Back to TODAY

I took a trip into the city today, since I'm home on fall break, to see the old weekend today folks. Man are they great! My dad and I went in to see the show...stood outside for a few minutes but it was cold and windy, so i was like, forget this! I have an ID, we're going in! So we went inside and I got to chat with a whole bunch of the awesome people I worked with this summer (anchors and producers alike!). It was so good to see them again. They are just really wonderful people who helped make the awesome past summer just amazing.

Sitting in 30 Rock made me really nostalgic for the summer. I cannot believe I worked there. It is a little annoying because I can basically only go down from here. I still don' tknow what I want to do this summer. I was talking to one of the PAs I worked with and he was saying how I might want to think about doing something elsewhere, just because what more can I learn by staying in the same situation? And of course there's always more to learn...but it would be a lot of the same stuff. My gut feeling is leaning toward trying something smaller and local. Then again, I really want to keep the connections for after graduation. But either way, I'm ready to start out at the bottom and work my way up. I want to do it right.

So, New York City, until we meet again....I'll be in Amish country.

Sweaters instead of Button Downs...

Tonight was such a good show! Amanda and I anchored...and chose to wear sweaters instead of the blah boring button downs we all usually wear. And what a good idea. Amanda's green was fabulous! Our scripts were ready so early today which just makes a world of difference. Jolene was a GREAT producer who made things much easier with getting the rundown out early. Graphics? great. sports? AWESOME!! (omg, the DJ package was absolutely the best work I have ever seen in my life.....and i'm not just talking about the speedo!!)

Then after the show we had a good post-show meeting. The newbies are really doing well, with I think it was 2 packages from them this week! That's awesome...definitly helps the older people from having to do too much. So yay. And also after the show Mike let me do some radio PSAs which is so much fun.

And you know what? I love when I leave the station and just think to myself, my gosh, I love this stuff. It really is the best and worth all the time and effort that I put into it. I heart broadcasting.

OH! I got to talk to Tandi too! She called the newsroom when I was getting ready for the show so we didn't get to chat for long, but man I miss her! Its so hard to let go of those seniors! <>

:)

Oh Jealousy....

SO....let's discuss my extreme jealousy for pat sandora right now. Yeah, its extreme. He got the Weekend Today assignment and is now working there every darn weekend! AHH!! Man do I miss NYC and 30 Rockefeller CEnter and Weekend Today andalll that excitement! Oh man. I really have to figure out what's going on next summer, like if i'm going to try to get another internship there or if i'm going local. I seriously have no clue what I want to do. I feel like I have to keep that connection, but I'd also like to try something different. Like shadow a reporter or something. Tha'td be cool. If I could get the part time PA job, that only happens like Friday-Sunday, so I could totally do something else too. Gosh, I don't know.

Two more weeks until fall break! I am SO going into the city to see the show when I"m home. I"ve got to make myself known again!

The Real News Day

Today was awesome. Very long, but awesome. Kirstan and I went to the Lawrence County Central Court for the Felasco hearing. And that was one of the coolest experiences ever! There were some real live news people there too. I know everyone is innocent until proven guilty....but man....things do not look good for Felasco!

I definitly need more experince with things like that though. My package (which was edited in record timing) was definitely not good. So that's annoying. But its hard to not feel like "the college kids" at these things. Even when we do stuff better than real news stations, people still don't really take you seriously. But what can you do.

And Poodle was producer today and did an awesome job! As did the anchors I must say. They handled all my last minute craziness very very well! yay for them.

:)

Rocking producers

I love it when there's a show producer who's totally awesome...aka Aidan Mewha. She made last week's TCL so easy! I did a package on Gary Felasco and his situation...though it wasn't from the angle I originally planned. My stand ups weren't that great and the story itself wasn't completely there or worth it. But it worked for the time being. I also got to anchor again which is always a good time. Me and Mike make a good pair, I must admit.....we looked gooood :).

It was cool to meet some BC alum this weekend at homecoming. That's always interesting. Of couse, there were some recent alums who I wish I could have seen (aka pat sandora, tandi lane)! But those graduates are just doing too well to come back and see little old WC. What can ya do!

Speaking of homecoming, yes that was my sorority, Kappa Delta, who won best float. Thank you very much.

:)

Anchorwoman ;)

Oh I love to anchor!! I said a few dumb things...the ad lib's always get me!! ("I got to talk to...that...guy...") But all in all, Liz Farry and Amanda Hauger make a fabulous anchor team, easter colors and all (despite the extreme difference in height:)). Luke did a great job producing and we had a record number of 15 peices of tape! Way to go tape people!

We have a lot of newbies who are really stepping up to the plate too. That's awesome. It's nice to see that we'll have some help because a lot of times, everything seems to fall into the hands of the same people all the time.

So I guess our biggest issue now is to keep packages coming. It gets tiring to do them all the time, but thankfully the sophmores are doing them already. Way to be!

Soooo moral of the story is....I love being on air. What can i say.

:)

Well atleast there was a show...

Tonight was the first County Line of the season. And what a start it was. The good thing was all the new faces that will be helping out this year--especially the ones that you can tell are really gung ho and are gonna be awesome! Yay for them. Another good thing was the experienced people who completely made the show come out okay (melissa, justin, mike).

Now for the not so good...I think the worst was probably my rundown. The blueprint of the entire show and not only did it take forever to put together, but it was back timed wrong and was missing some things. It pretty much stunk. Producing is certainly not an easy job--especially the first show of a season. I think one of the hardest things is to not feel like you can necessarily just tell someone to do something and not have to worry about it getting done. Not that anyone is necessarily unreliable, but there are people of such different levels of experience. And plus, not having a class to do packages is going to make it really difficult on the main players who do it all anyway. Yikes for that.

Buuuuut hopefully we'll only go up from here! I cannot wait to be on air again!!! I've been looking forward to that since the last show of last season--with <> pat!! My gosh I miss pat! I certainly appreciate all that he was able to do last year and make look so effortless. It's corny, but true: One day I hope to be as good as Pat!!

Oh well--on to a new week!

Back at WC

It's back to college life! We already had our first County Line meeting and have been doing radio news all week. I guess its just been a week but it feels like we've already been into it a long time now.

The County Line gang seems like they're going to be really good! There's a lot of them to go around atleast. Some of the old familiar experts are back and ready for action and we've got a lot of good newbies who'll bring a fresh excitment to it!

Now the hard part is getting the show together. Gosh, it is very hard to get back into the swing of things!

NYC withdrawal...

Oh my gosh do I miss my internship!! I mean, its nice to actually sleep and be social and stuff, but man do I miss it. The people, the work, everything. And plus, the city!! It is going to be weird to go from NYC...to New Wilmington. Like woah.

But I suppose there are many things to look forward to at school. Can't wait to get back to broadcsating. So much to do! I'm excited.

T-minus 4 days until I arrive in western PA...look out!!

:)

And I'm done...

My internship is officially over! I can't believe it went by so quickly--it's only been over a week and I miss it so much already!

My last couple of weeks were very busy. I tried to suck everything out of that place that I could! Contacts, reference letters, and even a resume tape. I got to sit in (for many hours) with a real editor and she helped be put together a resume tape. It's not so much of a formal tape because I don't think its quite in the right format, but it was a good way for me to get some examples of my on-air work to show people before I left--this was all at the suggestion of the top dog--the exec producer. When I showed her my tape, she told me (kind of like a warning!) that she was going to tell me the truth and be completely honest, which is exactly what I wanted. So when I showed it to her, I prepared myself to be bashed--but except for a few formating details she said could be changed, she said that it was good--and that I should send it out! She was so helpful and I am so impressed with the amount of time she took for me. I also got to show it to Lester Holt. He gave me a few tips, but also said that it was really good and that most of the things I need to work on will just come with time and experience! I see what I need to work on and I have a whole bunch of tips and ideas from some great professionals to help me to improve! I'm very excited that I got to show them my tape.

I also got to speak with Bob Dotson my last week. If you don't know him, he's a national correspondant for NBC. He's amazing. His packages are so enthralling and moving--he's just an amazing story teller. I've realized that I want to do what he does--tell the human interest, real stories. But I really need to work on my writing, so I'm glad I'm taking broadcast journalism this year. It's all about the writing. He gave me a copy of his book which has some great tips (Mr. Weaver, I think you'll like this book--its got a lot of things you mention in it too.) I was so psyched to meet him--he's a great guy too!

So now I'm trying to put together everything I learned this summer so that I don't forget anythign I've learned. And I'm thinking about where I want to intern next summer--I'm trying to set up a meeting in the next couple of weeks with an affiliate in VA by where my grandparents live since I'll be down there anyway.

So much to think about and so much to do!

I like to subtly crush others...

So, I like to consider myself a nice girl. I'm kind and considerate. I like to be polite and think of others first.

However, when it comes to something I really want, don't mess with me. I like to get sneaky. Like say, with broadcasting stuff. I love the other interns I'm with--but I've been determined this entire summer to make sure I'm the best. And written down, that sounds like such a snobby thing, but I think some other bc people can relate (I specifically remember having a convo like this with mr. pat sandora--and look at him now.) So I've found that there are ways to be cutthroat without being an obvious jerk. Which is kind of better than being a total bitch and making enemies. Gotta be smoooooooth like butta.

And I gotta tell ya. Some of these interns are so darn worried that they're "bothering" the producers or "doing something they shouldn't." I'm all about respect and following the rules--but holy cow! You gotta stick your neck out a little bit or else you just become the errand girl! Gotta grow some guts. Guts are goooood.

I get to do a newscast on set this weekend--so thats fun...and nervewrackign. Then next week is my very last week. Yikes, can't believe it!!

The Perks...

So last night I went into the city (on my day off) with my sister. One of the producers from the show gave me a free pass to an early showing of The Island. It really comes out on Friday, but media people can go see it earlier (obviously cuz the movie folk want the media folk to do a story on it and stuff like that). So anyways, the movie rocked and I was listening in to conversations of people around us before the movie started and they were sooo other media people. It was nice to go into the city and not have to go to work.

I was ablt to meet with the exec producer to talk about what I should be doing for the rest of my internship and even after I'm done there. She gave me some really good ideas and was so nice and helpful. It surprises me sometimes how great all the people here have been, seeing as how its such a big time place and they could easily brush the interns off.

So I'm down to two weeks of my internship. It's crunch time now, and I"m going to try to suck everything I can out of this!

Calm before the storm...

Well....I am writing from the 10th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. At the moment, I'm in what everyone around here calls the "calm before the storm" (or as some people say, "the time before the rest of the day goes to hell", haha) The show around here is very random before late afternoon on Friday.

Since I'm not allowed to really talk about stuff on a blog, I'll just say that I have learned SOO much. It's been an awesome experience so far. (I've even gotten to meet some celebs like Bryan McKnight, Howie Day, Paula Deen, to name a few!).

I'm getting excited to c ome back to school, though. It's like instant adulthood here! I work like 8-10 days (plus the commute leads to a ridiculous day.) It's a lot of responsibility and always trying to make sure people are noticing me and stuff. I'm excited to get back to the calm of New Wilmington. And plus, even though this behind the scenes stuff is great, I totally miss being on air!!

Got to go! Rundown meeting.

:)

Way to be, Newsweek

So how bout that Newsweek article? Its a little creepy to think how much influence and responsibility the media has--and how quickly the public jumps to blaming all media everywhere for the mistake of one magazine. There really is no room for mistakes of any kind because look at what can happen! I just don't understand why they're not even retracting the story if some of it has been proven false.

Speaking of media responsibility...I will not be able to update my internship stuff here...there's too much top secret stuff that I just cannot let the public know! haha. But I start in two days....woah.

Summer Vaca Begins...

I am finally home in good old NJ! It is so nice to be on vacation....I had completely forgotten what "free time" is....interesting.

So I'm very not good at this blogging thing because I feel like I"m talking to myself, but what can I say, I want to be just like all those cool BC seniors who are graduating in a week! :( But this blog will also be helpful for me to remember and tell everyone else what happens at my internship which I start in a week and two days! wow.

So stay tuned....more liz's summer is on the way....

(sad that i miss county line already, hehe)

a day with a REAL LIVE REPORTER!

So today was awesome. I got to shadow Amy Marcinkiewicz, the Beaver and Butler County Bureau Chief for Channel 11 News. First we went to see the Police Chief of Conway about this scam artist who ripped off a bunch of people. The Chief was so nice. Amy has a good relationship with him which is obviously so important because he helps her out with stories. So we got info from him, interviewd a lady who was scamed, and took off for another story. Next we interviewed the superintendent of this school where there was a rumor of a hitlist (but no actual paper trail) and crazy parents who were all worried about it. We then had enough time to get some lunch before Amy had to write and track her stories--all in plenty of time to do the live teases and stories! She was so awesome at being able to just spit out the story and knowing ahead of time what she wanted the people to say and what the story was. She was obviously very trusted by many people who knew her and the people she just met seemed to just feel as though they could trust her too.

I learned so much just from today. One of the biggest things was something she said to me as soon as I met her: It's important to take the time to chat with and get to know the people you work with, the officials who get you info, and the people you interview. This creates a sense of trust and friendliness that will make them want to help you out in the future. I also learned that it pays to be tough...but to not take everything too seriously. And those are just a few things I learned. :)

My very first BC blog

So.....I'm attempting a blog cuz all those other cool bc folks have one and I just have to be like them.

And this is all I'm writing for now because I don't even know if it'll work.

:)