In the swing of things

I'm finally motivating myself to get some of this work done. I've made a lot of phone calls and sent out a ton of emails lately. What can I say, I'm an organizer and a planner, lol. So I'm working on contacts in the business and generally making myself more knowledgeable about things. It's about time too - the semester is half over! It feels like it's been longer, and yet, where does the time go?

What I did in broadcasting this week: It feels like everything I did this week was broadcasting related. I've been doing some research for my "programming and promotion" class, because we're working on a group project where we have to create a tv show/radio program and do a mock "pitch" to a network. It's been fun, but it's hard to come at something from a new angle, a new take, and back it up with predicted ratings and all! The people who come up with some of these shows have to be super creative...an area where I sometimes lack skills.
I also had my radio shifts this week. Tandi still has my aircheck tape so I didn't get to aircheck myself, but that's ok. I'm pretty anxious to get some feedback about that side of my broadcasting goals. I did have some pretty funny things to talk about...and I also got a little more involved personality-wise, because I had some amusing blurbs that were more political in nature (but balanced - no cheap jabs at anyone on my show! except Joy!) so that was exciting.
The County Line is tonight. I've been serving as Floor Director, which is a pretty fun job for me. I have to communicate what's going on in the control room with the studio and anchors, and also make sure cameras are doing their jobs and anchors are doing okay, looking at the correct camera, etc. I just wish everything didn't happen on Thursdays here at Westminster! There are a thousand places I'd love to be, but they're all at about the same time. (TCL, Dance Theatre, Gospel Choir...and more).
My newscast on Digital 88.9 News yesterday was great. Shannon and I think it may have been our best newscast yet, and Alaina did a great job producing. I recorded it myself to save on minidisc after it aired, for potential use on my resume tape.

Career planning: I've been contacting a lot of people in the business as I start working harder on my Capstone project. It's a good way to network, but sometimes I feel like this little kid tugging on someone's shirttails, ya know? Well, ya gotta start somewhere. I got in touch with Joy to see about shadowing her over fall break, and I got sad news. She ended up leaving the radio biz because things weren't jiving with her ADD. She thinks she's gonna be a gym teacher now. I'm kinda sad now because I was hoping to get some more insight from her, since she graduated about a year ago now and she's been at that station ever since. But good luck with your new goals, kid!

What's a'happenin in the 'biz: I read an article from newslab.org that was titled "Could satellite be the new FM radio?" While I feel that the article was mis-titled because I thought it would be about one thing and it lead me in another direction, it was still worth reading. Howard Stern has signed a deal with Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. to get away from the FCC and such. Satellite radio is trying to get more listeners because they've never really profited, and Sirius thinks that Stern is their "ticket" to more subscribers. Personally, I never listened to Howard Stern, and I would never buy satellite radio just to listen to Stern and other shock jocks. I'll stick with the free and the FM, thanks!