The return of radio

September 30, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

STRUTHERS

Struthers High School students are doing radio broadcasts of Friday night football games for the first season in more than 10 years.

Students in the digital media class are learning how to operate the equipment and assume the role of sideline reporters and spotters and provide production at home games while working with 90.7 The Summit/WKTL-FM, a radio station from Akron.

“It’s great being able to bring this media back to Struthers High School in a number of different formats – especially radio,” said Robert Zanni, digital media teacher. “It allows us to expose students to that career field and all sorts of technology, hardware and software they can use in almost any career field.”

Senior Khaylah Brown said she’s enjoying learning how to utilize the technology involved and incorporate it into another subject she’s learning about – sports.

“It helps me actually enjoy and understand football,” Brown said.

Brown and fellow senior student Keasia Chism act as sideline reporters and spotters and provide production at home games.

“We’re really interacting with a lot of other people,” Chism said. “It’s nice to be able to know what to ask, what not to ask and when to ask it.”

Beyond the fun learning experience, Zanni said he’s happy to help students obtain skills modern employers may rely on.

“Anymore, it seems that employers rely on employees to do and produce videos for many different reasons,” he said. “Plus, doing this builds teamwork skills, prioritization skills, speaking skills and more.”

Principal Roger Day said none of this would be possible without the great partnership with the Struthers Foundation, which awarded the school a $22,000 grant split between the digital media and robotics programs.

“They just continue to bolster our programs,” Day said.

All in all, Zanni said the experience with new or returning programs only widens students’ horizons.

“It’s nice getting to work with the kids on something like this,” he said. “The students, when they do things like this, take that leadership role on themselves.”