Spartan Editon crew interviews a TJ student. photo by Shana Saint-Phard
The Spartan Edition has been a crucial part of the TJ culture for over three decades.
For over 30 years, the Spartan Edition has been a major part of TJ’s culture. A group of this year’s juniors have taken over this TJ legacy. Created by Matt Spampinato, the student-led show aspires to entertain and inform all members of the Spartan community for ten minutes daily.
Originating as a radio show, the Spartan Edition used to be audio only. That version of the Spartan Edition, however, never really drew in people’s attention – students and faculty alike didn’t seem to listen. Wishing to create something more engaging, alluring, and equally informative, Spampinato applied for and received a $100,000 grant from the City of Denver and Mile Hi Cable. With this grant came televisions for every classroom and the installation of a production studio to produce and display the show. Spampinato wanted to “not only deliver relevant news and community public service content to the students, but to also give students a real world lab experience to those who wanted to pursue broadcast journalism as a career.” According to Spampinato, the biggest challenge while producing the show was “being able to stay on schedule and produce new and relevant – and entertaining – content on a daily basis.” However, the hard work, ambition, and creativity of both Spampinato and his students allowed them to live up to that challenge.
Starting in 1990 as an English teacher and Newspaper Advisor, Spampinato’s 25 year long career at TJ came with new additions to the curriculum. After a few years, Spampinato introduced a darkroom and photojournalism class, inspired by his previous occupation. Not only did he introduce a school wide television show, he also brought videography, web design, 3-D animation, computer programming, and robotics classes to life through his creation of the CCT (Center for Communication Technology) program, formerly called the Computer Magnet program. The popular school television show features many topics, such as news, weather, word of the day, and more, and is played every day for the first ten minutes of fourth period.
After Spampinato’s retirement in 2016, teacher and TJ alum Grant Laman took over the production of the Spartan Edition. Laman’s hope for this year’s class is that students are able to continue “being entertaining and informative. That’s always the struggle, it’s either too entertaining and silly and then it doesn’t really fit the purpose of the Spartan Edition. If it’s just straight-laced and there’s no entertainment then it’s boring. We have to find the balance.”
So what does it take to be a productive member of the Spartan Edition crew? In order to qualify to take the class, sophomores must take a Digital Media course to prepare themselves to be a part of the crew during their junior year. In the Digital Media class, they learn how to work the equipment and how to navigate the production platforms. This year’s crew has it much easier than last year’s did – with the rise of COVID-19 during the class of 2023’s freshmen and sophomore year, last year’s crew struggled to be able to work in the studio and learn how to use the equipment needed for the production of the Spartan Edition. In contrast to last year’s team, juniors already have experience and knowledge from their sophomore year. Junior Saben Snyder hopes to “develop skills on how to create videos that are entertaining and informative” through his time in the class.
Ian Crumrine, a senior at TJ, was part of the crew last year. During his time on the show, he most enjoyed being able to go out into the TJ community to interact with different people from around the school. Being on the show taught him that teamwork plays a huge role in creating the show and that “everyone is a part of everyone else’s project.” The magic of the Spartan Edition would not be possible without teamwork throughout the TJ community.
Although it airs for only 10 minutes, it takes hours of hard work to create the show. Over the last three decades, new people and ideas have allowed for diversity in the creation of the videos every year. Creativity throughout the Spartan Edition crew continues to change and grow as the years go on. The class allows for students interested in Journalism to gain experience in the field and also gives students a good opportunity to work with others collaboratively and be introduced to new ideas, which are the main reasons why the Spartan Edition has been such a major part of TJ’s culture since it was created.
Thanks to the innovation and vision of Spampinato, the TJ community gets to experience a show like none other. His creativity and perseverance has influenced something that TJ students will remember beyond their high school career and for the rest of their lives.
