Saturday, June 30, 2007

Did You Buy An Iphone?

Did you buy an iphone? If you did, I would like to talk to you.

I am looking to find some people who purchased an iphone and might be willing to blog about their experiences with the new device for our TV station’s website. If you think you might be up to the challenge, send an email titled “IPHONE” to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Friday, June 29, 2007

The Mileage Goes On

As a news organization, we go where the news is happening.

When the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech occurred, we immediately sent crews to cover the story. When a hurricane is threatening our coast, we drive to the beach. Everywhere we go, we usually drive. As such, the mileage on the news vehicles usually adds up quickly. 

I was recently reading an article that stated the average person drives between 10-15K miles per year. Our news vehicles drive significantly more than that. I just looked in one of our trucks and discovered it had over 220K miles on it. It’s not out of the realm of possibility to have news vehicles that are driven 50K miles in a single year. That’s roughly 960 miles per week, 192 miles per day.

Our live trucks endure a lot. After all, they have equipment in them that adds some serious weight to the frame of the truck. So that makes the mileage even more important. We oil change and maintain the vehicles just like you would any other vehicle. This means, they see the oil change shop roughly once a month.

Did you enjoy this entry? I encourage you to post your thoughts in the comments section.

-Jason
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Thursday, June 28, 2007

The “New” Smell

There is something to be said about the smell and shine of new things. If you have ever purchased a new car, you know what I am talking about.

Just like cars get old and need replacing, our cameras needed to be replaced. After all, these cameras are put to work every day. They are expected to withstand grueling conditions as we aggressively cover hurricanes, rain storms, snow, hail, building fires and so much more.

Several weeks ago, the stack of boxes arrived with the new cameras inside. Our technical folks have been getting them ready to hit the streets. Now they’re ready to rollout.

Rolling out a fleet of new cameras is never easy. It’s not as easy as exchanging an old camera for a new one and sending the photographer on his/her merry way. You have to train them on the new equipment and than test everything to make sure it all works. Not to mention, the photographers like to have time with their new gear so they can play around with all the buttons, gizmos, gadgets and whatchamacallits.

From the Content Center, this means we had to do juggle our staff of photographers to get them all trained. We refer to this as time “off the streets”. Not everyone can be “off the streets” at the same time. We have to space them out.

We have a few more cameras to swap out and than the rollout will be complete.

Friday, June 22, 2007

New Faces

If you haven’t noticed we have a few new faces on NBC 17. Chris Cowperthwaite and Kerry Hall have just joined the team but for every person you see on TV there are plenty more new folks working behind the scenes.

I would be just one of the many who have started here in the last few months. In fact we have about a dozen folks who are new to the team from all over the country. Chris comes to us from Savannah, GA and Kerry came to us from Rock Island, IL. Other behind the scenes folks come from Chicago, Mississippi, Memphis and West Virginia just to name a few.

What can I say; it takes a lot of people to get accurate and balanced news on the air and the web. With both of those demands it takes a few extra hands. Will you ever see those of us working behind the scenes probably not or at least not that you know about. You will see Chris and Kerry and when you do say hello and welcome to town. We are all very glad to be here and hope to get a great story tips from you very soon.

You can expect to see more new faces in the coming weeks…

Erin Worrell
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Thursday, June 21, 2007

Congrats UNC

I’ll start with I Love Sports! So watching the UNC Tar Heels make it to the finals of the College World Series tonight was great. (My husband is from North Carolina so I have learned to cheer for the Heels.)

I know there are those who don’t like sports or baseball and dare I say it…UNC, but they deserve some attention tonight. Making it to the finals of the College World Series is something to be applauded for. Sports are a way of life for many and being able to compete for a national title in anything is news worth sharing. 

So, Congratulations to the Tar Heels and all your fans tonight for making it this far and good luck as you prepare for a rematch with Oregon State Saturday night.

Have a thought or question let me know.

Erin Worrell
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