I had planned on doing my ever-present package about hybrid cars, but dropped in so Sebastian could add a package to sports. I was sitting around on Thursday afternoon and at 2 o'clock Mr. Weaver said there was breaking news. The $171.4 million winning Powerball ticket was sold right here in New Castle at the Country Food Mart on Butler Avenue. A press conference was set for 3:30pm with the store's owner because he gets $100,000 for selling the ticket! Being the hardcore broadcaster that she is, Liz Farry cleared her schedule and came with me to be my shooter. During the press event Liz and I were there shooting with the 4 major stations from Pittsburgh and the 3 from Youngstown. We felt very cool.
Amy Marcinkiewicz and her videographer from WPXI Channel 11 helped us out my letting us tape our microphone to theirs on the stand. Amy also helped us identify the man in charge so we could talk to him and gave us a few pointers on shooting events like this. It was a really great learning experience and goes to show how important it is to make good contacts!
We got back at about 4:45 and I had my complete package finished by 6:15. An hour and half isn't too shabby for editing a package, especially w/ all the short notice. I think it turned out really well and I could definitely add it to a resume tape.
We had our last County Line of the year last night. The show was really great and everyone did an awesome job. It's hard to believe that we put together 11 live shows this year and all of them (except that third show, haha) we were pretty good. The show went through some tough times w/ anchor changes and technical issues at the beginning, but things got worked out and I am looking forward to the Spring.
Looking for a career has hit a slow spot this week. I have my resume updated, my DJ CD completely burned and ready to send out. My TV resume isn't put together at all, but I now have 4 really solid packages to put on there, so I'm happy with that. I plan on using Xmas break to get a lot done. I am planning a trip to New Jersey to visit WC Alum Amanda Oliveri at her job at Nassau Broadcasting in Princeton. She does promotions there and has a lot of fun. She's only 25min from Philly and an hour from NYC, which is where I want to end up. Hopefully I will also be able to go from NJ to NYC in the same week and visit some friends that I know there. I have been to NYC several times, but never as a person who lives there, just on more organized trips. I'm very excited for the chance to scope out potential future homes and to see how other broadcasters are doing!
I found an article rating the top news sites of the year. It puts Google's news site, ABC News and a Chinese News website in the top spots. Pretty interesting to see and may be useful to us broadcasters in the future.