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October 3, 2007

Goshen High School students operating TV station

By JUSTIN CRIPE

They have lights, they have cameras and they are ready for action.

The first newscast of GTV — Goshen High School Television — took place today.

GTV is a class taught by Hal Farmwald and David Kendall, though Farmwald said the station is primarily run by the students with Farmwald and Kendall merely overseeing the class.

Farmwald’s background as a business teacher combined with Kendall’s media arts background made them a good fit for the class.

“We felt like our skills meshed well,” Farmwald said.

The process for selecting students began last spring, and was done on an “invitation only” basis. This year they chose students with specific backgrounds who would fit in with the idea of the program.

Starting next year, there will be an interview process, with the seniors primarily making the underclassmen their understudies.

Farmwald explained that quality candidates for on-camera personalities are students involved with drama and have capable speech and writing skills. Those wanting to work behind the scenes should take media arts classes.

The studio — formerly known as the ENL room — is completed, with the help of the building trades class and a budget provided by the school board. The marketing class also provided surveys to gauge interest.

“We want to turn out a very high-quality product,” Farmwald said.

Farmwald explained that Superintendent Bruce Stahly had a plan for a network like this for quite some time, and Farmwald’s experience teaching a similar course at Bremen was beneficial to getting the program off the ground.

Presentations have been made at Kiwanis and school board meetings in order to get the word out and gather support for the program.

“The support we have received has been terrific,” Farmwald said.

Students get involved with the class through references and the class is for juniors and seniors only. Nick Einselen, a senior anchorman, said he was merely looking for a class to fill his schedule when Farmwald, Einselen’s business teacher, approached him about the class.

“It’s by far one of my favorite classes,” Einselen said.

Anna Wade, a senior who just moved to Goshen High School prior to the school year from Ohio, said her counselor told her about the class.

“I met with the teachers, and Farmwald said I would be an excellent candidate,” Wade said. “I got really excited about it and by the first day I was really pumped.”

Wade, who works as an anchor, director and a news reporter, explained that the class has taught her more than how to work specific equipment.

“My work ethic is so much better,” Wade said.

The network will serve two functions, providing daily announcements in a news format, and a bi-weekly news variety show which will contain two-to-three minute segments.

Some of the students recently filmed a segment on the release of the highly-anticipated video game “Halo 3.” While production is going on in the studio, students are also working on features in the computer lab and writing scripts for on-air personalities. In all, there are about 25 students in the class, who are graded in terms of their job performance.

“This is a student-run production. Everyone has their own job and will be assessed,” Farmwald said.

The class is working with state-of-the-art technology. Every show will be uploaded directly to the GTV Web site (which the students themselves created) and is filmed in high-definition. The shows will be filmed in advance and are expected to go on air in the high school at 10 a.m. daily.

“We have the capabilities of turning out a high-end product,” Farmwald said.

Respond: (574) 533-2151

justin.cripe@goshennews.com

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