2008 Woodie Awards
mtvU spotlights UNCG student and WUAG DJ Sho Smoove
Elizabeth A. Terry
Issue date: 11/7/06 Section: Campus News
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Lebron James, Kat Williams, Josh Howard, Chris Paul, and Russell Simmons are just some the well known people this junior Communication Studies major has met.
Last week, he added another accomplishment to that list. Chris Lea, also known as ShoSmoove, hosted "The Dean's List," which airs on mtvU. He's a new millennium renaissance man, with little spare time to himself.
Lea got his biggest surprise of the year one week before school started, when he found out that he would be hosting "The Dean's List" and had a month and a half to prepare before filming took place. Because "The Dean's List" is the "lowest on the totem pole," as Lea described, he had to assemble his own crew, assign locations, film and shoot the footage and send the tapes to mtvU. He even edited the filming, which was several more hours' work.
Lea did most of the shooting at a local club, the New Science Building, 102 Jams, and WUAG for the seven minutes of air time which depicted his life and his top 10 music videos from a recent playlist.
It's all over now, but Lea explained there were plenty of bumps in the road along the way. Shooting took a long time, primarily because two hours prior to the beginning of shooting, Alpha Phi Alpha, a fraternity on campus that was supposed to appear in "The Dean's List," decided they could not be in the video due to legality issues. Lea also said the morning of outside shoot it began to rain.
"Overall it was a great," said Lea. "I was surprised by how I had to watch what I wore, and how detail oriented it was… certain things you say had to be congruent because it was shot out of sequence."
"The Dean's List" is an mtvU show in which one college student from anywhere in the U.S. is chosen to pick their top 10 music videos for a countdown. The show is broadcasted nationwide to 750 colleges, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. mtvU reaches seven million students nationwide and is part of the Viacom family - along with Nickelodeon, MTV, and VH1. mtvU is a specialty channel that only college students can receive on campus, although programs can be seen online at their website, mtvU.com. UNCG uses Channel 58.
Casting calls and video submissions are what usually land students on "The Dean's List." Lea said he submitted an email with pictures, describing why he deserved to be the host. The rest is history.
What's in this DJ's CD player?
"I casually listen to everything from gospel to reggae, but I usually stick to R&B and rap. But I do have a few rock albums."
His morning starts off as a 102 Jamz intern doing the Wild Out Wake-Up Show, which according to Lea is the number one wake-up show in its market. He also currently works as a radio DJ for WUAG and has since January 2005.
Lea hosts "Carolina Crunk," which features local Hip Hop from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Thursday nights. Finally, Lea co-anchors the news and sports with Liza Liebscher on Spartan TV, which is back on air this Fall.
With the recently aired "Dean's List," which premiered on Oct. 31 and ran until Monday, Nov. 6 and will be on mtvU.com, Lea has confidence in his future potential.
"I feel that I'm skilled in many areas… I can be a sports writer when I leave, [go into] radio, t.v. with my experience from Spartan TV and mtvU. It's pretty wide open, but that it's within the entertainment field."
And in response to all the recent hype that comes from appearing on TV, Lea said, "A lot of people are texting me and calling me since 'The Dean's List.'"
The television exposure, a plug on the resume, and the $75 check in the mail doesn't hurt either.
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