How Troy High School Built a Professional Broadcast & Media Program

How One Teacher Built a Professional Broadcast Studio Inside a High School — And What It Means for the Future of Education

By TechArts

When Jesse arrived at Troy High School in Fullerton, California in 1997, the school didn't have a choir program. That was the whole point — he wanted to build one from scratch. What he didn't expect was that a shop light from Home Depot and a competitive grant he "didn't expect to win" would eventually lead to one of the most sophisticated high school media production facilities in Southern California.

Nearly three decades later, Jesse runs Omnia Studios at Troy High School, a full broadcast journalism and sports broadcasting program that produces a live eight-minute morning show every school day, streams all home league varsity sports, and has sent graduates to work for the NFL, the FIFA World Cup, and major TV production houses. TechArts recently sat down with Jesse to talk about how he built it, what it took to get there, and what other schools can learn from his journey.

Start With Nothing. Seriously.

The most counterintuitive thing Jesse will tell you is that the lack of a budget is not the obstacle most educators think it is. His program didn't begin with a grant proposal or a district initiative. It began with a photography class he pitched while simultaneously building a choir program and teaching math and science.

"What I have learned in all of education is you must build it first with no budget, no facilities, no instruction. You have to be entrepreneurial. You have to decide, 'This is the thing I want to do,' and then do it. Once it's done, you will find the support."

His advice to any school looking to start a broadcast journalism or sports broadcasting program: don't wait for the money. Start a class, set some standards, get a handful of students fired up, and prove it works. The funding, the grants, and the administrative support will follow the proof of concept — not the other way around.

Why Specialty Programs Are Now a School's Best Competitive Advantage

The conversation quickly moved beyond just media production. Jesse sees his program as a strategic asset for Troy High School in a region where enrollment is actively declining.

"Diminishing enrollment is real. What schools are doing is developing special programs to keep kids coming to their schools. Kids are starting to come to my school specifically knowing that there's sports broadcasting and broadcast journalism."

But the value goes beyond recruitment. Because a live broadcast requires a full crew — camera operators, audio engineers, teleprompter operators, directors, reporters — the program teaches something most classroom curricula can't: genuine interdependence. There are 17 different jobs that need to be filled every single broadcast day. You cannot fake your way through it, and you cannot do it alone.

"There is not a broadcast that can happen with one person. It takes a crew. Because it takes a crew, you're essentially teaching kids how to work with each other."

For administrators, there's an additional benefit that often goes overlooked: a daily live show is one of the most effective communication tools a school can have. When every student watches the morning broadcast, announcements about AP exam enrollment, counseling resources, and wellness programs actually reach the people they're meant for.

The TechArts Upgrade: Going From Analog to 4K

Jesse's program had been running for years before TechArts came into the picture. Version zero was a shop light and a borrowed camera. Version one was a proper studio with professional cameras and a basic audio setup. But as technology moved forward, the gap between what the program had and what the industry expected began to widen.

TechArts worked with Jesse to redesign the entire technical infrastructure of Omnia Studios — moving from a 1080p, 1/3-inch chip camera workflow to a full-frame 4K production pipeline, and replacing the analog audio setup with a professional digital mixing console that routes audio across multiple rooms and spaces throughout the facility.

The digital audio upgrade in particular was a significant leap. Jesse chose a more complex, more capable system than a simple "mix in the box" solution — specifically because he wanted the flexibility to roll the cameras aside, set up a live band or drum kit, and produce high-quality music recordings in the same space.

"We opted for this more complex system so that I could have not only the distribution and control, but also so that we could set up a drum kit or a band and do some really high-quality recordings. With those things came some complexity, and with complexity comes a steeper learning curve. But your crew has been instrumental in helping me. Every once in a while, something would happen, and instantly Brennan or Jason would hop on, take over my console, and tell me to try this or that. Inevitably, your work was always good. It was what I was doing that was at fault."

The Case for Professional-Grade Equipment in Schools

One of Jesse's strongest convictions — and one that TechArts hears often from experienced educators — is that schools should invest in industry-standard equipment as soon as they can, even if it feels financially out of reach.

The reasoning is practical, not aspirational. Professional gear is built to be handled, repaired, and upgraded. Consumer gear gets replaced. When you buy a professional camera and something goes wrong, you fix it. When a student breaks a consumer-grade piece of equipment, you replace it. Over time, the "expensive" option is often the cheaper one.

"Pro stuff survives. Start with the industry-standard workflow because that's what prepares students for the real world. And it saves you money. It's serviceable, it's repairable, it's meant to be durable. You don't replace that industry-standard camera."

There's also a pedagogical argument. When Jesse knows how every piece of equipment in his studio works — how to reset it, how to troubleshoot it, how to bring it back to its baseline — he's not afraid to let students push buttons and make mistakes. That fearlessness is what accelerates learning.

Funding It: CTE, Arts Mandates, and Thinking Six Months Ahead

For schools wondering how to pay for any of this, Jesse points to two underutilized funding streams that many California educators don't fully leverage.

The first is the state's arts education mandate, which requires that 5% of education funding go toward the arts. Broadcast journalism and media production qualify, and the money is there to be claimed. The second is Career Technical Education (CTE) certification — a pathway that unlocks district and county-level funding that never touches the school's operating budget.

"It's not even coming through the school's budget. It's coming through district or county budgets. There are lots of ways to tap into money there."

The bigger operational pain point, Jesse admits, isn't finding the money — it's the procurement process. Researching equipment, getting bids, navigating purchasing timelines, and making sure every device aligns with the curriculum standards you're actually teaching is a months-long process. His advice: start planning in January or February for the equipment you'll need the following school year. The pain point is being six months ahead, and most educators aren't.

The "Just Look Up" Campaign

Perhaps the most unexpected part of the conversation was Jesse's passion for something he calls the "Just Look Up" campaign — a personal initiative that has grown out of his frustration watching students spend an average of five and a half hours a day on their phones.

He's not interested in punitive phone policies. Taking a device away from someone who's addicted doesn't produce the student you want — it produces a student in withdrawal. What Jesse is after is something harder and more meaningful: voluntary disengagement.

"If you can get the kid to voluntarily put the phone down — in other words, reject that interruption and engage in your world — then that's the mark of success."

His broadcast program is, in many ways, the practical answer to his own campaign. When students are responsible for a live show that goes out to the entire school every morning, there's no room to be on their phone. The work demands their full presence. That's not a side effect of the program — it's one of its most important outcomes.

Looking ahead, Jesse is considering producing a documentary on the subject, using the high-end cameras and lensing that TechArts helped him acquire. It would be, fittingly, a student-produced project about the very thing his program is designed to combat.

What's Next for Omnia Studios

Troy High School's broadcast program isn't standing still. Jesse's near-term focus is on content quality — not the technical side, which he feels confident about, but the storytelling, the depth of reporting, and the range of what the program produces. He has ideas for next year that he's keeping close to the chest, but the direction is clear: more ambitious, more cinematic, and more meaningful.

"I'm more technically capable than I am content-focused right now. One of my goals is to improve the delivery of content, the quality of the content, the breadth and depth of the content."

For other schools watching from the sidelines, Jesse's story is a straightforward argument: you don't need permission, a big budget, or a fully formed plan to start. You need a passion, a few students willing to learn alongside you, and the willingness to build something before anyone tells you it's possible.

The rest follows.

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