In January on Friday at 5 p.m. Herndon’s non-profit, cable access PEG station Herndon Community Television (HCTV) presented the first episode of “Herndon Live” a new program showcasing events, reviews, interviews and news. Assisting the production of the first episode were Herndon residents Nancy Rose, Blake Rose, and their son, Brian Rose. “I started volunteering and using the equipment at HCTV when I was about 9 or 10,” said Brian Rose. “I am there to give the Herndon Live group what they need to do their show whether it be advice or teaching them equipment... I am there to make sure things go smoothly.”
“We have not had a live show at HCTV for a long time. I am pretty excited about it,” said HCTV volunteer Nancy Rose. “They have a biweekly schedule with half an hour each. I think now the idea is to keep doing the shows as long as they want to do it.” Both Jack Norcross and Emily Yen, freshman at Herndon High, were founding members of the Herndon Live program. “Emily and I started working with HCTV during the Herndon Festival last June and also taping different bands that were performing,” said Norcross.
“This is a place where you can get information from Herndon and from around the world,” said Norcross in the first episode of Herndon Live. The format of the first episode included a weather segment and a music segment, in addition to local and worldwide news. In the first episode, Norcross and Yen talked briefly of basketball star Dennis Rodman’s recent trip to North Korea. Also, there was a video segment of Emily Yen visiting Bow Tie Cinemas in Reston to see the Disney movie “Frozen.” “I thought it was super cute,” said Yen.
There was another video segment taken during the New Year’s Eve Celebration at ArtSpace Herndon. In this segment, Casey Molina a junior at Herndon High spoke with art gallery visitors and volunteers. The music segment featured High Herndon freshman Allie Kassraie, who gave a brief review on Beyoncé’s latest album. Kassraie then reviewed the top most popular songs of 2013 by musicians including Daft Punk, Justin Timberlake, and the band Imagine Dragons.
Elise Lesage, a sophomore at Herndon High, interviewed Aaron Sawyer, manager of The Closet, a nonprofit thrift shop in the downtown Herndon. Lesage also spoke with several other Closet volunteers. Jack Norcross wrapped up the program with a travel review taped at Wintergreen ski resort in Virginia. Approximately 10 Herndon students are helping produce the show, and they hope this will give insight to the careers of journalism and communications.
“At first we thought it would be really easy to do a live broadcast, but then we saw it would be a bit more complicated, because we have a limited time frame,” said Emily Yen. “We collaborated and we came to the idea of an entirely student run news show. We are still very busy with high school, but we get the work done,” said Yen. “Jack and I are comfortable working with each other and the other members of our team. Each one of them brings their own personality or traits with them on air and I think that is great.”
Herndon Community Television or HCTV can be viewed on Channel 23 on Cox Communications and Channel 28 on Verizon FIOS. To learn more about Herndon Community Television, visit hctv.org.