With stations increasingly focusing their energies on connecting with high school kids, WNYW New York’s morning crew has been visiting local high schools each Friday morning, airing bits on the air and producing content for the station’s new myfoxlocker.com platform.
The Good Day New York gang was in Mount Pleasant, New York this morning to visit Westlake High. We tapped Jacob Goldin, ace editor/reporter for the Westlake Word, to share what he saw:
‘Good Day NY’ Steps Out of the City and into the Suburbs
We didn’t get Mike Woods, the macho meteorologist, but Westlake High School did get to spend Friday morning celebrating with Andy Adler and the Fox 5 crew.
Westlake High may not be a particularly large school, but that doesn’t stop students from showing their pride. Whether you’ve spent the week before Homecoming building floats and painting murals or counting down the days until your next day off, if you’re a student at Westlake, you’re psyched for the Wildcats’ football game this Saturday.
As a Westlake senior, I see this spirit annually.
And if you were to enter the school this morning, you would probably see it, too. The lobby is inundated with blue and white balloons, banners, picture collages, and countless other decorations. But there is something different this year, something which has kids buzzing about and dressed to impress.
Maybe it’s the camera crew that’s set up in the gymnasium.
When we were told that Good Day New York from Fox 5 would be broadcasting a segment on the high spirits of Westlake High School’s Homecoming along with its morning weather report from our very own school, students reacted with exuberance. Of course, the mood dampened a bit when we were told what time varsity players were expected to arrive at school (which is much too early.) Still, the Fox 5 crew made this year undeniably special.
The large mass crowding the gym’s bleachers, comprised mostly of students dressed in black Homecoming t-shirts, are teeming with energy, especially if you consider that many were waiting for their less-than-15 minutes of fame at six a.m.
Without a doubt, spending the morning of Pep Rally cheering, posing, and dancing (yes, all of Westlake now knows the “Good Day Dance”) for the cameras was a memorable experience. While Fox has made this year’s Spirit Week an exceptional celebration, students agreed that it really didn’t matter which news station was going to broadcast the report. The main point of interest was exposure; as Senior James Gisondi clarified, “TV is TV.”
It seems that the Good Day gang, however, may have been impacted just as much as Westlakers by the visit. When talking with Andy Adler, a young reporter for Good Day NY, I learned that the spirit which defines Westlake Homecoming has had an impact on the school’s guests as well.
“I never thought I’d want to go back to high school,” she said, “but coming here changed my mind.”
The experience has definitely tuned hundreds of Mount Pleasant viewers in to Fox 5 to watch live television immortalize our Wildcat pride.
–Jacob Goldin
