"News 20 at Five" Blog

--- January 28, 2013 --- 

Every experience in life is one to learn from.

And for several reasons, my first day as an official line producer for News 20 at Five was most certainly educational. For starters, I learned that not just any person has what it takes to succeed as a news producer. Many people identify themselves as journalists, and I'm sure they have every right to do so. But producing a live newscast that broadcasts to 80,000 regional homes is a completely different animal. It requires leadership, dedication and team work. Stress and time management skills are just as critical. Those aren't universal traits.

And it's safe to say that time management -- or my lack there of -- completely summarizes today. Time wasn't at all on my side during this newscast. But don't get me wrong, now. I say that not because I didn't have time to finish developing my show. I had plenty of time. I finished my show rundown with time to spare and everything. It's just that poor time management on my part showed its ugly little head while the show was on air. As it turned out, the newscast was considerably heavy content-wise. And as a result, I was forced to drop several stories last minute in order to sign off air on time. That ultimately caused total chaos toward the end of the show. What a stressful situation that was. 

As you can probably tell, today's show was anything but ideal. It certainly wasn't to my standards (I'm practically a perfectionist). But like I said, every experience in life is one to learn from. And this mistake taught me what a solid newscast looks like in terms of story count and block timing. I seldom make the same mistake twice, so I don't intend to ever make such an error again. 

Today's show wasn't all bad though. It had plenty bright moments too. My reporters and associate producers, for instance, were great. For the most part they simply nailed their assignments. Their work wasn't perfect by any means; there's definitely room for improvement. But considering today was their first live newscast as well, one must be relatively satisfied with their effort and product. 

But the day is now over; we've learned. So, it's time to raise the bar. 

--- February 4, 2013 ---

Every week should be better than the previous. This week most certainly was, and I say that with confidence.

In terms of content, this week's News 20 at Five newscast was great. Story selections for the show were solid, and the story order in the rundown made things even better. And my associate producers truly stepped up as well with sound video editing. Minus the one video hick-up in the sports block, their performance was just where it needed to be. 

I must give a lot of credit to my reporters as well. Because Mondays are generally slow news-wise, it really took a collective effort from the entire news team to come up with an interesting "A Block." The stories the reporters ultimately came up with were both intriguing and well reported. There are still a few technical areas in their packages that need improvement, but that should resolved in the coming weeks. 

The biggest issue we had today involved pacing. It's extremely important that the anchors flow through their script rather promptly. Because that didn't happen today, I was forced to float a few stories throughout the show to get off the air on time. And in the end, I was still forced to dropped my kicker and push for a quick close. That's something my anchors and I definitely must improve on, and I know we will soon. We're not making the same mistakes multiple times, so that's always a plus.

Like I said, today was certainly an improvement from last Monday. And it doesn't matter what stage of the game you're in. If you're not progressing, then you're regressing. We're definitely headed in the right direction. I'm looking forward to next Monday.

--- February 11, 2013 ---

Today's newscast was by far the best one I've produced to date. But what's a producer without his team? 

We all truly came together to pull this one off, and I couldn't be more proud of my reporters and associate producers. 

My sidekicks edited and formatted the show's video content proficiently, as usual. Despite major setbacks, all three of my reporters executed their assignments and returned to the newsroom with quality stories. And I was much more aggressive in terms of time management in the booth -- just as my news director said to be -- which meant the show had a flawless conclusion. 

We also introduced a reporter live shot today. That was a success, too. 

But the shot almost didn't happen.

The initial story I assigned to one of my reporters, a juvenile law appeal story slated be the live shot this afternoon, ultimately fell through. Every key source my reporter reached out to was unavailable before our deadline. So, I gave my reporter an alternative story. It centered on the impact the Saturday mail stoppage would have on Leon County postal workers. But when my reporter pursued that story, no one was willing to speak with her.

Yet another dead end.

As a last resort, my director and I decided to turn a 35-second VO/SOT/VO story I was planning to run, which was about a local Museum's debt crisis, into a 1:30 package. And that story was to become the show's live shot. Luckily, that story worked out.

I finally had my live shot (thank God!). Everything was smooth-sailing from that point forward. The show had a few technical discrepancies, but we'll avoid that next Monday.

My team and I were definitely faced with a bit of adversity today, which revealed just who we are. And I must say...I really like what and who I'm seeing. 

If we keep progressing at this rate, there's just no telling where we'll be when it's all said and done. 

--- February 18, 2013 ---

The day was going smoother than silk.

Our 9:30 a.m. editorial meeting was quick, yet highly productive. One of my reporters pitched a story about the Florida “Parent Trigger” bill, so I made it our newscast’s live shot. And my other two reporters immediately favored the stories I assigned to them.

One was about the traffic Tallahassee’s Gateway Project could potentially bring to downtown. And the other centered on Leon County’s two-month rebate program for purchases of energy efficient appliances.

We were in, and then by 9:55 a.m., we were out.

My reporters hit the streets soon after. And they had absolutely no trouble getting the interviews and footage they needed.  While they were handling business, my associate producers and I were doing what we always do: writing strong scripts, editing great complimentary footage and ordering critical graphics.

My show rundown was looking awesome in no time, content-wise.

As time progressed, things continued to fall into place. Stories in tow, each of my reporters had returned from the field by 2 p.m.  By 2:45 p.m., their footage was logged, and they were writing their scripts in ENPS. They began editing their packages soon after. And you better believe their final products were loaded in the station’s playback server, along with the rest of the show’s video, on time.

We were living by our deadlines. By 4 p.m., scripts were ready for print. By 4:10 p.m., those scripts were on the anchor desks and in the news director’s hands.

Everything was falling into place. I just knew the show was going to be one to remember.

And it certainly was…for all the wrong reasons.

The station’s programming server, which airs News 20 at Five daily, refused to function. My show – the one destined to be a success; the one scheduled to broadcast in 80,000 homes in 20 minutes – was going to be been seen on television by absolutely no one. I was heartbroken, figuratively speaking.

Because our programming was down, we were forced to use our website’s live stream as the primary source for reaching our audience. But that even experienced technical difficulties. Turns out, the programming issue prevented the live stream from broadcasting video. It only provided audio.

So, we worked with what we had and went through the motions as if nothing had gone wrong. Essentially, my television newscast instantly became an online radio show.

And while the show was streaming, I tweeted brief summaries of the biggest stories in the show to make up for some of the viewers we might have lost.

Today’s newscast was anything but what I expected or hoped for. But sometimes, things like this just happen. When things are beyond one’s control, one must roll with the punches.

But despite the misfortunes that plagued the newscast, today definitely had a bright side: we’re still on the right track, evident by our positive performance as a unit.

Now, FAMU TV-20, how about we get that technology fixed…

--- February 25, 2013 ---

It was only a matter of time before things finally fell into place for us. 

After all, our crew is made up of so much talent. There's just no reason as to why every product we air wouldn't be golden. 

Today's show wasn't 22-karat. But it certainly got the job done, nonetheless. 

The show had all the elements necessary to compete with the best of them. It had breakout coverage of the potential sequester in the A block - including two quality live shots that complemented well reported packages. The newscast even had breaking news coverage at the top of the show about the worsening weather conditions in Tallahassee (which was produced 15 minutes before air time). 

And thanks to my diligent associate producers, all video in the newscast was crisp and ready to go in no time. 

Today was a prime example of how we can handle any situation thrown our way. That was certainly the case on my behalf. Because we added a live weather shot at the top the show, the newscast ran heavy in terms of time. That required me to make quick decisions regarding which stories needed to be dropped in order to both sign off on time and deliver only the most important news. 

I ended up dropping one package in the B block and two VOs in the sports block. Also, instead of airing the show's kicker, we concluded the show with a weather recap given all the recent events that transpired. 

Like I said before, it was only a matter of time before our potential manifested itself on air. We set the bar and raised it all at the same time. And at this point, the only thing I could ask for is that we continue to do so every week to come. 

--- March 18, 2013 --- 

Everything didn't exactly work out as planned today, but that's OK. Our shows have really come together during the last few weeks. And this lets us all know there's still work to be done and room for improvement. 

The show was pretty concrete in terms of content, largely in part because of our team's ability to adjust to change. As the day progressed, the team and I made significant changes to the stories we decided to cover during the morning editorial meeting. 

We all agreed to pursue a story about a Florida bill seeking to limit courtroom trauma for children aged 16 and under. We also decided to run a story about a bill that would provide corporations with a $1,000 tax credit if they hired certain types of ex-cons. 

Both stories were pretty solid. But my reporter who was covering the tax credit story had trouble getting people to speak on camera. So, as a backup plan, she shot a package centering on a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that shows women suffer from anxiety more often than men. 

As for the courtroom trauma story, the reporter who was assigned to it was still able to get it done. But we decided to downgrade it from a package to a VOSOT. One reason we decided to go that route is because she was also having a hard time finding people willing to speak on camera. 

In addition, it came to our attention early that the Marching 100 was holding a vigil for a band member who died in a car accident last night. There was absolutely no way we were going to miss that story. And since we only had two reporters today, we had to make adjustments accordingly so one would have time to cover the story. 

Therefore, my second reporter ended up delivering 3 VOSOTS instead - one centering on courtroom trauma, one on the vigil, and other one on domestic partner benefits that were recently passed in Leon County. 

My reporters adjusted to change quite well, I must say.

I think I did so as well. Initially, it looked as though the newscast would be anchored by one person since the other had yet to return from spring break. So, I created the rundown and the scripts accordingly. But around 2:30, the second anchor made it into town. She had made it on time to anchor the show. 

That meant I had to rework the scripts and the rundown so that it included both anchors. But as it turned out, I also had to do the same thing for the sports block because my sports anchor was unable to make it today. I received that news about 30 minutes for it was time to print scripts. 

But I handled those changes, so all was well.

There were only a few discrepancies in the newscast, but they were pretty noticeable. For whatever reason, the SOT in the domestic partnership story had zero sound. I'm still not sure why that is because we reviewed the footage prior to it going on air. And we ensured that it was exported in the correct audio setting. 

I also had four consecutive over-the-shoulder stories, which turned out to be a hassle to pull off for the technical director. So, I now know to never do that again. 

And I was caught slipping in the B block. I ran a story about fog on Interstate 95, which was supposed to precede the weather tease for a smooth transition. But I forgot to drag that story to its designated spot on the rundown, which meant a Hugo Chavez story preceded the tease. That lead to one of the worst weather transitions in the history of news. 

Those are all mistakes on my part, and I will definitely keep such to a bare minimum. 

On the bright side, my parents visited today and actually sat in on the newscast. Them having a chance to see firsthand what I do on a regular basis was a rewarding experience. I would have loved for them to witness a perfect newscast, but things happen.

It's still all good.