The Titan Broadcast Network (TBN) hit the airwaves mid-September with their first professionally made episode of the Early Morning Update (EMU).

The morning announcement team has made great changes since last year under the guidance of Edward Corpuz, the new video production teacher who has specialized training in video production. The EMU team hopes to better captivate the interest of the Gunn community with its more professional look and style.

Last school year, the news of the morning announcement team’s decision to bring the morning announcements up to speed with current technology spread quickly caught the attention of Sam Picture, the previous video production teacher. With Picture’s help, the EMU team made great steps in converting the morning announcements from the Public Announcement system to the classroom televisions.

The morning announcement team has made tremendous progress since last year’s release of the video announcements. Last year, the reporters would sign up for different shifts throughout the week and read the announcements with volunteers from video production class producing the video announcements. However, all of that has changed since Corpuz picked up the morning announcement mantel. Corpuz has changed the morning announcements into a class in which students are expected to arrive at school at 7 a.m. everyday and anchormen and women learn how to work the teleprompters and the cameramen learns how to work in audio. ”There are more concrete goals this year to actually make the broadcast a show, which is what formed the Titan Broadcast Network (TBN) and the Early Morning Update,” senior EMU anchor Elijah Guo said.

The EMU’s hope of making the video announcements look more professional is now in the making. Through work and dedication, the EMU team now has a new studio, graphics team, music team, tech team, and anchors. The EMU team’s technology has been brought up to date with the addition of new cameras, teleprompters and many new Macintosh computers. “It definitely involves a lot of work, but the quality of the announcements has gone up, so it’s a trade off that I think is worth it,” EMU anchor junior Jaya Wen said.

The EMU team has made progress with the professional introductions, credits, music and ticker. While they have accomplished many of their goals in creating a professional broadcast, they are still working on revising the announcements into an actual early morning show. “This may include, in the five minutes we have, a periodic traffic or weather report, footage/coverage of events that happened in the week and interviews with people around campus relevant to the things going on,” said Guo.

Corpuz and his students’ work has created a functioning television network that works to cover breaking stories around campus. TBN had cameramen out on the field during the Homecoming game and night rally and plan to release these videotaped stories via the web.

Their work has been noticed by students. “It looks fancier and it takes less time because the people don’t talk to each other,” junior Alex Lopatin said. “They’re less funny than they used to be though.”