Rick Settoon, the Southeastern Channel’s general manager since its inception over 20 years ago who led it to become one of the elite college television stations in the nation, will be retiring from the channel and Southeastern Louisiana University effective August 5th. Settoon leaves behind a legacy of preeminent quality and a high standard of excellence for the channel and its students as during his tenure the Southeastern Channel won over 500 national, international and regional awards, including 24 awards from the Emmys and first place in the nation 12 times from College Broadcasters, Inc. He has trained and produced over 200 graduates who’ve landed jobs in the television, video, film, and marketing industries from New York and Los Angeles to cities such as Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Diego, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Orlando, Seattle, and Anchorage, Alaska.
Having taken over the 24-7 channel when there was virtually no original programming, Settoon created and fostered the production of over 40 new original TV series and 6000 hours of fresh original programming, averaging over 300 new hours per year, including programs such as newscasts, sportscasts, live events, telecourses, and most recently 20 live game broadcasts for ESPN+ per year covering all Southeastern sports. Over his 20-year career at the Southeastern Channel, Settoon presided over the broadcast of 175,000 hours of programming for a potential cable audience of 240,000 on Charter Spectrum. He also expanded distribution to Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.
A multiple Emmy Award-winning producer and a national Emmy nominee by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Settoon arrived at the Southeastern Channel as its first general manager in 2003. He came to Southeastern from Virginia Beach, Va. where he worked for 16 years for the ABC FOX Family Network and Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), where he was the top producer for an international television network reaching 360 million viewers in 138 countries. As the network’s Director of Special Projects and also producer-director-writer for daily television shows, network primetime specials and TV series, film productions, documentaries, feature segments, music videos, and commercials, Settoon produced and shot programming across the U.S. in 40 states and in three countries.
In addition to his national Emmy recognition in New York, he won the first-place top prize multiple times at the New York Festivals, the U.S. International Film and Video Festival in Chicago, the Los Angeles Film and Video Festival, the WorldFest International Film Festival, and numerous national Telly Awards along with recognition by the George Foster Peabody Awards. Settoon also freelanced for Coastal Training Technologies in Virginia Beach, the world’s largest producer of corporate and training videos at that time, where he produced national award-winning documentaries.
In addition to his career as a television producer, Settoon taught television and video production at universities in Virginia Beach, Va.; Kona, Hawaii; and Kiev, Ukraine prior to taking the Southeastern job where he taught in SLU’s Department of Communication and Media Studies. Settoon received his bachelor’s degree from Southeastern in 1980 and his master’s degree from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va. in 1986.
His wife, Cheryl, an international award-winning producer for CBN who produced primetime specials on five continents along with a newscast with a daily audience of over a million viewers, is also retiring from Southeastern on July 20th. . She’s been a valued television instructor in the Communication department for over 20 years. The Settoons have a son, Elisha, who’s located in Dallas as supervisory auditor for the Travel and Leisure Co. of Wyndham Destinations, and a daughter, Holly, who’s an actress, playwright, and screenwriter in New York City.