Good morning from the Bobcat Newsroom, I’m Gracie Brett alongside… Oh wait wrong Bel Air news source. You’ve probably heard this greeting countless mornings within your high school career. But does anyone really know what goes on behind the scenes of the Cat’s Eye?

Room A318, the lights are on, mic check, and the anchor nervously fixes their hair as though everyone tuning into Bel Air High School’s morning announcements will notice if a hair is astray. The bell rings, and they know if they mess up the entire school will see it. Sure, it sounds terrifying at first, but to the members of the Cat’s Eye, it’s just another homeroom.  Personally, I like the adrenaline of being live on camera. A task some need days to prepare for, these students do without any warning.

Anchor and techie Emma Roberts explains the high-paced atmosphere, “Some days right when you walk in the door, someone will ask you to anchor. A minute later, you’re on the air.”

Everyone sees who’s in front of the camera, but there is a plethora of technical duties behind the scenes. There are multiple tasks that must be completed every morning. Camera, teleprompter, switcher, sound, and EBB (Electronic Bulletin Board, or the slides that play on the TV throughout the day). Not to mention out of homeroom projects like creating intros. Some of my favorites are “the Office”, “Cloud”, and “Back to Cool” intros. I’m not just saying that because those are the ones I created.

All joking aside, there are so many students with amazing talents within the Cat’s Eye. There are so many different areas one can exceed in here, if you’re good with computers, there’s the switcher. If you like music there’s sound. If you like to act or public speak there’s the anchor. Almost all of the members in the Cat’s Eye are a part of the Bel Air Drama Company and already have experience speaking in front of audiences. This probably explains how they’re so good at it. I on the other hand, am not part of the Drama Company, and well you’ve seen me on the air. It can be hard to watch.

It’s really exciting to participate in something unique every morning. It gives you a reason to wake up and come to school on time each day. It’s also great opportunity to be able to use such advanced equipment while in high school. Some people that are in the Cat’s Eye even want to participate in TV productions for their careers. Despite this, it’s not all fun and games in this homeroom. Technology fails, announcements are forgotten, and people make mistakes while on the air. I myself have experienced a grade A Cat’s Eye Disaster, my co-anchor’s teleprompter broke while the Pledge of Allegiance was being played, and therefore she had no idea what to say. Little did I know, that meant I had to read all of the announcements single handedly. I wasn’t warned of this until every student in the school was watching me on the air.

Junior member Hunter Gerard tells us, “You can never 100% trust that all the technology will worked as planned, and everything will go swimmingly. Every day is different here.” The first rule of working with technology? Expect it not to work.

Overall, there’s an entire production unknown by most students of how the morning announcements are broadcasted each day. So next time when you’re sitting in homeroom bored, just think of the chaos brewing within room A318.

And another thing: who are the surrounding areas? Some questions will never be answered.