Prior to school starting on Aug. 15, the Timber Creek media team has been working non-stop to inform the new and returning students during the chaos that is back to school season. Groups such as the Talon, with 15-30 stories published a week, TCTV, with a new news segment every day, and TCFM, with 700-800 songs played a week, keep the students engaged and entertained.
Talon has almost crossed the 1800 story threshold with 1790 published as of Aug. 30. This past August was most stories published in the first three weeks of any of the three years Talon has been active.
“We are really aggressive about going out and getting stories,” Student Media Advisor Greg Janda said. “There are still a lot of stories to tell, not just like things that are happening on campus, but all the students and teachers who are working here and learning here, and the great things they are able to do.”
TCFM has over 1400 tracks, including everything from the early 50s to last year’s hits. Two minute drill, featuring Paul Talamantes, is one of the program among many in the works that TCFM has produced.
“It includes student voices, student radio programs, and a whole bunch of things that kids want to hear,” Janda said.
TCTV has produced a new news segment of Timber Creek Today every day in order to educate students about events and meetings happening on campus. Segments on TCTV have about a two day life span until they replace it.
“We average about 4 or so [skits] a week, and that content is so much more frequent then it was last year or even a couple of years ago,” Janda said. “Some of the really detailed ones could take a week, some of the ones in a day, and that’s really based on the talent and skills of the people who are producing those things.”
Many of the student media programs are mostly run and managed by students. Through this process, students are able to learn hands on skills in editing, writing, management, and more. In TCTV, students work together on every video piece before Janda uploads the file. Talon reporters pitch the first tips that come in. After that, they write, edit, and publish most of the stories. In TCFM, students decide the type of music, schedule when the music is played, produce radio shows, and promote the station as a whole.
“My job, is really facilitating some of the systems, and then [students] have the rest of it,” Janda stated. “Its invisible to everyone reading, watching or listening, but in the room it gives the students a lot of responsibility, they feel like they are in control, of a lot of decision making.”