They call it paying your dues and missing out on Saturday and Sunday are a part of the costs. I knew it was too good to be true to start off at a station and get Christmas and New Year’s day off. So a month later, all that changed. Our station’s weekend reporter moved away, and I moved into his slot like a game of Correspondent Checkers.
Now, I’m the one covering the dog shows, park picnics and high school quiz bowls when there’s no breaking news.
So there’s no more sleeping in on Saturdays or going to church on Sundays. My new days off are Monday and Tuesday, conveniently, when everyone else is at work or school.
But this new shift is not all bad, there are two sides…
PROS TO WORKING WKNDS:
-Laid back atmosphere, no traffic
-Less live shots and demands
-Stories are assigned beforehand
CONS TO WORKING WKNDS:
-The obvious of being on when the rest of civilization is off
-No assignment desk, so have to answer phones & listen to scanners
-Short-staffed, so I’m treated like a photog who shoots multiple events
I said so long to Los Angeles and drove up the 5 freeway to Bakersfield. And what an experience it has been reporting for Ch. 17. My day goes by so fast, if my stories weren’t recorded, I wouldn’t know what I reported.
The types of stories I cover in Kern County vary so much, many deal with agriculture, education and pedestrian vs. vehicle accidents. I haven’t interviewed a politician yet, while I remember interviewing the mayor and city council members all the time in LA. Like any good local news story, my goal is to take a major issue or topic and personalize it for Bakersfield, which is no easy feat, especially, when covering a story about welfare or longterm unemployment.
Starting out at KGET has definitely been an experience. No two days are alike. It can be a challenge to learn my way around town in a matter of minutes for a live shot or an interview, especially, when the person I’m meeting tells me to meet them off Highway 184 near the grape trees -_-
So I’m jumping all over the learning curve here and working to be a better reporter each week.
While in Berlin, I stopped by the Deutsche Welle, or DW-TV station. They run a pretty nice news operation. I got a full tour from one of the VP’s, who was also a politician and said that was a big deal for a woman. I had never watched the network before on TV until I saw it later on one of the million DirecTV channels. Surprisingly, though Deutsche Welle is headquartered in Bonn, it does not broadcast in Germany, but primarily is shown in Russia and countries in the Middle East and Africa. It was a totally different concept: a TV station in Germany that does not cover Germany but instead, covers other countries’ stories. Its a station mainly politicians watch.
Here I am sitting at the DW news desk. Awesome access
Two major liquor stores were torn down in one day in central Long Beach. Police officers, city councilman and longtime members of the community said both the Sim’s Liquor Store on Willow Street and the Whistler on Pacific Coast Highway caused nothing but trouble for the area.
Drug sales, prostitution and loitering took place at the Whistler liquor store said Lieutenant Timothy Lancaster.
He said more than 1,500 were placed to the Long Beach Police Department within the last five years, and demolishing the Whistler will free up police officers to tend to the other needs of the city.
Mary Anderson, who has lived near the Whistler for 30 years, said she feared for the safety of the youth in the area because an elementary and high school were in close proximity.
Councilman Dee Andrews for the Sixth district of Long Beach said nothing bad will be done because the two liquor stores were torn down.
“This means progress for our community, more jobs will be coming our way,” he said. “We’re going up.”
A new community redevelopment center is said to replace the old Whistler liquor store property.
Is it me or have natural disasters been coming in with a bang lately? First, the Northeast experiences a record winter with roofs caving in of snow, then the New Year brought cataclysmic earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, and before the world can catch its breath, it’s Tornado Season! And what a titanic of a season its been. The Southeast has been shattered from these violent wind storms.
In mere days, tornados took the lives of hundreds in Alabama alone. The storm totally ravaged my cousin Della Johnson‘s home to nothing. She wasn’t even able to grab her purse when the tornado hit and rescue crews found her under her gas stove (which was on) crying for help. CNN’s Don Lemon interviewed her outside the remains of her house in Forestdale. Please keep her in your prayers.
Just 90 miles away from Forestdale, the powerful twister killed 27 people in Hackleburg, Alabama. One woman from the small town, now residing in California, is organizing a fundraiser by herself to help aid the tornado victims. Many of her relatives’ homes got destroyed as well.
They call it paying your dues and missing out on Saturday and Sunday are a part of the costs. I knew it was too good to be true to start off at a station and get Christmas and New Year’s day off. So a month later, all that changed. Our station’s weekend reporter moved away, and I moved into his slot like a game of Correspondent Checkers.
