New Broadcast Studio For Webster High

By Craig Day, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Webster High School is home to a new broadcast studio.  The school held an open house on Thursday night to show off the improvements.

The new broadcast studio is where students are getting hands on experience, behind the scenes and in front of the camera. It's valuable experience at the magnet school that is hoped will help the students for a lifetime.

Webster High looks just like any other Tulsa high school.  But, Webster is a magnet school for broadcast digital media.  The program coordinator says kids are looking for new ways to learn.

"The technology is the new way.  It is with video, it is with sound, it is with podcasts," said coordinator Lloyd Wright.

As a magnet school, Webster offers coursework in broadcast digital media, journalism, marketing and graphic arts, and information technology.

A new studio paid for with a federal grant and bond money is the crown jewel.

"Kids today are so much more technology savvy than kids in the past have been.  They just jump in and it latches on there like sponges, it just soaks in and they know how to use it," said TPS Channel 20 Station Manager Lisa Ruffin.

One of those students is Artra Rice who anchors daily campus news announcements.

"It's a great experience.  I feel I'm being very prepared for what I need to do to go into the field that I would like to," said Artra Rice.

Another student, Justin Hanson, wants to make movies or develop video games one day.

"I get to work with some programs that can help me achieve my goals," said Justin Hanson.

Both transferred to Webster to take advantage of the magnet program which they say will give them a head start on college and a career.

Right now, the students help with the cable broadcast of school board meetings.  In the future, the sky is the limit.

"We have to offer things that are interesting that they can see the future in," said coordinator Lloyd Wright.