WCHR

Emma M. '22

WCHR is a large part of the community at OLSH, as it gives the school important announcements and upcoming news. It appears to be a very simple program, but an interview with some of the WCHR team members gives us more insight into how complicated creating this program is. 

The first question that was asked was “How do you run your respective job/jobs?”. Bernie Komoroski, a senior and this year’s tech director, says that “Honestly, it’s quite chaotic running all the jobs as Tech Director! I try my best to make sure that I’m up-to-date on all the tech and that I know what to do if something goes wrong. Scheduling is another tough part because I want to make sure that everyone gets a fair amount of time doing something and gets trained for a different tech spot.”

“How many hours do you typically work on aspects from your assigned job per week?” was asked next. Senior Katie Luxbacher tells us that it’s dependent on the job assigned. “It depends on the job. I, as an anchor, am only in the studio a couple times a week, but the people in charge of tech, talent, and broadcast are on the floor daily.”

Then people were asked “Do you find your work easy? Difficult? Is any of it fun?” Zoe Blankenship, a senior and the Talent Manager, tells us that she does “find [her] work to be relatively easy, unless there is a mishap in the studio or scheduling conflicts. It does get a bit frustrating at times, but in the end I do have a lot of fun.”

“How do you all work as a team to pull the show together?” Bernie tells us that it’s all about talking to each other. “As a team, the best way (and the corniest) is through communication. If someone’s not going to be there, we usually have a 92% success rate of people letting us know they’ll be out and the headsets make it easy to know what’s going on from both sides of the glass. It also takes practice, as we like to run through the script once to make sure there are no hiccups.”

“How do you keep the show interesting?” was asked. Zoe tells us it’s a lot about appealing to the audience’s excitement. “We try to be eye-catching, such as with rubber ducks and computer generated visual techniques. We also try to remain cultured in the studio, which is done by parodying TV shows in our intros. Most importantly, we try to get the anchors to have enthusiasm in their voices so that they are engaging the viewers.

In addition to these general questions, each person was asked a question that pertained to their specific jobs.

They were all asked “How long have you been doing your specific job? Have you ever had a different one?” 

Bernie tells us “I’ve become Tech Director this year, so it’s only been recent but I’ve done different jobs before. Freshman year I was on Soundboard every Thursday, Sophomore year I was on Soundboard and an emergency only anchor, and last year I was on all forms of tech, full-time anchor, Video Production team, and on the Pre-Show team, so I’ve definitely had some experience.”

Zoe answered with “I have been an anchor since freshman year, but this is my first year as talent director. I used to be assistant pre show manager, but that has since been passed down to a younger student.”

Katie says “I just started working as an anchor this year. I’ve been doing it for about a month and a half now, I personally haven’t had any other jobs but I’m not opposed to trying new things.”

Brian informs us “I’ve been tracking service hours for 3 years and This is my first year as Executive Producer, a senior only position. The jobs I’ve held have been Service Hour Manager and Executive Producer.”

Bernie was asked “How do you balance all of the different jobs that qualify as tech?” He answered with, “To balance everything for Tech, you really have to put the dedication into what you do. I also have found it useful to watch what people do, as it can serve as a refresher if it’s been a while since I’ve done something. Sometimes it helps others when they’re given a demonstration, other times people just need to sit back and watch to learn. I like to try to give everyone as much experience as possible in all the areas of tech because it will really help WCHR next year to have a team that’s fully trained.”

“What made you want to be in front of the camera instead of behind the scenes?” Was asked to Katie. She says, “I personally wanted to be on camera because I also do theatre, I like reading from a script and performing. The anchor experience is very similar since it’s a mix of reading off a script while still having to keep my energy up.”

Zoe was asked “What do you look for in anchors?”She responded with, “I look for people who are willing to express the news given with enthusiasm and add their own “spice” to their broadcast. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but as long as they’re getting the job done and are willing to put in the effort, they’re in.”

“How do you manage, as executive producer, making sure everyone is doing their jobs correctly?” Brian tells us that,  “It takes a different kind of attitude. Sure we’re all friends but at the end of the day we all have a job to do. I guess sometimes it’s hard to switch to a more “boss” attitude when addressing things like, people not doing their jobs, scheduling mistakes, and doing strikes (our absence penalty system. In terms of new people, our training is done almost daily and we got new people we are trying to get in, so, sure, sometimes it’s stressful but at the end of the day, I love getting new people.”

Be sure to watch WCHR live from Studio M every morning during homeroom!