End Of The Semester

Well, the first semester of my senior year is over and it was a semester of ups and downs. This semester I have really grown as a sports anchor in all aspects. I feel that my writing has espeically gotten better since I anchored last semester. Some of the downs of the semester however, were the actually show itself. After all the Titan Town Sports shows were done I didnt feel that there were a lot of strong shows. And a lot of that came from the technical perspective of putting the show together, sometimes the audio would get messed up or the wrong video would play. So one of the main things that I have come to realize is that no matter how well prepared you may think you are, you can never be too prepared. And there a lot of things to consider, such as what if the teleprompter goes down while you are reading your scripts? Or what if you introduce a package and the wrong video gets played. Most of these things I as the anchor have no control over and so it is key to be able to put trust into your crew memebers. And there were times during the semester that the crew was fantastic, and other times they werent up to par. But I have great hopes that everyone learned from their mistakes and triumphs last semester and will come back next semester ready to put on a great show.

KDKA Trip

Wednesday our broadcast journalism class had the oppurtunity to go to PIttsburgh and pay a visit to the first radio station in the country in KDKA. This trip was one of the best experiences i have had in all my years here at Westminster. I learned so much going on our walking tour of the station. to me the most enjoyable part was to be able to walk down and be on the set of KDKA news. Just to be able to see a professional news set, since this was my first time in a real news station. this is a trip that i think should be mandatory for every broadcast journalism class just for the experience of being there and seeing all the work that goes into doin the news. It is also a trip that i would love to do again. And I would just like to say thank you to Mr. Weaver for giving us the oppurtunity to be apart of this experience.

DISASTER STRIKES SPORTS AGAIN!

I spent the entire day Thursday trying to put together a package, featuring the All-Star soccer match that took place at Wilmington High School but I kept have trouble. Everytime I would get done capturing some of the footage to the computer, the computer would freeze and then i would have to start all over again. Finally with the help of Mr. Weaver we were able to get the package done 10 minutes before the show, needless to say I was feeling pretty good and confident about the show. I ran through my scripts and that went well also...but then it came time for the show. Basketball highlights went fine, but then I introduced a package featuring a football player at the college who is deaf, and when i looked up at the monitor to see the package I was shocked to see some high school football game highlights being played. Some how the tape with the package on it got cued up to the wrong spot. Normally, if this was a first occurence of this happened, I really wouldnt be too upset and just but it behind me, but this is at least the 5th time that something like this has happened this semester. So needless to say I am glad that we only have one show left, I could use a nice long break to just relax and beginning getting my mind in gear for next semester.

A WEEK OFF

Yes I have the week off becuase the crew was live at Light Up Night in New Castle. But this week wasnt a complete blow off week, we still had to do sports. This week Garrett got his feet wet as he made his debute on Titan Town Sports. T.J. and myself made sure he was ready to go when it came time to pre-record the show today at 3, I helped him write up his script, while T.J. showed him the Westminster highlights for the week. So it really was a pretty relaxed week and Garrett did a great job his first time ever anchoring, I was very impressed. And with only two shows left, Garrett still has to produce one of them, but T.J. will be showing him the ropes so I am confident that Garretts first time producing will be as good as his first time anchoring.

I Got So Mocked Up Thursday Night

THE MOCK CONVENTION IS OVER!!! And I am glad that it is done, but it was also a great experience. I have never been a part of something like this before and it was great to be paired up with Chris who has a little more experience with these things. It was also great anchoring the 8 to 9 shift becuase there was always something going on and Chris and I had a lot of material to go to, whereas the other anchors had to ad lib a little more. But everyone did very well, the anchors and the crew included. It was also fun knowing that we made a little history that night, by being the first mock convention ever to be streamed live to the internet. So this was by far one of the best experiences I have had at Westminster. It was also difficult becuase of all the background information I had to find on the candidates, knowing where they are from and what issues they stand for. Great job to the crew and faculty for putting this together, especially Mr. Weaver for putting in all that work in preperation for the show.

The County Line

Here is The County Line episode from Oct. 18 (Make sure to watch for the incredible sports show called titan town sports the anchor is incredible) http://www.westminster.edu/student/orgs/radio/county_line.cfm

Under Pressure

When coming back from fall break I thought that I was going to have a nice easy three day week. But then I came to the realization that we still had to put on The County Line. Which for the most part isnt too bad, we just have to re-rack some past news stories. The only problem with this is sports can not be re-racked becuase then nothing would be up to date. So T.J. and myself are going to be seriously under the gun for the show this week. We have all the highlights we need and we also have Garrets Soccer Second from the previous week that we didnt have time to use. And my script is already written up, all that is left to do is to go over the highlights before I have to go on T.V. So this will be a realy test for T.J. and myself but I think that it is also something that is going to help us out for the future.