Every Eastern student is familiar with Hall and Oates’ “Private Eyes”. That’s because it was played almost every day in homeroom, before the daily ETV announcements and entertainment. Student-created content like short films, spirit week videos, and material created in TV media classes were often shown and enjoyed school-wide on the campus channel.

  But with the new bell schedule implemented this year, ETV had to undergo some drastic changes. As homeroom was cut, so too was ETV’s airtime, or so it seemed. The news program that once had captivated audiences quickly became a sideshow–something to be glanced at when passing in the hallways, but nothing too crucial to stop in your tracks on the way to lunch.

  The changes made to ETV and how it was broadcasted clearly did not work out as well as previously planned. Mr. Smart, TV Media supervisor, is in agreement with that. While he originally hoped that the cafeteria monitors would be a sufficient home for ETV,  it became apparent that there were certain factors restricting ETV from getting the appreciation it deserved.

  “There’s difficulty with volume and if the TV’s are not synced, plus the rumbling of people eating…I was really hoping with the TV monitors that we would be able to show ETV news there,” he said.

  Not to mention, some teachers disliked the disruption of the TV monitors that had been placed in the hallways and called it a disturbance to their lessons. According to Alex Mackle, ETV news anchor and correspondent, it is board policy that stipulates teachers must turn the volumes of the monitors on, but some teachers refuse.

   So what is the fate of ETV in the next school year?

   A proposal for a new schedule created by Smart is now pending approval from Mr. Tull, the school principal. Smart thinks that it is likely that the schedule will pass in time for next year. While the block schedule stays, the new schedule would contain a buffer period which Smart calls an “extension of period 2” in which 7 minutes would be allotted for the Pledge of Allegiance and ETV news. When taking into consideration the seniors with study halls, plus tardiness, it seemed fitting to insert this time slot into second period and not first. Once the seven minutes are up, students would proceed on to their third period class.

  In addition, all classes would contain 52 minutes of teaching time. This is a change from this year’s varying class times, which are anywhere from 51-54 minutes. Smart cited complaints teachers had voiced with the differing class times, as many teachers had said that it was difficult to plan lessons around morning and afternoon announcements.

  Fear not students– school will still start and end at the same time as this year’s first and last bell (7:30 and 2:15 respectively) and lunch will still be one hour long.

  In theory, “the 9:20 AM bell will indicate the time for the ETV news period. Teachers will then turn on Campus TV for the two minute pledge. ETV news will have a five minute segment. Then the 9:27 bell rings to dismiss to period 3,” said Smart.

  Mackle approves of this new proposal saying, “I think it’s nice. We won’t have homeroom but people will be able to watch the announcements.”

  Ryan Baker, also an anchor, is excited for the changes and commended Mr. Smart’s collaboration with ETV as well.             “I think it’s fantastic. Anyone I’ve talked to has been on board with it,” he said, “…Mr. Smart’s been really great with the news. He’s the new supervisor. He’s been very accommodating and anything Mr. Holmes has asked for he gave,” he said.

  Baker was disappointed, like others, with the reception ETV had been receiving, or lack thereof, and said that “people were joking about it at this point.”

  “It takes hours and hours for independent studies and the seniors to edit,” he said. And yet, people were still not watching.

  Mackle, too, recognized the problems ETV was having in regards to viewership. A new political segment on the program went virtually unnoticed this year. Hopefully, that will change with some new upgrades.

  The District will, additionally, fund some props for the studio. Some new updates have already been installed, but they haven’t really been noticed by audiences, according to Mr. Holmes, TV/Media teacher and advisor for ETV. Updates to fiberglass graphics and new furniture are all in the works. This, combined with the new schedule, makes Mr. Holmes feel optimistic about ETV’s future.

  “I feel great about it. We’ve done a lot of advancements,” he said.

  While this year’s ETV is mostly volunteer based, next year’s advanced film students will work on the news everyday and are going to help transition everything to get it running smoothly.

  For the most part, the current anchors and segments will stay consistent. But some content changes are in the foreseeable future as well.

  “There’s Alex {Mackle}, and Jacob {Goldstein} who does political stuff…we need a sports guy and more long location stuff for sports coverage. Hopefully there’ll be more coverage of events,” Holmes said.

  ETV will still continue to utilize twitter to circulate information, but the school will just have to wait and see how well the new system works for next year.

  “We think it is an effective way to minimize disruption but also disseminate info. And if it doesn’t work, we’ll think of something more,” said Smart.