, six months of the year just putting out wildfires. And she doesn't shower on weeks and she's up for 16 hours a day. And, you know, it's just she used to do that. Now she's just chilling because she likes it. But, you know. She was incredible, like I said.

And I think the funniest the funniest thing about it was she was on Naked and Afraid, which is like she was hardcore, like survivalist. So I was like, holy. She is she's what she is one woman song. And yeah, that was that was a good it was a good role in you know, I think a lot of people talked about it and that was just that was yeah, it was crazy just the type of woman she was. And I respect her for it. I personally couldn't do it, but she she was amazing.

I got to say, I don't think I could do that either. I kind of like being in town. I have everything around me that I want that I could need. I'm not sure I could do the no showering for weeks on end just out in the wilderness, 16 hour days. That is some impressive stuff. Yeah, she she like I said, she is quite a woman. So I, I, if I were a meter in person, I will shake her hand and say, you've done amazing things.

Yeah. So you talked a little bit about the scriptwriting, which is a little bit different type of writing for students. You don't necessarily know how that differs because you expand on that a little bit. Of course. Of course. So pretty much if you've ever taken a news writing course, you know, basic news writing, you always talk about the inverted pyramid. You know, you talk about what is the most important thing.

And like a pyramid, you should you swim it down, you can like skim it down to the least important thing. That's your story and off. So one story I wrote was about what was it about? I wrote a story on, um, Dr. Kessler. I remember, yeah. So a couple of weeks after the collision, I wrote a story on Dr. Kessler, and I kind of wrote about his experience in his ear. So I wrote, talked about his year. You know why?

You know what he's doing for the pep band and then eventually, you know, like New York and Frisco and anything like that. And I just skimmed the down to, you know, he was a teacher at Brennan Valley, you know, I mean, it was the least important thing, but I kept that in there, so I kept like that. So that's kind of like your basic newspaper. What, my scripts. You know, I like to think of it more as a pattern.

So if you think of a line, you know, like a lot like a line, like just going back and that's just a parallel line. You know, I like to do what I like to call, you know, like kind of like a kind of like a heart monitor kind of thing where it starts out where my story is. Like you introduce the person, so it's pretty flat and then you talk about the problem. So usually if it's like most like problems is a doctor's story. So they always talk about a certain disease.

While we'll talk about the disease, like how bad it is going on, a downward inflection, you know, kind of like this disease kills a lot of people. It can really affect people's lives, you know? And then I talk about, you know, like, what are they doing to help with it? And then, you know, so it creates that upward angle of it all. The doctors are like, Well, okay, well, I'll do this then. So we'll do this, we'll do this and this, and people love it and it keeps going like this.

And so it keeps going like that until it stops. And to the whole to say, but be careful about this like this treatment or whatever and the doctor talking about it still goes back down to that angle before I say. But, you know, the treatment is completely safe to people who are like this and this and there's the 0% chance of this or whatever, you know, and it goes back up and it ends at a peak. So that kind of that's kind of my story structure, how I do it.

I, I like to think I like to think of my stories as, you know, I want to say a PSA about kind of like just knowing about the disease. So knowing everything from its strengths and weaknesses, you know, like who it affects, how it affects people and the cures and everything like that. And that's how I write my scripts. And, you know, I really I do really enjoy it there.

Of course, that's kind of like my basic one. There are some other scripts where it's like, you know, like maybe like I want to talk about this person and the strengths and what they've overcome to be where they are now. And I'll, I'll do that same formula of like what they went through and then how they're doing it and then what was a setback. And then eventually, you know, to cap it off what they're doing now and then how they're happy and everything like that,

you know, that's just kind of my basic form. I know that's not like the basic form of like some other people, but what's nice about broadcast script writing is there's really no set thing you want. The only thing you have to make sure is it's under like omitting 30. You guys fit. You want to fit as much information as you can and that in 30 because with with a newspaper story, you can write anywhere from 400 to 1000 word story and then you can fit everything in there you want with broadcasting.

You can't you'll be lucky if you can get like a four minute segments because you're not gonna be able to fit anything in there. It's that the main important thing is about fitting what is most important in there, like the inverted pyramid, but making sure it flows logically in that sense. Very nice. And you did start after you transferred out of P.T., you started in communications and then specialized into the broadcast category.

So what drew you to more of the broadcast versus the broader communications, major? I mean, not no disrespect to the communication at all, but, you know, I transferred and I'm like, what am I going to do with this? You know? The only reason I had transferred is because, you know, I was at my lowest point. I was like, I don't know what to do. I mean, I had trained my whole high school senior year of like be a physical therapist.

You know, I had shadowed these many people. I had learned, like, even more than I wanted to. So that first semester, I really feel like a failure because I wasn't doing well and of switching communication because my dad told me I'm a great communicator, so I'm like, okay, so I'll switch communications, you know, it gives me something. And it was really nice, was really I love the classes. They were good, but at the end of the day it's like, what am I going to do? I don't know what to do.

So then what's something that I really recommend people is they just figure out what you want to do and then try to expand on it. So during that summer between freshman and sophomore year, I was at home. I just got done working a shift at a restaurant I worked at, and my family always turns on ABC News with David Muir and we're sitting down watching the news.

And I'm looking and I see that, you know, David Muir is just reading a script and it's just reading, you know, the teleprompter and he's giving like great stories. And, you know, I'm just thinking like, you know, like, I can do that, you know? So, you know, usually I used to think of like, you know, like something that's like incredibly out there. And, you know, in my mind, I was like, oh, that's that's something I can't do. That's something, you know, I don't want to do.

But I watched that. Something flicked on my mind. I'm thinking, why can't I do that? You know, I can do that. No problem. I mean, I can read book, I can read a teleprompter, I could tell a story. And so I pretty much looked into it more and journalism came up. And eventually that's when I saw that's why I added a journalism minor at the time, because I wasn't sure. So I had a journalism minor. I did a couple of weeks with journalism classes and I actually love it.

And it became a double major. And then eventually I. I was I was in I was in a lull of communication where it's like I, I really feel like I am learning all I can, and I feel like more classes just wouldn't help me at this point. So I switched it to a minor so I could be done with the communication minor. And I am just finishing up my journalism major and it has helped me so much that mindset of like, Why can't I do this? Why can't I? Why can't I go on to be a network news anchor?

You know, I just if I put the work in, I can do it. You know, it's it's not that easy, but in my mind, it's like it's that easy. You just put the work in, do it, do what you love, and good things will come. So your three steps for success are fine with you. Like, figure out how to do it and then just do it. Yeah. I mean, basic, basic blueprint. You know, it's probably like steps in between that you don't think about.

But I mean, if you keep it as basic as you can, you know, you'll figure out everything else. Fair enough. Things just kind of come along sometimes. No kidding. No kidding. In your past few years, it seems you have been have you been able to do any internships during the summers or have you focused more on some of the work that you've done with Perry Dock and things like that? So I have focused more on my work instead of internships, and I'll be happy to know if people didn't know.

I haven't actually posted much of it. Yeah, I probably should do that. I accepted and accepted an internship at Cleveland News, so I'm excited to start working there for the summer. And really what the what the news business right now is, they are very they're very much hiring people. They are you know, this is a great job if you want to. It's an employer. It's an employee's market. You know, if you don't want to like I don't want work for this, how about we work for this instead?

And they'll be like, Shoot, yeah. Okay. Because they're in desperate need of help. They need help everywhere. So it's an employees market, I say. But I wanted to and they were really interested in me sophomore year, but I had just started journalism. I knew nothing and I didn't want to be the guy that was just doing it to an internship. It kind of felt like, you know, of course they taught me fine, but I didn't want to feel like I didn't know nothing.

So I took a year off, worked, and then eventually came back here determined to get an internship at somewhere. And it just happened to be Cole Keller News. And I showed them all the work I had done. You know, I started out, like I said, my scripts were just awful, you know, my voicing was awful. And now if you look at a video today, you know, you'll see that I have great inflection, you know, like, you know, like I'll talk I'll talk like this because this has happened.

And then all of a sudden, like, this is like this because good things happen, but then this bad thing happened, you know, I just that inflection, you hear that up and down, you know, that's that's one of the weirdest things that I'll think about when you're when you're writing your stories is like, how do I want to say it's something you lost? Think about. But to go back on that, you know, I want to show Carlile that I've improved so much in like my past year.

And, you know, they saw it and they were like amazed. And they offered it right away. And I took some time. I heard other offers, and Kelo was just the best offer for me. And I am excited to start working for the summer and you'll hopefully you'll see a lot of my stories on air coming the summer. So we'll see. We'll go from there. Congratulations on your internship. That's pretty exciting.

Thank you. Thank you. I am high for it's so good. And you already kind of touched on some classes that prepared you for this internship. Are there any other classes specifically that you think really focus you down and give you some that experience that you needed to feel successful at? Gallo Yes, yes, definitely. So media writing, a first and foremost back then was just basic news writing for me.

So it's kind of a bummer for me because I'm like, I don't know how to write a script properly, so, so but now, you know, they're doing much better, whether they're incorporating more broadcasting, which I am happy to see. You know, this school years passed, you know, even before me, this school was known as the print journalism school.

If you want to become a newspaper writer, you want to become like a journal, like a magazine journalism that you come here, you want to be in broadcasting, you go to USD. And I didn't learn that. I didn't learn that till after I had switched to broadcast. Journalism was like, well shoots. But you know, I was determined to make it work here because I love the school, I love everything about the school is amazing.

So and I'm really happy to see the improvement, you know, just this year. I'm actually happy to be in Rockdale. Is there Professor Daley's Doctor Daley's broadcast reporting news, which is an amazing class that really shows you like the intensity of like what it's about, you know, what? What are you looking for? You know, this is what the broadcasting world is like. Can you do this?

And I said, yes, mainly because my my experience, Hong Kong has helped so much, which I also recommend if you're a broadcast journalism student, take advantage of Hong Kong. It's an actual PBS show that you work behind the scenes. So it's an amazing. So that helped me so much to get ready for this class and I feel like it's helped me so much. It's really helped other people too, in that class to realize like, Oh, this is what broadcasting is like.

So if they hate it, they're probably thinking like, I don't wanna go to broadcasting, but if they love it, they definitely think I want to go to broadcasting. So I recommend that. Another thing I also recommend is just take some communication classes. I understand it's a little weird, but like if you're a broadcast manager, you know you want to speak in front of the camera, you got to really work on your confidence. You know, speech classes.

I have taken like an honor speech class and it's helped me and helped me so much to be able to really like care for what I'm talking about. The speech classes, the communication classes, they'll help you so much in order to understand, you know, like how to talk in front of people, how to talk with confidence and how to, like, shape what you're trying to go for. So just those classes I recommend, and other than that, enjoy the experience.

Take as many, like I said, do as much experience as you can on campus and take as many journalism classes, because the more experience you have, the better of a prospect you are. This podcast is the property of the School of Communication and Journalism at South Dakota State University, which reserves all rights to its use. Music by Cody M Johnson and Tyler Addison James is licensed through AP Music.