School Video News In the Trenches

In the Trenches-The Challenges of Daily Broadcasting

By Doug Green, CHSTV

There are schools around the nation facing the same challenges each morning- how do we keep the morning announcement show interesting day after day? How can we announce, for the 15^th consecutive week, that the Chess Club meets in Room 402 at lunch? You would think the Chess Club members would figure this out by Thanksgiving.

The bottom line is that the Chess Club teacher is depending upon that announcement, and our challenge is to keep the audience engaged.

My own program, CHSTV, is broadcast live each morning to a closed circuit audience of 3100 students and staff. Twice a week our show is carried live on local cable reaching an additional audience of 65,000 homes in 5 cities, and each and every day’s show is streamed live on the Internet.

Why is this relevant? We refuse to think of ourselves as a morning high school announcement show. We refuse to let the morning announcements dominate our broadcast each morning, and we fully realize that the daily announcements are not what the students and teachers are tuning in to watch.

In this article I am going to present some strategies for keeping your broadcasts fresh and interesting- both for your audience, and for your own students. So here goes…

PACKAGES

We vowed 7 years ago when beginning CHSTV that we would never, ever broadcast a program that did not have either a story, or a live guest, or better yet – both. Carlsbad High School operates on a rotating block schedule, so I actually have two different broadcasting classes- each with 28 students. EVERY student is first and foremost, a reporter. EVERY student is required to produce two packages per grading period working in teams of two. Fifty-six students producing two packages provide our broadcast with more than enough material to fill the 35 shows we produce in any given grading period. Keeping students focused on the journalism aspect of live broadcasting has really helped us raise the bar in terms of the production value of the show. Students pitch their story ideas using a special format (see www.teachingbroadcasting.com). As part of the pitch process, student reporters are held accountable that their story is of interest and relevance to the high school audience.

BRING IN THE GUESTS

So the Chess Club wants you to announce for the umpteenth time that they meet at lunch? Bring them onto the show! Set up a chess board as a prop- hold the club president responsible for making the announcement compelling. For that matter, bring everybody in! On Fridays bring in a few of the football players to generate some excitement about the game. Bring in the guidance counselors and have them talk about college visits. Bring in the juggling club- let them juggle on the air! Rubik’s Cube- find a student who is a whiz and have him/her perform during the show. Get the drama, chorus, band, art and foreign exchange students in your studio.

Let’s face it- the audience gets tired of the same old faces every day- they need “eye candy” in the form of new faces to deliver them the information. And live guests can make for compelling TV. Find interesting “characters” (i.e. staff and students) and feature them in the broadcast. It’s also good public relations to get as many people into your studio as possible to see what you do, and to see how difficult it is to do what you do. The bottom line is most people think we turn on the camera and everything else just happens. Let you guests experience the thrill of daily broadcasting!

AUDIENCE INVOLVEMENT

This is something we do more often around holidays. Hold trivia contests during the show in the week leading up to major holidays or events. We also like to involve staff members as well. Typically in the week leading up to Halloween, for instance, we will announce a trivia question at the beginning of the broadcast. Our rule is that the first 3 students to make it to the studio AFTER the broadcast ends will win a prize (generally free movie tickets). On Fridays we open the contests up to teachers who are allowed to phone in their answers AFTER the broadcast ends. Have a camera crew waiting to interview the winners- and then run that sound byte the next day. Students love it!

LIVE REMOTES

We began using a wireless audio/video system last year that was easily modified to allow a crew to report live, on location, during the broadcast. The system was purchased from Osmos for under $300 and it includes both a receiver and a transmitter. The signal is line-of-site, so students cannot be miles away, but if your studio location allows for students to be, say, on the football field and from there they can see your studio location, this might work for you. From our studio location there are a lot of line-of-site opportunities to report from areas on campus. It provides another production value element to the show, and a new challenge to your student reporter who, using an ear piece, must now deliver a live stand-up. If you are moving in this direction, please e-mail me at dougteach@aol.com and I can give you some specifics on how we use the wireless technology.

MAKE YOUR SHOW A COMMUNITY BROADCAST

Whether your program is available on local cable TV or not, you are a community resource. We often cover news, even breaking news that happens in our community. Let’s face it- sometimes school news can be repetitive. Giving your student reporters an opportunity to work in the community, sometimes alongside professional reporters, is a way to diversify the content of your daily news shows. And once the community begins to view your program as a resource, doors for additional funding opportunities may be opened.

USE STINGERS

Student programs often struggle with the challenge of transitioning between topics during a show. I have seen this happen in my own program where we move from a daily announcement to a story, and the transition is too abrupt. Stingers are short (5-7 second) taped transitions that can be created in your editing application that help the audience understand what is happening next. For instance, the stinger (often with appropriate music) might read: “And now sports with Jim Smith.” The stingers add production value to the broadcast, are easy to produce, and they help keep the program structured and “tight.”

BRING YOUR REPORTERS ON TO THE SHOW

This technique not only adds interest value to your broadcast, but it provides a wonderful learning experience for your own staff. We will often bring a reporter on to the show as a “third anchor.” They do a live standup during the show where they intro their story, learning to tease what is about to come without giving too much information to the audience. Coming out of the story 90 seconds later, the reporter is back on camera live as he/she tags out of the piece. Sometimes the reporter will have a guest on the show that relates to the story, or the reporter is simply adding a new piece of information to the story. Again- the more variety, the more action, and the more activity you can add to a daily broadcast- the less of a grind it will become for everybody!

ALMOST EVERYBODY ANCHORS

I realize that this strategy will not work for everybody- but it has helped us keep the broadcasts fresh. We encourage everybody to give anchoring a try- at least once. Sure the first semester’s broadcasts have their rough days, but you would not believe the numbers of students who thought they could never hold their own as anchors and who have gone on to become some of our best. By the second semester we have narrowed our cast of regular anchors down to 15 or 20 students. New faces and new personalities delivering the news is just another strategy to keep daily programs interesting to the audience.

TEASE THE MORNING SHOW

We open the broadcast each morning with a pre-recorded Pledge of Allegiance and that tape rolls right into a live shot of the anchors. Each morning the anchor team teases the highlights of the morning broadcast, and then we roll-in the show’s pre-recorded opening. This strategy helps to generate interest in the program and students know that at the end of the daily announcements, there will be a story or guest that will interest them. It is also helpful as your anchors wrap up their broadcast to tease a story that is upcoming.

AND FINALLY, B-ROLL, B-ROLL, B-ROLL

You can never have too much b-roll in a morning broadcast. Having students cover a volleyball game, or a lunchtime assembly is a way to liven up the program. Perhaps the event does not warrant a full story, but 30-seconds of edited highlight footage gives you the opportunity to add content to the broadcast. Anchors can talk over the b-roll and while they are talking about yesterday’s assembly- your control room is rolling the video over the anchor’s description of the event.

The trick to surviving the daily grind is often looking for ways to inject new energy into your broadcasts. Keep your programs varied, tell the stories, air the video, bring on guests, and get your reporters out of the studio for remotes. High school audiences can be a challenge- and I guess that’s why do this day after day after day- and love it!

Doug Green is the adviser/teacher for two Broadcast Journalism programs in Carlsbad, CA. His high school program, CHSTV, is the nation’s Number One Rated Daily High School News Broadcast in America. In addition to his teaching duties, Doug is the national Vice President of the Student Television Network, STN. He is a strong advocate for STN and he believes it is an excellent resource for teachers. Doug is also a consultant to PBS Television and as a National Technology Educator of the Year, he spends a lot of time consulting with school districts on issues related to technology education. You can reach him by email.

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