SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – “I interned at KELO-TV back in 1991 and I was hired part-time. Then, I was hired full time, and I basically did everything at this station except be on television,” Mark Toutge said.
Everything from master control to shooting video was a part of Mark Toutge’s time with KELOLAND Media Group. As much as he enjoyed his time here, he also loved teaching which eventually led him to Farmington, Minnesota.
“When I started at Farmington High School in 1999, I proposed to my principal, I said, “I’m coming from a live television background, and I’d like to start a TV show that the whole entire school watches,” Toutge said.
In addition to teaching broadcast classes, he later started Tiger News, a student-run newscast, that same year at the high school.
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“They do interviews with coaches, with teachers, they’ll do student profiles. They’ll do a story about an athlete of the week,” Toutge said.
It’s inspired many of those students to seek out a journalism career, including KELOLAND’s own Julia Lin .
“He was the first one who introduced KELO because it’s a South Dakota station I wasn’t familiar with, since I went to high school in Minnesota,” Lin said. “When I took the broadcast class that kind of fit. I love the on-camera aspect of it, I love the video production aspect.”