At GCTV, studio as classroom

It’s not every day that a high school student has an opportunity to interview an ABC news reporter. Dora Hill, 18, a junior at Glen Cove High School, has taken television production electives for two years. But Hill said she never imagined that she would get to practice all that she had learned quite this way. Sitting across from ABC’s Kristen Thorne, she was nervous, she recounted later, as she waited for the cameras to roll.

Hill’s live on-camera interview was the culmination of a Board of Elections educational workshop on April 30, which included a tour of Glen Cove High’s television studio. When the GCTV student crew shot the segment, those who attended the workshop, which included residents, trustees and students, were invited to watch.

Originally from Sea Cliff, Hill came to Glen Cove as a freshman. She said that her involvement in GCTV, reporting often on community events, has helped her become comfortable in her new home.

She said she did quite a bit of research on Thorne before the interview. “It was my first celebrity interview,” she said afterward, still a bit giddy. Sitting outside the studio, she searched for the right words to express how it had felt. “I tried to remember why I love doing this,” she said. “I think the most challenging part was finding the best way to keep naturally transitioning, while still validating what Kristen had to say.”

There’s a sign on a door of the GCTV studio, leading to a hallway of the high school, that says “School.” Christopher Barry, the media communications teacher who runs the studio, says the sign embodies what GCTV is all about.

“School is out there, and this is GCTV — a different place,” said Barry, who lives in Glen Cove. “When I first got the job here in 1998, it was assumed I’d wear a shirt and tie, like other teachers, but I don’t, because no one wears a shirt and tie in the television business.”

The goal of GCTV has always been to allow students to experience what it’s like to work in a studio — even back in 1978, when Thom Ruckert, a GCHS English teacher, created the program. Dan Cox, who was an adjunct technology professor of Barry’s at LIU Post, developed it further when he worked at GCTV from April 1987 to November 1996.

The studio has come a long way since its modest beginnings, when there were tape decks and one video camera that filmed in black and white. The station broadcasts district events to the community. With the push of a button, a high school play can be live-streamed, and some sports teams’ games can, too. The school district’s website indicates when GCTV is streaming live.

Ruckert, now retired, and Cox, who went on to work for NBC and is now the director of broadcasting at WCWP Radio at Post, were at last month’s workshop, as were others who had been at GCTV in its early days. “This is the first time in 40 years that we have everyone who has run the television studio here,” Barry said, beaming.

Barry, 49, was in the television business for seven years before coming to GCHS. He was a production coordinator for MTV, VH1 and AMC, before working for Jim Henson with the Muppets, where he managed the studio for six months. When Henson died, Barry re-evaluated his career.

“I liked TV work, but wanted to be doing something more than making entertainment,” he said. He called Cox, and told him he wanted to work with students in producing television.

When Barry led the tour on April 30, sharing all that the television station has to offer, he was as excited as some of his students. “The stuff my kids are doing is top-notch,” he said. Voice-over artists from Manhattan have come to work with students. And the studio is continuing to grow, Barry said. He is currently in the process of creating a newsroom.

The TV production classes include hands-on experience in front of and behind a camera, as well as studio time. “They learn to edit, how to do remote production, and we have more advanced classes for the kids that are thinking of pursuing the business,” Barry said. Next year he plans to offer digital movie-making, which will include tips on generating story ideas and make short films.

Students with a variety of interests participate in the production classes. Some have a passion for theater, music, even athletics. Many who take the production classes are looking for a place to belong. “This helps some kids who don’t feel connected, giving them a connection they might not otherwise feel,” said district Superintendent Dr. Maria Rianna. “This allows for them to grow.”

Some of the students taking the classes find solace, Barry said. “There are tons of students with problems at home,” he said. “They come here and find a home, a family. I’ve walked two girls down the aisle years after they left Glen Cove High School. To have that kind of connection with a kid — if they go into television or not — that’s something.”