The program, broadcast from 8 p.m. to midnight on Nov. 6 from the Charter Cable Access Studio in Newtown, was anchored by a WCSU team of six faculty members and two students who delivered real-time coverage of presidential, congressional and state legislative election results from 15 western Connecticut cities and towns in Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven counties. WCSU students also provided reports from headquarters of the U.S. Senate and Fifth Congressional District candidates.
Organized as part of the fall 2012 “Broadcast Live News and Politics” media arts class in Western’s communication department, “Election Connection” built upon the multi-media programming introduced in the first-ever election night collaboration between WCSU and Charter in November 2011. The 2012 production offered live streaming on the university website, a radio simulcast on the university radio station WXCI-FM, and social media access on Facebook and Twitter. Viewers also were invited to send tweets with comments and questions that were relayed to the anchor team during the broadcast.