This week I have spent the first four hours of my day in the web department. I have really enjoyed it. Honestly, I thought that it would be one of my least favorite departments because I thought it would be less fast paced and not as exciting as news. I was very wrong! It is very fast paced, in fact the job of the web is basically the same as the News. We have to keep up with the wires, stories coming in through tips, and other sources of information to make sure we are catching all the important stories that need to be covered. In fact, I would say that the web desk is tasked with more work at times, only because they have to update every type of story. Sports, weather, news, entertainment, and even weird news. All of the stories done on for the air must be redone for web and then even more content not found on air must be added. It is a lot of work.

That said, the people I have worked with at the web desk make that work enjoyable. They really do have fun and still get their jobs done. Yes, Jane, this is the part of the blog where I will bring up the many jokes you tell and the lovely songs that you and Rachel sing. I love it! It is good to be able to keep things light and balanced in an environment that can at times be stressful and is constantly deadline-driven. Not only are they fun to work with, they are very helpful. I have already gained so many skills that I will be able to use in my future career. Being web-savvy in this era of news gathering is vital to my success in the industry.

Tomorrow is my last day and I am surprised at how fast it has gone by. I don’t want to leave WAVY, but I will never forget the incredible experience I gained here and the wonderful people that I got a chance to work with and learn from. I am going to post a reflection later tonight.

Two weeks ago I interned on the set of the Hampton Roads Show. It was awesome! I really enjoyed learning how to floor direct. I had never done that before and was happy to be able to gain new skills that will help me in the future. At first, I was way too quiet with call times and telling the hosts what was coming up next and also, at times, very confused about what some of the shorthand for locations on set and camera shots meant. But, as my first week went on I became more comfortable and by the end felt pretty good about what I had learned and confident in telling people what to do. This only got better my second week when I stayed on the floor more than in the booth.

In the booth I learned how and when to give the hosts their time cues and saw how important it is to have the producer keeping everyone on time. Sometimes you end up having to kill stories all together in the interest of staying on time, but it has to be done. Susan was great at letting me get experience on my first day. I was so thankful to have someone who wanted to teach me through hands on experience. This has been most of my internship experience here at WAVY so far. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My favorite days on the Hampton Roads Show were the Live Music Fridays. I love music and also love learning about new local bands. Supporting local music is very close to my heart. Getting to meet the 757 All Star Band and Eddie Shaw was really cool, because I really enjoy the blues and had heard of Eddie Shaw before.

The best thing about the Hampton Roads Show, though, was the people that I got to work with. Each day I was greeted with smiles and “good mornings”.  Stephanie was always there to help and teach me something new, Tracie and Ariane would never fail to crack me up and I learned a lot  from going out on stories with them for the show, Kerri shared with me great advice not only on how to cover features but also on the Broadcast News industry in general, and Craig and the production crew had my back all the time.

I really enjoyed the lighter feel of the show and loved to be able to cover feature news. I liked the amount of emotions and humanity that the stories had to them. It was a refreshing two weeks.

Now I am in Web after I spent only two days in production. More on that later.

-Caroline

Today I went on my normal lunch hour around after I  sat in the audio booth for the midday show and expected the same old routine. I went to the Coffee Shoppe in downtown Portsmouth, a place I have discovered while here at WAVY and come to love. I expected the same old routine but today I got a welcome surprise.

I was just finishing up my meal while reading and in walks Doug Davis, the General Manager of WAVY. At first he didn’t see me and I didn’t want to interrupt him while he ordered his food, but as I returned to my book, he must of recognized me and the next thing I knew he was sitting down in the chair next to me. My first thought was, “Does he remember me?” I was a little nervous and wasn’t sure if I should re-introduce myself to him. We had only interacted a few times and most of those interactions were mere greetings in the hallways. But those worries quickly dissipated after he asked me how my internship was going. We ended up having a really great conversation about my experience at the station which evolved into a talk about the ever changing media world and how people in the industry are adapting. It felt really good to be able to sit and talk one-on-one with the him about my time at WAVY and about my career ambitions in general. As his food was brought out to him, he wrapped up the conversation and said that he had to run to the 2:30 meeting, but he said that it was nice to hear the feedback from me on the internship and that he was glad I was enjoying it thus far.

It is moments like these that really speak to me. Yes, it was a small moment in time, but it really impacted me. The fact that the GM would take time to talk to me one-on-one about the internship and in such a nice manner really speaks volumes about WAVY as a station. In a small way it also re-affirms that reporting and being in the TV business  is something I feel compelled to do.

Needles to say, I really am enjoying my time here at WAVY. It has been a great learning experience and the people I have gotten to work with have been so willing to help me. I will write a little later this week about my time in production and the Hampton Roads Show. For now, have a great Tuesday. Just learned there are free smoothies upstairs. It just keeps getting better and better!

-Caroline

10 On Your Side

Hello again!

So here I am at week four. I can’t believe that I have already been here for three weeks. I just realized today that I am almost half way through my internship already and it amazes me! 

Here are some of the things I have learned so far:

1. Newsrooms are crazy and chaotic! Of course I already had an idea of this one before I worked here, but getting to experience the rush of the news day for myself has opened my eyes to just how crazy it really can be. The really scary part? I love it.

2. ALWAYS have a pad and pencil. I think my memo pad became an extra appendage when I was working in the newsroom. I took that thing everywhere with me, and for good reason too. You never want to be out on a story with nothing to write on or with.

3. Every day as a reporter or photographer is different. I absolutely love this part of the job. I can’t stand to do the same thing over and over again. If I had a normal 9 to 5 desk job I do not think I would be very happy. As a reporter, you might have your not-so-exciting days where you go out and cover the rising temperatures, but the next day breaking news happens and you find yourself right in the middle of something groundbreaking.

4. Sometimes the best questions are the most simple. I love the interview aspect of a reporters job, but as I am rather new at all of this it can still be nerve-wraking and I find myself searching frequently for the best questions to ask people. I have founf that sometimes the best way to hold an interview is to simply ask, “What happened here?” The classic who, what, where and whys are the keys to getting great sound bites, more often than not.

5. Coffee sneaks into your life. I used to never drink that black magic…that is until I worked morningside and woke up at 12:30 am to make the 2am shift. LV knows what I’m talking about! haha

6. Have no fear and take risks! Think outside of the classic, black and white, traditional techniques and go for it. You might mess up, but you might also discover something brilliant that will take you to the next level.

7. Promos and commercials don’t just magically run on the air by themselves. There are people who log those babies in a system every day, and I am now one of them. This is one of the not-so-fun parts of promotions, but it has to be done!

8. Those same promos that are logged daily are also written, produced, directed, and edited by the same people who log them. That is one of the fun parts of the promotional team’s job. Last week we went out on a shoot for Tracie Paige, the Face of FOX43. We shot down at the oceanfront in VA Beach and then at Harbor Park.

9. Sometimes a reporter and photographer have to turn a package within an hour. This is amazing to me. One of my first days here the photographer working on the package sent it in litterally 5 minutes before it aired. The whole time I was watching him edit I was freaking out watching each minute on the clock go by. He calmly edited his package in what seemed like a minute, with lightning fast key strokes and then boom! it was done. I was amazed. Back at Virginia Tech, when I edit my packages for the news show, Final Cut Pro takes at least 10 mintutes sometimes, just to render and export the package, and it seemed like he did everything in that time.

10. Seek nothing but the truth and report it in the best, most accurate way possible. As journalists, we must do this. We are the channel through which people get their information, and therefore we must make sure that what we report is true. Always double check the facts, because as important as it is to have a compelling and well written story, it all goes to waste if the facts within it are wrong.

I have learned so much more here and know that I will only continue to learn more. I know that in this industry experience is key to landing a job, and so I am greatful to be able to gain such great knowledge and hands on experience from the station that I grew up watching.

For 10 on your side,

Caroline Montgomery

I have been awful at keeping up with this blog! but, I have so much to tell about my first two weeks at WAVY! My first two weeks spent in News were amazing! It really made me feel like I had found something that I am passionate for. I followed a reporter almost every day and got to do stand-ups on camera and even turned two packages of my own. I am well on my way to having a great resume tape. One of the most exciting things I got to do was work morning side with Liz, David and LV for Opsail. I had such a good time and really enjoyed the hands on experience I got at those shoots. We got to go onboard the Ft. McHenry one morning and the next we got to go out to Lynnhaven Pier in VA Beach and watch the tall ships get ready for the Parade while the sun rose on the ocean. It was breath-taking.

All of the reporters and photographers I worked with here at WAVY have been great! They are really nice and are very passionate about waht they do. I am so thankful that I got to work with them and learn from them what it is like to work in a fast-paced newsroom. And fast-paced it is that! I think that is the main reason I have fallen behind on my blog. I was just so busy and involved. It took a while to get used to and was scary at first when I saw just how fast the news team works to make the newscasts happen. But, even though the job of a reporter does seem chaotic and crazy, I think the sacrifice of sleep and peace of mind is worth it. The experiences reporters have and the good that they do reporting that can sometimes help people are what make it worthwhile. I found myself singing in the car every day on the way home to Hampton and I don’t think I’d be in such great moods, if I hated news reporting. Needless to say, I loved it and already miss the people that I got to know and the work that I was doing.

Today was my first day in Promotions, and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I got swept away by news, and thought everything else wouldn’t be as good, but the people here in Promotions are really nice and make sure that I have something to do, which I appreciate. I wrote a press release today and helped compile an FCC report. I am excited to go out on shoots and see what that is like.

I promise to do better about these blogs. Promotions is a nice break from the fast pace of news, so I think I will have more energy at the end of the day to remember this blog of mine.

For 10 On Your Side,
I’m Caroline Montgomery.

p.s. Happy Father’s Day to everyone at the station and in Hampton Roads! Hope you had a nice one.

Wednesday I had my orientation for my new summer internship at WAVY TV 10. It was really exciting to see all of the things that we would be learning about and doing over the summer. This is my first internship, so I was pretty nervous and still have a touch of that anxiety, but after meeting everyone at the station I definately feel more relaxed about it and think that this summer is going to go just fine.

I had a touch of celebrity shock when I spotted Don Slater on the floor of the studio recording a clip for the promotion of a hurricane readiness guide. I used to aspire to become a weather woman and grew up watching Don deliver the weather to my household from a very young age. So that was really neat. I hope that we get to work just a little bit with the weather team. Even though I am not studying meteorology I would love to be able to see what they do behind the scenes.

Overall I am very excited for this internship and can’t wait to get started! My first week I will be in the News Department. I really love how you get to experience all the departments along the way. That will help me decide what I am most interested in for the future. Today is my first day and I am really excited and I’d have to lie if I said I wasn’t just a tad bit nervous.

For WAVY TV 10,

I’m Caroline Montgomery and I am officially on your side.