Ed. Note: “Westwood’s News Channel,” a group on Facebook, can now be found by typing the group name in the Facebook search engine. You can be part of the conversation by joining the group and see pictures, chat with former student anchors and watch some of the original newscasts that aired in ’05 and ’06 (coming soon in November ’09). This group is a tribute to all of the former students who took part in this once high school undertaking.
(Sloan, Iowa) – In the fall of ’05, a news organization called: Channel 3 Action News (C3AN), began as a “new student undertaking” at Westwood High School in Sloan – serving as the eyes and ears for student television viewers who wanted to learn more about the recent happenings and activities in their school and community. Channel 3 Action News, which retired in '06, was also known as: Westwood’s News Channel - a 15-minute local news broadcast featuring news, weather, and sports. The Channel 3 Action News – This Morning broadcast was seen by junior and senior high school students during a homeroom period in the late-morning at about 10:00 a.m. on Fridays and Mondays.
Students: Carrie Roche, Jake Flammang, Tyler Yockey, and Tony Ullrich participated in the show’s regular broadcast seen weekly. Carrie Roche and Jake Flammang served as the pilot co-anchors for the formerly "new" activity Westwood H.S.
Tyler Yockey, student in the class of '07, served as the fill-in news reporter/anchor for two years and brought humor and excitement to the Channel 3 news desk. Outside of having a face on Westwood TV news, Tyler was known by students in all grade levels for his witty, energetic behavior. He was crowned Mr. Westwood in '06 and was nominated for the homecoming royalty the following year. When Tyler made his appearance on C3AN, most students could not resist watching him. He always was featured in the “bloopers” segment at the end of each episode.
Tony Ullrich (class of '06) was known as the weather director and production manager for the morning program. He delivered the morning weather conditions using green wall “chromakey” technology, which allowed the weather graphics to virtually appear in place of the green background behind him. Tony was able to walk in front of the forecast maps and present the area’s only sky camera. The Channel 3 Action News program was recorded in a custom-designed television studio he designed in his parent’s basement.
The local CBS affiliate, KMEG 14, donated high quality graphic animation design for the Westwood TV channel’s news and weather segment opens. “Now from studio A…your Channel 3 Action News team,” the voice would say over the news graphics before each segment’s entry.
Students were enthused when they saw the professionally-designed graphics and stellar news set design. Teachers supervising in homerooms also liked seeing the new undertaking. The news station received cards and e-mails from faculty members and students who enjoyed watching the program.
As it became more and more popular, Channel 3 Action News added a segment called “The Sketch of the Week” after a plethora of student artwork was sent one- after-the-other to the station. Some students talked about being thrilled to see their drawings and sketches make the weekly program.
Monthly promotions were also a hit during the program’s existence. Before Halloween and Christmas, students could answer weekly trivia questions and have the chance to win a large pizza from B & R’s Pizza Post, one of the show’s sponsors.
And when the program approached its end each day, a final shot of the anchors was seen and the student anchors used to say together, “Stay Classy Westwood” while they winked an eye. The idea of a shout-out to the news viewers at the end of the show came from the 2004 DreamWorks film: Anchorman.
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