At precisely 9:35 a.m., student television journalists who had just won awards for best live news show and best live sports broadcast in the nation, would be airing the last show of the 2006-2007 school year.

Three Video II students took their seats at the anchor desk in front of a bank of monitors as teleprompters and cameras were poised for action.

Brendan Hogan, KBFT program director, walked to the front of the newsroom. He congratulated the crew on their latest honor.

“We have about two minutes left, so let us remember,” Hogan said, pausing briefly as 20 students joined in, “We are in the holy presence of God.”

It’s pretty intense, heady, state-of-the-art stuff, being part of this Christian Brothers team — taping, editing and broadcasting a 13-minute newscast before second period three mornings a week.

The live broadcast, which includes special news features, a report on upcoming school events and sports, is beamed by closed circuit TV into every classroom.

One of the school’s most popular curriculum choices, the broadcast journalism class that made its debut in 2002 is the brainchild of Christian Brother Roch Dufresne.

“Rumor has it he started with four kids and a couple of cameras as a club kind of thing,” said Hogan, who was a substitute teacher for Brother Dufresne, a member of the Christian Brothers’ teaching staff at the time.

“Their first real season KBFT (the call letters stand for Brothers Falcon Television) was number one in the nation,” Hogan said.

The award is announced annually by the Student Television Network, a National Scholastic Broadcasting organization.

Chris DuCray, a member of the class of 2007, said the broadcast journalism class was a primary reason he enrolled at the coed Christian Brothers.

Hooked on filming since borrowing his mother’s video camera in the eighth grade, DuCray decided to join the video club his freshman year at Christian Brothers and enrolled in the Video I class as a sophomore.

Hogan “is probably one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. He truly loves what he does,” DuCray said. “When I came into the class, they were doing graphics, putting on a live show, doing stuff that was really creative.”

As KBFT’s executive producer and occasional news anchor, DuCray had some unforgettable reporting experiences over the past three years.

Driving home to River Park from school with his mother one mid-March day, DuCray saw smoke from a train trestle fire near Cal Expo.

While his mother held the tripod, DuCray shot scenes from the fire, edited them at school and saw his story aired on KBFT.

DuCray also teamed up with classmate Heather Kennedy last spring to cover the state Democratic convention in Los Angeles. The two Christian Brothers’ reporters mingled with leading Democratic presidential candidates and interviewed some convention delegates.

“It was really cool,” said Kennedy, who was an anchor for KBFT’s broadcast this past year. “It was a once in a lifetime experience.”

While Kennedy didn’t enroll in the broadcast journalism class until her junior year, her passion for being in front of or holding a camera has become a passion since childhood.

“I always had a camera with me when I was younger,” she said. “I made up skits with friends and we would film them.”

Kennedy said students enrolling in Video I or Video II classes learn much more than how to tape, edit or anchor.

“Anchoring is speech and communication…putting together stories is journalism and there is graphic design,” she said. “You learn things that apply to life in general.”

KBFT sports anchor Kristen Miller signed up for the class her sophomore year.

While Miller, a member of the class of 2008, had tried her hand at editing, she lights up when the talk turns to working behind or in front of the camera.

“Going out on the field covering football games, you’re out in the action,” Miller said. “There is a feeling of instant accomplishment, and that is pretty awesome.”

DuCray, Kennedy and Miller all envision a career in some aspect of communications.

For DuCray and Kennedy, it will be completing their college degrees at UCLA, then heading to Hollywood. While keeping their options open, the Christian Brothers’ graduates share an interest in directing and may work with a local film producer on a project during the summer.

Miller is torn between “going on to movies” or being involved in some other form of communications.

All three are friends, not uncommon in a class where teamwork is the key to success.

“By the end, after all the stress and chaos, we become a family,” DuCray said.

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