MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — In October’s episode of Middle Tennessee State University’s “Out of the Blue” television magazine show, host and Division of Marketing and Communications Vice President Andrew Oppmann sits down with music industry trailblazer, founder and CEO of Big Machine Label Group, Scott Borchetta, to discuss the recent renaming of the Scott Borchetta College of Media and Entertainment.

Borchetta spoke about his vision for the college and why he decided to get involved with MTSU, culminating in the Aug. 26 ceremony to officially rename the college in his honor and reflecting his ongoing support that has led to technological upgrades within the college and experiential learning opportunities for students, such as recent trips to the Grammy Awards. 

Borchetta said the path to his involvement really started with Dean Beverly Keel.

“She’s such a powerful force here at the college,” he said. “We started talking about what we had achieved and is this the time to really start thinking about legacy. Legacy to me is for everyone else… I don’t worry about it, and I thought if we did good work, people would know about it.”

It was during conversations with Keel while serving on the CMA Board and seeing everything that had come out of the college that Borchetta felt like he could “help deliver the message in an even louder way of all the great students, alumni, Grammy winners, songwriters, artists and great executives” that have come from MTSU.

Watch the full interview segment below.

Borchetta said while the renaming has been a long time in the making, it’s just now really sinking in that it’s a reality, and he has a college named after him.

“It’s something my family can always be proud of,” he said. “We never really dreamed this big to ‘Wow, we’ll have a college named after me, after us.’ No one does this by themselves. You have to have incredible support.”

Borchetta said his wife, Sandi, and his father, Mike, are just two of several people who have lifted him up along the way.

The music executive said he hopes to teach students and inspire them to take chances and risks.

“If I can be an example of a kid who came from a lower-middle-class family out of Southern California to reach the heights that we have. It’s not to sound cliché, but it’s the American dream. We live in a country where you can dream big and achieve your dreams. I think more than anything else, I hope I can inspire these students to go all the way.”

To watch and listen

• “Out of the Blue” is available anytime on the university’s YouTube channel, the True Blue TV channel, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.

• It also airs on Murfreesboro cable Channel 9 daily at 6 and 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; NewsChannel5+ at 6:30 p.m. Sundays; WKRN+ at 7 p.m. Thursdays and noon Sundays; via streaming on MTSU’s Jazz Network on WMOT HD2 and through WMOT.org at 7 a.m. on the first Sunday of each month; and on other cable outlets in Middle Tennessee, so check local listings.

• It is also available as a podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Music, iHeart and as individual interview segments on primary host Spotify at https://spoti.fi/453hxg3.

— DeAnn Hays (deann.hays@mtsu.edu)