Montana PBS earns two Northwest Emmy Awards

BOZEMAN - Scott Sterling compares "11th and Grant with Eric Funk" to a small restaurant with a line out the door.

Its crew at Montana PBS wears many hats - Sterling himself is a director, producer, lighting and set designer, and editor - and is almost entirely made up of Montana State University alumni and students. They bring thousands of viewers into the front row of their own concert, featuring performances and interviews from Montana musicians in genres ranging from country to opera to Afrobeat. The big impact of this "small shop" on the MSU campus, Sterling said, is what makes receiving the show's 13th Northwest Emmy Award since 2003 so special.

"It amplifies that we're doing something good and something important, though we don't do it for the awards," he said. "We want to be excellent at what we do no matter what."

Montana PBS received recognition in the entertainment category of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Northwest Emmys. The award honors the premiere episode of the show's 16th season, featuring the Americana duo Big Sky City Lights. Montana PBS also earned an Emmy foroutstanding audio in the broadcast production of the MSU School of Music's 2025 Noël! concert. Recipients are chosen from a competitive pool of television stations across Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

Awardees for "11 and Grant with Eric Funk," alongside Sterling, include executive producer Aaron Pruitt, host Eric Funk, co-producer and series creator Paul "Gomez" Routhier and audio director Jeremiah Slovarp. Luke Scheeler and Sean Hartford are awardees for the Noël! concert production.

Many moving parts make up an Emmy Award-winning piece. Hundreds of hours are spent scouting for talent, building a set list and recording and editing each episode of "11th and Grant." An Emmy-worthy episode, Sterling said, has dynamic music, interesting interviews and the ability to give its producers a gut feeling that it is "the one." The Big Sky City Lights episode received about 7,700 broadcast viewers in its first week.

Bringing producers' vision to life are MSU students who excel in camerawork and audio engineering. Sterling said education is Montana PBS' core mission, whether that be on the screen or behind the scenes, and "11th and Grant" provides valuable experience that students can't glean from a classroom alone.

"They are going to be able to walk out of here and get a real job in the industry right away because of that hands-on experience," he said, adding that some return to the studio as alumni.

Luke Scheeler, an alumnus of the music technology program in MSU's School of Music, mixed the audio for this season of "11th and Grant," in addition to Montana PBS' second Emmy-winning production: the Noël! concert.

Held Dec. 23-24 in Bozeman, the holiday event featured nearly 200 choir students and Symphony Orchestra musicians from MSU in an hour-long special. This year was the first that Montana PBS produced the concert broadcast. Sean Hartford, Emmy awardee and music technology alumnus, rigged more than 40 microphones around the Holy Rosary Catholic Church and near principal musicians, the recordings of which were sent to Scheeler.

Scheeler isolated and blended instruments to replicate the church's reverberation, so viewers felt as though they were "wrapped up" in sound, he said. This was key as the choir moved behind and beside the audience during its live performance.

Scheeler said he developed his musical fluency as a college student by taking instrument lessons, in addition to learning compositional techniques from "11th and Grant" host Funk. The music technology program at MSU trains students in musicianship alongside mix engineering techniques. Now, Scheeler is studio manager of Jereco, a recording studio and event production company in Bozeman, and he is a four-time Northwest Emmy recipient.

"The award underscores the importance of public television in being able to reach living rooms with content that brings people together," Scheeler said.

A full list of awardees and nominees - Montana PBS received 12 nominations - can be found on the  Northwest Emmys website.