Media Central -- 2004-2005

KHON Election Night Coverage -- September 18, 2004
LIVE & On Air...The Real Deal!!!
special thanks to Natasia Gascon for the photos from the live broadcast!

On September 18, 2004, the MoHS Broadcast Journalism class got the thrill of their short journalism career--three of our news packages were selected to be aired during KHON's prime time coverage of the 2004 Hawaii Primary Election.

But we had to earn that honor! Three teams of students worked intensely for a week, putting together their packages:

Gerald Rojo II and Marisa Kiethanom on a package on teens' views on the War in Iraq.
Natasia Gascon and Felipe Ojastro III on a package on teen racing.
Jessica Ancheta, Melissa Cadelina, and Fiona Munoz on a package on teens and voting.

Their hard work paid off as the KHON editorial staff accepted all three scripts for production. Several more days of feverish production passed and then the verdict. Two were accepted outright and one would be accepted with revision. Once the revisions were completed, we were set for our prime time debut!

But wait...that's not all!!! As these pictures show, Marisa and Felipe were invited to appear live at KHON studios to present their videos! Like all dedicated journalists, they jumped at the chance to appear on the same set with luminaries like Leslie Wilcox and Joe Moore (and, yes, Joe was there...just off camera from Leslie and our MeneMACers!).

So at 7 pm on September 18, the two reported to KHON, a bit nervous but very excited! They went on between the first and second voting printouts and did an awesome job of responding to the interview questions and representing our broadcast program and MoHS!!!

The only dark spot in an otherwise stellar debut was that our final video was not aired. As election returns were released, more and more time was devoted to candidate interviews and live coverage of election night action. But, hey, we understand the demands of live coverage and will be ready for another chance to again go for the gold in the exhilarating world of broadcast journalism!

We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to Jesse VanDyke of KHON for giving us this opportunity, for patiently answering our questions and supporting us as we prepared our news packages, and for inviting our MoHS reporters into the studio on election night to present their stories!