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!

Goodbye--

Two of our talented employees left us this past Tuesday.

Shelley Rodgers produced our 6pm newscast. In the short time that she produced our six, I've come to highly respect her talents as a leader in the newsroom. She had great vision and was in command of the newscast when we were on the air.

WUSA's loss is KDKA's gain. KDKA is located in Pittsburgh, Pa. There, Shelley will produce their 11pm news broadcast. Here's a link to the station website to get an idea of what the station and the Pittsburgh area is like: http://kdka.com/

The other employee that left us is David Whittenburg. You can read about him in the "Meet the cast, Part 2" entry.

Dave will really be missed in the robotics position.

Click this link for Dave's last "parting shot."

Meet the cast, Part 2

In my last post, I wrote about our evening technical director, James Williams. One of the other jobs that James will perform is the training of fellow employees. It’s something that we actually both do.

James will train employees on the technical side, while I will train fellow employees on the production side.
It’s one of the more rewarding aspects to our jobs.

Three of our production assistants have really come such a long way in a short period of time.

David Whittenburg is actually no longer one of my production assistants. He received his union card this past summer and is now on the technical side of things. It was truly a pleasure to see how fast he took to certain aspects of his new job.
He’s been running our robotic cameras for the past few months and has become a connoisseur of the fine art of robotics! He’s creative, quick to adapt and offers suggestions on blocking. He really is a pleasure to have in robotics and is a true asset to this station.

Another tremendous talent that arrived at the station this past spring is Heather Torbitt.
In the short time that she’s been here, she’s done everything on the production side, including directing. In fact, she’s excelled at directing news briefs, web casts and promos. As far as I’m concerned, she’s ready to direct an actual news broadcast. Like Dave, she’s picked up on new things very fast and is always eager to learn more.

With that in mind, Heather goes above and beyond her production assistant duties and will also edit billboards for the sales department. She is a delight to work with and will have a marvelous future in this industry.

The next person in our trio of up and coming production assistants is Anthony Lucas.

Tony is just as dedicated, committed and passionate about his job as David and Heather. Like Heather and David, Tony is an excellent production assistant and is a talented floor director.

His thirst for learning is never filled and he’s always trying to learn more any way he can. Tony has been fortunate to be able to do blocks of news live on the air and he has done a remarkable job working under the “on air” light.
What’s good about Tony is that he is easy going, and works well under pressure. That will serve him well as a director. In fact, I could say the same about all three people that I’ve mentioned in this post.

I’m proud and honored to work with each and every one of them and see a sensational future for them all. It’s very gratifying and the most rewarding part of my job. What’s really nice is that we have more people in the pipeline just like the three that I’ve mentioned.

Tom Hunsicker has worked in our sports department as an intern. That was a few semesters ago. He hung around the sports department and helped them out on his own time. That’s finally paid off for him. He now has a paying job in our production department. Like the others, Tom will also have an impressive future in this business.

Meet the cast...

I keep referring to our technicians here at W*USA. I thought it might be nice to put some pictures with the names and briefly mention what kind of work they do to keep our newscast on the air.

First up, is our technical director, James Williams. Working with the director, the technical director, or TD, is responsible for coordinating the technical aspects of a news broadcast and the operation of the video switcher.

James is seated in front of the Sony MVS8000 production switcher. Operating the Sony switcher, James will manually switch sources from cameras to video to remotes and overlay lower third graphics as needed by the director.

All this doesn’t happen without preparation. Before every broadcast, James will examine the news rundown and make note of everything he will need to call up during a broadcast. At this time, he may also build special effects that a particular newscast will use.

A good example of this would be something we would call a “map fly.” In this scenario, we will put a map on the air and then James will build an effect where the video will fly out of the specific location that the anchor is talking about.

A good technical director is bright, adaptable and a quick learner. He or she must be able to quickly assess a situation and generate new insights and usable ideas before and during a broadcast. James fits that bill perfectly.

To Be Continued...

A Different Viewpoint

I want to thank all those reading my blog. It is appreciated.

I also wanted to let everyone know that there are other directors out there that publish blogs too.

One blog I highly recommend is written by Frank Macek. He's the senior director of Gannett sister station, WKYC.

Frank has been directing since 1995. Today, Frank is responsible for directing such broadcasts as the 6, 7 & 11 PM newscasts on Channel 3, The Akron News at 6:30 & 10 PM on TWC & various broadcasts for Sports Time Ohio including "Indians On Deck" & "Talkin' Tribe."

Now, I couldn't recommend Frank's blog without a Washington DC connection. However, since that connection deals with a competitor of WUSA, I'm going to have to advise that you read Frank's blog yourself and find out WKYC's DC connection!

To reach Frank's blog, just click on Frank's name on the right side of the screen!

The Little Things...

There are the little things in a newscast that I enjoy putting on the air. One of those things are the bump shots that we use going into or out of a block of news.

We use bump shots coming into a block of news to re-establish our newscast or we can use bump shots going out of a block of news as a way to transition into a commercial break.

Bump shots can be wide shots of the studio or shots of the surrounding area. Since we're broadcasting in DC, we have a wealth of outside bump shots to use...and I try to squeeze them in whenever I get the chance.

Take a look.

Sponge Bob Saves The Day!

Sponge Bob Squarepants made the 6pm news in Washington DC. Can you imagine that? No, he's not running for any political office. He didn't pull a gun on anyone or chase after some child as Pluto did at a Disney park.

Nope, Sponge Bob is a hero...a true American hero! When a fishing boat in Massachusetts started taking in water, the crew looked for something to the plug the hole.

Luckily, Sponge Bob was on board the ship...or at least a Nerf football with Sponge Bob on it...hey, it is football season after all!

Anyway, Sponge Bob was able to save the day. He sealed the hole so the Coast Guard could tow the boat to safety.

OK, I'll admit it's a goofy story. The real crux of the story is the singing talent of our illustrious anchors. I think some of them may have a shot in American Idol.

What do you think?

Seriously, the interaction and humor of our anchors truly made this story much more memorable and a great way to end a Thursday!

Take me out to the ballgame...

Every Tuesday during baseball season, 9News would have an exclusive interview with Jim Bowden, the general manager of the Washington Nationals baseball team.

Jim's Tuesday interviews were always informative and entertaining. This past Tuesday, Jim reflected on the fact that RFK stadium was about to lose the Nationals when they move into their new stadium next year, located by the Capitol in southeast DC.

Brett asked Jim what the one thing he would miss the most was. My words could NOT do this response justice.

Watch the interview here and then check out Derek's reaction to Jim!

Capturing the moment, Part 3

This week is off to a robust start with a mixture of local and national news.

The notable story that we led with at 5pm was O.J. Simpson. I'm thinking to myself, "Haven’t we been here before with that?"

At 6pm, we were supposed to start our newscast with a local man who was attacked by a dog. However, it was changed literally at the last minute to the story of Greater Southeast Hospital gaining new ownership.

My favorite story was about a local candy company that stated adding oil to chocolate would be a monumental mistake. Of course, it was my "favorite" story because I was able to "insert" myself into it!

After our anchor, Todd, read the story we were supposed to go into weather with Topper. Our other anchor, Lesli, mentioned that she had some candy get stuck in the vending machine downstairs.

When she did that, I just felt compelled to get into her IFB and tell her where her candy went.


Take a look!

Transitions

Wednesday evening we did something a bit different for the 11pm newscast. Thursday morning, the Maryland Transportation Authority had to close some ramps off the Wilson Bridge.

It was the perfect time to showcase our new traffic maps.

At 11pm, we rarely have use for them since rush hour has long been over. Occasionally, we'll get a traffic story where we can use the maps and Wednesday evening was one of those occasions.

The maps are animated and have little green or red cars on the major arteries to indicate the flow of traffic. The green cars mean traffic is flowing at a nice pace, while the red cars mean the traffic is jammed.

We had Todd situated at the green screen and put an animated map underneath him. Todd took the time to explain the traffic map to our viewers and how the traffic map would change. Afterwards, he was supposed to introduce Brittney Morehouse to elaborate on those changes.

Instead of just cutting to Brittney, I wanted to do some type of effect to our reporter in the field. Our technical director, James, built a motion effect that would squeeze the traffic map back, and then cube effect to Brittney. James pulled it off brilliantly.
Click here to watch Todd introduce Brittney.

The Arrival of Fall

When you think about it, September signals the arrival of many things. Some of the things that come to my mind would be the arrival of the new school year, the arrival of professional, college and high school football, and probably the top of everyone's list--the arrival of cooler temperatures!

At WUSA 9, September signals the arrival of John Pierce from "The Old Farmers Almanac."

John has been visiting the station every September for the past few years to give our viewers a sneak peek at the new edition of "The Old Farmers Almanac."

Topper interviewed John again this year and started with a look back at last year's predictions by the Almanac.

Last year, the Almanac predicted our winter would be warm, and then turn cold with an above average snowfall in our area. It's something that I'm sure many kids in school hoped for, especially since we haven't had a year with average snowfall since 2003.

As many people may remember, we had a pretty warm winter with a short blast of very cold air that came into our region.

In the Almanac's defense, John said the forecasters had the right structure of the season, which was warm then cold. However, they didn't take into account how long it would stay warm last winter!

The Almanac's prediction for our area this winter is quite different. The forecasters are saying our region will be mild and dry.

We won't know if the Almanac will be right until the end of the winter, but we can always count on a return visit next September by John to either gloat or defend the predictions of "The Old Farmer's Almanac."

If you would like to see the interview, Click here to watch Topper's chat with John.

9/11, Looking Back...

Wow, it's hard to believe it's been six years since the attacks of 2001. From the picture above showcasing the Pentagon, you wouldn’t believe that a plane flew into it six years ago. It happened, and as a nation, we've all changed as result.

...but six years ago, life was so different.

For me, it started as any other day. I had taken my vehicle in for an oil change at the Honda dealership in Fairfax. I liked to go there, because there was a bookstore across the street where I could hang out while my car was being worked on.

At one point, I decided to check my voice mail. My wife was in Florida, showing off our newborn twin girls. She was the first of my many voice mails that I still remember to this day:

"Scott, wake up! You're not going to believe this, but a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center."

Ok, I hear that message and I'm thinking, "Yea, right." The next message was from my production manager at the time:

"Scott, we need you at work now! A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center."

Ok, now I'm thinking to myself, "What’s going on?"

(A quick side note here)

As I write this, recalling these events in so much detail still brings me the chills...a small example of how 9/11 personally touched me.

At any rate, I started racing across the street to the dealership, when I listen to the third message from my production manager:

"Scott, where ARE you? A plane just hit the pentagon. We NEED you NOW!"

I can honestly say that at this point, I'm a bit panicked. I race up to the dealership to get my vehicle. The technician says that they are just bringing my car down from the rack. I try to pay for the services with my credit card. Because of all the phone lines being tied up, the card doesn't go through and I didn't have enough cash to totally pay for the services done to my car.

The technician swiped my card for a third time and still nothing. I tell him I work at Channel 9 and I need to get to work right away. Given the nature of what was going on, he understood, and said "don't worry about the credit card. I'm sure you're good for it."

Ok, so I've got my car and I'm driving to work. The scene on the road kind of reminded me of what traffic is like on a snow day. There were many cars leaving the city and very few cars going into the city. The main difference that day: People were leaving their cars on the side of the road and just running to get out of the city.

I finally arrive to work to a bee hive of activity. Our morning director, Billy Rayment is in the chair and has been since the early hours of the morning. I let him know that I'm there and can sit in for him whenever he's ready.

I finally get into the chair and start my day. Things were coming at us fast and furious. Buildings were collapsing. People were running from the scenes of New York and Washington. Our reporters were busy getting people in front of the camera to get eyewitness accounts and some type of explanation from officials on what just happened here. The control room was jammed with managers helping out with coverage shouting out commands of where we need to go next.

I think one of the things that really stuck with me that day was watching video of people who were stranded at the top of the World Trade Center. With a raging fire behind them and no where to go, some people elected to jump off the building either in the hopes of somehow being caught or just to escape the tremendous heat.

It was the one thing that we did our best NOT to put on the air. There was so much devastation of the day, just thinking about the people I saw jumping to escape the inferno of the World Trade Center brings tears to my eyes six years later.

I'll be perfectly honest with you. There was so much going on that day in the control room, that I didn't have time to process it.

Later the next morning, I finally started on my trip home. I drove through Georgetown. I saw military tanks on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street. Despite everything I saw and broadcast that day, the sight of those tanks hit me just as hard. The buildings collapsing and the people trying to escape the World Trade Center hit me hard too, but at the time, it was video. It was something I was putting on the air. There wasn't a whole lot of time to process what was going on in the activity of the control room. We just did.

The tanks on the other hand, I had seen personally with my own eyes. I knew the tanks were the direct result of the news we had put on the air that day. After all the things I had witnessed while directing this coverage, my heart just sunk deeper into my chest.

It would be a couple of weeks before I could collect my family from Florida. All air travel was grounded and we were working long days at the station.

When I did get the chance to pick up the family from Florida, it was my first view of how air travel had changed. There were soldiers in the airports with rifles, ready to go at a moments notice.

At that time in Orlando, EVERY piece of luggage was personally searched. Naturally, there were long lines and we even had a bit of a "scare" ourselves.

The gentleman ahead of us had a suitcase that was suspiciously heavy. He had tried to resist security doing a search out in front of everyone. After a bunch of soldiers came by, he relented to the search. His suitcase was filled with a bunch of "girly" magazines. Everyone had a bit of a smile on their face as the gentleman turned eight shades of red.

The following year brought many changes to the entire world. I think it took that whole first year for the true impact of 9/11 to sink in.

On the first anniversary, I did my best to avoid all TV broadcasts marking the first anniversary of the attacks. I'm not sure what I was thinking. I know I didn't want to see planes smashing into the World Trade Center. I know I didn't want to see the human tragedy, the suffering that people had went through.

Of course, when you work at a TV station, you can't really avoid that. I went into work that day, saying to myself, it's just like any other day...but it wasn't. I was so lying to myself.

We were on the air for extended coverage of 9/11. I had walked into the control room. I don't remember what I saw or heard...but whatever it was set me off. I abruptly walked out of the room and for the first time broke down over the events of 9/11/2001.

It took me a year to really do that. Why? I couldn't tell you. I can only surmise that as a television news director, you turn yourself "off" to the news you put on the air and read about on the wires. If you don't turn yourself "off,” I'm a firm believer you'll go into deep depression over the things that we do to each other. It goes without saying there is some pretty bad stuff that happens in this world of ours.

That day, 9/11/2002, I couldn't turn myself "off." I went to a room to be myself for a few minutes to truly let it all out.

Once I did that, I was ok to work. I wasn't ok for what had happened, but I could at least pretend to act professional and do my job.

Looking back, I can see what an impact the events of 9/11/2001 had on me and on us as a nation. When you’re in the middle of it though, it’s hard to do. I remember when I attended the University of Florida; I took a class from Dr. Mickie Edwardson. She taught a class called, "Mass Media, Processes and Effects." It was one of the more important classes I took at UF. In the class, Dr. Edwardson drilled into us the heavy responsibility of what we do and how it could effect people, how the media could ruin lives, or at the same time, reunite families or do general good for the public.

The media was and is a powerful tool, but I don't think Dr. Edwardson ever imagined how it would be used on 9/11/2001 and how seeing those planes hit the World Trade Center would really impact everyone. Just as important, I don't think any of us attending that class so long ago would ever dream we could cover an event as powerful as 9/11...

Capturing the moment, Part 2

It seems many of our moments come from the creative mind of one, Mr. Brett Haber. He can take anything from the day and make a point about it that will bring a smile to your face.


Case in point:
The final sports story of Monday evening's 11pm newscast dealt with the Redskins', Chris Cooley. He arrived at Redskins Park dressed up...in his pajamas and stayed that way all day.


When asked about his attire, Mr. Cooley remarked, "This isn't a fashion show, and I'm not a model"

Here's what we saw out of the sound from Mr. Cooley:

Notice what Brett and Topper have on? Here's a better shot of the two:

Topper can barely contain himself. In fact, I caught a close up of Top laughing his head off. In the shot I used, you can tell Topper was trying so hard to keep his laughter in!

Brett on the other hand, played it straight, which made the scene all the more humorous. It was a nice way to end the broadcast considering the next day was 9/11!

HDTV Conversion

Back in 2004, our television station converted to high definition. There were many people behind the scenes that made this possible. I thought I might post some pictures of the studio for those of you who have never seen our broadcasts. The following pictures are the FIRST pictures of our studio, before we actually went on the air with it.
The picture above is from the vantage point of one of our stand up positions to the right of the set. I think it's one of the nicer stand up positions. You have the set in the background with the lights and the rich colors. If we want, we can bring down the main lights on the set and just have the backlights up, with key lights on the anchor in the stand up postion. You'll also note the set is a two story set. However, it's for looks only. The upper part of the set wasn't built for someone to actually stand on.

The picture to the right is a similar picture. The vantage point of this shot is at the home base of Camera 2.

On the other side of the studio, we have an interview set. If need be, we can whip the cameras around to a completely different set and do interviews with any reporter or guest we may want to bring on the air. In this particular shot, some minor tweaking of the lights was being performed before our HD debut.