Hey, Look Ma! I'm in the Satellite Center!

I think I laughed out loud the first time I heard of a room called "The Satellite Center." It was back when I worked for another local station. And someone was doing a live shot "from the Satellite Center." WUSA has done the same thing at times. I'll bet most everybody does.

Hilarious! Satellite Center? You gotta be kiddin me. Is the reporter in there personally taking in feeds direct from space with the latest information? Sounds like that's what we want you to think, right? Else, why do TV from a small dark room with a backround lit by tiny viewscreens? Feeds from various "satellites," no doubt.

Now THIS is a satellite center!!

But just because it strikes me as funny, doesn't mean the whole Satellite Center concept doesn't work.
Actually, it seems to.
Today when one of our reporters did a story on the Minneapolis bridge collapse from the Satellite Center nobody was laughing.
And what that really gets to is how much of the modern news business is really show business. The reporter can't get to where the news really is, i.e. Minnesota, so he or she goes 'live' from a room that appears to have a connection, however tenuous, to where the action is. We're not really there, but we sorta kinda are in a way....on the scene.

Now don't get me started on the Weather Center, the Traffic Center, and our latest addition, the Web Center....