MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Located in the Student Union Building on Middle Tennessee State University’s campus, SPARE, or Student Programming and Raider Entertainment, provides students with unique, hands-on opportunities when it comes to the entertainment business and planning key events for the campus community.

In the November episode of “Out of the Blue,” MTSU’s television program, viewers learn about the student-focused organization from Tyler Adkins, assistant director of SPARE, in an interview with host Andrew Oppmann, vice president of Marketing and Communications.

Watch the full interview below.

“We plan events all across campus,” explained Adkins. “We take our students through all the stages of event planning and invite anyone to come out and enjoy what we have to offer.”

SPARE played a significant role in “Party in the Grove,” the official tailgate at Walnut Grove, ahead of MTSU’s home football games, by being involved in everything from planning and organizing to executing the event.

“Party in the Grove has been a fantastic growth opportunity for SPARE to be able to pull our students into a little more involvement with athletics and the event planning that goes on out at Walnut Grove,” Adkins said.

Adkins said SPARE has two student managers who are in charge of different aspects of “Party in the Grove.”

“We have our sports and games manager who brainstorms and plans all of the activities, and our concerts manager, who gets the experience of helping coordinate the live music and working in conjunction with one of our classes over in the Scott Borchetta College of Media and Entertainment to plan the talent,” he explained.

SPARE students work with artists from start to finish in the planning process, including collaborating with artist management, working on contracts, and getting promotional elements approved.

“It’s great to see our students grow. Many of the students who come to SPARE at first are nervous about meeting artists. They feel like it’s a fun opportunity, but they really get to see the professional side of it once they join our organization,” Adkins said.

Partnering with MTSU’s Student Government Association, SPARE is also responsible for organizing the highly anticipated spring concert each year.

“The past 11 years, we have gotten to bring a major talent at the end of the school year and get students excited and celebrate all the work they’ve put in throughout the academic year,” Adkins said.  

For more information about SPARE, visit spare.mtsu.edu. They are currently accepting student applications.

Ways to watch, 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.

Episodes are 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)