Mitchell Canter, a Mercer Communication Professor who teaches Radio and Audio Production, has worked in the media industry for over 25 years, holding many job titles during this time. He has directed video shoots, written scripts and produced television commercials.
“One of the TV commercials that I created for my employer, Suburban Cablevision, was a finalist for a Cable ACE Award. I didn’t win, but the commercial did make it to the finalist round of judging” Canter says.
During his early career, Canter worked as a mobile DJ. In 2004 he established his own company called “Music Masters.”
“When you’re doing the mobile DJing, you have an audience that you can react off of, who you can kind of have fun with… I started off just being the engineer, so I did all of the DJing, the mixing, and someone else was the frontman. Slowly I worked up the courage to where I could be out there with everybody,” Canter says.
Canter actually served as the DJ at the wedding of another Mercer Communication Professor, Kathi Paluscio.
She says, “He was absolutely more than the normal perception of a DJ. He can make an audience feel comfortable, included, and can take over to smooth out any snags that occur in the moment,”
Canter says he enjoyed customizing pieces for wedding receptions. He would alter the introductions to fit each member of a wedding party.
Brian Passafaro, a Project Manager at DScape Interactive LLC is one of Canter’s former DJ/mixers as well as technical assistants.
Passafaro says, “From 2013- 2015, I worked for Mitch Canter as his Assistant DJ and Lighting Specialist. Working for Mitch was challenging but very rewarding as a learning experience but also on a sentimental level.”
Passafaro says the mentorship he received from Professor Canter has stuck with him.
“Core aspects of what I’ve learned, like customer service, professionalism and time management, directly applies to what I do now and I’ll take that experience with me for the rest of my career,” Passafaro says.
In addition to teaching, Canter does workforce training at Rutgers University’s Office of Continuing Education. Now, as a full-time professor, he teaches courses here at Mercer including radio, audio production, and public speaking.
When asked if he would ever consider transitioning his profession back into any of the ones he had prior to teaching, Professor Canter said that he would not.
“No, I really love teaching. I really love, you know, working with the students. That’s the high point of it, that’s the gratification. Things can happen around the institution as they happen, some good, some bad, but just being able to work with the students, that’s the joy for me. That’s one of the reasons why I retired from the mobile DJ business in 2016,” Canter says.
He does, however, keep connected to his former work.
“I started to feel a little disconnected…I wanted to feel more of a connection to the business so I could continue to relay real-world experience to my students. That’s why I now do weekends and fill-in work at [the radio station] 107.1 ‘The Boss’ out on the Jersey Shore.”
