The James Logan Courier

By Jasmeen Banwait and Hassina Obaidy, Courier Staff Writers

Logan Live, the daily school news show produced by students in the Electronic Media Production Academy (EMP) is back on the air and going strong.

"It's been going great," said Lukas Grippa, one of the rotating on-air hosts of the program. "We have had hardly any issues come up. We're having a lot of fun." The EMP academy focuses on giving students experience in several forms of electronic media. Students learn graphic design, and many other technical aspects of electronics. Juniors and seniors of James Logan are enrolled in this course, and seniors are eligible to broadcast themselves on Logan Live. Some seniors announce the daily announcements, which are sent in by the activities office. “Logan Live is basically the daily announcements. With the time remaining, we show small segments. Segments will be starting in a week or so,” said James Rardin, the teacher overseeing Logan Live productions.

The Words of Wisdom segments are also a major part of Logan Live. These words of wisdom that we hear everyday are read off of a package set of copyrighted material called “Project Wisdom.”

“Before airing Logan Live, students spend most of their time practicing,” says Rardin. Students read through their lines a couple of times, and clarify any words that they have difficulty pronouncing. Students also perform technical checks, like microphone checks, camera checks, etc.

Rardin evaluated the first few days of this year's productions. “It’s been up and down. Students are jittery for the first few days because of nervousness. They’re not used to the pressure of being live in front of thousands of students, and they’re afraid of messing up. But with time, students will become less jittery,” he said.

EMP began Logan Live in 1996. This program has been running for about 10 years now. During these 10 years, Logan Live fell apart for a while period due to the carelessness of the teacher that was in charge at that time. He began allowing his students to broadcast material that did not encourage an optimal learning environment.

“The administration does not want us to promote anything that does not promote a good learning environment,” says James Rardin, the current director of the EMP Academy, who’s in his third year of teaching this course.

“It feels great knowing that I’ll be on Logan Live segments next year. I joined EMP because ever since freshman year I’ve always wanted to be on Logan Live,” said junior Fatima Ansary, who is one of the graphic arts designers for the class.

Maria Domingo and Alexander Smith appeared on Logan Live on its first day. “It was nerve- wrecking" said Domingo, "It was cool but I got nervous. But overall the first day was awesome. Everyone was on track on their assigned jobs and no mistakes!”

“It’s going great. We have a lot of great projects planned. I think we’re going to step it up a bit from previous years because this is the first year we’ve all had a full year of training,” said Alexander Smith, a senior.