Every student at Rocky Mountain High School is familiar with the Bearcast. In case you have been living under a rock or do not go to Rocky, the Bearcast is a daily video that the broadcasting students put together in first period that compiles the announcements the administration wants the students to hear. The students and staff get to see the finished product every day (or two out of every five now because of COVID-19), but what is it really like behind the Bearcast? 

Since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bearcast has not been the same. Many of the Bearcast creators, like Beau Caporale and Tyler McDonough, enjoyed making the Friday show, a more fun and creative video they could put together.

Tyler McDonough, a senior at Rocky, said his favorite part used to be making said Friday show.

Kady Cluff, a sophomore at Rocky, said it was “definitely the most entertaining Bearcast they produced,” and made second period “a little more exciting.” However, it’s just not possible to produce it under the conditions they’re under right now. 

McDonough said, “It’s hard to make a funny Bearcast and with COVID we just don’t have the time or more people to create the Bearcast.”

The reduced amount of time and people really strip the potential the Bearcast has had previously, but McDonough and his crew get the job done, whether or not it’s as great as they hoped. 

“Sometimes quality is sacrificed for getting it done quickly,” he continued. It’s all done in first period, so time is limited, as well supplies. They can’t use the studio because the “fancy computer” is new, and no one has been able to get it to work. Take that, and a broken tricaster, the broadcasting students are doing what they can with the little they have.  

“Last year [the Bearcast] was good for some laughs,” Kady Cluff explained; this year, she’s only in school for two days a week now, so she doesn’t get the same level of exposure to the program. 

The impact may be little, but it is still there and broadcasting students are doing what Grizzlies do: work hard. Students hope that once COVID-19 calms down, they can go back to watching the Bearcast with all of its features.