One late night in 2023 in their Euclid Commons dorm room, freshmen Brayden Geier and Peyton Miller found themselves deep in conversation — not about classes or campus life, but about an organization they believed Cleveland State was missing: a student-led broadcasting organization.

Now, two years later, what started as brainstormed ideas jotted down in a notebook, has turned into a soon-to-launch club open to all CSU students. 

“We spent a night writing down ideas in a notebook, just thinking of stuff as we went,” said Brayden Geier, president of CSU-TV. “Some of this included different ways to engage students such as student interviews, organization highlights and other forms of content.”

Geier, a film and media arts major, is one of many students that came to CSU looking for the opportunity to gain experience in broadcast production. 

“When we arrived at college, I felt as if CSU was missing an organization like the one I had in high school. So, we began thinking of ways to bring it to life at Cleveland State.” Geier said.

With a background in broadcasting from working on WHS-TV in high school, Geier arrived at CSU with the anticipation of finding a similar program. As of fall 2023, however, there was not such a program available to students. The broadcast minor in the School of Communication had yet to launch and the SOC's broadcast major was still in the pipeline.

As Geier and Miller became more involved on campus, their ideas for a broadcast club were set aside for nearly two years.

In those two years, Geier and Miller joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp) fraternity and both rose to leadership positions. Geier, now president of SigEp, took the time to develop his leadership and management skills in order to successfully start his own student organization.

“Sigma Phi Epsilon is built on growing its brothers through professional development, growth, and academic success,” Geier said. “After being the vice president of communications, and now the president, I’ve learned how to create and operate a large-scale organization, which transpired into revisiting the CSU-TV idea.”

SigEp is also where Geier met the current faculty advisor for CSU-TV, Richard Smith, online course & materials developer at CSU. Smith is the current faculty advisor for SigEp, which allowed for Geier to connect with him.

“After meeting with Dr. Smith for SigEp related materials, I mentioned to him the side project I’ve been working on (CSU-TV),” Geier said. “He explained how he helped create a similar program for students at a high school he once worked at.”

Now, Smith is the dual advisor for both SigEp and CSU-TV. 

The goal for CSU-TV is for it to be student-run and produced, operating “similar to television and a business,” according to Geier. 

CSU-TV plans to blend several different skill sets to produce new and unique content for students to engage in.

“The students who will join this organization can hope to learn, not only filmmaking skills, but professional development, communication and leadership skills,” Geier said.

Such content would include highlights of campus life from within the communication, athletics and film and media arts departments. 

“The hope is to release a bi weekly news broadcast that would begin with entertainment, then go into a news update of what's going on at Cleveland State,” Geier said.

Although it has not officially launched, CSU-TV is expected to be operational by the end of fall semester. 

As for students who may be interested in the club, Geier welcomes anyone willing to provide their time and creativity. 

“We encourage all skill sets to put their hands together and grow this program,” Geier said.