Meet the cast, Part 3

We're continuing our tour of WUSA 9 and the team members that work behind the scenes to ensure our newscasts make it on the air.

First up is Regina Bratton.

She produces our 11pm newscast, but will also produce our 6pm newscast in addition to her usual 11pm responsibilities.
Regina has a very demanding position. Her typical day will start around 3pm, where she will attend an afternoon meeting and get caught up on the day's activities.
During the meeting, news managers, reporters and anchors will bring with them story ideas they would like to see broadcast on our 11pm news.

From there, Regina will format a rundown of what she sees as the news of the day. At 11pm, the idea is to present any new stories that may happen and present a fresh spin on stories that we reported on earlier in the day.

Regina, along with her writer will compose and organize the newscast, keeping in mind that everything they are doing can be turned on its head at a moment's notice. There are many times where we will have breaking news right before 11pm that will change the entire scope of the broadcast. Regina excels at all the challenges the 11pm newscast brings to her.

Helping us with the 11pm newscast is the microwave operator.

Emmanuel Agomuoh has served as our evening microwave operator many times during the week.

It is his responsibility to "tune in" all of our live shots in the field and then if need be, take in their stories. Once the stories are ingested in our computer system, the editors here at the station can edit the pieces. There are times when a reporter may send a complete package from the field. When this happens, Emmanuel will simply put a start and stop point on the piece and send it to airspace for playback during the news.

Another position we have is the teleprompter operator. The teleprompter operator will sort the scripts that Regina and her writer have written.

Chris Laudicina, another one of our production assistants is pictured here sorting scripts.
After the scripts are sorted, they will be distributed to the control room and studio. Once that is done, the teleprompter operator will proceed to the control room to prompt the newscast for the anchors.

Aronica Glover is pictured here at our teleprompter position. Aronica is not actually a production assistant at WUSA 9. She worked with me years ago at the Gannett property in Jacksonville, Florida, WTLV.

When I worked with Aronica, she actually used a different teleprompter system.
It was a bit more complicated back then. We didn't have a computer that displayed the scripts. We put paper scripts on a conveyer belt, similar to what you would see at a grocery store. From there, the script would be picked up by a camera and the signal would be transmitted to the teleprompter at the studio camera. When changes occurred, we would physically have to take paper scripts off the prompter and rearrange them while we were still rolling the teleprompter. It could get very messy depending on when and where the changes occurred.

Things are a bit easier today though since the teleprompter is run through a computer. At the computer, the operator will simply operate a dial that will roll the copy across the screen. They adjust the speed of the dial depending on the read of the anchor.
Computers have eliminated the need for paper for the teleprompter operator to deal with. The anchors and I still have backup scripts in case the computer crashes. Otherwise, the producer will make a change and the script will "float" to the proper place, assuming the script was moved correctly in the computer!

While it's not the hardest position in the TV business, operating the teleprompter still requires extreme concentration. Not only does the teleprompter operator have to listen to the anchors as they read their scripts, they also have to listen to the director and producer as changes are made!