The Week With the All-Male Anchor Team

This week in broadcasting was pretty fun. I anchored The County Line again, this time with Mike Wolenski as my co-anchor. It was the first time that two males have anchored the show since it's beginnings! Pretty cool. I think the show went really well, and Aidan (aka Brick) did a very nice job producing it and making changes in the heat of the moment. Morning show was great, too! It was a good week!

Dance 'Til You Die Week, which I have aptly named, is going on right now. It started on Saturday with an entire day of rehearsals and stuff. Everyone is working really hard on the show and it is honestly the best show since I've been here at Westminster! I have personally done a LOT of work on the show this year. I'm not officially a Dance Theatre officer, but the group has dubbed me "production director" because of what I've done. I mixed the music for almost every single dance in the show, choreographed a number, choreographed a large chunk of the opener, helped with the flow of the show, came up with the theme "Every Dance Tells a Story," designed the poster/t-shirt logo (below), and on top of that I will be the MC for the show with fellow broadcaster Kirstan Gides. Make sure you check it out!

March 10 & 11 8:00pm
March 12 2:00pm

I found an article... well not an article, SEVERAL articles about Martha Stewart's release from prison and how it will affect her TV show, magazine, company and personal life. Read all of them on IWantMedia.com

The Week When I Was Cranky

This week in broadcasting was run-of-the-mill. Morning show, Radio news on Tuesday and Thursday, County Line Thursday night. I have been cranky all week for an unknown reason, so that affected my broadcasts. It's amazing how your attitude can affect your work! I nearly slept through the noon news on Thursday and I felt really bad because leading by example is very important to me. Luckily Liz is hardcore and we even managed to throw a live in at the last minute. The County Line went all right... miscommunication at the top of the show led to a very large mistake on air, but that was recovered and the show went fairly well after that. The older equipment gave out during sports, too, so Sebas was without audio for about 2 minutes, but again, we recovered. Oh, the beauty of live television! There will be another show next week!

The career search is minimal right now. My sights are still set on the Page Program so I'm just passively looking for other options at this point. Once I have my interview on the 29th I will have a better idea of where my career path is heading and I'll be able to figure everything out. *crosses fingers*

Some personal updates: The Dance Theatre Spring Concert "Every Dance Tells a Story" is coming up in two weeks! The dancers have been working really hard, and I'm very pleased with my piece this year. It's a different style for me, so I hope the audience enjoys it. The show is March 10 & 11 at 8pm and March 12 at 2pm in Orr Auditorium! The weekend after the show I am headed to San Diego with my best friend for spring break! I've never been West of Chicago, so I am very excited to hit the West Coast and see my cousin and his fiancee! Apparently some other Westminster kids will be out there, too so maybe we'll hang out!

I found an article about a topic we talked about in my Programming and Promotions class last semester. The article says "Producers of TV dramas are creating Web-only content that adds story elements and interactivity to keep viewers engaged." Basically the shows are using the web to fill in the blanks from episodes and keep fans interested in the show from week to week. I think it's a great promotion tool and also crosses over between media. Very cool!

The Week with all the Good Stuff

This week's top story: The universe was in alignment for me today! I was feeling slightly, let's say, "non-class oriented" this afternoon, so I decided to be productive in the newsroom instead. While I was working on some stuff I saw I had a new voicemail on my phone. It was Stephanie from NBC! I have an interview with the Page Program on March 29th at 11am. Looks like I have some preparation to do! In other news...

This week in broadcasting was pretty great! I got to step away from producing and focus on being an anchor. Liz and I anchored together and I think it went really well. It just goes to show that having a good relationship with your partner makes the newscast that much easier. I think the stories had good flow and I felt pretty comfortable with my delivery on air. I'm going to watch the rebroadcast of the show tonight with my extended family to see how it went! State Rep. Frank LaGrotta was supposed to be our guest on County CloseUp, be he decided to be a no-show without calling anyone to let us know. That was a CRAZY mess during the show, but the viewers had no idea anything was wrong. I will have to say that I'm glad I wasn't producing while this happened! (Sorry, Melissa!)

Immediately following The County Line I ran over to the club room for the Theta Chi Date Auction. I was the MC for the event and it went really well! MCing was really fun, and I got auctioned off at the end for a whopping $270! I'm expensive! All of the money is being donated to the family of Ron Bake, one of our Brothers who was in a bad car accident last semester. He's still in a coma, and the money is going to help his family with medical bills. So far we've collected $3,500 and more donations are still coming in. Ask me for more info if you're interested.

The career search got a lot brighter this week after the call from NBC! That is definitely the front-runner on the career path, but I'm always constantly looking for "back up" plans. Mr. Weaver sent us a TON of links (each in a separate email... Thanks, Weaver!) and I'm keeping and updated list of potential employers.

I found and article about Dan Rather's farewell broadcast. "No sooner will Dan Rather bid viewers a final good night as anchor of the CBS Evening News than he will be back on the air to lead viewers through a retrospective of his 50 years in broadcast journalism. " Read the rest!

The Week with My Last Producing Shift

This week is broadcasting was a little bitter-sweet. I produced my last full edition of The County Line. Starting next week the producing class will take over indivual producer roles for the show, packages, County CloseUp, and 88.9 on The County Line. It's a little sad for me to think that I won't be in full control of the show anymore, but it's time to let go! I still get to be Executive Producer now, so I can change things that I don't like, but after almost 2 years of being the producer, it's a little sad! The good thing to come out of it is the fact that I will have a lot more free time to work on things that I need to get a job and things like that. I need to work on my resumes, tapes, and CDs. I want to make the following resumes: TV News Reporting/Anchoring, TV Producing, Radio News, Radio DJ. I also want to make resume CDs/Tapes for those categories as well as a dance and theatre resume. You never know when I'll need to put it to use!

The career search is a little stalled right now. I'm still looking for some openings. Just casually looking every day. Melissa Batulis sent us a tip about a possible reporter job opening at the station where she works in NY. I don't necessarily want to be a reporter, but I know that I am qualified to do it, and after May I will pretty much take any job that comes my way! A guy's gotta eat!!! I'm still waiting to hear back from the Page Program. I'm going to get in contact with someone if I don't hear anything by Monday. Quick shout out: Liz Farry is headed to NYC this weekend to interview with the Weekend Today Show in NYC. Do I smell a new roommate if we both end up there?! I think I do!

I found an article about the recent team up between MTV and McDonalds. "The collaboration will start with a 30-minute monthly programme called MTV Advance Warning that will feature new musical talent combined with McDonald's advertising imagery. " Read it! McDonalds is everywhere!!!

The Week with the First Show

This week in broadcasting was busy as ever (which is just how I like it!) We were getting ready for the first edition of The County Line. I am producing the first two shows, just like last semester, and then after that I will take on the position of Executive Producer and will also anchor the show every now and then and report as usual. I'm both excited and nervous to anchor. I don't think I'll have any problems handling the work, I just think it will be difficult to step away from being in control behind the scenes to just being talent. Gotta let go at some point!

This week I also reported for the show. I did a new package about the $3 million Townhouse Project that is coming to WC. It wasn't one of my favorite packages, but I think it got the job done. It was also the first real press about the project, as Titan Radio and Westminster's newspaper The Holcad didn't have the stories until the following day. It's fun to be enterprising!

The career search has been limited this week while I was focusing on the show and other class assignments. I applied to the page program at NBC last Friday so I am just waiting to hear back from them. I'm very excited and anxious to find out what they think of my application and if I'll get the chance to head back to NYC for interviews and stuff. Very excited!

I found an article that I can totally relate to this week. The article from IWantMedia.com saying that watching the actual game is only the SECOND most popular part of the Super Bowl. I know that unless the Steelers are playing I really don't care about the game, I just want to see all of the commercials! Looks like half of America feels the same way!