Byline: Rinker Buck
Mar. 6--The founder of a popular Farmington broadcasting school -- one that has placed its graduates at television and radio stations throughout the country -- vowed to reopen after the school was abruptly shut down by an affiliate of financial giant Credit Suisse.
The Connecticut School of Broadcasting, which was started in Hartford in 1964 by veteran radio announcer Dick Robinson, shuttered its two Connecticut campuses and 24 affiliate locations throughout the country Wednesday, giving faculty and students an hour's notice to vacate the premises.
In a terse press release on Thursday, the Connecticut School of Broadcasting said that its major lender, National City/PNC Bank, had seized its bank accounts, forcing it to shut down and file for bankruptcy. The shutdown prevented dozens of students from receiving their graduation certificates just five days before their course was scheduled to end.
'My children and I are just totally sick about this and we had no idea that the school was in such difficulty,' said Robinson, 70, who sold the school to Credit Suisse in 2006, and who now lives in Palm Beach, Fla. 'But we are making plans to resurrect at least the Farmington campus.'
On Thursday, as students stranded by the school's closing milled around the snowy campus on Birdseye Road in Farmington, state Commissioner of Higher Education Michael P. Meotti and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal initiated investigations into the CSB shutdown.
Meotti said that a state fund established to protect students of occupational schools that close will be applied to reimburse students for their tuition or provide 'teach-out' programs at other schools so that students can finish their degrees.
The Department of Higher Education urged broadcasting school students to call its toll-free line, 800-842-0229, or visit the agency's website, ctdhe.org, to register for tuition refunds or learn about options for completing their degrees.
During its 45-year history, the Connecticut School of Broadcasting has placed hundreds of graduates at entry-level editing and production jobs at radio and television stations, allowing them to work their way up the broadcasting ladder. Graduates also found jobs at media companies like cable sports giant ESPN in Bristol or all-news or all-talk radio stations.
'A lot of CSB graduates may have started at modest broadcasting jobs behind the scenes,' said Fox 61 sportscaster Bob Rumbold, a Windsor Locks native who graduated from the school in 1969. 'But the school is well-known and respected and there aren't many stations in New England without CSB alumni.'
When Robinson sold the school to Credit Suisse almost three years ago, the school had 13 locations throughout the country, most of them modeled on the hands-on approach he had supervised while he ran the schools, which stressed students' learning everything from on-air announcing to post-production editing. The school promised its graduates a 'lifetime guarantee' of support, under which they could use the school's facilities to polish their 'demo' reels as they sought better jobs.
Under Credit Suisse, the school rapidly expanded, doubling its size to 26 campuses. Most of the school's students and graduates interviewed in Farmington on Thursday said that they were especially attracted to the school because of the lifetime guarantee benefits. Students, many of whom worked part-time jobs while they completed their course work, said they were aggressively recruited by a school that offered generous 'scholarship' discounts and student loans against the basic $12,000 tuition.
David Banner, CSB's president, did not return calls from The Courant, and a Credit Suisse spokesman would say only that the bank was 'disappointed by the outcome' of closing the schools.
The end arrived so quickly Wednesday that many students barely had time to shut down their computers and editing equipment before they were forced to leave.
'We were told at 4 p.m. [on Wednesday] to vacate the campus by 5 p.m. that day,' said one top administrator of the school who declined to be quoted by name because he was instructed by the managers who shut down the campus not to comment publicly. 'We had no choice but to comply and tell the students to leave, even though it broke our hearts to betray these kids.'
The plight of student Chandler Hartford, 21, of Southington, seemed typical. Hartford enrolled in the school's course at Farmington in early January, attending day classes while holding down an afternoon and evening job as a waiter at an assisted-living facility. He had planned to begin a career as a voice-over announcer and was working on a demo tape and website when the school closed.
'I was really starting to crack down on my voice-overs and realized that this was something I could be great at,' Hartford said. 'But now all of my work can only be accessed on computers behind locked doors, and my voice-over coach was fired.'
Meotti said that Connecticut maintains a $3.5 million Student Protection Account -- raised by fees charged to occupational schools -- that will be used to either reimburse students for their tuition costs or pay comparable schools to help students complete their degree requirements. The higher education commission served the school with a subpoena on Thursday and today will search the school for student records, the first step toward allowing enrollees to obtain either tuition reimbursement or complete their courses.
Meanwhile, Robinson vowed to honor the school's commitments to students on the Farmington campus. Robinson said that his family still owns the school building in Farmington and that three of his children -- all of whom worked at some time for CSB -- will apply for a 'fast-track' license to reopen the school.
His family's regaining control of the school would involve some 'ironic justice,' Robinson said.
'After we founded CSB in 1964 there were many times that other broadcasting schools went under and we did all the teach-outs for the kids who were locked out,' Robinson said. 'We never charged a dime. All we care about now is the kids, and their broadcasting careers.'
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Copyright (c) 2009, The Hartford Courant, Conn.
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