Cameron Marlatt of Richwoods High School in Peoria operates one of the four Panasonic cameras that broadcast teacher Dan Kerns is willing to donate to another school. Other equipment is also available for a school looking to enhance its broadcast offerings.
Looking for broadcast equipment? Have we got a deal for you!
Thanks to a donation to his own broadcasting program, Dan Kerns of Richwoods High School in Peoria has a surplus of equipment that he's willing to give to another school.
May 13, 2015
Technical director Katie Frietsch and audio engineer Sierra Huerta produce a Richwoods broadcast using some of the equipment that teacher Dan Kerns is ready to donate to another school.
PEORIA — Need equipment to jump-start your broadcasting program? If so, Dan Kerns of Richwoods High School in Peoria would like you to know he’s ready to donate several video cameras and other hardware suitable for putting on a daily television newscast.
He and his school are able to make such an offer because his own broadcasting program recently became the beneficiary of another party’s generosity.
“We were contacted by a donor who had just renovated their television studio,” Kerns said. “Their equipment was newer than ours, and so they offered us their equipment as well as their assistance in coming over and helping to install it.”
Not surprisingly, Kerns accepted the offer to upgrade his Richwoods studio.
As a result, he now has the following equipment he’s willing to donate to another school: four Panasonic cameras, a Sony switcher and an audio board.
Video amplifiers might also be available. Although the equipment is more than 20 years old, everything is in fine condition and worth about $5,000, according to Kerns.
“We currently use the equipment in our television studio to put on our daily broadcast — our morning newscast,” Kerns said. “So it’s all functioning equipment that would be ready to go and plug right in.”
Any school interested in Kerns’ offer could use the equipment to “start up their own program or augment what they have,” he said.
Kerns himself knows something about building a successful broadcast journalism program.
Under his direction, Richwoods High School offers an entry-level broadcasting class, an advanced class that produces the school’s daily newscast, and a film course.
In all, about 120 students are involved in the program this year.
Kerns is especially proud of Richwoods’ daily broadcast, which is produced in the best pedagogical tradition of empowering students to learn by doing,
“It’s student run from the anchors to the camera operators to the control room operators,” he said.
“The students do it. If I’m gone, the announcements still get done every day. It’s a really neat program for the students to be engaged in. And we not only broadcast throughout the building, but we also put our announcements online so parents can take a look at them as well.”
If you’re interested in talking to Kerns about the equipment, he can be reached at: [email protected].
To see an example of Richwoods’ daily television broadcast, click here.
Deborah McGhee • Jun 7, 2015 at 2:22 am
Would be interested in any equipment you don’t need because I would like to start a broadcasting program at my school. Don’t know if you meant out of state, but would gladly pay shipping. I don’t know what I would need, but it sounds like you could get me started.
Thanks,
Deborah McGhee