Showcasing The Students Behind the Scenes of the Morning Announcements

Ryan Nicol ’25

Your homeroom teacher announces to close your iPad and quiet down. The entire class goes silent as everyone pays attention to the TV screen at the front of the room. This is 8:05 a.m. each morning at Chaminade High School—the beginning of the day for students. Unbeknownst to many, some students’ days had begun 20 minutes earlier.

Educational Television Service, or ETV, is the club responsible for broadcasting the morning announcements. Every day, a small group of students arrive at school early and get to the studio. There, they begin to work behind the scenes while a Communications Club member prepares to read the day’s news. At 7:45 a.m. the stream for the announcements goes live. As students begin to gather in their homerooms, a different genre of music plays depending on the day of the week; 80s music, for example, usually gets students ready for the homestretch on Fridays. Students who get to homeroom early will recognize weekly songs like “Africa” by Toto and “Working for the Weekend” by Loverboy. ETV also plays different music for special occasions—Christmas music during the holiday season, or religious music on schoolwide Mass days.

ETV is working every minute leading up to the announcements. The overlay of the date, schedule, and more needs to be properly set up. At the same time, the animated introduction, music video, daily prayer, flag for the Pledge of Allegiance, and any special video announcements are being queued up. The Communications Club member who will be reading the announcements puts on the microphone while members of ETV check to make sure it is working properly.

When the announcements start at 8:05 a.m., ETV is working every step of the way to transition audio and video between the various segments and, on occasion, improvising to fix live mistakes. Once the announcements have been read, the Communications Club member signs off with “Thank you, and good morning,” as ETV caps off its 37-minute job with the Chaminade seal and one final song to prepare students for class. Club members enjoy the opportunity to meet with the same group of people every day. “It’s been a large part of my Chaminade career,” says Michael O’Connor ’23. “It’s given me a place of belonging. It gives me an opportunity to improve my technical knowledge as well as teach others.”

The willingness of the upperclassmen to teach younger students helps the club remain successful throughout the school year and even when seniors graduate. ETV does not just broadcast the announcements, but it also works on events as well. In the words of club moderator Mr. Peter Carriero ’96, “We broadcast announcements every morning for the entire school. We record special events, such as the plays, concerts, and various other events.”

Most recently, the club either recorded or streamed each night of the Chaminade spring concert. To record this event, members volunteered to stay late hours until it was over. Some students stayed in the ETV Studio: directing the other students, receiving the recording, and streaming it live. While they were doing this, there were multiple people with cameras down at the event itself.

ETV plays an integral role in both the daily life of Chaminade students and the big events that take place at the school. At the next Chaminade event you attend, remember to take a peek at what is behind you, and you just might see ETV.