Oyster Bay Broadcasting Team Shines At BASH Awards

OYSTER BAY-EAST NORWICH, NY — Oyster Bay High School's student broadcasting team earned top honors at this year's Broadcast Alliance for Senior High (BASH) Awards, bringing home two first-place awards while also helping host the event.

Oyster Bay, Bellmore-Merrick, and Harborfields High Schools collaborated on the event, held at Hofstra University's John Cranford Adams Playhouse.

Bay News Now (BNN), the school's student-run broadcast program led by teacher Alex Dollin's TV Production class, played a major role in the annual awards ceremony, which was streamed live on the official BASH YouTube page. BNN anchors Noah Kingsley and James Ortiz wrote and emceed the ceremony, while other students took on a variety of behind-the-scenes responsibilities throughout the night.

Students worked hard in the hours leading up to the event, stuffing hundreds of swag bags and leading the first-ever BASH pre-show. They also volunteered during the event, serving as ushers to seat more than 800 students from nearly 60 schools across Long Island and NYC. Senior Scarlett Fredrickson and sophomore Sienna Stewart presented the Best Live Sports Broadcast category.

The first-place award for Best School News Package went to BNN anchor James Ortiz for his story about a student who was saved by school staff after suffering a medical emergency at Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School.

Along with Ortiz, his entire BNN team earned first place in Best Overall Long Broadcast for their second quarterly newscast.

TV Production and Media Teacher Alex Dollin and Oyster Bay Director of Fine, Performing, and Media Arts Erica Giglio Pac both said they were proud of the BNN team’s work throughout the event.

"They more than rose to the challenge of hosting the BASH Awards this year and really worked together as a team to put together an impressive live pre-show," Dollin said. "I hope that is something we can continue to expand upon next year."