The Week Before My Senior Presentation

Pat's Senior Presentation

Monday, April 25th 7:30pm
Mueller Theater, McKelvey Campus Center

This week in broadcasting was crazy, but took a back seat to other activities a little bit. The Broadcast Communications Festival is Monday starting at 9am and it's going to be great! Live remotes, donuts, tours of the remote truck and a whole lot more! Check it out!

It's Greek Week at Westminster, so I've been working hard on Theta Chi's Sing & Swing routine so hopefully we can take home our 6th win in a row. I did the usual morning show, radio news, County Line thing and they were all really good. This was probably the smoothest County Line that I have produced and executed. It was almost seemless and timed out perfectly... good thing it's my last episode ever!

The career search was on hold this week because of other events, too. On Tuesday I'm gonna pick up my search and send out like 230430989873 applications (that is a rough estimate.) I have a STACK of papers with job leads, and the divine Kathryn Larson also gave me a really good tip for a station in her home state.

I didn't look for an article this week because I was busy. Look for one youself :-P Haha!

The Week When I was Job Crazy

This week in broadcasting was pretty good! Pat & Megan in the Morning was great! Only 2 show left after this morning! That's kinda sad, considering we've been a team for three years now! Megan and I are working on a new promo about our show ending. Liz and I were hardcore radio news producers, too. I anchored The County Line last week with Mike Wolenski, and we officially called it "the man show" edition since there was no live female talent on the show. Sorry, ladies! I'm working on my resume tapes and cover letters and have pretty much been job crazy.

My senior presentation is on Monday, April 25th at 7:30pm. I'm going to be working a lot this week on preparing my slideshow so my presentation is both memorable and fun!

My career search was pretty productive this week. I got another call from NBC, and they have invited me back for a second interview!!! It was a pretty nice way to start the weekend! No date is set as of yet, but they'll call me back with more information when they get it. I'm definitely not sitting on that chance though- I sent out a big batch of applications and tapes, and plan on doing the same thing this week. So far I have applied to the follow places:

Radio:
WHUD Beacon, NY
WBLI West Babylon, NY

Television:
WFMZ Allentown, PA
WFMJ Youngstown, OH
WPGH Pittsburgh, PA
WTRF Wheeling, WV
MTV Networks New York, NY

I have a STACK of job openings sitting next to me, and I'm planning on applying to all those places this week. This week is Greek Week here, so I'm very busy with that as well. I'm choreographing Theta Chi's Sing & Swing routine, so that will keep me very busy until Saturday, but hopefully we'll bring home our 6th win in a row!

I found an article on Yahoo!News about the future of television on your cell phone! Apparently "cellphone users in a number of countries including France, Italy, Norway, Finland and the United States can now watch real-time TV broadcasts and it is also due to roll out in Asia as well. " What will be next?

The Week with a Arts Career Fair

This week in broadcasting was pretty productive! I had radio news on Tuesday and Thursday, and I anchored The County Line with Shannon McClain Thursday night. We had some really great intros and transitions between stories and Mr. Weaver said the writing was really good overall! Go us! I will anchor the show 2 more times before I graduate! How sad? :-(

The career search is in overdrive right now! This week I have been applying to a lot of different places all over the country. I applied for a morning show position in Bend, Oregon and a DJ spot in New York. I plan on sending my stuff to WTRF in West Virginia for an anchor/reporter position and to other stations around the Pittsburgh area. I would also like to send my stuff to ChannelOne news.

As a part of the career search, I attended an Arts Career Fair in Cranberry Twp. and got to talk one on one with some media and performing arts professionals. I still don't know what I want to do, but at least I know what options are out there.

I found article on IWantMedia.com about Time Warner Cable buying out the bankrupt Adelphia Cable system. Check it out. Adelphia is our local carrier and I wonder if this new ownership will affect the local broadcasts of The County Line! Uh oh!

The Week with "The Interview"

This week in broadcasting wasn't filled with much activity on campus, mostly because I wasn't on campus until late Wednesday night! I was in New York from Monday to Wednesday and had a really nice time with my mom and brother. Once I got back to campus things went as normal. I produced and anchored the news with Liz on Thursday afternoon and directed The County Line like usual. The show was all right... not one of the best, by far.

The career search saw my first interview for an actual post-graduation job! I had my interview for the Page Program at NBC on Tuesday morning. The interview went really well. It was about 30min long the guy who inteviewed me asked me some really good questions. Basically why I would make a good page and what I thought he was looking for in a page. I learned more about the actual program, and also came to the decision that I'm definitely not going to put all of my eggs in one basket. I'm going to start aggressively looking for jobs both in the area in elsewhere. I also learned the importance of having contacts in various markets. I know that is something that I need to work on because it will definitely benefit me in the future. I probably wouldn't even have gotten the NBC interview had I not been put in contact with Nikki.

I found an article on IWantMedia.com about Ted Koppel leaving ABC. It seems like all the major anchors are leaving the big networks. More openings for me, I guess!

My Resume Tape(s) Outline

Right now I have my resume updated and fine-tuned specifically for my interview with NBC on Tuesday. I have worked on it over and over again and like to change it accordingly.

I would like to create a few new resume tapes/CDs to send out to potential employers in the future. The would possibly include:

Reporting & Anchoring
The tape would show my ability to:

• Tell a compelling, enterprising and interesting story
• Connect with and relate to an audience
• Communicate with viewers and show comfort in front of the camera

Producing
This tape would focus on my ability to:

• Produce a topical, entertaining and professional local news magazine show
• Produce packages, studio interviews and live events
• Use knowledge of producing for TV and radio news and apply it to other formats and genres including entertainment TV and radio, dance and live events and shows.

Radio News/DJ
This would show how I can:

• Commuicate news and information to an audience
• Relate to listeners and appeal to their interests
• Produce newscasts, as well as entertainment segments
  

Dance/Performance/Acting
This tape is optional, but showcase my ability to:

• Choreograph original and entertaining pieces of dance/movement
• Cross over styles and types of music and dance to fit the needed piece
• Organize many types of performances including large and small numbers of performers
• Take on hosting and acting roles with varied topics, attitudes and moods
  

All of these resume materials will be completed by May on a need-to-have basis. Ideally, I would like to have all of them completed and ready to go so that I am able to hand them out at a moment's notice. I would also like to incorporate them into my Senior Presentation during the Broadcast Commuications Festival on April 25th. Looks like it's time to get started!