In his second year as adviser to the weekly SHSTV broadcast, adviser Joel Tarbox has seen an increase in staff members and more stability in terms of producing the show.
Starting in the fall of 2015, changes in the structure of the Falcon journalism classes have helped increase the number of students in SHSTV. That year, a half dozen first-year Falcon staff members started doing six-week “rotations” in broadcast to supplement the work of the permanent 10-person staff.
This year, however, there are 17 permanent staff members and five or six rotating members from the fourth-period newspaper staff are helping out.
Tarbox said that this new feature of the SHSTV-Falcon collaboration has been especially helpful to the overall production.
“In my two years, the enrollment number and enthusiasm have jumped thanks to Mr. Tyler’s help and support for SHSTV,” Tarbox said. “The best part about having a bigger crew is that we can spread the work out more.”
Before the rotation system was implemented, SHSTV had the same anchors almost every week. Since the broadcasts lacked in recurring broadcast segments and guest anchors, the show had trouble breaking out of its regular routine.
However, with the bigger class size, SHSTV has been able to incorporate new ideas for each week’s broadcast, including teacher and guest anchors and a weather segment with senior Mary Maccoun, which makes use of the Media Lab’s green screen.
“We wanted to implement the greenscreen into the broadcast and it was just luck that my name is Mary,” Maccoun said. “If my name was Sarah, we would not have covered weather.”
Even though each weather segment is only around 30 seconds, Maccoun thinks it has improved the broadcast by catching the viewers’ attention.
These changes have led to a positive viewer response and generated more interest among the students.
“Over the years, it’s gotten more entertaining,” junior Nicholas Di said. “I especially liked the broadcast where Mr. Rector guest anchored. SHSTV’s style is getting more distinguished and established.”
The show’s executive producer, senior William Chen, explained that this is all a part of an attempt to revamp the weekly broadcasts.
Throughout this year, Chen, who is now in his third year on staff and is the longest standing member of the SHSTV crew, has been working to bring SHSTV out of obscurity and establish a stronger reputation on campus.
“We are just trying to change things up,” Chen said. “Hopefully [we will] gain the school's approval.”