by Stephen Faure
On February 16, 2004, a new phenomenon hit the Florida Parishes’ airwaves—Teen Scene’s first broadcast to the area’s viewers. The Teen Scene program lives up to its name: It’s television journalism produced by and for teenagers.
Teen Scene was the brainchild of a Ponchatoula High School freshman, Trey Schmaltz, who first came up with the concept during the summer of 2002. The idea was to present news and information to young people in the most interesting way possible by having teens choose and present the stories themselves. Now a PHS senior, Trey spent almost two years developing the idea and pitching it to local TV stations and production companies—with little success.
After learning about Trey’s difficulties in getting his show on the air, L.E. Wallace, of L.E. Wallace Productions and WSTY-TV in Hammond, agreed to produce Teen Scene. Linda DePaula, who hosts many of Wallace’s documentary productions, had been approached by someone who knew Trey’s plight. “Linda was most instrumental in getting Teen Scene on the air; she sold me on the idea,” says Wallace. “I would have loved for someone to have given me such a chance when I was that age,” he recalls, “so I decided to volunteer my time.”
The first broadcast was a simple production, with few bells and whistles. Just Trey on camera in the WSTY studio.
The show steadily grew more sophisticated. Acquiring a portable camera made possible the taping of field reports outside of the studio beginning in May 2004. Within a few months, all of the show’s graphics and music were produced by students. Now, more than 20 students from various schools in the Florida Parishes appear on air, and another 10 work behind the scenes producing the show. Teen Scene is now taped at Southern Exposure Studios in Ponchatoula and broadcast on Florida Parishes TV. It draws an estimated 50,000 viewers in Livingston, St. Helena, Tangipahoa and Washington parishes.
Trey’s plan was to model the show on the NBC television network’s staple of over 50 years, the “Today” program. In fact, he’s a big fan of the show, and it is his goal to be its host one day.
Teen Scene produces two new shows a month. The format has developed into several segments examining teen lifestyle topics, sports, national and local news items and news reports from individual area schools. School report segments are instrumental in the show’s success.
The school reports are presented on a rotating basis; too many schools participate for all to give reports in each show. An impressive number of schools send in reports: Maurepas and Springfield high schools in Livingston Parish; Pine High School in Washington Parish; and Ponchatoula, Hammond, St. Thomas Aquinas, Independence, Amite and Oak Forest high schools in Tangipahoa Parish.
Although there is no official affiliation between Teen Scene and the area school systems, the schools are very supportive of the program. Kay Butler, who teaches drama and speech at PHS, has been particularly helpful in steering students and resources to Teen Scene, where many of the participants are members of the drama club.
Mainstays of Teen Scene’s popularity with teen viewers are segments aimed at keeping teens in the forefront of popular culture. Adrienne Watts hosts music reviews for the show, while Cherylynn Mitchell provides fashion tips in another segment. Justin Rolling presents a look at movies in the theaters and releases on DVD.
Adrienne’s portion of the show, On the Dial, reflects her interests in life. A sophomore at PHS, she sings and loves music, performs in PHS drama club productions and is one of the school’s cheerleaders. Cherylynn, a PHS junior, anchors Your Closet, which keeps teens abreast of the latest fashion dos and don’ts. In addition to helping fellow teens avoid style faux pas, Cherylynn is president of the school drama club. She hopes to have a career in musical performance.
Trey and co-anchor Chelsea Herrick present the news. Chelsea is a sophomore with an interest in music, and is also a drama club member at PHS.
Jacob Rester is Teen Scene’s sports reporter, and the only on-air regular who is not a PHS student. He’s in the 10th grade at Hammond High School, and had the last laugh on his colleagues when Hammond beat Ponchatoula in this year’s football game.
The show has provided unparalleled experience to the students who participate. Trey observes, “You can’t get this kind of experience, even at most universities—students can partake in every aspect of production, from choosing stories and writing the scripts to directing, shooting and editing the on-camera presentations.”
Hurricane Katrina provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the young journalists. After riding out the storm in Kinder, Louisiana, Trey and his family returned to Ponchatoula on Tuesday, as soon as they found out the town had safe drinking water. There was no power for the first few days, but when electricity returned on Friday, Trey and Chelsea were out shooting stories, including interviews with Hammond Mayor Mayson Foster and Ponchatoula Mayor Bob Zabbia.
Trey’s trial-by-fire continued after he contacted relatives, detectives in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, who obtained access for him to the hectic southshore rescue efforts. Trey spent the weekend after the storm at East Jefferson Hospital, which had become an ad hoc base of operations for law enforcement, rescue personnel and journalists from around the world covering Katrina’s aftermath.
Trey had the opportunity to speak with WWL-TV reporter Bill Capo at the hospital, who offered Trey the observation that covering the hurricane “would be a great experience for you, but one you hopefully will never have to do again.”
Among the stories Trey covered that weekend was that of two Bucktown residents watching the frantic efforts to plug the breach across the way on the New Orleans side of the 17th Street canal. When Trey interviewed them on camera, one offered his opinion that it would be inevitable that the city would be rebuilt, “because the people who left the city are going to be so bored wherever it is they went to, they’re gonna’ have to come home.”
The New Year finds the Teen Scene crew getting in shape. They’ve committed to participating in the American Heart Association’s annual Heart Walk in February. To prepare for it, and to educate teens about living healthy, all of the shows leading up to the event will feature segments on proper exercise and diet, with trainers from North Oaks Health System coming into the studio for on-air exercise sessions.
Trey and most of the production staff will be graduating this spring. He plans to attend the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, which has an excellent broadcast communications program.
Although the driving force behind Teen Scene is leaving the program, Trey is confident it in will be in good hands. Cherylynn Mitchell will apply the leadership skills she has shown as PHS’s drama club president and will become Teen Scene’s president and executive producer. Underclassmen on air and production personnel will take over production in May; Trey and the other seniors will sign off in a final show in June.
For information on Teen Scene air times and other show information, go to http://teensceneonline.tripod.com. Teen Scene is also broadcast on the Internet every Saturday on strawberrytv.com.
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