Tales of the Night Side

My first week at WBIR I worked dayside for training. The hours were 9:30am to 6:30pm. I switched to my normal schedule last week, which is quite a difference. Instead of Monday through Friday, I work Friday through Sunday, 2:30pm to midnight.

I like the swing shift hours. I usually go to bed around midnight anyway, so that's not much of a change. What is a change is forcing myself to get up at 7am with nothing to do right away. I'm going to try to not get in the habit of getting home at midnight, staying up until 2 or 3 am and then sleeping in until noon. It might be tough though because it's SO tempting. A week in, so far so good. We will see how long I can keep it up.

Last Sunday I covered the last day of the inaugural Tennessee Tea Party Coalition Convention held in Gatlinburg (about an hour from Knoxville). The Coalition is comprised of all the local Tea Party chapters across the state. I should know how many there are but I don't. Several candidates running for governor participated in a debate as the finale of the convention. There were seven candidates and many issues discussed. Instead of focusing on the issues, I focused on the attendees and what they got out of the debate. I won't get into my story, but I will talk process. I shot almost an hour of video because initially I didn't know what I was going to focus on. Stories like these are always tough. Do you focus on the issues & many candidates? Or, focus on the people? Shooting that much video and not having a clear direction to the story were my first two mistakes. I could have decided on a focus before I got there. However, being brand new to this state and having to study every thing political has proved to be a challenge. Anyway, I got back to the station around 7pm. Our show is at 11pm. Normally, four hours is plenty of time for me to turn a story. Last Sunday it wasn't. I got bogged down with trying to include a short 2-3 second sound bite from each of the seven candidates in my story. That adds complication to editing. Since I'm also new to our editing system, that was another mistake. I bit off more than I could chew, and for the first time in 2 years, I missed a deadline. We had to turn my package (long story that I voice over) into a vosot (voice over sound on tape that the anchor reads over live). Technically, I guess I didn't miss deadline since I still got content submitted, but I didn't file what I was supposed to. I was embarrassed. To my surprise, all of my weekend colleagues were supportive since they know learning the new editing system IS a challenge for anyone who hasn't used it before. I finished my package after the show and that's what was posted on the website. I sent a text message to my mentor, Ann Curry, about missing slot. She told me I'm allowed this early in because everything is brand new to me. That gave me some relief. On Monday, my news director didn't say a thing about it. I was relieved by that too. I had already talked to him about how challenging the editing system was to me. I think (and hope) he's giving me a little time to settle in.

On Monday, I shot a story about a historic bridge in Knox County that's going to be closed from June 2-July 2. I got my legs under me with this story and finally feel like I"m back in the saddle. I interviewed a lady who has lived next to the bridge her entire life. She's frustrated with the closure, but glad the repairs are being done. I also interviewed someone from county Public Works. I turned a pkg that included the lady's story, lots of natural sound pops, and, if I do say so myself, my trademark photography (lots of close shots and unconventional, out of sequence editing). That story was held until Tuesday because of some breaking news. That gave me time to order custom graphics from our parent company, Gannett. I ordered a set-up map for the anchors to read over before my story, and a map of the bridge detour route for my package. We can make graphics in house, but the ones we can order look way better. I fronted the story live as the top story in the 11pm news cast Tuesday night. It felt great to get my first live shot done. I did feel a little anxiety in my chest just before I went on, but I'm going to give it a little time before I decide to go and get drugs to curb that. Our two anchors, Robin Wilhoit and John Becker, and the other nightside reporter, Stoney Sharp, all congratulated me on a great story after the show. That felt great too. Everyone I work with is so supportive and helpful. I'm lucky to be here.

I shot a story on Tuesday that will probably run this Friday. I still have to edit it. Haven't done it yet because producers might kill it. It's about a company looking for Knoxville residents to rent their homes out on football game weekends in the fall. Turns out this isn't the first time the company's targeted Knoxville, what they're doing is legal, and it really isn't a story. I have sound from 2 people; one who's going to sign up, another who isn't but doesn't care if his neighbors do. Script is written & video is logged. Will find out tomorrow if I need to edit it or not. So far, I've gotten on the "hold" rotation. That means I haven't had to shoot, edit, and present an story all in one day. It's kind of nice to be a day ahead. However, I want and need the challenge of doing daily news. I don't discount the "hold" status though because it is nice to be able to put extra time into my work.

Been off the last two days. Didn't think about work at all yesterday. Today, have spent time enterprising, or trying to think of stories to do that don't come out of the newspaper or from a press release. This is also a challenge having only been in Knoxville for two weeks. I'm in a coffee shop now with a list of phone numbers to call. Headed home to do that. Then going downtown. Meeting work friends to watch "Sex and the City" later, and want to walk around downtown with my camera & see if I can't identify other stories.

So far, things here are great. I am looking forward to going to Oregon next week to see my old college friends, and having dinner with Ann while she's in Ashland for SOU's commencement. Then it's back to TN for a long summer of weekend, night side reporting. If any one has any story ideas, please send them my way!