Monday, August 20, 2007

Thank You To My Staff

Chance are you didn’t know I spent much of the past week taking in the sun on the shores of North Carolina. 

The reason you may not have realized I was gone is because I work with some truly amazing assignment editors multimedia content coordinators. 

The desk is really the epicenter for all news gathering and content dissemination. It’s the heartbeat of the newsroom. Everyday and every night, Monica, Erin, Dominique and Saundra work feverishly to get the latest news and information. They dig for stories in places I can only imagine.

I was once told that a manager’s dream is to be able to go on vacation or to a day long meeting and leave his/her staff to do the jobs they do best without worrying about a thing. I can truly say I didn’t worry for one second. Why? Because they are first and foremost a team, and they are driven to succeed.  They come in early. They stay late. They dig for information. In short, they do what it takes.

I have never been a person hung up on titles. There are people with big long titles and who need to flaunt it. I don’t. Instead, I like to think of myself as a part of the team rather than as the manager.

I couldn’t be any prouder of them. And to them I say, Thank you!

Think I should buy them all dinner? What should I buy them?
Leave your thoughts in the comments section. 

You’ve Been Paged

We have a new face on our website. Her name is Page. If you are an avid watcher of our webcasts ( which I know you all are) - than you’ve probably already seen her. 

Anyways, my chief weather guy stole my thunder by posting about Page while I was on vacation. Here’s what he had to say. 

Monday, August 13, 2007

A promise and the heat

It is unwritten rule of the assignment desk… never complain it is to hot. The reason… I am going to tell you now. 

We are inside in the air conditioning all day or at least a good portion of it. From here we are calling photographers and reporters and sending them all over the great outdoors. Hard to complain when you’re in a climate controlled 78 degrees to people who are working in the hot sun and 104 degrees.

A lot of people forget news folks have to work outside. When temperatures get that high the news is the heat and we go where the news is. We often forget about the many others who work outside but somehow never think to thank them. So this is to all the people who brave the sweltering temperatures. My thanks to you for what you do and I promise you won’t hear me complain about the heat…

Sunday, August 12, 2007

How Are You Surviving The Heat?

I am wondering how you are surviving admist the heat and high temps?

I encourage you to post your hot weather stories in my comments section. You can upload video of you and your friends managed hot weather by going to http://www.nbc17.com. There you will also be able to upload pictures, video and even see how everyone else in the Triangle has been managing the hot and sticky weather.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Rapid Decisions

What happens when multiple stories break all at the same time? You move as many different crews to as many of the different breaking stories, as possible. 

Friday night we had an action packed night of news. Things got busy very early on in the evening and stayed busy through the 11pm newscast.

First, we had a church in Vance County go up in flames. It appears to have been struck by lightning although as of the writing of this blog entry that has not been confirmed.

The second story that developed a short time later was the weather damage in Goldsboro, NC. As heavy rain and winds moved through the southern region of our viewing market we immediately began receiving tips and callers from people, like you, who witnessed what many of you described as a “funnel like formation.” The NWS has yet to say if it’s an actual tornado or not. Usually, these things end up being a microburst. I won’t begin to explain a microburst. I know who can though...Wes, our Chief Meterologist.

With both the stories developing we simply make some quick decisions and set a new plan in motion. This means we have to consider what crews are unassigned? Who is already the closest to the breaking news location(s)? Can we afford to give up the present story or stories that that reporter/photographer is/are on?

How do we answer all the above questions?  All the managers and producers for the tv and web come together at the multimedia content coordination center and get debriefed. From there, rapid decisions are made and crews are notified of the changes.

The whole process takes mere minutes and in some cases….seconds to set a new plan for covering all the breaking news stories into motion.

KUDOS: David, Brad, Kerry, Sergio and Fred for a great hustle last night.