Lauren O’Malley, Editor-in-Chief
@lomalleycourant
“It’s that time again! Tune in for NCTV’s live broadcast.” Every time this message is announced over the speakers, students know that NCTV 78 is going on air to do their live Friday broadcast. From the ‘Ram Sports Report’ to a weekend weather update, NCTV helps inform students and faculty about events going on throughout the school. In addition to their Friday broadcasts, NCTV also live streams home sports games, complete with announcers, sideline reporters, and a producer. What many may not realize is the amount of time and effort that goes into planning, creating, and executing the broadcasts every time.
“NCTV is school’s student-run television program where we put on a bi-monthly news show and also stream a lot of our home games live,” senior and Station Manager of NCTV, Emily Fox, said.
The class is split up into three different sections for each segment of the broadcast. “It provides the school with information about upcoming events, sports, entertainment, and weather,” junior and TMA department leader Sydney Sibilia said. “The three groups are TMA which is the news section, sports, and entertainment which is at the end of each broadcast.”
Each year as one continues through the class, students go from learning the basics to organizing the production of the broadcast. “TV 1 is different from TV 2 and TV 3 because TV 1 is about learning the basics, whereas TV 2 and TV 3 is where you put content together for the broadcast. When I first got to class, the information that we learned was pretty interesting,” Sydney said.
One theme that can be seen throughout the production of these Friday broadcasts is planning. “Firstly, we get together and go over the stories that we are going to run for the week and reach out to sources to gather information for the stories,” Sydney said. “Then we start writing our stories and go over script edits with NCTV Advisor Mr. Cebulski. Afterwards, we start to create the graphics that go up throughout the broadcast, which is a lot of work.”
The day of the broadcast is a scene of controlled chaos as the crew prepares to go live. “We have our main anchors and co-anchors in the studio and the producer, assistant producer, teleprompter, Mr. Cebulski and other positions in the control room,” Sydney said. “The producer and the assistant producer tell the technical director to switch the graphics and ensure they know what to do. The script goes through a teleprompter so the anchors can read, and then we go live.”
While the broadcasts are a major source of information about events at the school, NCTV also gives students the opportunity to add their own creative twists to segments at the end of the program. “My favorite memory was last year when I was in the entertainment group and we did a pumpkin pie baking contest,” Sydney said. “Mr. Rothman and Mr. Zambarano were the judges of our pumpkin pies which was super funny.”
Many of the students in TV class also participate in the after school broadcasting club which live streams sports. “My heart and soul is broadcasting live events, so I’m usually the one planning those, putting them together, and making sure they go out and look good,” Emily said.
Emily took TV 1 as a freshman and found a passion for broadcasting by participating in live events. “I found out you can film football games for fifty bucks and I get free admission to football games for holding a camera,” Emily said. “The station manager at the time taught me how to use the ‘big equipment.’ Now, I’m going to college for TV and managing NCTV.”
For the producer of the event, even more coordination is involved since it’s such a large production. “With football, I put together a google document with who’s going to be there and assign positions based on that a week or two in advance,” Emily said. “Then, I focus on making graphics which usually consists of anything the announcers want on the screen. We put on huge productions; football has six cameras, announcers, and sideline reporters, which requires tons of planning and preparation.”
The night of the game requires over eight hours of work for the crew from set up to break down. “On game days, the crew gathers right after school, we go over the plan, and go outside to set up the equipment. Setting up that equipment takes a couple of hours because it’s a lot of stuff that we have to cart outside,” Emily said. “We go live fifteen minutes before the game starts, have the announcers talk for a little bit, and I communicate with people over headset for the rest of the game.”
NCTV also collaborates with DAF, the Darien High School broadcasting club, on multiple sporting events throughout the year. “We work with DAF about once a month because with so many sports, we need them all of the time,” junior and Producer of Entertainment, Anav Sahay, said. “Last year and this year’s Turkey Bowl were such fun productions, and working with DAF was awesome.”
The broadcasting class and club exposes students to a profession that many want to pursue as a career. “NCTV has been a massive jumping point for me; I’ve made a lot of connections and learned how to do things that people who have graduated from college don’t know how to do,” Emily said. “I am seventeen and have directed on ESPN. I wouldn’t have gotten here if it wasn’t for this program.”
Emily was given career opportunities to work freelance jobs and internship positions in the broadcasting sphere. “I am a broadcast operations intern at Fairfield University which means that I go there a couple times a week and work in the control room. I’ve directed soccer games there that have been on ESPN, which was a core TV memory for me,” Emily said.
At the core of this group is unity and teamwork, which help keep the NCTV’s broadcasts running smoothly. “My number one goal this year is to try and make everyone friends,” Emily said. “It’s a communications within itself, and I want people to be happy in this environment.”
