Michigan State Sports JRN students set a new standard over the Feb. 21-22 weekend, by becoming the first Big Ten students to do live sportscasts AND live in-studio interviews during Big Ten Network sports broadcasts.

The Spartan Sports Report – in partnership with MSU’s Big Ten Student U – went live from the Spartan Newsroom during the MSU-Ohio State hockey games.

The shows were anchored by Taylor Gattoni and Joe Freihofer. Hikaru Kudo served as SSR’s technical director and Regan Holgate was the BTN Student U producer for the series.

After a live pre-game audition Friday for Big Ten Network’s Chicago headquarters, the SSR staff received the go ahead to do their first ever live sports broadcast. The ground-breaking broadcast went off without a hitch.

For Saturday, the SSR staff arrived at 9:30 a.m. to prepare for an in-studio interview with Rob “Woody” Woodward. Woodward, a former Spartan winger who played for legendary MSU coach Ron Mason, is a radio analyst for the Spartan Sports Network.

The interview with Gattoni was used as part of the live sportscast during the Saturday night game’s first intermission. During the second intermission, SSR anchor Freihofer did a live in-studio interview with Detroit Free Press sports reporter Chris Solari. They discussed the hiring of MSU’s new head football coach Mel Tucker.

BTN Chicago was pleased with the SSR contributions saying, “the conversations/analysis flowed smoothly and felt natural, and it was entertaining and informative. Great job.”

Michigan State sports JRN students and alums were rocking it on all fronts this weekend. J-School alum Brendan Wilner served as the BTN headquarter’s liaison to MSU’s BTN Student U team.

Sports JRN alum Jack Sznewajs was BTN’s play-by-play broadcaster, along with current MSU Sports JRN student David Greenberg as a color analyst. Another Sports JRN student, Ian Gilmour, was the game’s sideline reporter.

The game was also live streamed on IMPACT WDBM radio with the play-by-play and analysis done by sports JRN students Ryan Collins and Johnny Supan.