There are 22 English teachers in the building, and Douglas Sipes used to be one of them before he created the broadcasting class. Sipes was on a committee that decided to create the  class. He created it in the mid 90s because he wanted to highlight things students were doing because he didn’t think local television stations were doing a good job of recognizing students. It was hard for him to leave his English teaching job, but he does not regret it at all.  

Mountain Lion Television, or MLTV, is the show that airs every school morning to every class in the school. According to Sipes, MLTV has changed slightly over the years. Fox News has started doing a segment on MLTV.

“We also had a partnership with them a few years back. We started when we streamed the football games. We also sent a stream to Fox, and that’s kind of how it all started. Then we started talking about doing some things here in the studio,” Sipes said. 

Sipes has been working at Altoona for 30 years, but he believes he will retire at the end of next school year. Junior Noah Fries has been in MLTV since his freshman year. 

“I think that it’s definitely going to take a big hit when Sipes leaves, but MLTV has the foundations to allow whoever takes over next to pretty much do the same thing that Sipes is doing now,” N. Fries said.

N. Fries wants to go into sports broadcasting for his career.

“All the stuff that I’ve learned from Sipes, and just in this class in general, is really going to help me in my career, hopefully. I’ve always loved sports and then just everything that I’ve learned from here, even whenever we were virtual. I just really appreciate Sipes and everything he does here, so I just really want to be a sportscaster for those reasons,” N. Fries said. 

Junior Caleb Fries thinks Sipes is a great teacher. 

“He really gives everyone creative freedom. He doesn’t tend to have lots of restrictions. I mean, obviously, there’s some, but the fact of us being able to be completely free and autonomous is really awesome,” C. Fries said.

C. Fries has had Sipes as a teacher for three years.

“When Sipes leaves I think it’s going to have a slightly different feel to it. I mean, the edits might be the same, but I think overall, Sipes’ personality is awesome, so I think not having him around would be a little weird, but I think, overall, it will still be okay,” C. Fries said.

C. Fries is not planning to go into broadcasting in his future, but he believes this class has taught him a lot.

“Broadcasting benefits my future because it teaches you how to be creative and find creative solutions and problems. It’s awesome for me to be able to have this experience and work with this kind of technology. It really benefits you in ways you didn’t really think possible,” C. Fries said. 

Students have gone on to be successful in broadcasting after taking Sipes class. 

“There are kids in Hollywood right now doing things for film, and I’ve had people become agents. People become photographers. And there’s a student named Seth Bradley who works for the New York Jets, and he does all their videos. He’s won several Emmy’s and things like that. So yes, it all started from when he was in this class,” Sipes said. 

Sipes wants the best for MLTV after he leaves. 

“I just hope MLTV continues to grow and experiment with new ideas and new partnerships with people and things like that,” Sipes said.