Every Tuesday morning, all North Penn students sit in their first period and listen to the announcements, but instead of hearing them over the loud speaker, they watch The Morning Show. This school wide video broadcast is created and filmed live by students. With different segments to the show including “The Dude Report” and “Fitness with Fluck and Fry,” the work that goes into this production is more than one would expect.

“Everything done on the Morning Show is done by the North Penn Television (NPTV) Career Study Students, and everything is live except for segments like “I Know Funny,” “Brumbaugh Challenge,” “Weekly Word,” etc., which are filmed and edited by the career study students the week before the show,” said Career Study Student, Alexa Duffy. “We also write the script for the show and a crew is behind the scenes during the show working graphics, audio, teleprompter, and directing, so really every show is unique and created completely by students under the supervision of the NPTV advisors Mr. Bob Gillmer and Mrs. Mary Fakish.”

The Morning Show lasts thirteen minutes long, and it’s been that way ever since North Penn had homeroom; the show would fit perfectly from bell to bell during homeroom. But producing the programs within the show takes about a weeks’ worth of work to create the Morning Show Package. Duffy, along with other NPTV Crew members, tape the show live Tuesday Morning except for those certain packages.

“Everyone has different assignments on what they’re responsible for to get done, but outside of that we really try to focus on in that program and what’s happening in North Penn High School. So what’s happened that week, trying to feature what students do. So really we feel that the Morning Show is a program that’s about what’s happening at North Penn High School. We try and do it in a fun and interesting way,” Mr. Gillmer said. “It is not an announcement. So if you ever watch, there are no announcements on North Penn Television. We may promote activities that are coming up for different a club or a dance or a fundraiser, but we actually don’t do announcements.”

When a student turns into lower D Pod, they see this gigantic door that does not seem to fit in with all the other uniform doors of North Penn. As you head inside, there is a control room to your left and a long hallway to the right that leads to the NPTV set. It’s a whole different world located in this school that not many people know about. Students and any viewer in the community tuned into the NPTV Station can see the anchors performing, but unfortunately, never the action behind the camera. Students fill the control room taking cues from Gillmer to make sure the show goes to script.

“I love seeing the kids have to perform live and I think it means more to them because they know their friends are watching. Having to deal with errors, problems, changes, you’ll see errors sometimes. Many times things behind the scenes will not work properly and nobody watching the show knows that,” said Gillmer.

The Morning Show isn’t perfect, but learning from the mistakes and working through them help the students learn how real broadcasting shows happen. The crew gets to school at 6 a.m. on Tuesdays to start setting up for the show that starts at 7:21 a.m.

“The main thing most kids don’t know about NPTV is how Mornings is filmed LIVE every Tuesday (I am frequently asked if it is live) and like I said earlier, how everything is created by students. When you are watching the Morning Show or North Penn News, you are watching something where almost every element was very carefully planned and produced. It’s a lot of hard work. Also, since when I’m anchoring the audience only sees me from the waist up, sometimes I’ll wear sweatpants and slippers,” said Duffy.

Although most of the student body thinks The Morning Show is all NPTV does is, it is not. It is also a club at North Penn and while also a community station that broadcasts the morning show, events, school board meetings, sports coverage and more. NPTV also has a YouTube Channel that streams broadcasts as well. Along with Gillmer and Fakish, members of the NPTV Club tape and edit the broadcast for the station and YouTube Channel. They also produce a news broadcast that airs every night at 7 p.m. on Channel 29 on Verizon and 28 on Comcast.

“My philosophy on how we produce content for North Penn television is not to just have the two of us being the only producers for the channel. We have all these students working on shows that must air and have air dates. Everything we do is real, none of it is pretend or play news , they’re all actual shows. All of the students in the club including the career study students are all working on producing these shows to air. We try and train our kids on how it’s actually going to be for a real broadcast. It’s all about having a lot of work opportunities. Kids sign up and work as much or as little as they want, the more they work, the more they’re going to learn,” said Gillmer.

North Penn High School also offers Broadcasting and Production classes as an elective that interested students take to become even more involved with producing television.

Unlike other high schools in the area, North Penn offers many courses and after school activities that will prepare students for future opportunities, such as preparation for a communications major or an internship at a radio or television studio.

“The nice thing I find is when students go off into college and find that they already know most things,” said Gillmer.

NPTV is a club and organization that not only reaches out to the high school audience, but the entire North Penn community, a role that many other North Penn clubs strive for.

As Gillmer states, “There are really only two things North Penn High School gets to do together: fire drills and the morning show.”