A Day At WCIA

My eyes follow the director's hands in awe as he sits before the plethora of monitors in the control room. His fingers move up and down, to and fro -- swaying as if he were conducting a grandiose orchestral piece.

"Switch to Camera Two...to Paige...now to Camera One," he instructs through his headset. "I need a visual, people!"

Heather Roberts' face appears in the last seconds of the clip and costume shop owner Andy Dallas presses the button on the bubble maker. The video fades out to commercials and the director announces, "beautiful!" As he makes this remark of approval, the graphic designer removes his hand off the computer mouse for the first time since the segment began. The teleprompter operator leans back in his chair and gives himself a pat in the back.

On set, Heather continues to converse with Dallas in her unwavering bubbly personality. Within a matter of minutes she will be interviewing Dallas on-air again as she hosts the Living section on WCIA's channel.

Journalism 199's trip to the WCIA station showed that it takes a large team  to put forth a production -- let it be a “Living” segment or the five o’clock news. The class learned that unlike any other job with 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. shifts, a job never ends at a broadcast station. There are people occupying the offices at all hours during the day. Viewers need news and in order for there to be coverage delivered at all times, a staff must be present at all times as well.

The broadcast station is a tightly-knit network in which all parts are important. The Science in the Media’s trip to WCIA demonstrated that although broadcast is demanding, in the end there are satisfying results.

Lyanne Alfaro