Property Taxes

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Above is a radio wrap concerning the increase of property taxes and what local citizens are doing about it. All the most important information is in the wrap. The best point Professor Waylenko made was that the same amount of taxes would have to be collected no matter if it was through property tax or income tax, so it doesn't really matter if they change them.

When Gino anchors you know what happens

Let me start this off with an apology.
What happened four weeks ago when I anchored was a disaster. I never thought it could get any worse but it did this week, and I just want to tell my producer I feel so sorry that it was a great piece of newscast she put together, but I pretty much completely ruined it. I'm really sorry Noel, and thank you for putting up with me.
What I found interesting when I did my foner today was that there was a discrepancy between people's beliefs. While 1) analysts' pessimistic predictions for retail sales turned out inaccurate and 2) merchants say they were somewhat surprised by their sales over the past weekend, spokesperson of the Retail Council of New York State says the council has never lost faith in the Black Friday weekend, and she doesn't understand why some people thought this year was going to be any different than the previous years.
The cool thing about this foner was that at the end of our conversation the spokesperson asked me which news organization I am with, and I said NCC at Syracuse University. She said guessed what, and I was like NO WAY! And she said yep she is also from Newhouse. So in the end, despite the fact that she didn't call me back until absolutely the last minute (3:30pm), I enjoyed our conversation not only because she was super friendly on the phone, but also because she is a Newhouse graduate also.

The end of an era

Thursday was very interesting. Before the newscast I don't think I was even on Team A so this was a very new experience. Overall, I think it could have been better. Our timing was a bit off, but it seems like everyone says the same thing week-in and week-out so I'll put that one behind me. As far as the anchor and reporters, things went off well. Annie did a great job as usual. It took her a while to find a phoner but she never gave up and I'm very grateful for that because the doctor she eventually found made for a good bite.

My main criticism from Professor Nicholson last time I produced was that I needed to stay on my reporters more so that things got finished and carted early so that the newscast could sound as best as possible. I tried to do that this week. I made a soft deadline for 3 p.m. and Matt worked really hard to explain a confusing story to get it in on time and carted. By the soft deadline, we actually had three of four carts ready to go. Faith dealt with a lot yesterday. Between talking to people about AIDS testing (not exactly the easiest thing to talk about) and dealing with me constantly asking if her story was done or how close she was, she could have easily lost it. She stayed calm though, and her wrap turned out great. We ended up getting everything done and printed with just a few seconds to spare and our newscast was pretty good. It definitely wasn't the best newscast ever, but it was a great way to end the semester.

internet mining

condit-state troop...

I found a great back-up and tried to pass it off for my story this afternoon to Professor Nicholson. It was my classic lean-to story, I was going to interview Sarah Short about some nutritional carrot study before it was denied. I was told to do a wrap on the recruitment of State Troopers. I couldn't find anyone to talk to because they didn't call me back and eventually took the Professor's advice and did the entire wrap from the internet site.
This was not as easy as it might seem. I had trouble finding a good bite, but I eventually settled on something and I think it works to some extent. Anyway, here is the result

Bitter Sweet Ending...

Our last news cast!! So sweet but so sad...

This week I was the producer of team C. I had no trouble putting together a newscast. I even had time to do an interview for an anchor act. My team helped a lot with writing and extra stories and carting sound. This week I was able to delegate responsibility which helped a lot. We ran into a little trouble with timing during the newscast but all and all I am not disappointed with my teams performance. It probably would have been better if we had timed the cast prior to going into the sound booth and if Gino and I had better communication.

Lessons learned:
1.There is no I in team! Teamwork makes everything run sooo much smoother!
2. Have clear communication set up ahead of time for while you are in the sound booth.

I am going to miss everyone in this class and everything has been such a great experience! Much love for our class! xo

The Last Broadcast of RTN 364

I went down to the Sheraton today for what they were calling their first Green Day. They wanted to get certification as a green facility in Onondaga County by OCRRA. Today they were going to have a small presentation for their employees about how they can go green at home. The Sheraton also gave out prizes to their employees for the ones that came up with the best ways the hotel can become even more environmentally friendly. One of the winning ideas is motion sensors in different places that don't have ones already. The sensors would detect whether someone is the vicinity. If no one is around, lights would go off as would air conditioners and heaters to conserve energy. The hotel plans on giving employees more tips in the future on how to be more environmentally conscience. The Sheraton would also like to expand this project to their guests as well in the future.

Sheraton Green.mp3

parachute over me....

It's the last newscast blog. It's sad really.

I did my story on a study that came out of the New England Journal of Medicine that suggested CT scans caused cancer up to 2% of cancer patients.

The thing I learned that I couldn't really fit in my article, was an opinion that Mr. Gignac gave me about 3rd party influences on Medicine. The study showed that since 1970, the number of CT scan treatments had increased significantly, and more often than not, additional CT scans were ordered when they weren't necessarily needed. Mr. Gignac opined that he suspected insurance companies pressured hospitals into ordering another CT scan to do checkups on cancer patients instead of opting for other lab tests that would be more expensive. Mr. Gignac sais he wasn't sure if this was necessarily the case, but it was a trend he had noticed in the past few years.

Try, try again!

If at first you don't suceed, try, try again. That was pretty much the theme of finding a phoner today for me. I started off trying to contact the Food and Drug Administration about a public hearing they were holding on their policies on salt and salt in food prompted by a letter from sent from a citizens group. I called the main number for the agency but all I got was an endless chain of voice menus and no real person. I then tried the New York state division of the FDA but all I got was a voice mail, all three times I called. I got back on the FDA website and found the number for public relations, but when I called all four representatives were either in the hearing or out of the office. Katie had a back up phoner for me about the public works department in Akron, Ohio using beet juice and salt as a de-icer. I called the Akron public works department, but the manager who knew about the de-icer was at a doctors appointment. Then I called the department of transportation division that Akron is located in and got a voicemail, so I called the the Ohio State Department and got another voicemail. I was running out of time so I called all three again, and the FDA again just to try and got all the same results. I even tried to call Frito-Lay headquarters for their reaction to the public hearing on salt but couldn't get a really person. Finally I checked the run-down to see what other stories we had that I could turn into a phoner. I ended up calling the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerece to get their view on the Syracuse area economy and reaction to the White House's forcast of a poor economy in 2008. I ended up getting good sound about how positive things look for 2008 in Central New York. About ten minutes before we went on air my cell phone started ringing, all three of the people from Ohio called me back in those final minutes.

The Last Time

I covered Thursday Morning Roundtable today where Dominic Robinson (son of football coach Greg Robinson) spoke about the Assisi Movement which he is the director of. Basically the Assisi movement is a new program on the North Side of Syracuse that is aiming to improve the quality of life for the underprivileged.The Assisi movement is part of Franciscan Collaborative Ministries which is "a spiritually-oriented non-profit community renewal organization undertaking various social entrepreneurship initiatives in an effort to revitalize the North Side of the City of Syracuse." (http://www.franciscancm.org/about.php)

Robinson talked about how the new program is unlike charities and community building projects done in the past. The Assisi Movement is a more collaborative project - meaning it is combining the Franciscan Church of Assumption with Catholic charities, hospitals, businesses, and youth programs. Whereas these previous direct community building programs worked independently, the Assisi movement and the Franciscan Collaborative Ministries are bringing all these different organizations together.

I found the discussion very interesting because I had no idea such a comprehensive program in Syracuse existed. The Assisi movement also has programs that train volunteers for a whole year and then puts them in different social service organizations. The FCM recieves grants and federal money, although Robinson said they need more.

I'm also very said this is the last time we are doing a newscast this semester. I had a lot of fun, and learned so much.

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Chill Day

So yeah today was a really relaxed, easy day. It was really easy producing at this point in the semester. We got everything done pretty quickly. Jordan did a great job helping with the writing and made my job easy. The only difficulties I had with the newscast was putting together a rundown. As professor Nicholson noted at the beginning of the day, it's a very slow news day. I felt like I found good stories for the newscast that would keep listeners engaged, the problem was that the stories didn't really connect the way some rundowns do, so we were going from Bin Laden, to new school construction, to a hockey team crash, to Broadway.
Once we were in the booth, Jordan read excellently and things went pretty smooth. We were about 20 seconds over heading to the break, and I realized that was going to happen as I was listening, only I couldn't cut a copy story because we teased them both in the headlines (whoops!). So during the break I tried to help Jordan cut down the weather and kicker. I probably should have taken more out. Also I should have set up a system with Jordan so that I could let her know when the end was coming so she could cut it off. As producer it's definitely my fault that we ran over, but hey, it's a learning experience.

Two years and counting...

school constructio...

I went downtown to The Hotel Syracuse to cover the Joint Schools Construction Board meeting. After almost missing it entirely (since the meeting ended early, and I arrived late), I spoke with Christine Fix, the secretary of the board. She explained to me exactly what was discussed at the meeting and what the board's plans are.

For the past two years, the board has been talking about renovating seven Syracuse schools, including middle schools, high schools, and pre-K through 8th grade schools. The project is supposed to cost about $900 million, but construction hasn't even started yet. She said today's and next Thursday's meeting (the meetings are held every Thursday) are extremely important because the board is almost done picking the architect for the project. Once the architect is picked, designs will be made and construction will begin. She hopes construction will be done in three years.

Fix said they received 57 different proposals from 21 different architecture firms, which is why it's taken so long to decide which firms to use. She says they're trying to use as many different firms as possible for the different schools so construction may begin on all seven schools at the same time. The reason the schools are being renovated, she said, is because many of them are simply outdated. They're in desperate need of a change to improve the "environment" for students. She said some of the schools were built in the 1800s and don't even have windows!

The project seems promising, but like Destiny USA and the Connective Corridor, who knows what will happen?

HIV testing on campus

I really do not know what exactly I am allowed to post right now because I am waiting to get permission from one of my interviewees. I have now learned that never again should I be in this position. If ever someone does not want you to use information in your story, find another source. This is all advice I learned from Professor Nicholson today after making my mistake. Hopefully, everyone can learn from it. Once again, I will repeat the lesson I learned. Never ever let someone tell you what you can or cannot use in your story.

Even though I made this mistake, I am happy with my work today. There was a free and anonymous HIV testing at Syracuse University. It was held in the Department of African American Studies in Sims Hall. Senior African Americans Studies student Asha Best was in charge of the event. Today's event, Red Alert, is a part of Best's week long AIDS/ HIV awareness campaigned called Project Red. The testing was available to both students and the community. There are different types of testing such as confidential and anonymous. Anonymous testing, which was used today, is done with a code number. Only information such as zip code, gender, date of birth and race are collected. Anonymous testing is always free. Rapid tests were used today to give the test takers their results. The finger prick test took about ten minutes. The event started at 10AM and ended at 2PM. At the end, 37 people got tested. Best planned all of the events in Project Red. Tomorrow there will be a remembrance vigil at the Jabberwocky Cafe. Saturday there will be an art exhibition and a film screening at the Community Folk Art Center. And, on Monday there will be a fund-raiser. This event also ties into World AIDS Day which is this Saturday.

Finally, I would just like to say I really enjoyed covering this story. I learned a lot from it. For the first time this semester I took great risks. I went into doing a story that I knew would cause some difficulty. I was not able to talk to students getting tested because the event was anonymous. Also, some of the people I interviewed told me I could only use the information I received from them only for class purposes. Although I am only using it for class purposes, the blog makes it more complicated. I know I made a few mistakes today but I'm OK with it. Today has taught me so much about what I need to know to be a successful broadcast journalist.

Cutting it Quite Short

Today was the final newscast, and my last chance to anchor. I've been stressing lately about all of the end-of-semester work, but to be honest it was nice not to worry about reporting for once. I read the Post Standard this morning, and saw that Broadway shows were back on! The stagehands reached agreements to end the strike. I was very excited by this, and thought it would be nice to do a phoner on it. I personally knew how much the strike affected New York, because I was there over Thanksgiving break (and actually saw a Broadway show that wasn't effected by the strike), and saw stagehands picketing, and also noticed how "empty" the city looked (if you could ever call Manhattan empty)-- but especially compared to how it usually is this time of year.

I called many people, but most of the people who would be willing to talk to me were giving meeting with press elsewhere in the city and didn't return my calls. Time to focus on something new! I contacted the Elmira Jackals to look to someone to speak to because their team had gotten into an accident early this morning. I was told that their General Manager was outside meeting with the press as well, but to call back in a half hour. I waited a half hour and called again, but to no avail. He still wasn't back. I asked to be forwarded to his voicemail and planned on leaving him a very friendly message, but gave up hope a little bit that this would work considering it was past 3 o'clock.

I started searching elsewhere for phoners, but five minutes later my phone rang-- it was Mr. Nichols, the General Manager, and he had time to talk to me! This made me feel a lot better. I got that written as well as kickers and some copy stories, and felt prepared for the newscast.

I thought it went very smoothly. Until a certain point, anyways. I was happy with my pacing, but in the end kind of blew it. I married the script. Never marry the script. The end of Team D's newscast is me rushing to give you the current weather conditions. Needless to say I wasn't very happy with that.

But overall this has been an amazing experience, I've learned SO much and had a lot of fun along the way. I listened to my very first wrap the other day just for fun, and I was AMAZED at the difference to my wraps now. I can say now that I feel confident writing, editing, anchoring, producing, reporting-- I feel like I can do it all, and that's a great feeling.

Team B(for Barely made it on time)

Henry Hyde

April 18, 1924-November 29, 2007

I produced Team B today and while I was in a state of panic from about 2:00 on , my team really pulled through. I worked to get the rundown to have a nice flow to it, and ended up redoing the whole order about a billion times because stories kept changing. I need to learn to calm down.

One story that was cut (which I'm actually pretty glad about) was about about the death of Former U.S. Representative Henry Hyde.

Former U.S. Representative Henry Hyde died early this morning. He was 83. President Bush presented Hyde the Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this month. Hyde is remembered for leading House efforts to impeach President Clinton as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He is also remembered as a champion of the anti-abortion movement after he attached an amendment to a spending bill prohibiting federal funds from being used to perform abortions.

I think it was poorly written and didn't fit in the rundown very well, so I'm very glad I am a dunce when it comes to timing.

Salvation Army needs troops and supplies

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This week I was reporter for Team B and my story was on the Salvation Army and the lack of donations and volunteers that it's received this year. The organization is worried that it may not have enough food to meet demand this holiday season, despite an effort to encourage getting more people involved by holding a special "So You Think You Can Ring" contest. The competition is among the volunteer bell ringers and shoppers vote on who's the best. The Salvation Army is encouraging the less fortunate families in the community to sign up for this years Christmas Bureau campaign, but if donations are too low, some families may be denied assistance.

I went downtown to the Emergency Center and got an interview with Donna Ross, the emergency services coordinator. She said that the lack of donations this year was because of a declining national economy. She also reminded me that last year was the same situation, and by mid-December donations picked up rapidly, as did volunteers. She said that the public is willing to donate their time, supplies, and money but first they must be reminded that there are people out there struggling to put food on the table. She promised me that promotion would pick up in the subsequent weeks. The story turned out great and I got to use a bell ringer for my natural sound. If I could have done the story again, I would focus on donated toys being checked for high levels of lead. Twelve thousand toys will be handed out by the Salvation Army this year and that may mean having to work longer hours or get more volunteers to do the job.

Overall our team did alright, but seeing that this was our last newscast I was confident things would go perfect. Things didn't go too smoothly however because of technical difficulties, but excuses are like...well you know how the saying goes. Everyone has one! Amy did a great job remaining cool under pressure as anchor, and she had great pacing through out. AJ's story was well done, and Katie did a great job with the rundown by grouping similar story topics with one another. It's a sad sad day since this is our last newscast together, but I'm happy that I got my first real radio news experience with such wonderful classmates. Hopefully television reporting is as rewarding.

Better Late Than Never, I Always Say!

speed read.mp3

First I must apologize for the tardiness for this posting. But onwards we go... I had a blast doing last week's wrap. I went to the Schine Student Center and covered a Speed Reading contest, which would donate the money it raised to buying books for underprivileged kids in Syracuse. I knew I was in the right place because as soon as I walked downstairs I heard the children laughing and yelling. There was a huge "Cat in the Hat" character, as well as the head coach of the women's lacrosse team, Gary Gait, and the Post Standard's sportswriter, Mike Waters. They would ultimately be the contestants. The kids were very excited for the contest, and during the speed reading were whipping black and white "rally" flags back and forth. Gary Gait was announced the winner. To be honest though, I think Mike Waters actually won. I'm not trying to call out Gary Gait, but when they asked him how many words he read, I think he announced a higher number as a joke, not thinking they would take him seriously. But they did, and he was announced victor. Afterwards I talked to both Mr. Gait and Mr. Waters. Something really great that you wouldn't know from listening to my wrap is that Mike Waters already knew the class that came in to watch the Speed Read because he's gone into their classroom many times to read to them. This really proved the point of my story that reading for kids is a very important skill, and one that is supported by many members of the community. Hearing his excitement at the involvement of the students really drove the point home for me. It was a really fun event, and I enjoyed it thoroughly!

Musical Bonus in News Blog

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Since we're learning how to link to audio so we can listen to our wraps and newscasts and, well, I don't have any wraps or newscasts handy I decided to link to some music I like instead. So sue me.

A Day in the Life

I produced team D this week, and as fellow producer Jon Erwin mentioned in his blog, there was no clear cut lead story for the day. So the strategy I went with was to load the top half of the newscast with stories involving travel and gas prices that tie into the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. One involved airport security, another one President Bush opening up military airspace, and a story about AAA and gas prices increasing. The copy stories we had were two natural disaters- both back to back- about the Chilean earthquakes and the cyclone in Bangladesh.

I thought that the rundown flowed very nice once I heard the newscast being put out in studio. As my second time producing, my goal this time was to not cut any stories, and we were able to do that. Our A block went very smooth, and we were only ten seconds heavy going into the break, which forced us only to make a few adjustments in B block. We hit the post at 5:59 just in time! I was very happy with the newscast, the wraps my reporters Amy and Lara produced, and of course the job Katie did. She was my anchor last time I produced, so this time we knew exactly what we were doing. At this point in the semester, the newscasts are becoming much less stressfull, almost routine. Just another day in the life.

At least I didn't cough

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I was an anchor today and for my phoner I spoke to Najib Ghadbian (pictured). He is a political science and studies of the Middle East professor at the University of Arkansas as well as a frequent political commentator for al-Jazeera TV Channel. I spoke to Ghadbian about the Iranian nuclear program and the relatonship between Iran and the rest of the world. As somebody who studies the Middle East, Ghadbian really did a great job explaining some things and putting things into plain English. Pretty much, there is no evidence that Iran has done anything illegal in trying to get nuclear weapons, and there is no evidence that they have nuclear weapons, however because of some of the things President Ahmadinejad says and because of the country's ties to terrorist organizations we should all be a bit scared. Last time I was anchor I did a story about Iran as well. I think I haven't kept up with the news enough to know about all of the conflict in the Middle East but I've enjoyed doing these stories. It's something we should all be interested in. A lot of people are talking about World War 3 and how it will involve nukes which in my opinion would be disastrous.
After the phoner I thouhgt things went alright, I stumbled a couple times and I hated the way my voice sounded (last time I ever go crazy at an SU basketball game before I have to anchor.), but A.J was great as a producer and did lots of the work.

C team

Condit- Cavities.m...

I really enjoyed yesterdays newscast. I was goofing around with Richard and my anchor Andrew so I worked slowly for a while. My reporters ran into some trouble, but I talked to Annie and helped her out a little bit. She was a star.
Mura did an excellent job on his wrap, but he freaked me out when he wasn't done with about 10 minutes left.
I actually got to do some producer work during the newscast. I pulled the schools story because it felt like it was going too long. Then when I realized we had too much time left I added the hurricane story. That felt really good. I am a really slow writer. I have trouble writing copy stories, especially when I have plenty of time.

The Man Team

As a producer for Team B, I can say confidently that things could have been much, much worse than how they actually turned out. I was trembling going into the recording studio for the 3:55 cast, mainly because there were things I thought I hadn't reviewed thoroughly enough with my anchor Ranbir. So I had a bad feeling going in.

However, things went very smooth, much to my amazement and relief. Jameson had his wrap done in plenty of time, and Gino came through in the clutch by getting his on to a cart a mere 90 seconds before air time. As for Ranbir, a raspy voice wasn't going to hold him back from getting through the cast triumphantly. In the end, things turned out pretty damn good considering there was a lot of scrambling toward the end of the day.

I actually conducted a phoner myself, talking to an associate professor at the University of Dayton about the upcoming holiday season. She explained that because of the recent toy recalls, parents should emphasize spending more time with their kids this season than spending more money on toys. She also said parents should look to buy more American-produced toys because of the recalls, since they are more likely to be safer for children.

Popping your Ps

This week was difficult as a producer I felt because there was very little hard news. MY newscast included three stories about the upcoming holiday travel and a speed reading contest, none of which are truly hard news. I tried to make the newscast have more stories that were shorter in length so I could use the stories about Pakistan's free elections and Iran's nuclear weapons. Sadly I did not time out the stories correctly and ended up having to cut one the one about Pakistan's free elections. One floater I used that did not make it into the newscast was about the studies that inner city schools are doing worse than other schools. The most interesting story on the day was actually Noel's wrap about AAA and holiday travel. I liked the emphasis on the holiday travel theme because a lot of stories were just coming out about the travel season that the listeners would want to know.

Managing Director of Forensic Audits and Special Investigations with the United States Government Accountability Office

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I got really lucky with this get. When I came in to class, I really only had a vague notion of what I wanted to do as my phoner, but it got approved so I set to work on it. Finding someone to talk to wasn't as easy as it had been in the past. At two o'clock I still didn't have an interview. However, when Greg Kutz called back, I was very excited.

Greg Kutz testified before congress this morning regarding his findings about the holes in airport security. It was a little frustrating talking to him, because he really couldn't tell me anything juicy because he said it was a matter of national security.

One thing that I wish I had time to include in my wrap was what this Government Accountability Office does. Kutz said the role of the office was to covertly test many different federal programs and systems and provide an independent report to congress.

I just thought this was very interesting, because only in dealing with airport security did I really know this office existed. Also, I think another interesting facet of my story is that the investigation into airport security has been going on for a year.

Which leads me to my next interesting point: The investigators tried to recreate the same terrorist attack that was stopped in Britain in Summer '06. They created a mock terrorist cell, found instructions to make bombs on the internet, and for $150 bought all the parts they needed. They tested they improvised bombs in government labs, then went to different airports to see if they could get the parts through security in their carry-on baggage and on their persons. It turns out that they could.

Kutz said after his investigation, he thought the united states was still extremely vulnerable to a suicide bomber.

AIMlessly chatting...

O..M..G...I was reporter this week and for the first time all semester I came into class without a story. It's not that I had a lack of story ideas, but it seemed as if every story I turned in was already taken or on campus! WTF! In the end Professor Nicholson picked out a story off the wire about teens instant messaging to avoid face to face confrontations, and I was off to Goldstein to interview people.
The article said that according to an AOL poll, 43% of teens use the internet to talk to peers because they're uncomfortable speaking to them in person. I interviewed about 13 students and 5 adults and rushed back to class to do my story. For my natural sound I wanted to get the AIM sound that indicates you received a message and unfortunately I spent the first hour back trying to find it online.
While interviewing students I noticed that many of them started smiling or outright laughing when I asked them if they used the internet to avoid uncomfortable situations. Many pointed out that in the past they'd used AIM for such purposes, but most laughed it off perhaps trying to hide certain memories about being dumped online back in middle school. LOL :-( Most of the students said that AIM was their favorite way to communicate with friends because it allowed them to multi-task (listen to music, surf the web, watch TV, do homework, etc.) while chatting. I wish I would have gotten interviews from more adults, but the few I got on record said they used AIM to keep in touch with their children. They preferred e-mail, phones, or physical meetings over chatting online. The general consensus was that chatting on AIM left out the emotion that you'd get from hearing somebody's voice or seeing someones facial expressions.
The story ended up coming out OK but I kind of rushed myself in the end trying to find the perfect sound bites. I've never had so much sound to pick from for a 50 second piece and I felt a bit overwhelmed trying to pick just two bites. One thing I wish I could do over was that I ended off my piece with a sound bite. I've done it before and I tried to avoid it but my story was far too long for anything other then "Mura Gichane, N-C-C News".
Overall I think Team C did a great job working together and getting good stories. Tyler kept in touch with everyone all week and his rundown had several stories that flowed right into each other. Andrew did a fine job anchoring, and Annie survived a stalker and being denied access of St. Joseph's employees to get her smoking story.
Well ttyl cause I g2g! Happy turkey day to everyone.

(picture from http://screenshots.xnavigation.net/viewimg/36/aol/instant/messenger/aim.jpg)

Buckle Up for New York

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Oh the glory of sharing a news story. I was the anchor today so I came in to class trying to find a phoner. Before I got to class, though, I saw one of my friends from the RTN 565 class that meets at the same time as us. He said he had a lead on a road block in North Syracuse where policemen were checking cars for seat belts. I thought nothing of it at first, but then when class started I looked into it more and found that the roadblocks have been happening statewide. I was unsure if I'd be able to talk to someone because the most recent information I found was from 2004. Nonetheless, I called the number from that website and I ended up going through several different people before I found Ken Brown, the spokesman for the State Department. When I first got him on the phone, it seemed like he didn't exactly know what he could tell me about the campaign, and after putting me on hold several times he talked to me about the campaign.

The Buckle Up for New York campaign has been going on twice each year for ten years now and Brown told me that the fatalities related to a car crash when no seat belts or child restraint seat were used has decreased steadily. On his website as well he told me that there's data from each of the ten years. I looked at the one from earlier this year (May-June) and it said the tickets issued has decreased, meaning that fewer people have not been wearing seat belts.

Reverse Mortgages...not too popular

long term care.mp3

For my story today, I went downtown to the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce. I met with Donna Herlihy (pictured below) who I had spoken to on the phone yesterday. She's from Donahue Financial Management Group and helped lead this morning's seminar on Alternative Funding Sources for Long Term Care. The other speaker was Dick Downs, a reverse mortgage specialist from M&T Bank. After waiting for about a half hour, the seminar started. Unfortunately, there weren't too many interview options because only seven people came to learn about reverse mortgages, which is mainly where the discussion focused.

Donna and Dick explained that this seminar is part of a long-term series the chamber has been having called Navigating the Road Ahead. The series is focused on baby boomers who are trying to make plans for their future regarding retirement, life insurance and Medicare. They said compared to the past few seminars they've had, this was a surprisingly low turnout. Generally between ten and 20 people attend the seminars, so they seemed disappointed.

Anyway, I learned a lot about reverse mortgages, which are basically just what they sound like. Instead of someone taking out a mortgage on his/her house and having to pay the bank, the bank pays the homeowner. The homeowner doesn't owe any money to the bank unless he/she decides to move. The program is a national program that's been around for 20 years, but is gaining more interest recently.

The man I spoke to, Justin Fiedler, said he was there because his mother is interested. A lot of the other people there (and those who were supposed to show up, but didn't) were interested because of their parents or were from other banks in the area.

The idea of reverse mortgages seemed great to me until I came back to class and discussed it with Professor Nicholson. He pulled up some information on the computer, and that's when I realized why some people aren't so interested. Some say reverse mortgages are a scam because since the bank pays the homeowner, the bank owns the home after the homeowner dies...unless an heir to the homeowner is willing to pay off all the debt. YIKES. That could explain why there were so few people at the seminar...or it may have had something to do with the rainy weather.

Regardless, I came back to class with plenty of time to write my wrap, and I think I did a pretty okay job considering before this morning, I had never even heard of reverse mortgages and not only did I have to learn about them for myself, but I also had to explain it to an audience via the radio.

40 Under 40

I covered the M&T Bank's Central New York Business Journal 40 Under 40 banquet. It celebrated the accomplishment's of 40 business workers under 40 years old who have excelled in the workplace and in the community. The honorees were diverse in their occupation and community work. Many served on the board of directors for different charites like Race for the Cure and Ronald McDonald's. The honorees are encouraged to work together to fix many of the problems in the Central New York area. Part of the process to become a winner was a questionaire that asked what each nominee would do to help the Central New York area. The 40 Under 40 banquet is in its 10th year. 400 people have been honored since the program started.

Team B's newscast went well today. Ranbir did well despite his lack of a voice. A.J. put together a solid rundown that I had no complaints with. I like Gino's reaction piece to the Departure of the Color Blue.

Yep, Orange.

As a result of my complete incompetence to find a doable story

BLUE.mp3

that's not 135 miles from here or has not taken by anyone else yet, professor Nicholson sent me down to Marshall street to do a reaction story on SU's new orange-only campaign.

It turns out that not many people knew about this decision, and while some people simply didn't care, others were outraged and called it the most retarded decision the school has ever made. Some people didn't like it because they thought although blue has never been officially recognized as SU's official color, it's been in tradition for several decades and the idea of removing it seemed like nonsense. There were also students who didn't like removing blue from SU's seals and logos from an aesthetic point of view. They were mostly art majors such as interior and industrial design. These students found it dull and uninviting to have orange after orange after orange. They said such a bright color needs an accent color to neutralize it so it would seem balanced. (Somehow when I heard them talking about it, I was thinking of Zen and YingYang.)

John Wiode, the manager of Charney's, wasn't a fan of the campaign either. When I interviewed him, he had a copy of Daily Orange right on top of his desk. He said he hasn't read the story yet but he saw the headline. He said if SU was really going to get rid of blue, there's a possibility that sales at his store would go down a little because a lot of people like navy. Due to the fact he said it in a monotone voice and I wasn't exactly sure what the policy's effect was on SU's clothes, I chose not to include that in my wrap.

It's a very interesting story. I'm glad I was assigned to cover it and I know it's going to be a great conversation subject.



Above is SU's new home page. In comparison with the old one where blue was used somewhat heavily as the accent, background color, the new one has way more orange, and absolutely not a trace of blue can be found.

Puppy Love

Today I covered the Leatherstocking Cluster Fall Dog Shows at the State Fair Grounds. I wasn't able to get a lot about the actual competition into my piece. The shows consist of two types of competitions, in two different buildings. Confirmation, which is evaluating the dogs on their gait and movement, and if they meet AKC standards. The second type is obedience, which is when dogs are put through paces, sit downs, stay puts, and are judged on their performance. I also got some great sound from two women who were owners and handlers about how a lot of the judging is politics, and people that aren't or don't hire professional handlers are at a disadvantage because their faces are not as well known. I also found out that they don't win money.
All the different breeds, competitions, and levels make dog shows pretty confusing. I had a nice owner and handler explained the process from the first round through best in show to me, but I was still pretty confused which was pretty obvious when I talked to Professor Nicholson. Over all I enjoyed doing the story, all the people showing really had a passion for competition and their dogs. One last thing, Woody, the dog I used for my natural sound, is in the top 20 for his breed in the country.

Rainy + tobacco ban + cold = unhappy smokers

So, I'm going to start this blog off by saying I've never experienced anything like this in my life.

So I went to cover the Tobacco Ban at St. Joseph's Hospital, which is really close to the Our Lady of Pompeii Church that basically everyone went to last week. No one was able/would talk to me, which is honestly a first, because I never have a hard time getting people to talk to me. I walked all around the perimeter of the hospital, and even into the little bar-area in front of the hospital, and still... no one wanted to talk to the Kozak-machine.

Then, blue SUV guy happened.

Which, and Im not going to go into too much detail about it, because honestly it's kind of humiliating, started off innocently enough as me accidentally looking into this guy's car. He kept looking at me, and waving. Then, he rolled down his window and yelled some profane things, and which point I changed the direction I was walking. Blue SUV guy turned around, and followed me in the other direction. Kept whistling, until I saw him stop his car on the side of the street, by which point I ran like crazy to my car.

Maybe he thought it was funny to do that to me, and maybe he actually had some intentions on kidnapping me or something. Either way, things like that are never funny, especially when a girl is alone.

After that, I tried to go to Erie to maybe catch some people in front of the P&C to talk to them, but I was pretty distraught by that point.

Turkey Day Travels

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AAA released a report that said they expect high traffic for the holiday weekend even with the rising gas prices. Some interesting things I learned was eighty percent of travelers will travel by car. That's a lot! I spoke to Wally Smitt who is the Vice President at AAA in Buffalo. He gave some good advice for people traveling for the holidays. He suggested always having a blanket, first aid kit, car service kit (AAA sells them), gloves and other things you may need in case of an emergency. He also suggested getting your car tuned up, checking the air in your tires and your oil before you leave. One of his biggest suggestions- checking fuel prices online before you leave. You can find gas prices within 5 miles of anywhere in the United States on AAA's website.

P.S. Safe Travels and Happy Thanksgiving!!

TMR: WCNY

As a reporter, I decided to do my story on Thursday Morning Roundtable. President and CEO of WCNY, Robert Daino, was the speaker. Daino's speech was about what WCNY has accomplished and what they hope to accomplish in the future. When Daino became president two years ago he made a lot of promises to revitalize the station. One of those promises was to become pledge free. WCNY is currenly pledge free on its PBS television. Daino said they are not pledge free on the radio because it is harder to do. The WCNY radio station, classic FM, is converting to digital radio.

As part of the Near West Side Initiative, WCNY is moving to a new $17.5 building on Wyoming Street. The relocation of the station will be the anchor project of the proposed Arts, Technology & Design Quarter. Part of the plan includes a new state of the art broadcast and education center.

After the speech, I looked to get an audience member's opinion. Randomly I asked Joanne Lenweaver about her opinions about the new location and education center. Lenweaver happens to be a Hospice employee and a professor at Syracuse University. Lenweaver said she thought the idea of WCNY in downtown Syracuse. Lenweaver said she thinks the center will bring more S-U students downtown.

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Finding a Story

So the story I was originally going to cover was about the NYPA and their agreement to bring hydropower to residents. I went to a meeting at City Hall at 11 a.m and put my tape recorder on the front desk in order to get good sound. However while I was sitting there, I didn't really understand what was going on or what everyone was talking about, so I decided that since it was a difficult story to comprehend, that I wouldn't be able to write a good wrap worth listening to. I headed out and my producer told me to try to get SOTs of people talking about DestiNY USA's Green Hotel. I spoke to a few people about this but none of them had any idea about the hotel. While I was finding people to talk to I saw a man who was in the NYPA meeting earlier and decided to go talk to him and see if he could tell me what the meeting was about. He ended up doing a really good job of explaining the meeting and what hydropower for residents means.From his perspective, the perspective of a business owner, this seems like a bad idea. He thinks that hydropower ought to be available only to large manufacturers and thinks it is the responsibility of the government to supply residents with power. He thinks by giving residents the chance to get hydropower we are not doing what is best for economic growth.

Green Hotel

For my Anchor Act, I talked with the President of the Conventions and Visitors Bureau at the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce David Holder. The most interesting thing he said was that the new green hotel would also help attract international visitors that would be traveling between Niagra Falls and New York City. Holder also said the hotel was similar to the Opryland hotel in Nashville, Tennessee and it should have the same economic impact on Syracuse as the Opryland has on Nashville. In addition to that, Holder said that the hotel would also help bring in businesses for conferences and meetings. This would help the create more restaurants and entertainment facilities in the area because the people here on business trips would need something to do and somewhere to eat. Holder could not put an exact number on what the hotel would bring into Syracuse , but he did say that when it is finished it will be among the 8 largest entertainment and shopping facilities in the world.

I'm a slacker...

Boy, that deadline flew right past me. I really need to get my act together.

For election day I did two wraps. For the first, I talked to a man named Chuck Duprey who is the political director of the Onondaga County Republican Party committee.

Alexander- Republi...

I called him at the party's headquarters on Onondaga Street, and he agreed to talk to me. It was actually a really good interview. I got the information I wanted for my story--what the party was doing on election day. I also got good bites for another story I was planning to do about college students voting. I think one interesting thing that I wish would have made my story is that according to Mr. Duprey, there are 96,000 registered republicans in Onondaga County. Of those, only about 40 percent vote in an off year election. Mr. Duprey said the main job of the party on election day was calling the five percent of the forty percent who for some reason wouldn't have voted that day. While I alluded to this information in my actual story, I didn't have time to explain what was meant when I said Duprey admits that most republicans won't be voting on election day.

I got my second story at the Holiday Inn in Liverpool when I attended the republican party's celebration. When I went, I really didn't know what to expect or who I wanted to talk to, but I ran into Lara and she was a huge help. She pointed out Bernie Mahoney, Joanie Mahoney's father, and said that she had seen him talking to the media. I knew that's what I wanted to do. I really like taking different approaches to learning about a subject, so talking to her father, rather than her campaign manager, seemed like a great solution. Mr. Mahoney was really personable, and I really enjoyed talking to him. While on one hand, he was feeding me lines about how proud he was of his daughter, he also talked a lot about Ms. Mahoney when she was growing up. He told me about how she helped with her father's campaign for office in Onondaga county. I also liked learning about her siblings. Joanie is one of nine children in the Mahoney family, and Mr. Mahoney told me about how and why he was proud of all of them. I value family a lot, and it was really nice to hear Bernie Mahoney talk about his.


Thursday was a completely different story for me. I was sent home from my first class for being sick. (I was treated like a third grader, not an adult, and I'm not very happy about it). Professor Nicholson was very understanding about the situation, and in addition to steering me away from a piece that was bound to be a disaster, really helped me to take short cuts in my new story about Nick Pirro's press conference. I wish I had time in my story to include where the land is that Pirro wants to sell. He wants to sell almost 40 acres of land along Onondaga Lake and 51 acres of land in Salina, including the former Ley Creek Sewage Treatment plant. Pirro talked about how the land needs considerable environmental clean-up, and he said the Pyramid Companies have agreed to take full responsibility for cleaning it up.

Alexander-Green Ho...

It's All About Gas

Absolutely no room for angst? Alright...

I did a story on gas price. I went downtown and randomly looked for anyone who has a car to interview. I found a lady by the city hall and she told me one thing that was very interesting that didn't make it into my story - Destiny USA has gone back to B-20 again. B-20 is the name of the biodiesel Destiny started off using a while ago. The 20 indicates that the diesel is a blend of 20% fuel from soybean and 80% traditional petroleum. Then it went up to B-50, then eventually B-100. Destiny made a huge deal about it and made sure everyone in town know how environmentally friendly they are. A spokesperson even said they believe they were doing the right thing and there's absolutely "no drawback." The lady I talked to used to work for Destiny, and she said the reason that Destiny has gone back down to B-20 has something to do with fuel not working well with the winter weather here, but this time they kept low profile and not everyone knows about it.

By the way, it turns out that you have to go through the corporate and some serious paper work if you want to do any forms of recording at a gas station, and by any form I mean both audio and visual recording. You can't even interview people there! So heads up if you ever want to do a story on gas prices and want to talk with car owners. You're better off finding a random pedestrian on the street and ask him/her if (s)he has a car than almost getting flipped out on at a gas station.

Another newscast, another error

Today's newscast was pretty successful. At the producer meeting with Professor Nicholson at the beginning of class, we had determined that today was a somewhat "slow news day." Nonetheless, we found stories that revolved around two specific areas: the Destiny USA green hotel and the upcoming holiday season. I borrowed sound from Noel to do a story on the Christmas tree that arrived today in Clinton Square. It was an interesting story only because I didn't know that Syracuse had its own tree-lighting ceremony much like Rockerfeller Center. I also wrote copy stories on the decrease of unemployed people in the United States and the President Bush's veto on the water resources bill that was overridden by Congress. It was interesting to learn this was the first time one of Bush's vetoes was overridden. He said he vetoed the bill because he felt it spent too much money on unnecessary projects.

Nonetheless, there didn't seem to be that much "secret" information that you wouldn't already know from our newscast. The one thing you might be curious about is that in the Christmas tree story, there is another bite underneath the one I chose to use. The reason you can hear it is because I forgot to clear the cart before I put the bite on it. The last time I was producer, I had made a typing error, and this time, I made a technical error. Despite all this, I do feel like I prepared the team well enough in advance. We were able to time out all the stories before they were read on-air, and I even caught some mistakes. For example, Tyler had forgotten to include "Good afternoon. I'm Tyler Condit" at the beginning of the newscast in the music and headlines. Thank goodness we caught that; otherwise, the listeners would never have known who the anchor was.

Overall, great job Team B! We came out on top!

Symphony Kids

There was so much from today's story that I wanted to fit in that I just couldn't. First of all about the concert. It wasn't just the Polar Express, they started off by doing musical exercises with the kids to introduce them to the different "teams" or sections of the orchestra. Then they did musical exercises that demonstrated composing and conducting. In the actual Polar Express they incorporated dancers to play reindeer. I really wanted to get some sound from kids but none of the teachers would let me talk to their kids because they said they didn't have permission. The family that I watched the show with consisted of two boys who were less than thrilled with the show and offered no usable sound. I could have talked to the conductor, Ron Spigelman, for hours. His orchestra is in Springfield Missouri and he has been coming to conduct for Symphony Kids for four years and will do the rest of the concerts in the series. He really has a passion for performing for children and had some great quotes about music and learning that I wish I could have fit into the story.

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas...

Yes, it is that time of the year again. Presents, hot chocolate, snow... you know the deal. But it would not be a holiday season without a Christmas Tree in the center of the city(and a menorah which will go up in a week according to the president of the company who donated the equipment that lifted the tree into place). This years City of Syracuse Christmas tree arrived today in Clinton Square with police escorts on a large flat bed truck. It traveled on interstate 81 all the way from Brewerton. Although the tree arrived over half an hour late, the excitement was truly in the air. People stopped to check out what was going on. The Department of Public Works was there waiting for the tree along with a large crane. When it finally arrived they went right to work strapping on large belts and preparing it for the big lift. Now that the tree is up, the City of Syracuse will hire a decorator to put lights on the tree for the lighting ceremony on November 30.

This story was really fun to cover because I got to talk to a lot of people. I spoke to a woman from Manlius, a women from Syracuse, a president of a company that donated equipment for the event, to excited children, and a man who told me he was homeless. They all were very different but all had something in common. That is that they all were happy and excited for the holiday season.

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Producing...

I got to be producer for team D this week and I got first hand experience trying to find good stories on a slow news day. The local elections dominated news coverage all week, but we didn't mention anything about them on our newscast. Instead, I chose to lead the rundown with the Green Hotel announcement by Destiny USA and the reaction it got. I tried to follow up the story with something tying into the "green" trend taking over CNY, and Annie was nice enough to lend us her sound. Noel and Amy did a great job on their wraps and I put them together at the end of the A-block because both stories delt with a Christmas theme. As anchor, Jon did a great job getting a foner and he got to go over the script a couple dozen times because he was done so early. It paid off in the booth because he absolutely killed it! He forgot to mention the current conditions during the weather, but he had a great delivery with few mistakes. Timing really wasn't a big problem because Noel and Amy kept me up to date on the lengths of their wraps. We had good communication through out the day and that made my job really easy.
A couple stories we didn't get to include: the writers strike and Spitzer on the mortgage lending industry. The writers strike has been a national story for a couple weeks now and there hasn't really been an update. Eight prime-time TV shows such as 24, the Office, and Saturday Night Live have halted production and some stars are refusing to cross picket lines. For Spitzers story, he said lenders and the federal government should consider a mortgage-backed securities fund to stabilize the turbulent market.

Toys in the Attic

I did a phoner today about the three latest inductees to the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester. I spoke to museum spokesperson Susan Trien, who seemed to share a genuine love for toys. She told me about this years inductees, Raggedy Andy, the kite, and the atari 2600 gaming system. I found it highly amusing that she spoke about andy being reunited with his sister, ann, as if the two are real people.

She also told me about the selection process, which is very thorough. An internal committee in the museum nominates toys, and then they send their nominees to a national selection committee. They then chose the top finalists, who are then finally chosen to be inducted. Typically, two toys are inducted in the museum, which has ran since 1968. However, this year three toys made it, becuase there was a lot of pressure to reunite raggedy andy with his sister raggedy ann. The criteria that goes into induction is longevity, discovery, icon status, and innnovation. She said the toys really need to trancend generations, and make a real impact.

She was very friendly and candid, so the interview went smooth. So did the newscast for the most part. Team A was done surprisingly early, around 3:15. Things always get messed up in the booth though, and we cut one story and had to shorten a lot after the break. We hit the post just in time. Another good week in the books.

(picture taken from National Toy Museum's website)

Thick(headed) As A Brick

As an anchor today for Team C, I interviewed a professor from Ithaca College about Ben Bernanke's (Fed Chairman) comments and plan about and for the economy. He agreed with Bernanke that the financial market's recent problems have stemmed from surging oil prices and the housing market debacle involving subprime mortgages.

My phoner worked out well in my opinion. The professor was more than happy to talk with me, making my job easier. His personal opinion is that we will not see any improvements in the economy any time soon, but he also thinks it won't get much worse for the next six months. Whatever happens, he agreed with Bernanke that something has to be done to correct the problems in the stock market right now.

What follows next may be considered "personal angst" but I don't think it is so I will continue...

Now to the studio. What could possibly go wrong? Apparently several things, of which were nobody's fault but mine. I mispronounced "Congel" as in Robert Congel. Stupid mistake. One of those things that you think you would know because it should be common knowledge, but you never bother to find out and then it hits you. It's like the acronym ESPN. Everyone knows what it is, but does everybody know what it stands for? Probably not.

Second mistake: Misplacing my weather page. For some reason I put it behind the floaters, meaning it wasn't in its proper spot. After five seconds of dead air and mini-panicking, producer Jameson handed me his copy and I read it. However, since I thought we were pressed for time at that point, I skipped over the current weather (oops). Turns out I did have time, just enough in fact to squeeze the stupid phrase "listen and know" into the end to hit the post. That's embarassing. I also panicked and said "That's it for NCC News", which apparently implies the program has expired and will not be returning to life ever again.

So...I will learn from this mistake-riddled experience and move on. That's all I can do, in addition to laughing at myself when I hear this cast on Tuesday. I'm pretty much laughing as I type this entry. My head is Thick As A Brick. As Phil Mickelson would say, "I am such an idiot."

The Wild Story Chase

winter parks.mp3

All I have to say is that I wish, I WISH we could post stories of angst on woe on this blog still. But let's get right to it: today was awful. I guess every reporter becomes a better one with a bit of adversity though, so I guess I'm not too resentful. It was a stressful day that ended up with two failed stories, and finally a successful one at the Onondaga Lake Park. I met with the Director of Recreation and Public Programs there, Jon Cooley, was very nice and helpful. I was surprised to learn that many people who exercise throughout the parks don't stop coming just because cold weather arrives. One guy I talked to says all he does is bundle up more and walk a little faster. I guess if you're that committed and used to the weather here, nothing can stand in your way. Another interesting thing I learned was that the park has something called "Lights on the Lake." It's a two mile light show inspired by the holidays and apparently draws about 160,000 people per season. I didn't realize what a big deal it was, but it turns out to be a pretty big attraction for this area. It was also my first time to the Onondaga Lake Park, and I didn't know how beautiful it is. Mr. Cooley encouraged me to come out more often, and I have to say that I might take him up on his offer. Today was trying, but it was successful. I was very pleased with my writing and editing, and found that even a piece that could be considered fluffy still can be reported well. Hopefully next week I can avoid shin splits as well as evading arrest. ;-)