Behind the Scenes
As they get a taste of the high-stress world of broadcast news, students in Kansas are finding out that producing a TV show is harder than it looks.
Outside, the sky is just beginning to lighten as morning commuters slowly drive over the rain-washed streets of this Kansas City suburb. But inside a red-brick building, students from Kansas' Blue Valley school district are wide awake, their moods decidedly businesslike. Every week, they shoot, edit, produce, and anchor a live news show, "Good Morning, Blue Valley," that airs Fridays at 7 a.m. on cable TV.
On this Friday morning in April, it's two minutes before showtime. Senior Brooke Benage talks into her headset to two students manning cameras. Then she glances through a plate-glass window into the television studio, where two female anchors fiddle with their clip-on microphones.
At 6:59 a.m., the five students working at the show's control board focus intently on the television monitors in front of them, their hands on a myriad of dials, switches, and levers. Benage, this week's...
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