Saturday’s (3/15) ‘Flip That House’ TV episode to feature PUC alumni, students

Saturday’s (3/15) scheduled national broadcast of the television program, "Flip That House," will feature more than just a home in Hobart. It also will feature Purdue University Calumet communication graduates and a current student in front of the camera and behind the scenes.

The half-hour episode is scheduled to air at 7 p.m. on TLC (formerly known as “The Learning Channel”). “Flip That House” chronicles the events of rehabbing and selling a home.

Saturday’s (3/15) program features Purdue Calumet alumni Luke Weinman IV of Hobart; his father and Portage resident Luke III; and the house they refurbished in Hobart. Producing the program was another PUC alumnus, Tim Piniak, formerly of Munster.

Weinman III is a 1996 Purdue Calumet graduate in management. His son earned a communication degree in 2001, as did Piniak.

Weinman IV is director of information and technology at the Lake County Convention and Visitors Bureau. He also is co-owner of the production company, Digital Source Productions, which filmed the episode.

A friend of Weinman IV since their Purdue Calumet days, Piniak said Midwestern sites were desired for the program and that the Weinmans “just happened to be in the right place at the right time. . .”

“Without the relationship I made with Tim Piniak years ago through Purdue Calumet, I would have never known TLC was looking for flippers in the Midwest,” Weinman IV said. “My company would not have had the opportunity to shoot the show, and former and current Purdue Calumet students would not have had the opportunity to work on the show without having had the training they received from (Associate Professor of Communication) Mary Beth O’Connor and (Radio/TV Studio Supervisor) Craig Blohm.”

O’Connor has been a faculty instructor of all the Purdue Calumet students—former and current—involved in the production, which she visited on location.

The opportunities afforded by the pending broadcast, she said, demonstrates the quality of communication broadcast education students receive at Purdue Calumet. Broadcasting is one of several academic options available within the university’s communication curricula.

Also benefiting from and appreciating the experience was current broadcast major Kaitlin Craig. The Highland junior, who served for a day as a production assistant (PA) to Piniak, said she was “amazed” by the attention to detail the production required.

“You see the same shot taken over and over again until it’s perfect,” she said. “I learned that you have to take the most minute things into account; it really taught me how to be a better producer—it was such a great experience.”

For Piniak, who has relocated to California, the opportunity to involve former classmates and a current student in an actual television production is experiential learning at its best.

“When I was a student, I got a chance to PA for a nationally televised show, and that essentially started my career in television,” he said. “I just wish that we could generate more opportunities like this for PUC students; it’s the whole reason I moved to California... (In this business) nobody is going to grade you. You can’t do better on the next one to bring up your grade. Your reputation is riding on your performance, and it’s a rush to know that this time it’s for real.”

Continuing, Piniak said, "The chance to see what happens on a set of a national show and be subjected to something that actually goes on the air and to see how things are done behind the scenes? Priceless!"

News Release Date: March 10, 2008