Marysville students to broadcast parade

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, June 16, 2005

MARYSVILLE – Chris King laughs as he recalls riding in a 1937 Packard, his dad pounding the steering wheel every 10 feet and yelling out the window, “It’s an American horn.”

Jennifer Buchanan/ The Herald Grant Vetter, a junior at Marysville-Pilchuck High School and chief engineer for TV3, checks cables in the back of a television truck while setting up to record graduation ceremonies at the Everett Events Center on Wednesday.

King’s vantage point to the annual Marysville Strawberry Festival parade has changed over the years from father and son in an antique car to proud Little Leaguer marching down State Avenue.

On Saturday, King, 18, will try yet another perspective as one of two color commentators describing the parade to a countywide television audience of possibly 125,000 to 150,000 homes.

He’s excited, but not nervous. King, who plans to study broadcast journalism at Washington State University, has been studying old tapes of the parade and is poring over a red three-ring binder with descriptions of each parade entry.

“I’m so pumped,” he said. “Once you say, ‘Welcome and hello,’ everything is fine.”

When a Seattle TV station informed festival organizers that it would not cover the parade this year because it conflicted with a Mariners baseball game broadcast, Marysville-Pilchuck High School students were invited to fill in.

Organizers aren’t worried.

“I think it’s absolutely marvelous,” said Carol Kapua, co-chairwoman of the parade. “They are very intelligent. They speak very well. They know their equipment, and they have great support from the (Seattle) TV stations.”

“I think it’s going to make very exciting television,” said Steve Kipp, a Comcast spokesman. “I have heard nothing but good things about the work they do.”

About 20 Marysville-Pilchuck broadcast students and recent graduates will work on the live broadcast. Some have been honing their on-air skills since eighth grade.

Inside their remote truck will be a five-member team, including the director and a crew in charge of the video board, audio, graphics and playing pre-recorded tapes at the right time.

The students say the parade is an important part of their community’s identity and they want to reflect that sense of pride.

“It’s going to be an amazing experience,” said production director Baljinder Gill, who will be a senior in the fall. “I have been going to the parade every year since I can remember. It’s a Marysville tradition.”

“It’s kind of sentimental to me,” said Ben Noblitt, who graduated Wednesday after working for years behind the camera of TV3 productions.

Noblitt likes the logistical challenges. Broadcasting is an exercise in constant problem-solving and learning to make quick decisions, he said.

An unpaid student broadcast team faces challenges large commercial TV stations don’t, such as convincing the boss at a local pizza restaurant to let a key production team member switch shifts.

Richard Walsh, the TV3 teacher, guided the student crew in preparing for the parade, but left the decision-making to them.

He is confident in his crew.

“I just think it’s good for them to be an important part of the community,” he said.