Every morning, the Shadow Ridge announcement team(s) films during the first period of the day, with their broadcasts then emailed to teachers to air during the second period of the day. The team, full of enthusiastic co-hosts and dedicated members, is always ready to share the latest news on the Mustang grounds.
The announcement team at the Ridge offers a variety of roles both on-screen and behind the scenes, allowing students to explore different aspects of broadcasting.
Bill Roe, the video productions teacher at Shadow, says, “Not all of the students want to anchor, for those that have an interest in anchoring, we have an audition process in class along with some previous experience doing some anchoring in Video II. The rest of the positions behind the scenes are chosen by me and they rotate throughout the year.”
Both news teams, Shadow Ridge Television (SRTV) (Day A) and The Ridge Report (TRR) (Day B) work hard to create scripts for all four co-anchors that include funny jokes and more to make the episode more entertaining.
Junior Ashton Dyson states, “Being part of the announcement team comes with many memorable moments, but one of my particular favorites is how the news team always comes up with different jokes and bits to incorporate into the episode. Since SRTV and TRR are two different teams for the different days, we each have our recurring bits and that is so amusing to me!”
Early school days can always have a bunch of kids and even teachers who are barely awake, so with all of the funny jokes it can put a smile on their faces, making them ready for the day.
“Coming up with fun and creative bits that people will enjoy watching is always something I enjoy,” senior Maya Garay stated. “I know especially in the morning kids are barely awake, so I’d like to put a smile on their faces.”
Another thing that often comes with being part of the announcements is learning how to deal with things that might go wrong and learning how to adapt quickly to fix what went wrong on the spot.
Garay said, “When a mistake arises on set, I prefer laughing it off or improvising to make the situation better. This has taught me to think on my feet and adapt to many situations.”
Being a news anchor often means being able to fit any role, adapt to situations, and do the best they possibly can when something such as a mistake happens.
“You have to be inquisitive. Many students hear something that they aren’t familiar with and if it’s something they are not interested in, they will forget it immediately,” Roe stated. “The best broadcasters and journalists are always interested in everything no matter the subject. You have to love to learn and love to dig into a topic or story so you can find out everything you need to know about that topic so you can inform the public.”
