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Spotlight [10] is a podcast feature series that highlights sound storytelling through fiction, non-fiction and comedy productions. Learn more about the world around you, or dive into a new reality built on sound storytelling.
Welcome to Spotlight 10. We share our favorite stories with you, spreading the full range of fiction, non fiction, and comedy. Learn more about the world around you or dive into a new reality built on sound storytelling. Each of these feature episodes has been crafted by a different host with a different style. Let's jump into this week's episode.
Speaker 2:Cortez to pull it down. Cortez at the very top. Full court pass Jackson with the layup, baby. What a way for Jackson to add on to his lead.
Speaker 3:It's a regular Friday night in Michigan. The gym is packed, the student section is loud, and everyone's watching the court. Just in front of the bleachers, behind a small table with glowing screens and tangled cables, another scene is locked in. These aren't professional broadcasters. They're just high school students.
Speaker 3:But for them, this isn't just another game. It's practice for what could come next. This story follows the path from a Michigan high school broadcasting program into college sports media and professional sports. Starting in a high school where students run their own broadcast in a class called DTV to Michigan State University's StudentU program with the Big Ten Network. This feature shows how early chances behind the mic and behind the camera can open doors to the big arenas and even bigger careers.
Speaker 3:On game days, this classroom doesn't feel like a classroom. Monitors light up, students double check graphics, someone tapes down cables, and another reads through the script one more time before going live. For a lot of students, it's their first real taste of sports media. At the center of it all is Randy Scott, one of the teachers who runs the program. The idea is simple.
Speaker 3:Let students run a real broadcast and learn by doing.
Speaker 4:They're looking at scripts. They're looking at at scoreboards. They're looking at graphics and full screens and what kind of stats do we need to update. They're looking at everything right now. And then I'm behind the scenes trying to figure out, okay.
Speaker 4:What are we gonna do with our setup this time? We're gonna do something different. We're gonna try something. Is everything working right? Covering a
Speaker 3:game means way more than just talking over the action. Students plan their shows. They decide what stories to tell. They reach out to coaches, build graphics, and figure out how to make the game feel big even if it's in a small gym.
Speaker 4:Game day is really the day before, the week before now. I mean, we're starting to look out and plan these things a lot further. We're coming in from when they walk in the the class at at lunchtime really at 10:20. We're starting to get ready, revved up for that game at 07:00.
Speaker 3:Early in the year, the nerves are obvious. Voices shake, cameras drift, graphics show up late. Amy Lesko, the other DTV teacher explains what it's like sometimes for new students.
Speaker 5:Then there are other kids who come in and maybe never, you know, even really seen a camera like that before or they've never edited or, you know, they've never been in front of a camera and they're you can tell they're nervous.
Speaker 3:But after a few months of games, something changes. Students start to sound smoother. They anticipate the plays. They know when to cut to a replay, and they trust each other in the control room.
Speaker 5:After they get one game under their belt, then you can kinda see a little bit kind of come off their shoulders. They're breathing a little easier the next game. And then typically, you know, mid season, a lot of these kids are feeling way more confident and they wanna try new things or they're helping their peers.
Speaker 3:And live broadcasts don't always go perfectly, and that's part of the lesson. A camera might freeze, the cable might disconnect, the stream might drop for a moment.
Speaker 4:We just did a live broadcast right here, and the prompter's going wonky. Right? So kids gotta fix it now, you know. So, you know, they're going to plan b, they're grabbing their tablets, they're trying to remember their scripts, they're trying to do this through that, and you just see the way the kids start to move to make it happen. Right?
Speaker 4:Like, they do that all the time, whether it's fixing a camera going bad or a prompter going bad or a mic going bad or or whatever it might be. We gotta adjust on the fly when you're doing live broadcasting, and these kids are so good at that.
Speaker 3:And for the students, these broadcasts are more than just a grade. Their chances to try, mess up, adjust, and improve while people are actually watching live.
Speaker 2:I remember being very nervous. I was just very stressed about like, man, I don't know if I'm gonna get judged or I don't wanna look stupid and all this stuff and, you know, but that's I'm a beginner. It's bound to happen.
Speaker 3:By the end of the season, the biggest change isn't just in the quality of the broadcast. It's in the confidence students carry out of the booth. They learn to speak clearly, stay calm under pressure, help a team, and own their mistakes. Those skills go with them a long way after the final buzzer. For some of these students, graduation doesn't end their time in broadcasting.
Speaker 3:It just moves them to a bigger stage. At Michigan State University, a program called Student U gives college students a chance to produce and broadcast live games for the Big Ten Network. It's the same kind of work that they did in high school, but now the games reach a much larger audience.
Speaker 2:Student
Speaker 3:crews run cameras, they direct, they roll replays, they call volleyball matches, soccer games, and other events that stream to fans across the country. One of those students is Ethan Hodge, a member of the Student U production team.
Speaker 6:So I started out in front of the camera doing announcing for basketball and volleyball, and that was a great experience. Then I kinda transitioned to wireless cam, just kinda going around with the fans, getting all the things that the wired cams can't get, and then instant replay became a favorite of mine. The amount of work that goes into replay is so fun, and I feel like it's so meaningful to the program.
Speaker 3:Like a lot of student u members, this student arrived on campus with some high school experience already under their belt. Knowing how a headset works, understanding basic camera shots, and having felt pressure of a live broadcast made it much easier to settle in.
Speaker 6:High school helped me out so much just from wrapping chords and just the terminology of things. That helps you so much as you transition into like a real program like Spartan Vision and Big Ten Student U.
Speaker 3:The pace at MSU is faster. The stakes are higher. More people are watching, and the shows represent the university and the Big Ten Network. But the core skills, such as communicating clearly, staying calm, and trusting the crew, carry over from that high school booth to the college control room. And as Tyler Upgraf says it
Speaker 7:That's why DTV, it just gives me that extra road. It's just such a good opportunity I have. Just such a good opportunity. And I I could never ask for anything more.
Speaker 3:Those early reps calling games or running equipment in high school became the foundation for this next level of opportunity. By the time students have spent a few seasons in a program like StudentU, they have something powerful, real work to show. Game tapes, replay reels, on air clips, all of it looks and sounds like the kind of content networks and teams actually use. Back in the high school classroom, teachers get messages all the time, photos from control rooms, snapshots from arenas, quick texts that say, this all started in your class.
Speaker 5:It's a really cool feeling. We are a family. We are all pretty close. And, again, that's because of of all the time we spend together. We're here all the time.
Speaker 5:It's not like, you know, any other class. It's really cool to be a part of something that feels so special.
Speaker 3:Some graduates dream about being the voice of a team someday. Others want to direct shows, design graphics, or manage social media and video content. No matter which path, the foundation is the same. Early chances to practice and teachers who trusted them to do the real work.
Speaker 7:Especially the amount of times where we've been to MAB, we've been to these giant award shows and with these people that are like top dogs. Like, I've seen the Lions sports announcer. I've seen multiple, sideline reporters. I I shook Grant Long's hand.
Speaker 3:Each game they cover becomes another piece in that future. A highlight, a learning moment, a step closer to where they want to be. Somewhere right now, a student is leaning into a microphone in a high school gym describing a simple layup or a routine free throw. Years from now, that same voice might echo through a Big Ten arena or come through speakers in the living rooms across the country. It starts with a chance to try.
Speaker 3:A teacher who says, you can do this, and a program that hands students the headset and means it. This Spotlight 10 feature was written and produced by Ryan Ryappel. Music provided by Universal Production Music, and a special thanks to Randall w Scott the third, Amy Lesko, Brooke Lane, Tyler Updegraf, and Ethan Hodge for sharing their experiences.
Speaker 1:Like what you hear? Rate us on Spotify, give us a like, and follow AudioVideoLand on Instagram where you can find more Spotlight 10 updates, teasers, and behind the scenes content. Spotlight 10 is an AudioVideoLand production by digital storytelling students of Michigan State in collaboration with Impact eighty nine FM.