KDVH returns after 14-year hiatus

Itzel Viramontes

Cameraman Jose Ramos records talent Armando Lara for a KDVH news piece.

Itzel Viramontes, Reporter
February 14, 2019

Day after day Conquistadores get their daily announcements from student council members over the school public announcement system, but there was a time when those messages were delivered by the morning news staff of KDVH, a production news program. After a 14-year break, audio and video tech teacher Marisol Rivera and principal Antonio Acuña are working to bring the show back.

“When Del Valle was first built we had televisions in all our classrooms, but Del Valle grew and the connections for the Closed Circuit Television Signal (CCTV) (for the new buildings), weren’t added,” Rivera said.

Without CCTV there was no way to transmit the show.

“The principal at the time decided that we would get rid of KDVH and do the announcements on the PA,” Rivera said.

Gone over a decade, KDVH is making a comeback.

“The idea of bringing back KDVH has been in the making for about two years. The plan is to do it during study skills instead of (through) the PA. We’re trying to find a way that every teacher would be able to show it during class and we want it every day for three minutes,” Acuña said.

Due to advancements in technology and the advantages of the internet, there is no need to depend on closed circuit television anymore.

“We put the show on YouTube or email the link out to the teachers,” KDVH staffer Brandon Whipple said.

Even though there are easier ways to transmit the show there are complications at hand.

“We did a couple shows but I realized that we don’t have the technology in order to do it consistently. My kids are busy creating projects for the school, so it’s a little harder to do that right now without the proper equipment,” Rivera said.

It might take some time to get the right materials to have proper anchors and reporters to produce live videos.

“We need a new tech TriCaster live production software system. It’s a live switcher software that switches from camera-to-camera like doing it live,” Rivera said. “It’s the same one Ysleta, Riverside and Hanks have.”

The price for that TriCaster is upwards of $20 thousand.

“We’re in the works of buying the proper technology so we are capable of doing what we want to do,” Acuña said. ”I’m hoping that by next August we’ll be ready.”