Delphos St

Delphos St. John's TV Programming

When John Gunder watches a cooking show on the Food Network or a fishing show on the Outdoor Channel, he can’t help but smile. You see, the new wave of “how to “ shows aren’t really new at all, they started in John Gunder’s TV Programming classes more than 30 years ago.

It all began in the early 1970’s when the FCC required cable companies to provide communities with facilities to broadcast locally produced programs. In February 1972 Don Shuler and Gene Kois of Cypress Cable approached SJHS with the opportunity for their students to produce and broadcast student and community oriented productions. With great support from Principal George Adams, John Gunder took up the challenge and TV Programming at St. John’s became a reality.

The foundation was laid in the spring of 1972 with three student pioneers; Tim Geier, Dave Liebrecht and Phil Pothast. The very first production was a rebroadcast of the 1972 Firemen’s Convention Parade in Delphos. For the parade, a camera was mounted in a cherry picker over Main Street. Students Cindy Brandehoff and Joe Pohlman provided color commentary from a viewing stand near the Shenks Store. The team also added footage of firemen demonstrating firefighting equipment and gear to their production. The equipment used to record and produce that event was one camera, a bulky videotape recorder and a 15” black and white tv.

By the next school year, the class had grown to fourteen students. Productions were limited only by the students’ creativity. One show, Coaches Corner, began in the fall of 1972 and continues to this day. Other productions included a cooking show called Cooks Corner; a fishing show with the Hittles; Behind the Scenes, featuring local factories and what they make and how they do it; coverage of city council meetings; broadcast of SJHS choir and band concerts; a documentary on iron ore ships in the port at Huron, Ohio; a visit to Santa Claus, Indiana; coverage of Bishop Ottenwellers ordination as Bishop and many more too numerous to mention. Perhaps most interesting was a show called Coffee House. A group of DSJ students would gather in front of the camera to play guitars and sing current songs, recite poetry and just “rap”. Tragically, virtually all productions have been lost. With a tight budget, the students had to reuse videotape over and over, erasing the work of the previous week. Perhaps a videotape or two of these productions still exists in the hands of TV Programming alums but there is no archive of these student productions.

The TV Programming class has had great success in preparing its students for a career in the broadcasting/communications field. Each year one or two graduates move on to pursue a career in the media. There are currently more than thirty TV Programming alums who have developed successful careers in media. Those careers range from owner of a film production company, technical director at CNN, award winning investigative reporter, sports producer for an all sports tv station, director of marketing for the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina and CEO of a broadcasting company. A website has been set up by TV Programming alum Jamie Vogt highlighting a number of successful alums in the media field. You can find this website at www.gundersgrads.com.

As of the 2008-09 school year there were 24 students in Mr. Gunder’s TV Programming classes. The TV Programming class continues to broadcast Coaches Corner every Thursday, interviewing DSJ coaches and replaying football games. In 2008 they added a rebroadcast of Mass at St. John’s, broadcast every Thursday at 1:00pm. Future plans/hopes for the class include building a studio so students can get hands-on experience in a professional setting and keeping up to with the newest technology.