Day Two
The blog is now up and running. It's been linked on the homepage at WHNT.com. So today I will try to give a little more insite into what it is we do everyday. Most people wonder how it could possibly take the whole day to come up with two minutes of news. I've often wondered that myself.
Actually putting together those few minutes of news can somedays be very fast. Boom Boom it's done. But then again, other stories take the whole day.
So what do I do all day? Well my day normally begins at 6:30. That's when the alarm clock goes off. From my house to our Albertville office takes me about 40 minutes. I get to the office around 8:15 everyday. I come in, check email(actually try to check email. The spam is so bad, I'm sure I miss a great deal) then I call the police. Actually I call police across Marshall, DeKalb and Jackson Counties. That's a big part of how we find out what's going on and how I come up with a story everyday.
I have to come up with the story ideas. Most of the time that's how it works. I have to come up with one main story, we call it the package, and several smaller stories. The main story is the one you'll see me delivering live on TV. The other smaller stories, I will write, but the anchors will just read those.
Around 9:15, I will call into the morning meeting. The meeting is held at the station in Huntsville. The news director, assignment manager and our news producers sit around a big table and figure out what our newscasts will have in them for that day. I call in, they put me on speaker phone and I tell them what stories I have for the day. Somedays they will say that's great, and others they will say go look for something else. You have days when it's very tough to come up with anything. After I call the meeting, our Shoals reporter, Jeff Butera will do the same thing.
Once our stories are approved, we then have to start getting them to tape. Normally it will mean calling people and asking if you can come to them and stick a mic in their face. I however am not a big fan of calling ahead. Calling ahead gives them to much of a chance to "be out of the office" or "he can't come to the phone right now." So I prefer to just show up. It seems to work much better that way.
So we go shoot some interviews and the Albertville photographer Brad Hood, shoots video to go along with our story.
We then come back to our office. I will sit down and watch our interviews. I will write down everything the person said. That way when I start to write the story, I can see what they said right in front of me. Next, I start writing the story. Brad will start loading video into the computer for editing. Once the story is written, it has to be approved. So I usually call a producer in Huntsville. They will open up the story on their end, read it and make any changes they feel need to be made.
After that's done, I will voice the package. What that means, is that we will record the part of the story you'll hear me read. Once that's done, Brad will start putting all of the pieces of the story together. That usually takes about an hour.
While he's doing that, I will write the other stories. I also have to write a story for our website. Once he's done, he will call Huntsville on our Southern Link radio. Engineers will make sure they are getting our signal good. Next stop is the editor back in Huntsville. We will feed all of our video to the editor and he will in turn put it on tape.
Next, it's time to get ready to be live in one of the newscast or sometimes all of them. The anchor will come to me live in the Albertville newsroom. I will give a quick introduction to my story and then in Huntsville they will roll the story we sent over earlier.
It ends with about two minutes on TV, but it actually does take us all day to get it together.
More to come.....
Actually putting together those few minutes of news can somedays be very fast. Boom Boom it's done. But then again, other stories take the whole day.
So what do I do all day? Well my day normally begins at 6:30. That's when the alarm clock goes off. From my house to our Albertville office takes me about 40 minutes. I get to the office around 8:15 everyday. I come in, check email(actually try to check email. The spam is so bad, I'm sure I miss a great deal) then I call the police. Actually I call police across Marshall, DeKalb and Jackson Counties. That's a big part of how we find out what's going on and how I come up with a story everyday.
I have to come up with the story ideas. Most of the time that's how it works. I have to come up with one main story, we call it the package, and several smaller stories. The main story is the one you'll see me delivering live on TV. The other smaller stories, I will write, but the anchors will just read those.
Around 9:15, I will call into the morning meeting. The meeting is held at the station in Huntsville. The news director, assignment manager and our news producers sit around a big table and figure out what our newscasts will have in them for that day. I call in, they put me on speaker phone and I tell them what stories I have for the day. Somedays they will say that's great, and others they will say go look for something else. You have days when it's very tough to come up with anything. After I call the meeting, our Shoals reporter, Jeff Butera will do the same thing.
Once our stories are approved, we then have to start getting them to tape. Normally it will mean calling people and asking if you can come to them and stick a mic in their face. I however am not a big fan of calling ahead. Calling ahead gives them to much of a chance to "be out of the office" or "he can't come to the phone right now." So I prefer to just show up. It seems to work much better that way.
So we go shoot some interviews and the Albertville photographer Brad Hood, shoots video to go along with our story.
We then come back to our office. I will sit down and watch our interviews. I will write down everything the person said. That way when I start to write the story, I can see what they said right in front of me. Next, I start writing the story. Brad will start loading video into the computer for editing. Once the story is written, it has to be approved. So I usually call a producer in Huntsville. They will open up the story on their end, read it and make any changes they feel need to be made.
After that's done, I will voice the package. What that means, is that we will record the part of the story you'll hear me read. Once that's done, Brad will start putting all of the pieces of the story together. That usually takes about an hour.
While he's doing that, I will write the other stories. I also have to write a story for our website. Once he's done, he will call Huntsville on our Southern Link radio. Engineers will make sure they are getting our signal good. Next stop is the editor back in Huntsville. We will feed all of our video to the editor and he will in turn put it on tape.
Next, it's time to get ready to be live in one of the newscast or sometimes all of them. The anchor will come to me live in the Albertville newsroom. I will give a quick introduction to my story and then in Huntsville they will roll the story we sent over earlier.
It ends with about two minutes on TV, but it actually does take us all day to get it together.
More to come.....
posted by Carson Clark @ 1:24 PM
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