The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / I Wish We'd Had This Broadcasting Set-Up When I Was In High School

**Posted by RadioActive** February 4, 2025 2:24 pm

I spotted this story on the WGRZ-TV website. It's about a high school in the Buffalo area that has a full TV studio and where the kids put on a live newscast before class every single day.

When I was in those grades, the only thing we had access to was a reel-to-reel tape machine that played some Top 40 music we pre-recorded and a few announcements about coming events at the school. I was one of the people who put those tapes together and they "aired" through the P.A. system with horrible sound quality for about half an hour, from about 8:30 AM until classes started at 9 o'clock.

I'll never forget the day someone in the office played the tape on the wrong speed and the music came out in slow motion - and no one in charge ever noticed. I recall a teacher coming up to me in the hallway that day and asking, "What the heck were you guys playing this morning? It was horrible!" I tried to explain that the music was good but on the wrong speed!

But we never had a set-up like these kids do - cameras, a switcher, big monitors, graphics and even a green screen. I would have loved to have had access to that stuff when I was that age.

Did your school ever try anything like this?

Local high school students broadcast live newscast every morning

**Posted by paterson1** February 4, 2025 4:43 pm

Our school had the basics, a couple of B&W cameras, small audio board, a couple of VTR machines etc. Nothing like the set up from the story. Our AV club at the school tended to cover highschool sports, the odd drama club production or school auditorium.

However our local cable TV company had a much more extensive set up with colour cameras and broadcast from a theatre with a stage and seating for an audience. They allowed almost anyone access to produce programming and our highschool did.

We tried to have an in house radio station, with speakers outside playing music when the kids were coming to school in the morning and when waiting for their buses in the afternoon. Principal didn't go for it. Blasting out music around the school sent out the wrong message he felt. The closest we got to radio would be the morning and afternoon announcements.

**Posted by tdotwriter** February 4, 2025 4:55 pm

My old high school (circa 2009-2014) did the same thing, but with older and more crudely implemented equipment. For some reason, I never wound up enrolling in the class. I can't explain or wrap my head around why in retrospect, because it was and is one of my strong interests. The school was only built in 2000-2001, so I strongly suspect the equipment was not used to its full potential as far as technical quality was concerned. I distinctly remember that the audio was sometimes over-modulated during the video presentations they had during the weekly school-related news and current affairs show that the class was tasked with putting together. I never took the class, so my knowledge of the equipment used is very limited, but I do remember the studio having a certain model of Sony's legendary Trinitron professional video monitors as well as their crews using professional video cameras, so whoever was in charge of building the system in the first place probably didn't cheapen out on it.

I mean no disrespect to them whatsoever. They did a good job with the resources that they had.

**Posted by Buzzy Krumhunger** February 4, 2025 5:21 pm

Grade 8 students in my school were picked to read morning announcements over the PA and maybe play a tune on the turntable that also played O Canada right afterwards. Not too many kids took them up on the Be A D.J. For The Morning but one pal of mine when he had his shot at glory committed the heinous crime of playing Ringo’s “No No Song” which was on the charts at the time.
Some teacher bellyached about the lyrics and *poof* that was the end of that tiny piece of enjoyment in the hell that was grade school.

**Posted by TheWiz** February 4, 2025 5:25 pm

My High School had a TV studio as well, similar set-up from the story above. We did video announcements once a week. Only once a week because the video version would take about 20 minutes, as opposed to the normal audio version that took maybe 3 or 4.

This was mid to late 90's. Not sure if they still have a similar set-up.

**Posted by RadioActive** February 4, 2025 5:25 pm

There used to be a low power fully licenced radio station at a high school not far from me at what was then known as Thornhill Secondary School in the City of Vaughan. It was called "Rav-FM" and broadcast on 90.7. You could get it for a few blocks near the school but it didn't have much range.

It closed down during COVID and unfortunately, went silent. I'm not sure what happened to all the equipment, including an old board donated from CHUM-FM. At one point, the late Punch Andrews had some involvement with the place.

I was sad to hear it was no longer around - it was one of the few licenced high school stations in the country, and it gave kids who would otherwise have their attention elsewhere exposure to a medium they might never have known about.