Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Nightside For A Day

Therefore, we can’t stop gathering it. That means some of us have to work. Today, I am working night side. It’s a shift I worked for four years until I was promoted to management and had to shift my schedule to dayside.

Working dayside has its advantages and disadvantages. So too does night side. Yet, there is something very special about night side. It is a tight knit group of individuals. As journalists, we spend more time with our co-workers than we do our families. It’s the nature of our business.

If I say that we are five and six tonight, everyone would look at me like I am crazy….everyone but my producer. If I say it’s time for the quiz, my producer will understand. It’s funny, whenever I fill in night side it’s just like the good ole’ days. The producer and I are a single operating unit. We work together to seek out fresh content that is relevant to your lives. We are constantly talking to each other about things that are developing. When you work so closely with someone, you end up knowing what each other is thinking and how the other will react to certain stories and you get used to that routine.

I guess I should explain what those two saying mean, eh?

While working the night desk I had a saying “time for the quiz.“ This is what I always referred to when it was time for the 10pm newscasts.  What does it mean? How did I come up with it? Every station, no matter the market, monitors the competing stations. It’s not a secret. In school, I always remember getting the ten question quizzes each week leading up to the all important test. The test always carried a much heavier weight on your final grade. For an assignment editor, the quiz is the nightly check before the all important test (the 11pm news). Hence, the quiz.

The five and six saying is how I refer to the number of staff working on any given night. That number changes daily. The first number always refers to the number of reporters. The second number is the number of photographers. Some nights you may three and three while other nights two and two or four and four for that matter.

So tonight, I am back filling in night side and I can honestly say it’s always fun to work with my producer again, even if it is a holiday.