Have you ever wondered what really goes on in the East High TV studio during the morning announcements, or how much preparation the crew has before broadcasting every morning? While Mrs. Brantz and her team do a good job of making it look easy, it’s a very detailed process that takes time to get relatively close to perfection.

TBTV broadcasts live four mornings of the week. It takes time, organization, and careful hands, Mrs. Brantz and her advanced film crew have the system to a successful program.

“There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that the audience doesn’t see,” says Mrs. Brantz, broadcasting instructor at East. “We have to generate a script every day because the script tells us first of all what announcements are going on and what projects were going to run.”

Trying to put together the announcements every morning and doing it live has a lot of time constraints, it’s a lot to try and throw together in just an hour and a half period every morning and something is bound to go wrong due to the careful process.

“We have about twenty minutes before each broadcast to prepare,” says senior Kendell Vuyk. “It (the broadcast) only takes about six (students) but if you want to do it well you need about ten to twelve to make it look nice.”

Each student must be trained on each piece of equipment to make the jobs interchangeable and for the show to run smoothly. The beginning film classes usually start out with the most students and the numbers thin out as the years go by.

“We have to go through the beginning, intermediate, and advanced class.” says senior Clarissa Lyle “We have a lot of students in the program, you just really have to prove you’re ready to be in the advanced class.”

The students interested in being on the advanced film crew in their junior or senior year must start off in the beginning and intermediate courses during their freshman and sophomore years of high school. This allows the students plenty of time to know exactly what it takes to be on TBTV.

The class always has a bit of a rough start to the year. Re-familiarizing students with the equipment and bringing new students in to the advanced classes brings their own challenges and technical difficulties.

“We are a live program and so there is no chance to fix a mistake if one happens because its live in front of all of your peers,” says Brantz. “Things always malfunction right as we go live. We’ve run into some problems with our soundboard. It’s not been working properly right now. We also run into problems like when the audio of someone’s video package is just completely dead all of the sudden.”

Putting on the morning announcements live every morning takes a very extensive amount of time and dedication. To have the opportunity to be in the advanced film crew for your final days of high school doesn’t come easy. It also isn’t just handed out to just anyone. Mrs. Brantz and her crew of students take time out each morning to present a live show to the student body almost every day. They might run into mistakes here and there, but the broadcasting crew has developed a well-oiled system over the years.