- Listening to the motivational speech during the morning editorial meeting about how crucial ratings is this time around.
- Watching promos that are better than the special reports themselves.
- Brainstorming sessions to find the best alliteration for a graphic.
- News directors exiting their offices an hour before a newscast, standing over a producer’s shoulder, “suggesting” changes to the lineup that no one else understands.
- Team coverage every day!
- The manager who believes yelling and screaming at us proves something to her superiors.
- Screaming from the corner office when the show’s first live shot goes to black.
- The excitement of watching in depth reports we slapped together just days earlier.
- Wondering how certain people were on vacation when the memo insisted no one gets a day off.
- The warm feeling knowing that winning ratings due to my hard work means all that extra money will flow directly into my paycheck.
- Watching the most redonkulous stories humans can think up and listening to an anchor indicate with a straight face that this stuff is important.
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Regarding number 4: For us it’s not an hour. It’s more like 15 mins before air. No kidding.
I didn’t realize I missed TV newsrooms that much until I saw your list.
One that I would add is coming up with a story idea (a must at every morning news meeting) only to have it dismissed as being unimportant and then because it was in the newspaper two days later “how do we advance it to make it the lead.”
Roger: Your example you would add … how often that happens! And yet those who dismissed the idea initially only to want to advance it later … they never seem to realize their folly.