Tom Leach
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Hear Him 'ROAR'
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Tom Leach, General Manager of LMU's television network, has big, bold plans involving programming, reach, partnerships and more.
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Every night for four hours, from 10pm until 2am, the ROAR Network comes to life.
"I like to call it college prime time," ROAR Network General Manager Tom Leach says.
The television production major from El Dorado Hills, Calif., a junior, is entering his second year helming LMU's fledgling, on-campus TV station.
Leach's responsibilities include development, marketing, hiring, firing, and green-lighting shows. "It's quite an all-inclusive job," Leach says. And one he's well prepared for. In high school, he worked at a Sacramento TV station. After LMU, his career goal is to create sitcoms.
Formerly a club, and previously known as LMUTV, ROAR is two years into its expanded operational incarnation as a wage-paying employer. The station has new editing equipment, advertising plans, and offices in Daum Hall, adjacent to the venerable Loyolan newspaper.
"We're just a baby right now," Leach says. "We are just getting the wheels starting to turn. And I envision big and bright things for the ROAR Network."
Those “things,” Leach says, include seeing the channel's programs broadcast around the greater Los Angeles area, and within ten years, via satellite or national cable service. He'd also like to create partnerships with established sports networks to cover LMU athletics, particularly basketball games.
ROAR programs, which have included Leach's own executive-produced “Reel 2 Reel” film interview show, currently air exclusively on campus – in dormitories and other buildings wired to receive the closed system signal – on channel six.
In addition to regular programming, ROAR also covers hyper-local news and entertainment. Recent examples include the campus' popular Greek Week Lip Sync performance competition, and Ann Coulter and James Carville's LMU appearance during First Amendment Week.
Leach says ROAR stays consistent with both FCC guidelines and LMU's social mission, particularly considering the university's interest in producing well-rounded students. All in all, this Lion is bullish on his school, and on the service he and his ROAR colleagues bestow.
"It provides kind of a campus voice for people that can't be at every event," Leach says. "There are so many exciting things going on at Loyola Marymount University."