UC Blue Ash professor, staff member honored for service

Neil Sharrow, media technology analyst and adjunct assistant professor of electronic media communications at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College, was recently honored for his service to the National Educational Broadband Service Association (NEBSA).

Sharrow has represented UC Blue Ash in NEBSA for the past 20 years, serving as a board member, committee leader, and coordinator of a pilot membership project. At the annual NEBSA conference in Tampa, Florida in February, Sharrow was awarded a NEBSA Certificate of Appreciation “for providing invaluable assistance and support to the National EBS Association.” Lee Solonche, NEBSA Executive Director, presented the award to Sharrow, who received a standing ovation from the conference attendees.

“I’m flattered and honored by this recognition from the NEBSA Board of Directors. I have a great deal of respect for their extensive knowledge of the history, rules, importance and value of EBS,” says Sharrow. “I’m glad that I’ve been able to help NEBSA advance the cause of keeping the 'E' in EBS. I’ll continue to advocate for utilizing our EBS frequencies to better serve our students and support our academic mission.”

The National EBS Association is the professional association for institutions holding Educational Broadband Service (EBS) licenses granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). EBS is a portion of the broadcast spectrum which, since the 1960s, has been reserved by the FCC for use by educational institutions and nonprofit entities supporting education.

The University of Cincinnati was granted its first license in 1970, and currently holds three EBS licenses managed by the Electronic Media Communications Department at UC Blue Ash. It is through these licenses that the college provides UCTV, the educational video services of the University of Cincinnati. Since March 2017, UCTV has been fully available online, providing both streaming service and video-on-demand.

Sharrow has been closely involved in the operation and management of UC’s EBS licenses since 1984 and represented UC in NEBSA since 1999. As part of his work on NEBSA’s membership committee, he engaged UC Blue Ash electronic media technology students Travis Baker, Sarah Burton and Bethany Ross to create and verify a NEBSA member database.