Want a day off...

It is crazy what you can find on the Internet. If you need a break from school or work, you can find a way to do so with pay or credit. The Excused Absence Network is an online website that allows you to download excuse notes for $24.95. Excuse notes range from Funeral Service Absence Note, Jury Duty Note, Emergency Room Visit Note, to Medical Evaluation Note. When you use the program, you receive templates to print the notes after typing the name and address of a local doctor or emergency room. If you choose jury duty as an excuse to miss work, you simply enter your county courthouse information on the form.

One testimonial on the website says: "I've managed to take the nine weeks off using these templates! It couldn't be any easier!"

Sounds great, except for one woman from New Jersey ran into some trouble. She was arrested this year after using one of the company's notes. She used it to say she was too injured to appear in traffic court for a speeding ticket. She was caught after court officials called the chiropractor listed and he told them he never heard of the woman.

I really enjoy covering interesting little stories like this. For my soundbite I spoke with a woman at the Academic Integrity Office on campus. She was surprised to hear a website like this existed and said if it becomes a problem they will probably make a program to detect this similiar to the one they have for plagurism.

P.S. My group was awesome this week. A.J. was an amazing and supportive producer and the reporters (Jameson and Jordan) did a great job getting their stories together and helping the team!

Practice makes perfect

So heading in to today I thought I was going to be really nervous since all that I have done so far is reporting. I was anchor and have never recorded live before. I seriously thought I would need alcohol to get through it. But I was actually not nervous at all. The more we continue to do this the better it gets and the easier it gets. I feel like the mood in the newsroom the last couple of times has been really chill and it feels like it's all coming easier. I still think I could have done better as anchor. I felt at times I let my voice get monotone and with my pacing at some points I was too fast. I really want another crack at it though because I think I can definitely improve. Something else I think I could have done better today is write with a more conversational style. But other than that I was pleased with the way things went. Jon was on top of things and did a great job dividing the stories and going with the flow. I was having trouble getting my foner. I wanted to do a piece about that child prodigy Erik Gustafson but the principal of his school has become a bit too celebrity it seems. In the end we settled on a story about the new sanctions in Iran. I actually really liked covering this story. I didn't know much about the sanctions but the guy I interviewed was great. He is a political science teacher called Mehrzad Bojouredi who specializes in Iranian politics. He really told me everything I needed to know about the sanctions and explained the implications well. I decided in my story to go with the angle I thought most people would care about: Does this take us closer to war? But I learnt a lot of other interesting stuff. This could actually be a step to war since the Iranian people are upset at being labelled terrorists. But really the sanctions won't stop much, since thee Iranian government will still easily find ways to lander money or find other banks to fund them. Ties between America and the Middle East seem really important since everyone seems to think we're headed for World War 3. But really I don't know what is going on. So anytime it is explained for me it makes me feel smart for knowing something I should probably know anyway.

Hots On For Nowhere

It was a relatively non-stressful Thursday, which has been rare this semester. Now that I've done all three positions, I can definitely say that reporting is the most stressful, and producing is the least. Beforehand, I thought producing would be a constant struggle to find and write stories and keeping everything under control. But in the end, it turned out that 4 hours was more than enough time to get everything done well.

My biggest fear as a producer in the booth was mistiming the cast. We cut one story in the A-block, and had to cut weather down, but other than that we finished right on time, thanks in part to Noel's lightning-fast "listenandknow" comment at the end. Advice to future producers: keep copy stories short and concise. All three copies I wrote for A-block were too long and wordy and I noticed they didn't sound right afterwards. And they threw off the timing of the cast, which is why we had to cut things down.

Nevertheless, everyone did their jobs well, and as a producer that's all you can ask of your team. Jordan and Jameson got their wraps done well in advance, which took a lot of weight off me, and Noel read the script without fault and timed it out perfectly at the end. There are definitely some things I would change, the copy stories being one, but it was a solid cast, plain and simple.

It's My Blog

If I were to detail exactly what happened today my blog is going to seem like a travel journal. So long story short, I had my SU tour today. First I went to Newhouse, then I went to SOM. After that I went back to Newhouse, then Hall of Languages, then Steele Hall, then Crouse Hinds, and finally I went to the College of Law, where I stumbled upon my story-

SU students planting daffodils in honor a student who was tragically murdered five years ago.

What I didn't include in my story was that the student's parents came all the way from Bulgaria to bring their son's body back. And when they were here, they were given a tour on campus of all the places their son would have gone. They were given a tour of Crouse, and shown the locker where their son put all his music, and they were also shown a spot in the Archbold gym where the boy's jersey was displayed in honor of him. They saw every place connected with their son. It was a very emotional tour.


As for this week's newscast, Team D rocked today. Jon was an incredible producer who was on top of things and always helpful; Mura's story was great and his delivery of it was powerful; and Ranbir did one of the most excellent jobs of delivering that I've ever heard. Among all the newscasts that I have done or been in involved with, this was one of the bests. In fact, let's call it... Perfect.

Team D(iversity)

After several weeks of getting to stay in class, I was assigned with reporting duty this Thursday and it went relatively well. By 11 PM on Wednesday night I was without a story idea and I was beginning to panic, but channel 9 news saved me when they announced that Governor Spitzer was going to speak at SU's Whitman School the following morning. I immediately got it Ok'd with Professor Nicholson, and enjoyed a stress free night now that I knew I wouldn't be needing a car or a bus to get my story.
I got to Whitman 15 minutes before the Governor was scheduled to speak and the school was filled with a mix of politicians, investors, students, faculty, and media personalities. It was real cool to see politicians that I'd learned about during the previous week while cramming for the midterm. I saw Bill Magnarelli, Matt Driscoll, Nick Pirro, Al Stirpe, and Dave Valesky to name a few. The governor was about half an hour late, but when he arrived the room grew eerily silent and all that could be heard were pictures being taken and photographers scurrying around to get in position for a good shot. I also saw Lara happily catering for the guests (she's a morning person) and Faith setting up post near the entrance of the "stage" to do her wrap on the same event. I felt guilty as she explained her stressful night looking for a story and we discussed story ideas and the different angles that we could try in order to make our stories unique. The press conference was relatively short and Spitzer got right down to business after briefly going over the struggles of Upstate New York's economy. Right off the bat he announced a comittment of $20 million by the State and the Assembly Delegation to the Connective Corridor project led by Chancellor Nancy Cantor. He also announced that the state would invest almost $10 million to four other downtown projects including the Convention Center parking lot, Franklin Square, the Near Westside, and the 300 block of South Salina Street.
Once I got into class, I immediately checked my sound to see if it was audible. It turned out alright and I started writing my story. I found trouble keeping it short and concise, seeing that the governor had announced so much important information. My original wrap turned out to be a little over one minute without the anchor intro, and my producer (Jon) told me to cut it down "as much as possible". He also apologized for it, which left me puzzled since as producer he is responsible for making sure each story finds a spot on the rundown. I cut it down about 15 seconds and it turned out perfect. (Kudos to Jon)
Team D (iversity) worked real well this week and we had great communication thanks to our producer who, along with his other duties, took time to show me how to cart tape. Ranbir did a fine job anchoring and Gino, like Professor Nicholson noted, "dug" up a great story.

(Picture from http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/09/the_rise_of_eli.html)

I like dessert

Well my job was surprisingly easy today. I talked to Amy last night and when she told me her idea for a story, she also said she had the number of the head of the organization who started this program. She originally planned on calling the founder solely for backup information, but I thought we could just do it as a phoner. So big props to Amy for coming up with the idea in the first place. The big thing that I couldn't get into the wrap was that there are different Breast Cancer non-profit organizations. Positively Pink Packages is an education organization, meaning that they try to educate people about Breast cancer if they already have it. Others are research organizations, which give grants for research or do research themselves. Overall Jennifer Tom was an extremely nice lady, one who has obviously been through a lot. I admire the fact that after doing away with Breast Cancer she is still able to help. The reason I like dessert so much, by the way, is because the program is about dessert. It takes all the proceeds from one specific dessert that's being sold at a restaurant and gives it to this organization to buy books and tools that can help those with Breast Cancer. (Picture from www.positivelypinkpackages.org)

Syracuse I-DAY!!!!!

Today was the 47th annual Syracuse Insurance Day. Basically 800 people and 80 insurance companies get together and discuss the hot topics in the local and national insurance market. Something that wasn't in my story was the fact that at the convention this year it was all "P and C" companies or property and casualty. There were no health insurance companies at all. Only a few companies had representitives from the health insurance industry there, but none during the time I was at the event.

On a lighter unimportant note, I spent 10 minutes parking in one parking lot, that in the end I learned I couldn't park in. Then I spent the next 15 trying to get out of this tiny space where I had cars on three sides of me. I finally found another parking space in another lot three blocks away. Also, I donated a couple dollars to the Rescue Mission while I was there because they were having a charity auction. I don't think I won the golf club bag which was part of the raffle because I think I would have gotten a call by now.

Insurance Day Rap....

Lovely day

Today was easily the smoothest of the newscasts my group has had thus far. The night before I talked with Amy and she was all set. Faith was a slightly different story. I texted her from my roommates phone (mine cannot send texts) at 2 AM about the Spitzer visit and she woke me up at half 8 by texting me a "I'm going to see Spitzer." I arrived in class and found Faith and Andrew sitting next to each other happily working away - doing their respective jobs.
I contacted Amy after the Producers' meeting and she was freaking out about getting gas. I calmed her down and told her everything was going to be alright. Eventually, everything for Amy was alright. And then we were happy again.
Andrew was a maniac on the stories. He probably wrote just as many copy stories as I did, alongside writing two ANC ACT's. He is truly a prince, savor the days you have Andrew on your group. He pleases the mind like... will you get the picture.
Amy and Faith got their stuff together and I finished up the copy stories and life was great. Andrew read well and the only problem was we were a bit short, but other than that, everything went well.

Syracuse Stage!

Wow. Today was quite the day for me. In unrelated news, I was up at 5:45am for powderpuff practice, so needless to say it's been a long one. After powderpuff I showered and headed over to Syracuse Stage for Thursday Morning Roundtable with the new Producing Artistic Director, Timothy Bond. I learned a lot about the direction he wants Syracuse Stage and the Drama Department to go in, and it was really nice to see someone who is so passionate about the arts, especially in Syracuse. Something interesting about my story is that it was a very personal one. I spent my freshman year as an Acting major in VPA, and practically lived at the theater. It was my first time back there since I had switched my major, and it was more emotional for me than I thought it would have been. After the Roundtable I went around to see people who were once my classmates and professors. It was very bizarre, and there was definitely a touch of nostalgia for me. I won't lie, I shed a tear or two. Timothy Bond was a very nice man, and he seems very dedicated to expanding the theater into the community and integrating the Drama Department and the stage into one. As a former drama major it was something very nice to hear. It was great being able to come back early and get my writing and recording done so soon, too! Everyone in my team was awesome, great communication, and Noel was a really great anchor.

Think Pink!

Today was probably a little ( ok a lot) more stressful then it should have been. I had trouble getting a restaurant to talk to me because it was right at the lunch time rush. I finally ended up just going to Asti and hoping that someone would have time to talk to me. A detour and some city driving stressed me out even more, oh and the car I was driving was on E, but Tyler did a really good job calming me down and I ended up with good sound and an angle on the story I didn't expect. The newscast went really well, I liked the variety of stories that we had.
One thing that didn't make it into the story was the woman I talked to, Jessica Turmino, is also the wife of the owner and it's a family run restaurant. She also gave me some information about the cannoli, the types of cheeses used in the filling and that the shell is from New York City. She said they picked this for their dessert for the fundraiser because it was both Italian and homemade. One last thing came from the hostess I interviewed, Faye Green, she ran the Avon Breast Cancer Marathon in New York City this past year. It just shows how committed everyone at the restaurant is to supporting Breast Cancer research and awareness.

Under Pressure

I was under a lot of pressure today because it was my first time producing and I was in Team A. Both my reporters had stories approved really early which was awesome. The only problem was I knew Annie would be getting to class late, and that Lara risked the chance of coming a little late as well. But I really didn't worry that much because I trusted them both. I mean if I lend someone my car I better trust them! I knew by 3:45 both wraps would be done.

I could tell Katie was a little nervous because she had never anchored before. But she did an incredible job putting her two phoners together. They led off our newscast, and I thought both were awesome. When I was writing the copy stories for her, I knew she read fast. So what I did was make the rundown 10 seconds lighter, just so we wouldn't be over on time at all. What happened was Katie read much much slower than I think we both expected, and we ended up having to cut a story! And we still went two seconds over! Noooooo! As producer, it's my fault. But her slower pace was really good, so next time we work together I know exactly what to expect. As a result of the cut story, we also had two wraps back to back, which I really didn't want. Other than that I thought the order of stories I chose and what the stories were themselves was good.

So I guess I'll summarize the story that didn't get into the newscast. It was about the two U.S peace activists who couldn't get into Canada back in August because their names appeared in the FBI database. Now after their protest group handed out petitions to Canadian consulates, Parliament was letting them into Canada. I thought it was an interesting story, and wish it had gotten into our cast.

At the end of the day, or at 3:45 I should say, we were good to go. Both my reporters somehow got their wraps done, despite getting in after 2:00. And both were really well done. I knew I could count on those girls. Again Katie did a tremendous job anchoring. I'm still really mad that we went two seconds over, because it falls on my shoulders. I tried throughout the whole day to keep calm, despite being the producer of Team A. I think my reporters were more worried about getting their stories done than I was. All in all despite being over, I was extremely pleased with todays newscast. I really enjoyed working with the three girls, and I would surely do it again.

The DL on team D

For starters, we had the most diverse group ever to do a radio newscast. An Indian/English/American, A Kenyan/Canadian/American, an Asian/American, and an American. Anyways...Thing actually went really smoothly today. Mura came in with his story already covered which was wonderful. Gino was struggling finding a story. It was actually rather funny because I never knew exactly where he was. Whenever I called him, all I heard was heavy breathing and him saying he was doin okay. We ended up coming back with, in my mind, the most interesting wrap of the day. He did true journalism of just stumbling upon an event and asking questions about it. I have to give him props for his work. Also, Ranbir came into class with an idea for a foner, but by the time we got to say our idea, it was already taken. He did a good job of being persistent with the Erik Gustafson story and trying to contact the principal multiple times. Thankfully we planned well and had a back up plan for a foner. Overall, I think it went well. The one thing I would change (and this isn't just my group) is teaching everyone how to cart something. I think this was the last group that had to report so everyone should know how to cart a story. Usually I don't mind helping other people and groups with carting things, but producing today, I had no time to help. As for my group, I think everyone did very well to get quality radio done on deadline. The one problem was that we were 7 seconds under but that was m fault.

A "blaze" in Southern California (hehe)

Today went much better than I thought it would. I was seriously freaking out about anchoring. I had only been a reporter up to this point, so I was extremely nervous about doing an entire newscast in one shot and, having never been around at the beginning of the day due to my consistent history of taking forever to get my story and running into the classroom last minute, I really hadn't seen what anchors did before 3:00. Matt was a serious life saver today.

I'm the first to admit I got really lucky when I was able to get a phoner with Captain Mike Brown with the Los Angeles County Fire Department on my first attempt. It was a really easy interview, too. I only asked him a few questions, and he just kept talking, so I was able to get six minutes of SOT from him.

I think I found a really good bite to use in my story. When Justin Pizzi came to talk to our class, he said to get an emotional sound bite. So when I was reviewing the phoner, I found something that had less to do with the facts of the fire, and more to do with a human aspect. Plus, I think it was interesting, because it was about more than just the people who were evacuated, like the stories I've been seeing on the news.

I think one thing that was interesting that didn't fit in my story was that the fire department had recieved warning days prior to the fires that it was perfect conditions for wildfire: strong wind, low humidity, and high heat. Brown said they were most surpised by the amount of fires that started, and how quickly they spread.

...but I'm really just a sensitive artist!

I'm pretty sure I blacked out during the hours of 2:30-3:45. I dont even know how I got my story done.
Kudos to Matt, for keeping his cool, even when it looked like I was moments away from crashing and burning. Thank you for not questioning me, and letting me get my things done (even if I only handed in my audio with 2 minutes to spare)
Katie, you are the consummate professional. Good work.

The B-Movie film festival is really a cool event, because B-movies are AWESOME. A lot of horror movies that have been released in Hollywood actually started out as B-movies (The Hills Have Eyes and Black Christmas being the two most recent that come to mind). Also, if you're really into monster movies or horror movies, B-Movies are it, because since they aren't bound by contractual obligations to production companies, they can be as scary and gory as they want to be.

The B-Movie film festival is screening 12 full feature movies and 20 short films, and several of them are international films. I would REALLY reccomend it to anyone who is looking for a good scare this weekend. The movies are only 5 dollars, which is about 60 dollars cheaper than any movie you could see at Carousel, and the B-movies also encourage audience participation. Going to a B-movie horror feature is a lot like going to a halloween screening of the Rocky Horror picture show; the audience is generally receptive to snarky comments.

I know it was stressfull at times, but I really really really liked the pressure of a deadline. For my sanity and that of any of my producers in the future, i'm definitely not going to cut it so close next time. I think Lara will agree with me that an hour and 15 minuttes really flies when you still havent carted your audio yet.

Good work team A (as in AHHH, We almost didn't make it on time). Everyone really kept their cool today.

It's Getting Better

Today was definitely the best Thursday I have had in a very long time. My day went unbelievably well. I enjoyed my team and thought we worked very well together. Normally I dread having to find a story for a wrap. However, it was not too bad. In the middle of the night I receive a text message from my producer, Tyler. It said that Governor Eliot Spitzer would be at the Whitman School of Management on Thursday at 9AM. So, I ended up waking up much earlier than I expected and went to Whitman. I got to the building at 8:50AM. I was happy to be early but when I walked in there were only a few people there. I ended up waiting for an hour because Governor Spitzer did not arrive until 10AM. By that time the Grand Hall was packed. Students looked over the balcony on the second floor to see the governor.There were some famous faces in the audience. Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli and Mayor Matt Driscoll were there as well. It was cool to put real faces with the names I hear a lot about each week. Chancellor Nancy Cantor was the first speaker in the event. Then Mayor Driscoll spoke and introduced Governor Spitzer. During the beginning of his speech, the governor was interrupted with a hug by a man named Herman Schatz. The Post Standard calls him "a political groupie of sorts". After the interruption, the governor said, "now my day is complete".


After that, the governor explained his plans for the city of Syracuse. In addition to the $20M for the Connective Corridor, $2.5M is planned to go toward making the parking facility in the Convention Center district bigger. The governor's plan is to get former thriving communities in the city a desirable spot one again. There are plans to revitalize the Near West Side. The state plans to give $2M in funding to make it a community for creative people. The 300 block of S. Salina Street will receive $3M for funding. Franklin Square will also be revitalized. After the governor's speech, Magnarelli ended the event. The entire announcement only took about 30 minutes.

What you didn't know

Well I was pretty nervous going into today because I hadn't gone out to report on a story in a while since I was anchor two weeks in a row and then producer. That being said, I took Matt's car to East Syracuse for a luncheon about Dr. Debrah Shulman, who received the Hannah G. Solomon award from the National Council of Jewish Women. It turned out to be a pretty interesting story about a really hard-working woman. I guess something you wouldn't know from our broadcast is that I was freaking out about my story because I got a little lost on the way back and didn't make it into the newsroom until 2. It was a close call...especially since I was on Team A! Annie was in even worse shape than I was because she didn't do her interview until 2. I don't even know what time she got back. Basically Annie and I rushed through writing, recording and editing, and everything still turned out alright. I think overall, Team A did an impressive job. Katie read slowly! And Matt somehow managed to keep his cool when his two reporters came back so late. Way to go, team!

Operas = pretty cool...

So I have been to a couple operas in my life. I went to one in New York City at the Opera House (I fell asleep) and one on our own campus. I was pretty sure that I was not into operas after my fist experience, thought maybe they are kinda cool after my second, but after today I can actually say that I might like them. Maybe it has become an aquired taste but I think I might actually like to go see an opera by Syracuse Opera like Rigoletto.
Covering the preview for the new production was very interesting. First of all, I did not know that they had these free previews for events like a new production. I was expecting a rehersal of the show, but what actually happened was the Maestro, stage director, singers, and other people involved actually spoke about the background of the play, what it takes to put a production together, and about the history of opera itself.
A few interesting things about Rigoletto and Syracuse Opera; They are very involved with SU students. A couple students are actually shadowing some of the main characters in Rigoletto. I learned that most of the time the music in operas were not written for the opera, rather the writter of the opera chooses songs that fit the plot they are trying to unravel. For example, the character Carmen in Rigoletto is actually from the opera Carmen. Her first song in Rigoletto is origionally from that production as well. I also learned that orchestra seats origionated as "the stalls" or area for poor peasants to attend the opera and were not desired seating as they are today.

Opera Preview.mp3

City Hall in the morning

This was a very interesting story, yet uninteresting at the same time. First of all, getting to City Hall was fun. It was easy, I guess and that's why it was fun. I'm always happier when things are easy. I've never been there before, so I was a little surprised when it didn't actually look like a government building. I even had to ask someone to make sure it was the right place. The Landmark Preservation Board itself, which is what I covered, meets in the Council Chambers, and something in me clicked when I walked into that place. I guess it's the combination of the fact that the actual Common Council meets there (they had desks with names and everything) gave me a sense of wow, this is where government happens. That was probably the most interesting part of the meeting. I did find it interesting that Home HeadQuarters was in attendance too. I've done a lot of research on the organization for my beat. One of the main things I didn't get into the blog was that this organization has a large presence in the Syracuse community because it buys homes and renovates them to make the neighborhoods look better, plus it tries to educate homeowners when buying their first homes. Aside from that, the meeting was pretty boring. I hate to say it, because the idea of covering City Hall events is exciting. But most of the meeting was homeowners/businessowners/building owners simply asking for permission to replace storm doors or put in windows. And I had to pay $6 for parking. That's something that wasn't surprising, yet I was hoping I wouldn't have to pay money to park.

MRSA

The medical director of the Onondaga County Health Department, Tuoc Nguyen, says that MRSA appears on the body in the form of pimples and boils. One way to help prevent the spread of MRSA, in addition to washing your handles (in the anchor act), is not sharing personal object with people such as toothbrushes. Nguyen also says that only 30% of people carry the staph virus but only 1% of people have MRSA. Most cases of MRSA are not severe and go away on their own, but if the pimples or boils last more than a week, you should contact your local doctor or hospital to get it checked out. He also says that MRSA is nothing new on the medical scene.

Hmm...

I'm trying really hard to come up with something that you wouldn't know about my story, but am hard pressed to find something. Honestly, I feel like I crammed it all in (hence it being a little on the long side). I mean the story itself is pretty interesting: Centro giving the university money so employees can ride the bus? And paying for cabs if you miss the last bus? It all seems like a pretty good deal. I guess something you wouldn't know is that the commuter fair also was promoting biking as another option to get to work. It helps the environment and is healthy. But I thought that the Fare Deal and Guaranteed Ride Home service were more catchy (and interesting) stories, so I just stuck with them. I was frustrated with writing this week, and thought it could have been better, but overall was pleased with my work. Loved my new team, obviously! "The horse fell into the pool and had to be saved by a wrecker." HAHA- nice one Tyler :)

And now you (and I) know...

So the flu shot story was fun. I got a flu shot while I was there, and except the mild reaction I had to it, it was a good opportunity to get a story and get some errands taken care of. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. I am very excited to work on a long format piece because I always feel like I get too much information, and then I want to stick it all in my piece, and then I end up talking about a thousand miles an hour.

Alexander-Flu.mp3

One thing that I thought was pretty interesting was that the flu virus strain used in the innocculations was different this year than last. There was a buzz among the seniors waiting for their shots, so I decided to ask one of the nurses who was administering the shots what that was about. It turns out, it's a different strain every year, because the flu is a virus and therefore mutates over time. And now I know.

Also, from my subsequent research I learned that if you are having a mild (and key word is definitely mild) reaction to a flu shot, you can combat it with tylenol and lots and lots of fluids. It works wonders. If it is more than a mild reaction, however, you should call your doctor or seek medical help immediately. And now you know.

Team Boisterously Bodacious

I produced this weekend Team B's cast; note the alliteration of the letter B in the title. There were several things you would never know without hearing our newscast. First it was a really slow news day when it came to state and national news. I had to resort to a story about the death of an actress from the King and I to fill some time. Looking back at it, I should have just replaced that with another anchor-act, using the sound from someone's wrap. Another thing you wouldn't know is our team worked really well together. It helped me deal with the separation anxiety felt when team D as in Dangerously good was split apart. Producing was definitely easier than being an anchor.

Children are strange little creatures...

My day went very well. The only thing I didn't like about my story is that I had to wake up earlier than I would have liked because I had to be at Frazer School by 9a.m. I went and saw the University Hospital people doing some demonstrations and trying to scare the bejesus out of kids so they would wear seat belts and not drink or think about getting in cars with drunk drivers. At half nine was when the helicopter arrived. It was fun being amongst the kids and seeing how excited they were. They were asking me a lot of questions about my microphone and who I was(They were all disappointed when they found out I was a radio guy and not a t.v. guy). I used some of Justin Pizzi's tips when I spoke to the kids because I tried to converse with them a little bit first before asking them questions. Most kids don't talk in sound bites though.
The one aspect of my story (which was already 20 seconds longer than it should have been) that I would have liked to included is the reason this was happening at the school instead of at the hospital, which is where it usually takes place. It turns out that Frazer School doesn't have that much money, and that the price for busing has increased quite a bit. So basically the school couldn't afford to take the kids to the hospital for this program. So that the kids wouldn't lose, their health teacher Ray O'Brien organized for the hospital to come to them. Including a helicopter, an ambulance and a firetruck.
I had a good time covering my story and eventually writing my wrap. I think our broadcast went excellent and we had a great team. Were fine for time and I enjoyed how loose and relaxed we all were.

Fact Checker

My story on Thursday took me to a meeting for the Institute for Retired Professionals, which meant I was the only one in the room under 60. It was great, they were all really informed and really knew what was important to them, they asked the speaker some great questions about the issues in the area and I even got an idea for another story. Not to mention they were all really nice and came over to chat with me about school and how I like Syracuse and what I was doing there.
There was a couple of different things that I wanted to fit into the wrap about the Syracuse League of Women Voter's Citizen Fact Checker Project but didn't have time to. The first was that they had a program like this one in the 80s and 90s called the fair campaign practices committee, but instead of people reporting campaign facts other candidates reported them. After a while the candidates didn't bother to go to the committees but went straight to the media and the program ended. After a couple of nasty campaigns they decided to start back up again with the people reporting what they felt were misleading or false facts, now there is a couple of Maxwell professors involved. Another thing was that this "dull" campaign, as Janet Mallen called it, could hurt the projects ability to go state wide. Its a pilot program so it's really a test run and if it is successful they want to look into getting it used all over the state . The lack of use could hurt the chances of this happening and Mallen says she doesn't know how long the pilot will last. The last thing is that the members of the IRP are pretty disappointed with the campaign for County Executive, they feel like they don't know anything about the two candidates or how they are going to actually do all the things they talk about.

tyler condit

My day ended with a very weird combination of anchor readings, but before that it went pretty well. I arrived at the workplace a couple minutes early and looked for a story. I wanted to do a story about Maine's incredibly sexually active youth, but I couldn't get a number, so I moved on to the story that Annie did - the main that broke open and poured water all over Milton Ave. in Solvay. I called about twelve different people and had some terrible conversations that gave Richard both the giggles and he got really pissed off at me (which was completely fair). Luckily everyone else on my team kept supporting me and I got through it. That is all for now.

It's Gino's Blog

Despite the direct conflict of interest, I covered a story on prevention of underage drinking. The CNY Underage Drinking Summit took place at Drivers Village in Cicero. I printed out the directions to get there and had my friend drive me. We were on 481 N looking for an exit called "E. Circle Drive." Well, that exit was no where to be found for the entire 25 minutes we drove at 95 mph, and my friend and I decided to take the nearest exit out, which was still ten miles away, when we saw the sign that pretty much said we're on our way to Albany and Buffalo now. Eventually we managed to get there before the summit ended, but I had to miss that part of it that I wanted to cover. Fortunately the speaker happily talked with me afterwards one-on-one and I got some pretty good soundbites so I'm satisfied.



One thing that I didn't know about, and didn't put on air either, was that the brain develops from the back to the front. (The back monitors basic biological functions.) It goes from the cerebellum (which monitors balance) to the frontal lobe (which is in charge of logical thinking). So evidently, or so the speaker told me, the reason that kids drink is because they have the urges to get drunk and get high, but don't have the proper brain tool to reason it out and tell them such behavior is risky and stupid.

As for the news cast, I have to thank my entire team for saving my butt. I spent way too much time cutting a soundbite, which leaves me almost no time for anything else. So Lara and Matt helped me revise my story, and Andrew put my story on the cart for me. God bless these wonderful people.

However, something did go wrong with my piece, and it's impossible not to notice it. For my fellow classmates who read this blog, wait till Tuesday and - "LISTEN....... and KNOW."

You think you know, but you have no idea

I loved being the producer yesterday. At first, it was overwhelming because I can be pretty indecisive, and I had a hard time picking stories, but it all came together. Gino came back later on in the class period, but Matt and Andrew did a good job of helping me with the carts, which was great.

Our newscast wound up being longer than we thought, and I was really concerned about staying on time, so I cut the Brownback copy story we were going to do before the break. It was about Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, who is dropping out of the 2008 Presidential race because of a lack of money and funding. He also lacks some support from fellow conservatives because he supports citizenship for immigrants. He's most likely going to run for governor of Kansas in 2010.

Another small thing people wouldn't know by listening to the broadcast is that there was one story that Matt slipped up reading. It was the anc-ack about the fare deal (which Jordan lent me sound for...thanks, girl!). He messed up because I had a typo. So advice for future producers: don't forget to READ your stories as well. It's not just for the anchor to do.

Team A-Plus Productions

The best thing about being a producer is the incredible release of tension and energy at the end of a successful broadcast. Anchoring the last few weeks and being able to work with Annie really made me respect the responsibilities and consequences that comes with being a producer. With that in mind, I came to class Thursday afternoon eager to get to work and to make sure that time would not hinder us hours later. Choosing stories wasn't too difficult, but putting them in order to make up some sort of logical order was a bit tricky. The role of producer lent me enormous power, and although the news director greatly influenced what stories were picked, I got to dictate the order of the show. My team was the real reason I had it so easy, because everyone put forth their best effort. The wraps turned out fantastic and AJ did a great job delivering the news cast. We went a little late on Ranbir's story, but were willing to sacrifice a copy story because he submitted an excellent piece. Amy's story also came out great and the spin on her story was different and interesting. There's not much that went on behind the scenes, but it really did take a team effort to get everything to come together. From carting sound to writing copy stories...everyone volunteered to help out and kept my stress level at a minimum. The biggest mistake from Thursday's newscast was the premature congratulations that I offered AJ before we'd finished recording. I guess the anchor in me was too much to suppress at that point. Bottom line: we nailed it, and felt darn good to be in charge of such a wonderful team. I'd give ourselves an A-plus for everything except my untimely input.

Not exactly the geyser I was hoping for...

When I went and covered the water main burst in Solvay, I was really surprised to find how easy it is to walk into a flooded street...if you're wearing nice clothing and holding a microphone.

The thing that surprised me the most that I couldn't include in my story was how OLD all of the waterworks are in Central New York are. All of the people I spoke to said that the piping is over one hundred years old! I mean, it's underground piping my GRANDPARENTS used when they were twenty. It's baffling to think that an area with such extreme temperatures would allow something as temperature-sensitive as water piping to age that long.

I also didnt really get to talk about the people who were on the scene. Solvay had recruited companies from outside of the villiage to help drain the water from the streets. It was a really serious issue there. People on the blogs at Syracuse.com are talking about decreased water pressure from Westvale, which is the about three miles away. This is a really big deal; it seems like such a lackluster issue from the front, but it really affected alot of the area.

On a side note: if I can avoid it, I am never going to do a story that involves cooperating with hospital personnel. Dealing with middlemen is annoying as it is, and when you have a deadline, it's so much worse.

We're Gonna Groove

As an anchor today, my job was relatively easy. I was able to do a phoner with the Rosamond Gifford Zoo without any problems, and I spoke with one of the workers there. She knew everything about the Guinea hogs the zoo had just acquired, and she was very friendly on the phone, which made my job about 1000 times easier. As a reporter for The Daily Orange last year, I encountered my fair share of people who wouldn't take the time to really talk with you over the phone, so I greatly appreciate it when people go out of their way to help you out whether you be a major network news reporter or merely a student.

The newscast itself went very well, I thought. Ranbir and Amy did their jobs, getting their stories done with plenty of time to spare and getting them on carts well in advance. I thought Mura did a terrific job producing the show -- getting the rundown in order, writing a good portion of the stories, etc. We also did a very good job of timing the show out, even though we had to cut a story. All in all I think everything grooved, and nothing went drastically wrong. Mura summed up how we did at the end of the cast: "Nice job."

Let the Good Times Roll

After the dismantling of Team CitrusTV, I was still expecting a good newscast this week, and we definitely let the good times roll.

I finally got off reporting this week and gave anchoring a shot. After my first idea got shot down, my second story idea got approved - one about a Camillus Village Board meeting tonight to discuss there mismanagement of the budget. It took me a while to get someone on the phone, but I finally got in touch with the mayor no less. Apparently he told me, the report that the Camillus budget is being over spent is wrong. So my story turned out not being the overspending, but rather "Camillus Mayor Tom Grant says the budget is just fine, contrary to a report that says the town is meeting tonight to discuss the out of control spending." I admit that when he told me oh no the budget is just fine, I was out of a story. But then Professor Nicholson told me, "Now wait Matt, That IS your story." So away I went.

As a sidenote, one thing I learned that didn't go into my anchor/ack, report was originally that the overspending off the budget was being done mostly by the Camillus Fire Department. Mayor Grant said this was also not true, and reiterated the board was only meeting tonight to make sure the budget spending was still right on schedule.

As far as the newscast and team C goes - it was great working with two new people (I've worked with Andrew the past two weeks). I felt Lara did a great job producing. She knew what she wanted on the run down, she got things done, and her fun-loving attitude keeps things light. I knew Andrew would do a good job with his wrap because I've worked with him the past two weeks, and he did yet again. I worked with Gino for the first time, and though his wrap sounded like he recorded it in an ampitheater, I was still impressed with the story. We were all done in time, we got things timed out, and we were well prepared going into the booth.

I wasn't really that nervous going into the booth, becuase I've voiced tons of stuff at WAER. So at the end of the day, I left happy with the finished product for the third straight week. I get to produce next week, team A no less, so I have to be on my A-game (pun intended). It's me and three girls,(awesome) Lara, Katie, and AK-47, so I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Week 3

I was really excited to be a producer this week. It meant that I had control over the newscast. During the newscast we had some problems with timing. We ended up being very top heavy. When we came back after the break we had to quickly wrap up our newscast with less than a minute to go. We had to cut one of our stories in the second block and shorten the kicker and weather. The story we had to removed was about the new smoking ban at the Carousel Center. Starting January 1st, the mall will not permit smoking anywhere on the mall's property, even the outside. I thought this was a pretty good story but we had to cut it. If we would have cut one of the stories in the first block, we may have had better timing. Overall, I thought my team did a good job this week.

Second Time Around...

I was very happy with how things went on Thursday. I felt much more prepared and ready to do the newscast, and was especially happy that I had the whole rundown thing figured out-- that makes things a million times easier, I think. I also knew which stories to focus on, and had a better idea of how to make a more effective sequence. Another wonderful thing is that both of my reporters were in the room all day with their stories already covered! YAY! They wrote their stories in a good amount of time, which helped the stress level stay controlled. Lara had a little trouble finding a foner, but got one eventually. All of the carts were done with time to spare, and everything got printed out on time as well! We cut the weather pretty short because I thought we were running out of time, but we actually had 10 seconds extra. Oh well. Overall it went pretty well and I really am going to miss producing!

The Song Remains the Same

The second go-around for Team B went a lot smoother, all of us agreed afterward. For me, I had fewer problems attaining a story to cover, thanks in part to Lara who emailed me a story idea a few days ahead of time. I pitched the idea to Professor Nicholson, who approved, and so I was on my way to the OnCenter to cover the Small Business Show. Though I interviewed a "suit" (I swear I do something wrong every week, maybe one day I'll figure this reporting thing out), it was no problem to get an interview with him. Channel 5 was there with a reporter and camera and interviewed him before me, so when they were done I just stepped in.

As for the actual show, things went just as smooth in the control room, but needless to say things were a lot easier than last week. The trials and tribulations of last week's adventures taught us a lot about time management, I think, and it showed before the show. Everything was in order well before we had to go on mainly because we knew exactly what we had to do as a team. Interestingly, the success of the second show didn't feel as gratifying as the first show, probably because it wasn't such a rush beforehand like last week. All in all, it was just another brick in the wall.

Team D as in Dangerously Almost out of Time

We did a pretty good job today I thought. We got everything done when ahead of time again. Cohen and Africk got their wraps done early, Amy got stuff written, and I got my phoner done really early. Our only problem was for some reason we didn't get it timed out perfect. After like five stories or so, I managed to get us 17 seconds heavy. We cut a story so it worked out fine in the end. Some wise man once said, "all good things must come to an end eventually." So I believe this is case for Team D a.k.a Team Citrus TV a.k.a Team D as in Domination, and a.k.a Team D as in Dangerously Good. It was a good run while it lasted.

I'm Lovin' It

Am I just being way too optimistic or did we really do a good job today? I actually, strangely enough, did what I was supposed to do as a producer and everything worked out pretty well in general! The only thing that presented itself as a potential crisis was that it was raining and it was a slow news day. It seemed as if nothing exciting was going on (we were even short in kickers too, after the cat pee and the mother-who-attacked-her-boyfriend-by-swinging-her-baby-at-him stories were rejected) and initially my team had trouble finding good news stories. Fortunately, in the end, everybody found a good story and some stories were even in conjunction with other people's stories (ex: Ranbir and Jon's SU Homecoming stories), and everybody covered his or her story very well. Also, this time we managed to get into the booth and stay in! A big reason reason why we survived there this time is because we were way better prepared. We had everything we needed in the order it needed to be in, and we had enough copies for everybody so no one panicked. The only thing we could have done better, which again is my responsibility, was if we had a better timing. I kept my eyes on that big clock throughout the entire broadcast to make sure we were doing good in time. But for some obscure reason my brain cells collaboratively malfunctioned and I thought we were not going to finish in time, so I took a story out and thirty seconds after I did that professor Nicholson told me our broadcast was going to end way earlier than it was supposed to. So I rushed to find the story that I had removed and just randomly inserted it back after a kicker, and that was, as I later found out, not the smartest move. Also, at the end of of our broadcast, we had a couple seconds left. I should have signaled my anchor and told her to wrap up, but I freaked out and just threw her a floater to read, which eventually resulted in our broadcast ending in the middle of a story and Faith not having time to sign off. HOWEVER, with all that said, I still enjoyed today's class THOROUGHLY, and I absolutely LOVE MY TEAM. (It's so sad that professor Nicholson is going to tear us apart...)

One week later...

First, I did my story on the economic benefit that homecoming has on the city of Syracuse. Professor Nicholson told me to interview someone at the conventions & visitors bureau at the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, so I scheduled an interview with the president. After the interview, the president asked if he could use me as a contact at the university and pick my brain for ideas of how to get students more involved in the community of Syracuse. I'm really excited to actually be able to help bounce ideas off each other for it. Since I got my interview done so early, I had my script written before I even went to class. This made it easy for me to get my stuff done quickly and help my team write more stories and put things on carts. Again, our team came together to get everything done just in time (and I mean just in time) for our newscast. We definitely improved form last week. I think it was because we had a better idea of what we had to do in the time constraints we had. Though we did just get things done, it was much improved from last week.

making a difference...

There is nothing I love more then talking to people about what they are passionate about. That is exactly what I did for my story as a reporter this week. I covered the launching of a new website that was developed by students and faculty at our very own SU College of Law. The website is the first global blog that will allow oppressed people across the world report acts of violence and human rights violations. During the launch, the founder proposed this thought, "What is Anne Frank had a blog to talk about what she was experiencing?" This is what this website is all about. It was not just the website that impressed me. It was all of the people there. They were so passionate and excited to make a difference. Nuremberg Prosecutor Henry King said, "It's about making a difference, even if it is a small one." All of the people there truly are making a difference. It was inspiring to hear them talk about all of their hard work and what they hope their site will be. I interviewed Elizabeth O'Lochlin. She was so knowledgeable and excited about what they have accomplished and what is to come.

Going to the event was a great experience. Writing the story was a little more difficult. Because I learned so much and spoke to so many interesting people at the event I was "attached" to the story. It was difficult for me to just put the story on paper in a few simple sentences. When I finally got it all out I think the piece turned out pretty well. My group rocked (obviously) and everything went as planned (which kind of led to a less rewarding end of newscast). All and all it was a good day and a great cast!

Impunity Watch - Check the site out!

p.s. Happy Homecoming Weekend!

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Centro's Hybrids- getting the story

Alexander-Hybrid B...

It was another good week as a reporter. As it turns out, and other reporters should pay attention to this, Centro likes talking to students. Steve Koegel is a former radio broadcaster and knows what we sometimes go through to find someone who will talk to students, so he will talk to future broadcasters.

I found the story the night before (first try!), and first thing the next morning, the gentleman with whom I spoke had sent me back an e-mail giving me the information I needed to get ahold of him.

Centro's central office is only a few minutes from campus, so that was easy to get to. Also, getting the NAT sound of a bus is easy enough because I have to take a bus from South to North campus.

The biggest problem I faced is that I take what people say at face value, which leads me down a road of writing a PR piece often. I really need to work on that, but Professor Nicholson came through in the clutch and helped me out.

As a team, we worked well together again, and I am very proud of our newscast. I messed up a little when I carted my story so there's a very obvious pause between when Mura stops and where my story begins. Also, my story was two seconds longer than it should have been. In this particular newscast that wasn't a big deal, but I want to work on that because I am a perfectionist.

Other than that, it was awesome to be done on time and have time to time the newscast and fix my story. Well done Team C! I'll miss working with you guys!

Brush 'ya shoulders off!

Thursday's newscast went smoothly...compared to last weeks!

Team C really looked at the mistakes in our newscast and tried to remedy them. The biggest thing we did was to cut down the number of copy stories we had in our newscast. Which, i know is the reason we came in on time this week, as opposed to last week. (We also decided not to go with "now this" as our tease)

I'm bad at math. So, thinking we were running 40 seconds heavy, I told Mura to kill the tease and the kicker... when we actually had 48 seconds in our newscast. The only thing we really missed was the tease to the kicker.

Other than that, we finished 15 minutes ahead of our cast, so we had time to plan and read out segments, which accomplished another one of our goals.

I really like being a producer. I'm going to miss it.

After we wrapped, everyone came back to class and started rapping, which by far was the best thing that happened to me that day. Brush your shoulders off, RTN 364, we all rocked today.

Phew...we're through with two

After the test newscast last week, I felt confident that our team was going to perform well. Being anchor meant I got to stay inside which was a relief since the Upstate weather God's finally decided to give us our just dues. I wanted to come into class with a phoner ready if possible, but that didn't pan out so I go onto the wires and started looking for ideas. I ultimately decided on a story dealing with lending and loaning companies being subpoenaed by NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and I set out to get an interview with one of the questionable companies. That proved to be a futile effort after I spent nearly 45 minutes on the phone talking to PR people and secretaries who offered no input on the subject. I don't know if it was because the leaders of the companies were uncomfortable discussing their "questionable" loaning policies, but every president or manager that I tried getting in contact with was either busy in a meeting or on vacation. The secretaries told me to leave my name and number and they'd call me ASAP. Yea right! With time running out, I decided to try my luck interviewing someone on Cuomo's side. I got a member of the NY State legislative council who provided valuable information and a great soundbite. The rest of the day went much smoother and we really came together once again to put forth an excellent effort. Next week I get to try being a producer, which seems a lot more stressful then being an anchor. Never the less I'm excited and ready to tackle the challenge head on!

Bailed Out

I'll start by giving a shout out to Noel, who saved my behind by finding that story in the New York Times.
I am happy with my final product although my preparation the past two weeks has been subpar. I guess it was good that I didn't buckle under the pressure of potentially letting my squad down.
Sarah Short was awesome. I am really happy that I got to meet her, I know she will be a great source if I am doing any stories in the future relating to nutrition or health.
I have nothing else to say except it was nice working with that team and I am sure it will be nice with the next.

Round 2

This week overall went just as well as last week in my opinion. I started looking for stories Wednesday night, which is now my new favorite night of the week. (Going to sleep Wednesday without a story is the worst feeling in the world so I was happy to avoid it for a second straight week) I got my first few turned down, and then I sent Professor Nicholson an idea Amy gave me about this new study that says children in Syracuse get the recommended health care from their doctors less than half the time. He said no, but then I sent him another email saying, "wait - this study is coming out tomorrow, so would I be allowed to do a follow up on the post-standard's article by actually going to a pediatrician and gauging her reaction and asking about health care?" Well, he said I should then go give it a shot.

So around 11:00 Thursday morning I went to University Pediatrics to talk to a pediatrician. The receptionist didn't have a clue about the study, but she took me to Doctor Caroline Eastment, who was more than happy to give me 15 minutes. I had a real nice interview with her, and I was back in my room by 12:00 all ready to put the wrap together once I went to class.

Once in class, the wrap took a little longer for me to put together, because I'm really trying to make my writing perfect and not be so wordy, which seems to be my main problem. But I still got it done in a timely fashion, and was happy with the result.

The overall newscast with my team went very well for the second straight week. I thought Amy again did a great job producing, and she is as cool as the other side of the pillow under pressure. Jameson again did a great job in the booth, as did Africk with his story. I will certaintly miss this team, because the four of us for two straight weeks worked really good together.

R.I.P team CitrusTV, aka Team D as in Dangerously Good.

Much Better

I can definitely say yesterday was much better than last week. There were still a few mistakes but I am still pleased with the results overall. It was difficult to find a phoner once again. And, the slow news day did not help my situation at all. I ended up doing a Q&A interview with a T.V. broadcast student Ben Altsher. He had an interview with Stacey Castor's lawyer. This was a different way of getting a sound bite but it still worked well. After that I was able to spend some time writing other stories. Around 3:10 everything was looking good. The entire rundown was complete. But, then we encountered some problems. The story about the Onondaga Indian Nation had an update and we had to fix it. Also, our tease to the kicker was not very good and we had to fix that as well. I can happily say that once I was in the booth I did not quit this time. It was overwhelming being in there and reading the stories straight through. Time management was my team's number one problem this week. At the end of the newscast I started reading a story I should not have read because time was up. I do not know why I did that. I looked at the clock and I saw the time. I just do not think I fully comprehended what was going on. It was a mistake, but once again I learned from it. It is easy to become unaware of what is going on around you. I was very focused on reading that I forgot about the time. I hope to see improvements like this in the future. Even though no one likes to make mistakes I am glad I am making them now. I have learned so much in these past two weeks from the mistakes I have made.

Oh, the stress

As usual, I freaked out about my story this week. I found a bunch of things that seemed pretty interesting, but they all worked better as reporter stories, rather than foners. So I gave my original idea to A.J. and I think that worked out pretty well. However, by 2:00, I still didn't have a foner set up. I was getting really nervous, and finally Andrew saved me by giving me the pamphlet from the presentation he went to at SUNY Upstate Medical. He did a story on a national health care system, so I called the Physicians for a National Health Program and interviewed the campaign manager who talked me about the presentations they do around the country. I think the story turned out okay, so thank you Andrew!

As far as the rest of the day, it was pretty stress-free. Team B was working ahead of time, so I got to review all my stories before I went on-air. At the end of the newscast, Jordan and I thought we were going to be really pressed for time, so we wound up cutting the weather really short. I also paused awkwardly in the middle of my kicker, trying to decide whether or not I should finish it or cut the last sentence. Ultimately, we wound up ending the newscast with ten seconds to spare. So next time, we're going to have to watch the time more carefully. Other than that, I think our newscast was great.

Finally...

I mentioned last week that my goal was to cover a harder new story. I think I successfully achieved that goal this week. National health insurance is such an interesting issue that I was actually wondering how far people involved were in passing legislation. It turns out, the United States is farther than you'd think. Already, 60% of health care in the U.S., over $3,000 per capita in 2002, is a public expenditure. Dr. Oliver Fein was on the more popular side, because he didn't really have a reason for why people wouldn't want this passed. He did mention an increase in taxes, though. His presentation was extremely interesting in general, though. I have two to three pages of notes solely on what he was talking about in his slides (he had a Q&A later). The only problem of actually gettinng the story was the fact that it was raining. Every walk becomes longer when it rains, especially when you're wearing nice clothes. When I got back to class and started to write and record, I quickly found that my wrap was too long and needed to be cut. After I did that, it was still too long, but I didn't have to cut that one. That's why today I was so appreciative of my team. It would've been easy to say go cut the wrap down, and it's something I'm going to be working on in the future, but my team supported me and allowed me to keep my length. My goal to improve this week was to find a better news story instead of a feature and my goal for next week is to come in with a better length.

Second Time Around

I was pretty nervous about this week's newscast, last week just seemed to fall into place and work out with out really trying. In past experience, with various things, I've learned that if something goes smoothly the first time, the odds of it going just as smoothly the next time get very slim. This week didn't go as smoothly but I'm still very happy with our group and our newscast. I struggled a lot more this week putting the rundown together, it seemed that there were no really big stories that people just had to be told. What made it even harder was that we had a really good health block but no decent way to tie it into the rest of the news, I ended up working on it and switching it around through out the day. I was once again really happy with Matt and Andrew, they got their stories done early and done well. Same with Jameson, he got his phoner quick, wrote his stories well, and still managed to find a pretty gross kicker. The actual cast went well, we ended up having to cut a story on the fly and it ended up timing out perfectly and Jameson did a really good job. Even though things didn't go as well as last week, I think the little hiccups made it a better learning experience.

Go Teamwork

What a hectic day. I had been keeping my eyes and ears open looking for a story all week. But nothing of interest really popped up. So I was still searching Wednesday night when I just passed out at like nine, I guess from sleep deprivation, and didn’t wake up until ten this morning. So I was kind of panicked when I did get up. I read the paper and looked online and nothing really seemed like a good idea. So at 12 I realized I was drowning and headed over to professor Nicholson’s office to throw up a flare. We couldn’t come up with much. But Jon was doing a story about homecoming’s impact on the community to lead our show so I decided with the help of the professor to go off that. I walked over in the rain to the Sheraton and spoke to the manager and asked him about the type of affect homecoming will have on business. I then decided to find some alums who were back from homecoming and talk to them. (They were easy to spot. One of the guys I talked to was wearing a bright orange Otto shirt and wearing a hat that said ‘Syracuse Alumni’). I then hustled back and with the help of my group and professor Nicholson got my story out. Surprisingly that’s actually when the real panic started. We were really close to going on air, and for some reason Jon and I were really struggling to put my wrap onto cart. It just wouldn’t work. So I was told if it didn’t work I would have to ad-lib my wrap live on air without the sound bites. Yikes. This is when my heart started beating faster. I calmed down a little bit in the booth when Nicholson explained how we could get through it. But right then our Jonny on the spot turned up. Jon got the wrap on to cart with like a minute to spare. Faith did a great job reading the script. Even if the end wasn’t that smooth I’m still proud of my group. We all worked really hard and helped each other to get all of this done. Afterwards we discussed and decided we were all bummed we weren’t going to be working together anymore. But it’s all good, next week I work with Maura, AJ and Amy and I’m looking forward to that as well.

can't 'MASK' my excitement

As soon as I learned I was going to be an anchor, I got pretty excited because I wouldn't have to go out and find/write stories -- or so I thought. My first assignment was to complete a phoner or a phone interview with a source from a story relevant to the afternoon's newscast. I found the phoner to be a lot easier then going out into the field for interviews, but the amazing weather made being a reporter seem like the better assignment. The story I chose to do my phoner on was the recall of 35, 000 masks by the state of New York. I decided to call Richard Metzler, the president of Safety Equipment America, and he was kind enough to speak with me. Recording the interview was a little tricky at first, but I got used to the buttons and the interview came out sounding fine. Once the interview was over, I cut it down to where he made his strongest points. Writing the Anc/Act that went with the story was just one of the many assignments that I split up with the rest of my team...particularly the producer. I did a few copy stories, the weather, and learned how to open and close a newscast. Anchoring the newscast was thrilling because it felt like we were putting everything together. The individual work each person member did came together and it felt great to share our first news cast as a team. It was a very hands-on and informative class and the experience left me excited about a career in broadcasting.

A lesson learned

I did not think this Thursday was going to be that difficult. However, I was proven wrong. I was an anchor and I came to class without a story. That was a little stressful but then I found a story I thought was interesting. It was about two new studies, ACRIN and The University of Wisconsin Medical School, that just released results verifying the effectiveness of virtual colonoscopies. Virtual Colonoscopies are just X-rays that find possible problems in the colon. After finding this story, I called one of the doctors at The University of Wisconsin Medical School. Of course, he was out of town. Then, I called the radiology department at University Hospital. They directed me to a faculty member. He was an associate professor of radiology and internal medicine. He gave me so much information. I had a 13 minute phone conversation with him. After this, I thought everything was going to be smooth sailing. I started writing my story. The problems arose when it was time for our newscast. I think my team's biggest problem was that we lacked communication. Not all of the stories were ready in time when we went into the booth. Then, once we were in the booth, I froze when I did not have the headlines in front of me and did not know what to say. As you can image, I was really upset after this. I should not have given up but I did. I think back now and wonder how I possibly messed it up. I could have done many things but I did not. I have learned from my mistake. The lesson is to keep going and never give up. My team has learned a lot from this. I know next week is going to be much better.

It Was Hot Out at the Apple Festival

Africk- Apple Fest...

My story this week was easy. It wasn't quite as easy as last week's because I actually had to drive somehwere I've never been before and I almost ran out of gas, but it was very easy to contact my source and find the place once I got there. LaFayette is a small town about 20 minutes South of Syracuse, and finding a giant fairground with slides and tents and everything of the sort isn't hard. However, my goal for next week is to find somethnig a little more hard news. It's very easy to cover some soft story like the Apple Festival or a new show starting, but I think it's extremely difficult to cover something like a murder trial. That's why it was really cool reading some the posts. A lot of people have put themselves out there to get great stories, and I admire that. Granted some of them haven't worked out, but more often than not the risk paid off. Since a lot of people did harder news stories, I can now gain an insight into how to find and cover some less feature-y and more news-y stories. My stories were safe and fun, but not all stories should be fun. They should be interesting and relevant to a wide number of people in this area. Next week, you better believe I'm not going to be pitching any story about some festival or something... at least I hope not.

Teamwork!!!

I just wanted to say that after reading every post (yes I actually read every post cuz I wanted to see how everyone else did) I think that we as a class know how to put everything aside and work together in a time of crisis. Every single group scrambled at the end and probably could have used better time management skills, but every group still pulled it off and got everything done in time. I just want to give the whole class props for being able to work together so well and so hard under a tight deadline and pressure situation.

Walking, sweating and listening

Today, I woke up at 6 am and got ready for Thursday morning round table. I went to the bus stop on south at abotu 6:45 because I needed to catch the 7:15 bus leaving from College Place for Drumlins. Well, I find out the first bus doesn't leave south until 7:20, so I start the long walk to north campus. For fear of missing the bus and losing my story I am power walking. I was power walking so fast I power walked past these two other power walkers. By the time I go to the bus stop I was sweating. I got there just in time to wait 15 minutes for the late bus. After that, the story gathering went pretty smoothly. The people at Thursday Morning Roundtable were very nice and multiple people introduced themselves and welcomed me. The talk on Darfur was very interesting especially for me since I am a double major along with Political Science. After gathering the story and eventually making it to class, I took my time writing the story to try to make it the best it could be for our first newscast. I think I did pretty well on the story. One thing I didn't realize was that I would have to help write stories. Which leads me to what our group said we needed to improve the most. We needed to improve our communication. The communication within a staff is crucial for the success of the newscast. That and time managment are the two things that me and my group need to improve on to make our product better next time around.

Musicians...

The day started stress free because for the first time in history I had a story picked out before 12:30. I was going to cover a private Rudder concert. Rudder is a new jam band. All I had to do was go to LeMoyne College, listen to the band, ask a few questions and I would be set, right? Of course not. When I arrived I found out that the show was not scheduled for one o'clock, it was at two. I decided that it would be okay and I should be late. Well not only did I have to wait an hour, the musicians were late. The Show did not start until 2:15. The band was genuine, friendly and very talented. After receiving about fifty phone calls from Jordan, I figured I had a story and it would be okay if I snuck out fifteen minutes early. I got back to Newhouse at 3:00. Put my stuff together and was done by 3:30. Some people say impossible... but I think not. Because my group was amazing, got their stuff done and then worked together to pull it all together in the end, we had a successful newscast. A great way to start the weekend!!

Jam Band.mp3

My piece- still a little green...

Alexander-Urban Fo...

I want to start out by saying that while I am pleased with my interview, I think there are about a billion things I would do differently with my story, but, alas, I think that's how it always goes.

All in all, I think this was the least stressful week for me. Unlike in previous weeks, where I am running in the door at 3:30 or later and racing around like a chicken with my head cut off to get my story done by deadline.

Today however, was more like a walk in the park. After I had a couple of misses when it came to story ideas, I finally got a "that's an okay idea" response, which to be honest, was good enough for me.

I was still pretty nervous about the story. I haven't had very good luck with getting ahold of the original stories I plan to do. However, luck was on my side this afternoon, and all I had to do was call and set a time.

When I arrived at Dr. Nowak's office, I was a little nervous again. I don't think I'm stupid, but I'm always a little wary about meeting researchers, because I feel like they will look at me like I am stupid. Again, I was lucky because the guy I talked to was really eager to talk to me. He was really excited when I told him I taught outdoor survival skills to kids for the past few summers, and that I really liked trees.

He gave a pretty good interview too. He told me information I didn't know before, and every time he told me something about his research, he would retell me the information in terms that the average person would understand. I really appreciated that.
Unfortunately, he was a little soft spoken, so after I played with the levels on Audacity, there was quite a bit of background static.

I was back in the classroom well before two o'clock, which is definitely a first for me. For the first time, I was able to have Professor Nicholson look over my story before I recorded it, and that was a huge help. I even think I spoke slower, because I was far less stressed out.

Basically, today was the easiest story for me to get, and when you couple that with the least stress filled editing period, I think I maintained the better part of my sanity today. Hooray!

And of course, I can't forget to thank the wonderful Team C. Everyone was really supportive, and I know it was tons of work for Annie and Mura. You guys did a fantastic job, and although the final newscast was a little stressful, you guys did marvelously. Well done Team C. We rocked as a team!