Channel 19 spotlights a day in the life at Revere

by Sheldon Ocker

The sun is only a rumor at 5 a.m., but people began stirring even earlier at Revere High School on the morning of Sept. 4.

Principal Doug Faris and Nikki Campbell, the district’s director of personnel operations, arrived at 4:30 a.m. to attend to final preparations for the day’s featured event: a reporter and camera operator from WOIO (Ch. 19) airing what life is like at Revere.

As with most television programming, Channel 19’s morning news program planned the seven live segments – each a little more than two minutes – with precision.

The first began at 5:15 a.m., an interview with School Resource Officer Scott Dressler. The last, at 8:15 a.m., after school was in session, was a visit with special needs students who operate a snack cart for the student body.

“That was my favorite part of the day,” said Faris.

Faris was responsible for deciding what aspects of the Revere experience would be showcased. He decided Dressler should be the leadoff interview to keep participating students from having to arrive at school at such an early hour.

And there were lots of participants. Among a student body of about 850, almost 200 made it on camera.

Faris had high praise for WOIO reporter Madisan Green, who anchored the segments and conducted the interviews.

“She asked [students] which of them wanted to talk on television,” he said. “Not everybody does. So she asked questions only of kids who wanted to do it.”

Green was given a Revere sweatshirt, which she wore during the segments. Faris said the day was treated as a Spirit Day, and all students were asked to wear school colors to class.

“You wouldn’t believe all of the red, white and blue,” he said.

The morning proceeded featuring Faris and Campbell at 5:45 a.m., the League of Leaders at 6:15 a.m., head football coach Robert Nickol, new Athletic Director Ben Kobus and the captains of the football team at 6:45 a.m., the marching band and cheerleaders at 7:15 a.m. and the Reverse A Capella singers at 7:45 a.m.

The League of Leaders is a group of students that represents 60 organizations from clubs and sports teams to student council and the National Honor Society. Twelve members of the leadership organization made it to the TV segment.

Football was a special emphasis for Channel 19, because the show was aired on a football Friday.

“It was about football, but it didn’t focus on football,” Faris said. “We had the opportunity to do what we wanted.”

The process of the TV station selecting Revere goes back more than a year.

Faris said he received an email from the station in June 2025 asking if he could pick a date when the news show could broadcast from Revere.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the dates to align,” the principal said. “After that, I kind of forgot about it, to be honest, but they called us again in July [this year].”

The reaction to Channel 19’s visit has been gratifying to Faris and the district’s Director of Communications, Brenda Moll.

“We had over 400 likes on our Facebook page,” Moll said. “That’s a lot for us.”

Moll said a video of the band and cheerleaders’ segment got more than 15,000 views on Instagram.

Even the Channel 19 cameraman was impressed.

“He told me, ‘You people really rolled out the red carpet for us,'” Faris said.

Faris also was pleased that Revere was able to portray the ideal the school strives to achieve.

“Underneath it all was our mantra, ‘Every Student Thrives,'” he said.