Mourning The Live Morning Show-- Technical Difficulties Birth New System

By Ethan Hoffman-- Eagle Staff Writer

After being down and out for a little over two weeks, the Morning Show is back in full swing with one major change: how it gets to teachers in the morning.

The "Signal Switcher" broke mid-way through the week in February, shutting down the morning show for a period of time. According to Plaster, the piece has been used since the early 2000s and is probably older than most students at FCHS. (Photo by Ethan Hoffman)

Since its inception, the Morning Show has been streamed through a TV signal, provided to the school by Shentel. The signal was interrupted for weeks because of a broken piece of tech, according to TV Instructor Kevin Plaster. “[The] channel’s signal goes through a piece of equipment that has been here since before Mr. Kilinski started working here, which was 17 years ago … It finally stopped working so we weren’t able to get a signal out to broadcast.”

To combat the inability to go live through the school’s channel an interesting idea arose to give the show new life. The Morning Show would be pre-taped and aired on YouTube through its “premiere” feature that lets it function as if it was a live stream. “In order to bring the Morning Show back, we decided we could record a day ahead and set it to premiere at 8:25 so everyone could watch it as if it were live," Plaster stated.

The new format for the Morning Show has received a positive reaction from most students and teachers around the school. Many cite YouTube’s advanced features as a bonus for the Morning Show. “YouTube provides closed captioning automatically, which we have not been able to offer before. I’m looking into an option for Spanish subtitles as well.” Plaster added that the show could stay this way in the future, “Except for the live element, everything from the old Morning Show is there, so I suppose it is possible to stay this way.”

It hasn’t only been outside minds thinking the new way is better; students inside the TV program have also enjoyed the new format. Senior Charles Cook, who has been in the TV program for 3 years, says he enjoys the new method of pre-taping the morning show. "I like being able to host it in the evening without the pressure of it being live." This new system makes the life of everyone working on the show easier according to Plaster. “Students are able to read over the prompter beforehand. We are able to stop if we make a mistake and start again. It helps improve the product.”

In the past, only TV Production’s 1st period was able to work on the Morning Show, but with the pre-taped system, every TV Production class has the ability to work on the show. “I’m able to involve more students … being able to involve 4th period specifically in a way that they have not been able to be involved before is cool," Plaster explained.

Despite all the positive feedback for the new system, according to Plaster, the old system could be back as soon as next week. “We now have a signal on the channel and we are able to transmit video in color to the channel. As soon as we figure out the audio, we could be back up and running.”

Whether it's through the old system and live, or the new system and pre-taped, we know we will watch and enjoy the Morning Show.