It’s close to 1 p.m. and Marcus Bray is in the control room counting down the start of the live student show The Rebel Report. The UNLV senior journalism major is directing. 

5, 4, 3 …

He cues up the camera operators. Camera one will zoom in on the anchors in just a few minutes. In-studio director Jeremiah Skillman listens through his headphones for Bray’s instructions to ensure the show sticks to its rundown. He signals to on-air hosts Fatima Navarro and Yaquelin Martinez-Gutierrez to get ready.

2, 1…

It’s another day of production for Emmy-winning The Rebel Report — but this time, the student journalists are working from the Las Vegas Raiders’ headquarters, using the team’s professional broadcast facilities to produce the show.

This is the first time journalism students have used the Raiders’ equipment and studio space to produce the show. The UNLV-TV studios at the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies are the show’s usual home, but students need to learn how to adapt to new environments if they want to succeed in a fast-paced newsroom culture, said professor Kevaney Martin, who teaches sports media courses and oversees The Rebel Report.

The students get professional coaching from Raiders’ own video and podcast teams and insight on the day-to-day rigors of sports broadcasting.

Jack Bridges, a graduate student in the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies, is a production assistant for the Las Vegas Raiders. It’s his fourth season working on the team’s live studio productions, and it was his idea to bring The Rebel Report to the Raiders' facility.

“All the facilities we have at UNLV are really incredible, so there wasn't a lot of drop-off from coming to this new facility from there. A lot of the students were ready to go because of their time at UNLV,” Bridges said. 

This is the first time in the show’s history that the journalism school offered The Rebel Report course during the summer, giving students the opportunity to capitalize on the myriad athletic activities occurring in the summer months in Las Vegas. 

Students reported from the NBA Summer League held at the UNLV Thomas & Mack Center, the Mountain West Conference media day, and the “She Weekend" event celebrating female athletic champions, sponsored by musician Flavor Flav.

In addition to being the on-air host for the Raiders broadcast, Navarro was one of the students who reported on the NBA Summer League. 

“It’s a lot harder than it seems to have an impromptu interview with someone. It seems like a simple conversation. It’s a lot about listening and knowing what to say after,” she said. “You have to learn how to flow with an interview with the other person. I love the summer course. It’s more hands-on experience.” 

Born and raised in Vegas, Bridges said it’s exciting to see Las Vegas transform itself into a sports town. 

“Growing up playing basketball, some of the players I used to play against thought I lived in a casino. They didn’t know that Vegas had homes,” Bridges said. He points to the Raiders, the Golden Knights, and the Aces. “We’ve got the Athletics coming over as well, I don't think the growth is stopping anytime soon. I'm sure we’ll have an NBA team before we know it. Vegas, the sports capital of the world — no doubt.”

Only Rebels in the Building

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