Yesterday should have been festive. The first snow of the year, right as the holiday season is picking up. Good spirits all around.
But in my life, snow just means a wet and cold intern.
I left my apartment for WTOP, running a few minutes late. i didn't expect the rain or the cold. When I arrived, i looked less than professional. That is to say, I was soaked from head to foot. One of the reporters gawped at me, so I fled to the bathroom to dry my hair with some flimsy paper towels.
This was pre-snow. I cut some CBS audio down to size for awhile. It was a slow news day, so I had some time to catch up on the headlines. Tiger Woods, Britain ending it's UFO reporting service, Sarah Palin's book signing in Fairfax County....I had finally drip dried after a couple of hours.
Then a gasp from the far end of the newsroom. Snow! It was coming down pretty hard--big flakes everywhere.
And soon after I got my assignment: Go out onto Wisconsin Avenue with an audio recorder and get people's reaction of the snow. MOS just like I like it.
And so, being the dedicated intern that I am, I went.
This might be a good time for a disclaimer. I'm from Iowa. That is, I'm from the tundra. We get a lot of snow where I'm from, sometimes a few feet. Here in D.C. it hardly ever snows, maybe twice a year, an inch or two. In Iowa people know how to drive in the snow. The city knows how to clear the roads in a thorough, efficient fashion. In D.C. panic ensues.
Another disclaimer: I'm from the arctic circle but I cannot stand the cold. Not one bit. and the only thing worse than cold is wet and cold. Plus, in a streak of brilliance, I had not put on socks before going to my internship. I did not have an umbrella or a scarf or a hat or gloves.
But no one likes a whiner, so I went. Plus, journalists don't get to choose what weather they go outside in. think about the TV reporter standing in the middle of the hurricane: "It's pretty windy here, Bob, I'm gonna have to hold onto this telephone pole while I talk to you or I'll fly away."
It was wet and cold. And for some reason, everyone on the street was from really frigid places--upstate New York, Minnesota, even Norway. they all LOVE the snow. They told me so.
And the people I talked to from the District were loving it, too. They were a little worried about the roads freezing over, but a lot of them had kids in tow. I heard a lot about snow men and sledding. I was getting good responses--everyone was excited and I think they felt bad because I had to stand out in the cold. The "poor intern" card.
Unfortunately, the recorder was getting pretty wet. I wasn't really sure if my feet were still attached, because I could not feel them. soon after, they started to hurt with each step. My hair was frozen at the ends--not exactly business casual. I made the decision to head back to the station.
I only had about twenty minutes to edit the MOS. I started by cutting the best sound bites out of each person's response. Then I stuck these pieces back-to-back, mixing up who spoke when so that there were varied voices and points of views. At the end I had two montages covering everything from trouble on the roads to snow reminding people of home to sledding to holiday spirit.
I think I did a good job. Both of the montages went on air within an hour or two of my return. Of course, I was soaked through. Oh well, we'll just call that a new intern fashion statement. The damp, disgruntled look.
Just a fun winter day at WTOP.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Shadowing
I've sat in at Operations a couple of time now. In case you're just tuning in, the person who works in Operations is in charge of making sure things get on the air correctly. They get reporter's stories from the field, they record weather reports and program them to be played at the touch of a button, they pull sound from the wire services or news feeds, and they listen closely to make sure nothing sounds wrong.
The operations desk sits in a corner by itself. It's always unnaturally warm or unnaturally cold over there for some reason. The desk has two computers. Each one has two screens (one cool thing about WTOP, all of the computers have two monitors). There are cabinets that hold various cables and interconnects and headphones and microphones. Also, there are different devices that pick up feeds. Ops has it's own on air light so the person working there knows when the anchors are live. Most impressively, there's a huge board at ops.
Lights flicker everywhere. Faders going up and down, buttons to be pressed, sound coming in from every direction. the phone rings a lot. It's overwheliming. In my opinion, it's the most overwhelming spot in the newsroom.
I thought I had gotten pretty good at editing audio using Adobe Audition. Well, I have gotten better and faster and more accurate. But the people at ops make me look like a two year old trying to run a nuclear physics lab. They know all of the keyboard commands, they know exactly where to put their cursor to ct correctly. It's fast, it's accurate and almost graceful.
A side note: the Audition is usually gray with green highlights. One of the women who works in ops (a former intern, I might add), knows how to change the colors. Her Audition is fuchsia and purple. It's my secret goal to learn how to chameleonize (not a real word) Audition to be teal and aubergine. I'll let you know if I ever achieve this.
I saw a lot of things happen that I never even thought about. WTOP puts WJLA Channel 7 weathermen on air. Only some of the weather reports are live, others are prerecorded throughout the day. To get prerecorded weather, the weatherman calls the ops desk and records the forecast through the phone. Each weather report has to be an exact length or it can't go on the air. The ops people have to edit it down if it's too long. Also, ops likes working with some weathermen better than others because some are better at recording the forecast in one take.
Ops then loads the final weather forecast into the board. That way, the anchors can hit a single button to play the weather in the studio. Weather is always on the eights (1:08, 2:08, 5:08, etc.) so the button needs to be loaded before this. That way, if live weather fails, there's a backup.
The least favorite job in operations (unanimously) is helping the entertainment editor. He does movie reviews, but does not know how to edit or record audio. When he knows what he wants to say, he grabs the person in ops. They go to a small empty studio. (There are many studios of various sizes at WTOP. Just in case one stops working. And another stops working. And another.) Once there, the ops person starts the computer, opens Adobe Audition and hits record. Then they leave and let the movie reviewer record his piece to air later.
When he's done, he grabs the person from ops again. They stop the recording and save the file. Then they get to edit it down to about a minute's worth of material. Often, they tell me, the file is twenty minutes long. They let me listen to some of it. It's full of mess ups, false starts, musings, swearing...The editing process takes a long time.
And a disclaimer, everyone likes the entertainment editor a lot. His reviews are clever and he has a good on-air presence. I know the op people have a lot of fondness for him. I'm not trying to make him look bad.
Anyway, sitting in at ops has given me a lot to think about skills-wise. I have goals, especially since many former interns work in ops. Aubergine and teal Audition, here I come!
The operations desk sits in a corner by itself. It's always unnaturally warm or unnaturally cold over there for some reason. The desk has two computers. Each one has two screens (one cool thing about WTOP, all of the computers have two monitors). There are cabinets that hold various cables and interconnects and headphones and microphones. Also, there are different devices that pick up feeds. Ops has it's own on air light so the person working there knows when the anchors are live. Most impressively, there's a huge board at ops.
Lights flicker everywhere. Faders going up and down, buttons to be pressed, sound coming in from every direction. the phone rings a lot. It's overwheliming. In my opinion, it's the most overwhelming spot in the newsroom.
I thought I had gotten pretty good at editing audio using Adobe Audition. Well, I have gotten better and faster and more accurate. But the people at ops make me look like a two year old trying to run a nuclear physics lab. They know all of the keyboard commands, they know exactly where to put their cursor to ct correctly. It's fast, it's accurate and almost graceful.
A side note: the Audition is usually gray with green highlights. One of the women who works in ops (a former intern, I might add), knows how to change the colors. Her Audition is fuchsia and purple. It's my secret goal to learn how to chameleonize (not a real word) Audition to be teal and aubergine. I'll let you know if I ever achieve this.
I saw a lot of things happen that I never even thought about. WTOP puts WJLA Channel 7 weathermen on air. Only some of the weather reports are live, others are prerecorded throughout the day. To get prerecorded weather, the weatherman calls the ops desk and records the forecast through the phone. Each weather report has to be an exact length or it can't go on the air. The ops people have to edit it down if it's too long. Also, ops likes working with some weathermen better than others because some are better at recording the forecast in one take.
Ops then loads the final weather forecast into the board. That way, the anchors can hit a single button to play the weather in the studio. Weather is always on the eights (1:08, 2:08, 5:08, etc.) so the button needs to be loaded before this. That way, if live weather fails, there's a backup.
The least favorite job in operations (unanimously) is helping the entertainment editor. He does movie reviews, but does not know how to edit or record audio. When he knows what he wants to say, he grabs the person in ops. They go to a small empty studio. (There are many studios of various sizes at WTOP. Just in case one stops working. And another stops working. And another.) Once there, the ops person starts the computer, opens Adobe Audition and hits record. Then they leave and let the movie reviewer record his piece to air later.
When he's done, he grabs the person from ops again. They stop the recording and save the file. Then they get to edit it down to about a minute's worth of material. Often, they tell me, the file is twenty minutes long. They let me listen to some of it. It's full of mess ups, false starts, musings, swearing...The editing process takes a long time.
And a disclaimer, everyone likes the entertainment editor a lot. His reviews are clever and he has a good on-air presence. I know the op people have a lot of fondness for him. I'm not trying to make him look bad.
Anyway, sitting in at ops has given me a lot to think about skills-wise. I have goals, especially since many former interns work in ops. Aubergine and teal Audition, here I come!
First Response
Working in radio news has its perks. For one, it's definitely not a desk job and it changes every day. Also, you get to hear about everything that's happening in the world first. Basically, this means that when Michael Jackson died, I knew right away. And when Justice Sotomayor was confirmed. The list goes on.
And now I get to stop sounding like a cheery journalism textbook. Knowing what's happening when it happens can also lead to a good amount of stress and strife. When I'm in the newsroom, I'm forced to think about crises constantly. And then I have to edit down commentary on crises. There's no escape.
I was in the newsroom the night one Metro train crashed into another. We got the news, and everyone dropped everything. The typical lineup of stories (some fun, some features, some money-related stuff, some sports) went out the window. Someone pulled out the "breaking news" music. Without being told (amazing for a student to see), every reporter was on the phone trying to get whatever information they could from whoever might now it.
I'm writing this after the fact, so this post might have already lost some of it's impact. Remember, the first thing we heard was a train had crashed. We had to put together everything else from that. Where the crash was, how many people were hurt, how many trains, how are people going to get out, what's going to happen to train service, how do people find out if their loved ones are on the train, why did the crash happen, how is the cleanup going to happen, is Metro going to issue a statement, can anyone see the crash, what's new, what's new, what's new. There's a lot of questions, and it's live, breaking news so we have to get as much information as fast and accurately as possible.
WTOP sent two reporters to the scene immediately. The crash happened around 5:30, but later I found out that they didn't get to go home until 4:00 a.m. That's a lot of time, considering these reporters were already midway through their shifts. One of them told me later that there was a reporter from another organization there. She arrived directly from another assignment. She was wearing stiletto heels, and she continued wearing them and standing up all night long.
Back in the newsroom, I was told to stand by one of the many televisions and simply watch. One of the things I never realized about news is how much copying takes place. I was supposed to watch local TV coverage and let the assistant editor know if I heard any new information in other stations' coverage. That is, whenever a number popped up, I ran to tell someone.
I watched the death toll rise from one to two to five to seven. the next day, the numbers were up to nine dead. And even though I was many miles away inside the newsroom, it was a different type of impact than what I've felt watching a tragedy from my living room.
The reporters kept calling in live reports. No one in the newsroom left to go home. People who were supposed to leave at six were still at their desks at 9:00. This is news, you can't put it down and pick it up the next day.
One of the professors at American University is studying the connection between journalism and stress. his findings show that journalists experience the same levels of stress as first responders. That is, an EMT or a police officer and a journalist feel the same tension in an event like this.
The Metro crash was special. It was tragic local at the same time. But the numbers come in from something like the Fort Hood shooting, too. It's everyone's job to listen. I wonder what it was like to be in a newsroom on 9/11? I'm not saying I wish I could have seen it...but if I had, there's no telling what I might have learned.
It's part of the business. Plus, like I said before, you don't get this sort of thing in a classroom.
And now I get to stop sounding like a cheery journalism textbook. Knowing what's happening when it happens can also lead to a good amount of stress and strife. When I'm in the newsroom, I'm forced to think about crises constantly. And then I have to edit down commentary on crises. There's no escape.
I was in the newsroom the night one Metro train crashed into another. We got the news, and everyone dropped everything. The typical lineup of stories (some fun, some features, some money-related stuff, some sports) went out the window. Someone pulled out the "breaking news" music. Without being told (amazing for a student to see), every reporter was on the phone trying to get whatever information they could from whoever might now it.
I'm writing this after the fact, so this post might have already lost some of it's impact. Remember, the first thing we heard was a train had crashed. We had to put together everything else from that. Where the crash was, how many people were hurt, how many trains, how are people going to get out, what's going to happen to train service, how do people find out if their loved ones are on the train, why did the crash happen, how is the cleanup going to happen, is Metro going to issue a statement, can anyone see the crash, what's new, what's new, what's new. There's a lot of questions, and it's live, breaking news so we have to get as much information as fast and accurately as possible.
WTOP sent two reporters to the scene immediately. The crash happened around 5:30, but later I found out that they didn't get to go home until 4:00 a.m. That's a lot of time, considering these reporters were already midway through their shifts. One of them told me later that there was a reporter from another organization there. She arrived directly from another assignment. She was wearing stiletto heels, and she continued wearing them and standing up all night long.
Back in the newsroom, I was told to stand by one of the many televisions and simply watch. One of the things I never realized about news is how much copying takes place. I was supposed to watch local TV coverage and let the assistant editor know if I heard any new information in other stations' coverage. That is, whenever a number popped up, I ran to tell someone.
I watched the death toll rise from one to two to five to seven. the next day, the numbers were up to nine dead. And even though I was many miles away inside the newsroom, it was a different type of impact than what I've felt watching a tragedy from my living room.
The reporters kept calling in live reports. No one in the newsroom left to go home. People who were supposed to leave at six were still at their desks at 9:00. This is news, you can't put it down and pick it up the next day.
One of the professors at American University is studying the connection between journalism and stress. his findings show that journalists experience the same levels of stress as first responders. That is, an EMT or a police officer and a journalist feel the same tension in an event like this.
The Metro crash was special. It was tragic local at the same time. But the numbers come in from something like the Fort Hood shooting, too. It's everyone's job to listen. I wonder what it was like to be in a newsroom on 9/11? I'm not saying I wish I could have seen it...but if I had, there's no telling what I might have learned.
It's part of the business. Plus, like I said before, you don't get this sort of thing in a classroom.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Learning by watching
On Saturday, I went out with WTOP reporter Rahul Bali. Hands-on learning is good, but I tried the watch and learn approach for a day. It was worth it.
We drove to FedEx Field (home of the Redskins. Maybe you know that, but I always assume ignorance when it comes to sports. After all, I am mostly ignorant myself on that topic). There, Rahul was supposed to cover a veterans health event, where vets could come and have several medical tests for free. As part of the coverage, he was going to meet up with Joe Theismann, a former Redskins player that is famous, partially, for his gruesome leg injury broadcast on Monday Night Football. (Watch at your own risk)
The interview had many aims. For one, the Redskins aren't doing very well this season. OK, they're actually doing a phenomenally bad job this season. And WTOP is getting some on-air commentary from John Riggins, a Hall of Fame running back. (OK, I'm honestly not sure what a running back does.) As far as I understand, he wants the Redskins under new management NOW and he's being pretty vocal about who he thinks is at fault for the team's dismal record. So Rahul was supposed to get some feedback on that.
Also, we needed to get some quotes about veterans' mental health services in light of the recent Fort Hood shooting.
Going out with a pro is good for couple of reasons. For one, I get a lot of advice about the field, including some information about how to find a job one day (eek!). Also, I get to see how things really work, outside of textbooks and classroom lectures. Rahul even hit the speaker phone button and let me listen in while he and the producer made decisions about his story.
Some interesting things I learned...
Things to keep in a reporter's bag (they all lug bulky satchels and totes): a flashlight (for reading notes or scripts when reporting after sunset); a pack of cigarettes, even though Rahul doesn't smoke (people might talk to you if you offer them a smoke, especially in a situation where they can't leave the scene to get a cigarette somewhere else).
Things I need to know to function at my first job: high school and college sports (first-time journalists usually get jobs in smaller towns. In these places, the whole population can turn out at a high school football game). This is going to be tough for me.
How to get the best sound bite: make sure your question matches the emotional level of the response you want. An example, Rahul covers Redskins fans. Instead of asking a team fanatic "What do you think about the game so far?" Rahul will jam the microphone in the person's face and simply yell "What the hell is going on out there?!" The fans pick up on the emotion and they'll yell back. I tried this the other day in a phone interview and it works. I still need some practice, though.
I also got to play with some neato technology. WTOP owns a device the reporters call an "access". It uses a 3G network or wireless internet to connect to the newsroom. This way, a reporter can call in a story live without worrying about being near a phone or the iffy signal of a cell phone. The access is about the size of a pound cake. To use it, you simply plug in a battery, stick the wireless card inside of it, turn it on, and wait for it to connect with the newsroom. Rahul said most newsrooms don't have these devices yet.
Another good thing about the access, it works best outdoors. At FedEx field that means, well, on the field. I got to stand on a football field for the first time in my life. And I realized that 100 yards is actually pretty small. It looks much bigger on TV.
We drove to FedEx Field (home of the Redskins. Maybe you know that, but I always assume ignorance when it comes to sports. After all, I am mostly ignorant myself on that topic). There, Rahul was supposed to cover a veterans health event, where vets could come and have several medical tests for free. As part of the coverage, he was going to meet up with Joe Theismann, a former Redskins player that is famous, partially, for his gruesome leg injury broadcast on Monday Night Football. (Watch at your own risk)
The interview had many aims. For one, the Redskins aren't doing very well this season. OK, they're actually doing a phenomenally bad job this season. And WTOP is getting some on-air commentary from John Riggins, a Hall of Fame running back. (OK, I'm honestly not sure what a running back does.) As far as I understand, he wants the Redskins under new management NOW and he's being pretty vocal about who he thinks is at fault for the team's dismal record. So Rahul was supposed to get some feedback on that.
Also, we needed to get some quotes about veterans' mental health services in light of the recent Fort Hood shooting.
Going out with a pro is good for couple of reasons. For one, I get a lot of advice about the field, including some information about how to find a job one day (eek!). Also, I get to see how things really work, outside of textbooks and classroom lectures. Rahul even hit the speaker phone button and let me listen in while he and the producer made decisions about his story.
Some interesting things I learned...
Things to keep in a reporter's bag (they all lug bulky satchels and totes): a flashlight (for reading notes or scripts when reporting after sunset); a pack of cigarettes, even though Rahul doesn't smoke (people might talk to you if you offer them a smoke, especially in a situation where they can't leave the scene to get a cigarette somewhere else).
Things I need to know to function at my first job: high school and college sports (first-time journalists usually get jobs in smaller towns. In these places, the whole population can turn out at a high school football game). This is going to be tough for me.
How to get the best sound bite: make sure your question matches the emotional level of the response you want. An example, Rahul covers Redskins fans. Instead of asking a team fanatic "What do you think about the game so far?" Rahul will jam the microphone in the person's face and simply yell "What the hell is going on out there?!" The fans pick up on the emotion and they'll yell back. I tried this the other day in a phone interview and it works. I still need some practice, though.
I also got to play with some neato technology. WTOP owns a device the reporters call an "access". It uses a 3G network or wireless internet to connect to the newsroom. This way, a reporter can call in a story live without worrying about being near a phone or the iffy signal of a cell phone. The access is about the size of a pound cake. To use it, you simply plug in a battery, stick the wireless card inside of it, turn it on, and wait for it to connect with the newsroom. Rahul said most newsrooms don't have these devices yet.
Another good thing about the access, it works best outdoors. At FedEx field that means, well, on the field. I got to stand on a football field for the first time in my life. And I realized that 100 yards is actually pretty small. It looks much bigger on TV.
Everyone is busy, so we'll let the intern do it.
I was at my all-time favorite shift this week (7:00 a.m. on Tuesdays)...and you know if I'm writing about something that happened that early in the morning, it has to be good. Or, at least, it sounds pretty cool when I say it.
One of the reporters was supposed to do an interview with the Lieutenant (see, I'm a journalism major--I spelled that right, first try) Governor of Maryland. She wasn't going to be in the office at the appropriate time, so she passed the interview to a different reporter. He had to step out to cover a story, so the assignment got passed a few rungs lower on the ladder--to me.
This is the amazing thing about being allowed to play with all of the equipment. I get to hit all the buttons and I know how to work the phone (that one took a bit of practice, I'll admit) and I get to log into ENPS at my own desk and play with Adobe Audition. And, now that I've been the intern for several months, the management knows that, technically speaking, I know what I'm doing.
So got to interview the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. OK, that title could be a little more impressive. I'm thinking you might be gasping more if the "Lieutenant" was dropped from the title or if Maryland was actually New York or California or, while we're dreaming, the title was "President Obama". But still, I'm a junior in college. Plus I'm an intern, not a real reporter.
I got a little nervous. How do you address the Lieutenant Governor? Do I even know anything about this man? the best I could do was read up on the subject matter of the interview (mental health resources for veterans).
The thing about important people, they have staff. The call came through to the newsroom. It was a woman (secretary? PR person, I have no idea). she asked for my full name. Then, she connected me to the room where the Lieutenant (OK, now I'm showing off) Governor was sitting. Another woman said something like "Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown, you are speaking with Caitlin Hillyard from WTOP Radio". Now the pressure's on. He knows my name so there's no running now.
I had five to eight minutes to get this done, the press release said. So we talked about Maryland's new initiative for veteran support services. I asked him what was new about the initiative, why he thinks it's going to be a model for other states, whether he thinks it's difficult to get veterans to seek help for mental health concerns, what his personal connection is to veterans, what he hopes to see in the future, etc.
I'm pleased with the interview. I passed the saved audio onto the reporter who was supposed tp write the story. I'm always a little nervous about this part. My interviewing style is a pretty personal thing. Here I am, subjecting my questioning style, the sound of my recorded voice, and the information I was able to gather on to a professional. In retrospect, I think I got the Lieutenant Governor to say a lot. At the same time, I feel like we were both a little stiff.
So I have my goal for next time--warm up a little. Don't be nervous, it's just a person on the other line, someone with something he cares about to say. And yes, there's probably press secretary whispering in his ear the whole time. And yes, he's probably already talked to a dozen seasoned reporters today and will talk to several more after he hangs up with me. But, I figure, that's the only way to learn. I jumped in there, I did it, and now I know what I need to work on.
Next Tuesday? Who knows? Maybe I'll get to chat with Obama's dog groomer or something.
One of the reporters was supposed to do an interview with the Lieutenant (see, I'm a journalism major--I spelled that right, first try) Governor of Maryland. She wasn't going to be in the office at the appropriate time, so she passed the interview to a different reporter. He had to step out to cover a story, so the assignment got passed a few rungs lower on the ladder--to me.
This is the amazing thing about being allowed to play with all of the equipment. I get to hit all the buttons and I know how to work the phone (that one took a bit of practice, I'll admit) and I get to log into ENPS at my own desk and play with Adobe Audition. And, now that I've been the intern for several months, the management knows that, technically speaking, I know what I'm doing.
So got to interview the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. OK, that title could be a little more impressive. I'm thinking you might be gasping more if the "Lieutenant" was dropped from the title or if Maryland was actually New York or California or, while we're dreaming, the title was "President Obama". But still, I'm a junior in college. Plus I'm an intern, not a real reporter.
I got a little nervous. How do you address the Lieutenant Governor? Do I even know anything about this man? the best I could do was read up on the subject matter of the interview (mental health resources for veterans).
The thing about important people, they have staff. The call came through to the newsroom. It was a woman (secretary? PR person, I have no idea). she asked for my full name. Then, she connected me to the room where the Lieutenant (OK, now I'm showing off) Governor was sitting. Another woman said something like "Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown, you are speaking with Caitlin Hillyard from WTOP Radio". Now the pressure's on. He knows my name so there's no running now.
I had five to eight minutes to get this done, the press release said. So we talked about Maryland's new initiative for veteran support services. I asked him what was new about the initiative, why he thinks it's going to be a model for other states, whether he thinks it's difficult to get veterans to seek help for mental health concerns, what his personal connection is to veterans, what he hopes to see in the future, etc.
I'm pleased with the interview. I passed the saved audio onto the reporter who was supposed tp write the story. I'm always a little nervous about this part. My interviewing style is a pretty personal thing. Here I am, subjecting my questioning style, the sound of my recorded voice, and the information I was able to gather on to a professional. In retrospect, I think I got the Lieutenant Governor to say a lot. At the same time, I feel like we were both a little stiff.
So I have my goal for next time--warm up a little. Don't be nervous, it's just a person on the other line, someone with something he cares about to say. And yes, there's probably press secretary whispering in his ear the whole time. And yes, he's probably already talked to a dozen seasoned reporters today and will talk to several more after he hangs up with me. But, I figure, that's the only way to learn. I jumped in there, I did it, and now I know what I need to work on.
Next Tuesday? Who knows? Maybe I'll get to chat with Obama's dog groomer or something.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Intern. Fail.
Last Friday, I was doing the intern thing as usual. I was sitting with the investigative reporter helping him tally (by hand. Actual tally marks on paper. Woah) all of the transgressions of Metro bus and train operators in the past five years. The numbers are crazy. I'll probably have more on that after the story breaks. Anyway, sitting at the table. Tallying. And then the producer comes in. He asks me if I can come in Sunday afternoon instead of my usual Saturday morning. He wants someone to go down to a sports pub in Cleveland Park and ask fans about the Redskins game.
Some background about myself. I am a curious person, interested in many many areas of live, academia, and culture. I know a lot of useless facts. My friends used to joke that they keep me around because I know the answer to life's most trivial questions. I know, for example, why cats' eyes glow at night and I can say "the crayfish broke the boat of yesteryear" in French.
But one thing I don't know anything about is football. Granted, I know a little about the Redskins. I know the newsy stuff that drops down on the wires. I know they are really bad. I know they recently brought in an offensive consultant (which offends me...haha bad pun, sorry). I also know that the Virginia lottery now offers a Redskins scratch card. Plus, i know that there's a bit of controversy over the name of the team.
On the other hand, ask me how many points a field goal is worth, and I can't tell you. Are they even worth points? Field goal is football, right? Home run?
So I came in on Sunday and I try to catch up on the game. I had one eye on the TV, one eye on Redskins twitter, one eye on my phone, because I kept texting my little brother about football plays.
I went over to talk to the sports guy on duty. He told me the game was a pretty boring one (I thought so, too, but I wasn't going to say anything). The redskins were winning, for the moment. he told me to ask the fans about offense and defense. That sounded good to me.
So I set sail for Cleveland Park. I had to walk there, but it was a beautiful day. I headed south with hopes of hitting the neighborhood. to be safe, I had the name and address of the sports bar. My brother told me I had a couple of hours left in the game (!) so I was fine on time.
When I got to Cleveland Park, I walked one way. Then the other. Then I trekked until I hit the zoo (too far). After that, I crossed the street and did it again. Being one of those obnoxious iPhone users, I used the map on my phone, following the little blue dot (me) to the little red pin (the pub). No luck.
More background information: I have a famously bad sense of direction. I once was trying to get to Iowa City from Des Moines (insert corn joke if you must). I ended up in Minnesota. That might not sound so bad, except one is in the east and the other in the north.
So naturally, I just thought my navigation was off. But after awhile I noticed that the flower vendor was staring at me. I'd passed him about twenty times, microphone with mic flag in hand.
I pulled out my phone again. I googled the pub. OK, I wasn't crazy. The place had gone bankrupt and had closed. Plus, I noted, the pub was underground anyway, making it harder to find. That last part I added just to make myself feel better.
So I found another sports bar. I walked in, painfully aware that I'm underage and know nothing about football. I looked around. Everyone was wearing team jerseys. But, ah fate! Only three Redskins jersys in the bunch. The game had ended.
Now I would have thought that you're at a sports bar, the game ends, you hang around awhile anyway to rant about plays and finish your beer. No. Apparently if your team loses, you clear out, IMMEDIATELY.
I got one guy to talk to me. I was supposed to get at least five.
So I called the newsroom, admitted defeat, and walked back.
At least it was a pretty day. Better luck next time?
Some background about myself. I am a curious person, interested in many many areas of live, academia, and culture. I know a lot of useless facts. My friends used to joke that they keep me around because I know the answer to life's most trivial questions. I know, for example, why cats' eyes glow at night and I can say "the crayfish broke the boat of yesteryear" in French.
But one thing I don't know anything about is football. Granted, I know a little about the Redskins. I know the newsy stuff that drops down on the wires. I know they are really bad. I know they recently brought in an offensive consultant (which offends me...haha bad pun, sorry). I also know that the Virginia lottery now offers a Redskins scratch card. Plus, i know that there's a bit of controversy over the name of the team.
On the other hand, ask me how many points a field goal is worth, and I can't tell you. Are they even worth points? Field goal is football, right? Home run?
So I came in on Sunday and I try to catch up on the game. I had one eye on the TV, one eye on Redskins twitter, one eye on my phone, because I kept texting my little brother about football plays.
I went over to talk to the sports guy on duty. He told me the game was a pretty boring one (I thought so, too, but I wasn't going to say anything). The redskins were winning, for the moment. he told me to ask the fans about offense and defense. That sounded good to me.
So I set sail for Cleveland Park. I had to walk there, but it was a beautiful day. I headed south with hopes of hitting the neighborhood. to be safe, I had the name and address of the sports bar. My brother told me I had a couple of hours left in the game (!) so I was fine on time.
When I got to Cleveland Park, I walked one way. Then the other. Then I trekked until I hit the zoo (too far). After that, I crossed the street and did it again. Being one of those obnoxious iPhone users, I used the map on my phone, following the little blue dot (me) to the little red pin (the pub). No luck.
More background information: I have a famously bad sense of direction. I once was trying to get to Iowa City from Des Moines (insert corn joke if you must). I ended up in Minnesota. That might not sound so bad, except one is in the east and the other in the north.
So naturally, I just thought my navigation was off. But after awhile I noticed that the flower vendor was staring at me. I'd passed him about twenty times, microphone with mic flag in hand.
I pulled out my phone again. I googled the pub. OK, I wasn't crazy. The place had gone bankrupt and had closed. Plus, I noted, the pub was underground anyway, making it harder to find. That last part I added just to make myself feel better.
So I found another sports bar. I walked in, painfully aware that I'm underage and know nothing about football. I looked around. Everyone was wearing team jerseys. But, ah fate! Only three Redskins jersys in the bunch. The game had ended.
Now I would have thought that you're at a sports bar, the game ends, you hang around awhile anyway to rant about plays and finish your beer. No. Apparently if your team loses, you clear out, IMMEDIATELY.
I got one guy to talk to me. I was supposed to get at least five.
So I called the newsroom, admitted defeat, and walked back.
At least it was a pretty day. Better luck next time?
Bugging people on the street
Walk along Wisconsin Avenue between Tenleytown and the National Cathedral, and you have a decent chance of catching one of the WTOP interns at work. They'll be easy to spot: on foot, either alone or in pairs, and carrying an Olympus digital recorder. Sometimes this recorder will be tethered to a handheld microphone with a WTOP mic flag.
Point of interest (to me, anyway), mic flags, which are the square, plastic banners you see on television microphones, usually with the stations' name on the side, are about two hundred dollars apiece. I had a professor offer extra credit to a girl in my class for doing journalism arts and crafts. That is, making cheap mic flags out of wooden blocks and acrylic paint.
Anyway, when you see the interns out on the sidewalk, they are doing something we call "MOS". MOS stands for "man on street". It's the practice of soliciting people on the street for their opinion. The goal is to get sound bites from enough people so that you can put them together to illustrate how everyday people feel about different issues.
I've done a good amount of MOS over the past few months. Some of my favorite topics include the new Angus burger at Mcdonalds (we had to stand outside McDonalds and ask people if they knew how much fat/sodium/calories were in their lunch), the decline of the American diner, stores charging for grocery bags, the death of Michael Jackson (the afternoon of), summer movies, and many many more.
I joked once that journalism students are actually majoring in creepology. That is, reporters have to put aside any shyness or inhibition in order to get information. People don't always want to talk on tape. They might not like the radio station, they might not like the sound of their own voice , or they might not care about the subject. Sometimes, people reluctant to be interviewed are rude. I've heard every gutteral grunt and pffft and ssshhhpt and I've even had a girl run away from me (I'm not a scary person, I swear). One day, no one on the street knew any English. I'm a little skeptical about that though, since one of the guys let me know by saying "My English is not yet proficient." Sure, man, whatever you say.
The trick, the professional reporters tell me, is to not to take anything personally. Which is, as you might imagine, easier in theory than in practice. A deadline is ticking, the producer or the reporter who gave you the assignment needs the sound. What if no one talks to me? What if no one says anything good? Come on people, I'm just an intern. Help me out.
I used to catch my voice on tape as I approached people. "Excuse me, I'm from WTOP Radio and...." I sounded like they had sent me to interview the lord of darkness. Terrified. I've grown out of that, but I admit I still need to work on the charm. I probably still come across as more cowardly than inviting.I used to catch my voice on tape as I approached people. "Excuse me, I'm from WTOP Radio and...." I sounded like they had sent me to interview the lord of darkness. Terrified. I've grown out of that, but I admit I still need to work on the charm. I probably still come across as more cowardly than inviting.
Of course, there are some techniques. Give people a brief description of what you're talking about today. Let them know they don't have to be experts, they just need to have an opinion. when asking questions, avoid yes or no questions. Often, people won't volunteer anything past the "uh huh" or the "nope", so you have to give them an open-ended version. you need to encourage them, but not lead them into an insincere response.
As always, audio quality matters. One of the biggest mistakes MOS beginners make is responding to their interviewee. Weird, right? Don't you WANT to look engaged? Yes, but not to the point where your "mmmm hmmmms" and "that's exactly right" and "yeahs" get into your voice recorder. You can't edit out one person's voice if it overlaps another person's voice. that means you have to keep encouragement to nods and smiles. Laughter is out. Mmmm hmm is out. A related note: don't jump to the next question immediately after the person is done talking. This is because a lot of times the person isn't actually done talking, you just THINK they are. they might think of something else to say, or they're just a long pauser. Either way, you can end up talking over them or interrupting. Again, not something you can edit out.
Then there's the one thing I always forget to do. I need to get about 30 seconds of ambient sound. That means the sound of the place. The background noise. On Wisconsin Avenue, that means the hum (and sometimes the roar) of traffic, the polite din of Starbucks customers, the patter of footsteps, the wind. Later, this sound can ease the transition between the reporter's voice, recorded in a sterile newsroom, and the interviewee's voices, recorded in the chaos of the world.
To wrap up this post, my favorite MOS responses so far. On the topic of McDonalds...."Right now I'm pretty hung over and I just want to get something greasy to eat." Two other interns got a woman who, when asked for her pirate impression, growled and barked like a dog. And who could forget the girl who told us that she thought charging money for grocery bags was a conspiracy. Never mind how she feels about paying for plastic bags, she doesn't trust the D.C. government to use the money how they say they're going to. The MOS lesson, people are fun.
Pictures coming soon!
Point of interest (to me, anyway), mic flags, which are the square, plastic banners you see on television microphones, usually with the stations' name on the side, are about two hundred dollars apiece. I had a professor offer extra credit to a girl in my class for doing journalism arts and crafts. That is, making cheap mic flags out of wooden blocks and acrylic paint.
Anyway, when you see the interns out on the sidewalk, they are doing something we call "MOS". MOS stands for "man on street". It's the practice of soliciting people on the street for their opinion. The goal is to get sound bites from enough people so that you can put them together to illustrate how everyday people feel about different issues.
I've done a good amount of MOS over the past few months. Some of my favorite topics include the new Angus burger at Mcdonalds (we had to stand outside McDonalds and ask people if they knew how much fat/sodium/calories were in their lunch), the decline of the American diner, stores charging for grocery bags, the death of Michael Jackson (the afternoon of), summer movies, and many many more.
I joked once that journalism students are actually majoring in creepology. That is, reporters have to put aside any shyness or inhibition in order to get information. People don't always want to talk on tape. They might not like the radio station, they might not like the sound of their own voice , or they might not care about the subject. Sometimes, people reluctant to be interviewed are rude. I've heard every gutteral grunt and pffft and ssshhhpt and I've even had a girl run away from me (I'm not a scary person, I swear). One day, no one on the street knew any English. I'm a little skeptical about that though, since one of the guys let me know by saying "My English is not yet proficient." Sure, man, whatever you say.
The trick, the professional reporters tell me, is to not to take anything personally. Which is, as you might imagine, easier in theory than in practice. A deadline is ticking, the producer or the reporter who gave you the assignment needs the sound. What if no one talks to me? What if no one says anything good? Come on people, I'm just an intern. Help me out.
I used to catch my voice on tape as I approached people. "Excuse me, I'm from WTOP Radio and...." I sounded like they had sent me to interview the lord of darkness. Terrified. I've grown out of that, but I admit I still need to work on the charm. I probably still come across as more cowardly than inviting.I used to catch my voice on tape as I approached people. "Excuse me, I'm from WTOP Radio and...." I sounded like they had sent me to interview the lord of darkness. Terrified. I've grown out of that, but I admit I still need to work on the charm. I probably still come across as more cowardly than inviting.
Of course, there are some techniques. Give people a brief description of what you're talking about today. Let them know they don't have to be experts, they just need to have an opinion. when asking questions, avoid yes or no questions. Often, people won't volunteer anything past the "uh huh" or the "nope", so you have to give them an open-ended version. you need to encourage them, but not lead them into an insincere response.
As always, audio quality matters. One of the biggest mistakes MOS beginners make is responding to their interviewee. Weird, right? Don't you WANT to look engaged? Yes, but not to the point where your "mmmm hmmmms" and "that's exactly right" and "yeahs" get into your voice recorder. You can't edit out one person's voice if it overlaps another person's voice. that means you have to keep encouragement to nods and smiles. Laughter is out. Mmmm hmm is out. A related note: don't jump to the next question immediately after the person is done talking. This is because a lot of times the person isn't actually done talking, you just THINK they are. they might think of something else to say, or they're just a long pauser. Either way, you can end up talking over them or interrupting. Again, not something you can edit out.
Then there's the one thing I always forget to do. I need to get about 30 seconds of ambient sound. That means the sound of the place. The background noise. On Wisconsin Avenue, that means the hum (and sometimes the roar) of traffic, the polite din of Starbucks customers, the patter of footsteps, the wind. Later, this sound can ease the transition between the reporter's voice, recorded in a sterile newsroom, and the interviewee's voices, recorded in the chaos of the world.
To wrap up this post, my favorite MOS responses so far. On the topic of McDonalds...."Right now I'm pretty hung over and I just want to get something greasy to eat." Two other interns got a woman who, when asked for her pirate impression, growled and barked like a dog. And who could forget the girl who told us that she thought charging money for grocery bags was a conspiracy. Never mind how she feels about paying for plastic bags, she doesn't trust the D.C. government to use the money how they say they're going to. The MOS lesson, people are fun.
Pictures coming soon!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
I Need a Snazzy Name...Suggestions?
A couple of Saturdays ago, I stopped by the Operations corner to grab some headphones. Operations is the department of the radio station responsible for making sure everything sounds right on the air. Basically, the people in Ops are in charge of sound and anything technological that goes with it.
I’m supposed to be training in Ops this semester, so I introduced myself to the man at the post. He shared a few enlightening tidbits about the radio business.
James started out as a DJ at a station in the South. He told me that this is how he learned broadcast delivery. Now, I’m not sure I want to be an anchor. On the other hand, I’m not ruling it out. After all, I think I would clean computer keyboards for the rest of my life if that’s what it took to be in radio. And, because I’m a radio nerd, I would enjoy it, too.
Anyway, back from digression, James talked to me about the art of using your voice to project a mood. When he was a DJ, he had to switch between different moods. Sad song to peppy song, slow to fast, etc. It’s all about nuance, he said. And honestly, I don’t think I could transition like that without a lot of practice.
This is why anchors get angry at a producer who doesn’t pair news stories in a logical way (or so I’ve heard). Follow a story about a dancing clown doing something cute with a story about dead babies, and even the most experienced anchor can sound stupid. I know I’ve seen anchors on TV that ticked me off this way. They looked and sounded a little too chipper when they told me about that deadly mudslide. Even if you can’t see the smile or the chortle, you can hear it in radio. A good story flow helps, but an anchor in control can change the entire feel of a newscast with his voice. And again, I have no clue how.
And then James used his power of inflection to trick me. Ah, trick the intern, everyone’s favorite game. He was telling me about how anchoring is like talking to your friend. You have to read your script like you are having a conversation with one person. James focused his eyes over my shoulder and said “Hey, guess what?” Thinking someone was behind me, I flipped around. False alarm. No one home but the hypothetical radio audience.
And I hear that a lot in my journalism classes, as well as around the station. Be conversational. Usually this mantra is applied to writing for radio or television. This was the first time I thought about it in terms of radio.
He also told me about what it’s like to work at odd hours. News is 24/7, remember. That means someone has to be manning that Operations corner all the time. On that Saturday, James had come in at three in the morning as was about to get off at 11:00 a.m. The trick, he said, is the stay up really late on Thursday night. That was you’re tired enough to go to be at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Wake up at 1:30, you’re ready to go. And did I mention no partying the night before. That would be a crash and burn in the making.
So maybe I didn’t learn as much about working in Ops as I thought I would, but I learned a little bit about a day in the life. And that’s what internships are supposed to be about.
But if I want this to be a day in MY life, I have one major setback: one major setback: my name. It’s not catchy. If I want to be like James, I need to get a tag. Hmmm, “Caitlin” doesn’t really rhyme or pun with anything, does it? OK, so joke over, I’m not trying to become a DJ on a soul station. That might be beyond me for other reasons.
But I could end up doing almost anything in radio. I’m learning the technical and the storytelling aspects of the game. After all, James has also done sound for Public Television and radio, among other places. I’m hoping to get his take on that history, too. And, don’t worry, I’ll be learning more about Operations any day now. I have to—I put it down on my internship sheet!
I’m supposed to be training in Ops this semester, so I introduced myself to the man at the post. He shared a few enlightening tidbits about the radio business.
James started out as a DJ at a station in the South. He told me that this is how he learned broadcast delivery. Now, I’m not sure I want to be an anchor. On the other hand, I’m not ruling it out. After all, I think I would clean computer keyboards for the rest of my life if that’s what it took to be in radio. And, because I’m a radio nerd, I would enjoy it, too.
Anyway, back from digression, James talked to me about the art of using your voice to project a mood. When he was a DJ, he had to switch between different moods. Sad song to peppy song, slow to fast, etc. It’s all about nuance, he said. And honestly, I don’t think I could transition like that without a lot of practice.
This is why anchors get angry at a producer who doesn’t pair news stories in a logical way (or so I’ve heard). Follow a story about a dancing clown doing something cute with a story about dead babies, and even the most experienced anchor can sound stupid. I know I’ve seen anchors on TV that ticked me off this way. They looked and sounded a little too chipper when they told me about that deadly mudslide. Even if you can’t see the smile or the chortle, you can hear it in radio. A good story flow helps, but an anchor in control can change the entire feel of a newscast with his voice. And again, I have no clue how.
And then James used his power of inflection to trick me. Ah, trick the intern, everyone’s favorite game. He was telling me about how anchoring is like talking to your friend. You have to read your script like you are having a conversation with one person. James focused his eyes over my shoulder and said “Hey, guess what?” Thinking someone was behind me, I flipped around. False alarm. No one home but the hypothetical radio audience.
And I hear that a lot in my journalism classes, as well as around the station. Be conversational. Usually this mantra is applied to writing for radio or television. This was the first time I thought about it in terms of radio.
He also told me about what it’s like to work at odd hours. News is 24/7, remember. That means someone has to be manning that Operations corner all the time. On that Saturday, James had come in at three in the morning as was about to get off at 11:00 a.m. The trick, he said, is the stay up really late on Thursday night. That was you’re tired enough to go to be at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Wake up at 1:30, you’re ready to go. And did I mention no partying the night before. That would be a crash and burn in the making.
So maybe I didn’t learn as much about working in Ops as I thought I would, but I learned a little bit about a day in the life. And that’s what internships are supposed to be about.
But if I want this to be a day in MY life, I have one major setback: one major setback: my name. It’s not catchy. If I want to be like James, I need to get a tag. Hmmm, “Caitlin” doesn’t really rhyme or pun with anything, does it? OK, so joke over, I’m not trying to become a DJ on a soul station. That might be beyond me for other reasons.
But I could end up doing almost anything in radio. I’m learning the technical and the storytelling aspects of the game. After all, James has also done sound for Public Television and radio, among other places. I’m hoping to get his take on that history, too. And, don’t worry, I’ll be learning more about Operations any day now. I have to—I put it down on my internship sheet!
Don't You Dare Call Me on that Cell Phone
I’m going to type this, and it’s going to look stupid. That is, it’s going to look so obvious in print that nobody is going to believe I had the audacity to put it on the internet. I mean, this is the internet, no stupidity allowed.
Ok, seriously, I’m going to stop delaying and type it: Radio is about sound.
And you’re saying: Yeah. Duh. What’s your point?
My point is that the world doesn’t have a lot of pure, perfect, unadulterated sound out there. At a radio station, a large amount of time goes into making real noises sound, well, realer than real.
Take a phone interview. Say we’re having someone call in to give us his big-wig take on President Obama’s health care plan. The phone rings, the assistant editor picks up the phone. She thanks Mr. Pundit in advance for his time and she connects him to the anchors in the studio. But this isn’t enough. She has to use her ears before she pushes that button. Because Mr. Pundit is on his blackberry.
And you’re really annoyed at me now. Maybe you like your Blackberry very much. Or maybe you’re an iPhone person. Then again, you could still be using that Nokia your mom gave you in seventh grade so you could call her when soccer practice was cancelled.
We all like cell phones. I know I like mine. But they can be a real pain for live radio. I don’t have a real, technical explanation for why, but cell phones sound a million times worse than landline phones on the radio. If you look at the waveform, someone’s voice recorded from a cell phone seems to jump all over the place. It has no attention span or consistency. One second, the person’s voice will peak at top amplitude, the next you’ll strain to hear the words. Sometimes the sound cuts out completely.
My best guess is this has something to do with air. I could be very off here, and I promise someday soon I’ll do a Google search on this. But waves travel through air. Your cell phone signal has to swim in the world for a little bit before it gets where it’s going. Maybe on the way they get obstructed a little bit—stuck in traffic or unable to see around some fat woman in the crowd.
If I’m not, again, ignorant, this is why most of the radio and television stations are in Northwest D.C. This is the highest point in the city. The signal doesn’t have much of a chance it will get blocked by anything.
So as the person answering the phone, you listen to see if you can hear that auditory craziness. If the sound quality isn’t good, you ask Mr. Pundit if they’re on a cell phone. If they are, you ask him if he can switch to a land line. You know. That super big phone that plugs into the wall. Weird, I know.
An interesting but not entirely germane side note: do you have any idea what these live pundits are doing while they’re live on air. We all know they’re doing an interview, but there’s a good chance Mr. Pundit is at home. And wireless phones are not uncommon. We once had a woman on a cell phone with a strong, clear signal (the exception, not the rule). She was walking her dog. I’m pretty sure she was enlightening the world about foreign affairs or bureaucracy while Poochie was doing his business. Not important, but a little funny.
Anyway, let’s get back to the newsroom. Think back to the last time you listened to talk radio. Rush Limbaugh or whoever you jive with is taking listener calls. Do you remember how every woman sounded a little like Julia Child? People’s voices don’t sound normal over the phone. I know I cringe whenever I catch the sound of my voicemail message. When you pump that sound through the radio waves, it sounds even worse. FM radio is infamous for that fuzzy, distorted radio/phone voice.
To counter this, we use a special filter on anything recorded through a phone line. This goes for the phone interview I do at my workstation as well as for anything that goes live on the air with the anchors. I can guide you through my editing process. I choose an FFT filtercalled “telephone bandpass”. This gets rid of the hazy sound. On the other hand, I have to be precise about it. If I accidentally filter something in-studio anchor says, then his voice sounds distorted.
Ok, seriously, I’m going to stop delaying and type it: Radio is about sound.
And you’re saying: Yeah. Duh. What’s your point?
My point is that the world doesn’t have a lot of pure, perfect, unadulterated sound out there. At a radio station, a large amount of time goes into making real noises sound, well, realer than real.
Take a phone interview. Say we’re having someone call in to give us his big-wig take on President Obama’s health care plan. The phone rings, the assistant editor picks up the phone. She thanks Mr. Pundit in advance for his time and she connects him to the anchors in the studio. But this isn’t enough. She has to use her ears before she pushes that button. Because Mr. Pundit is on his blackberry.
And you’re really annoyed at me now. Maybe you like your Blackberry very much. Or maybe you’re an iPhone person. Then again, you could still be using that Nokia your mom gave you in seventh grade so you could call her when soccer practice was cancelled.
We all like cell phones. I know I like mine. But they can be a real pain for live radio. I don’t have a real, technical explanation for why, but cell phones sound a million times worse than landline phones on the radio. If you look at the waveform, someone’s voice recorded from a cell phone seems to jump all over the place. It has no attention span or consistency. One second, the person’s voice will peak at top amplitude, the next you’ll strain to hear the words. Sometimes the sound cuts out completely.
My best guess is this has something to do with air. I could be very off here, and I promise someday soon I’ll do a Google search on this. But waves travel through air. Your cell phone signal has to swim in the world for a little bit before it gets where it’s going. Maybe on the way they get obstructed a little bit—stuck in traffic or unable to see around some fat woman in the crowd.
If I’m not, again, ignorant, this is why most of the radio and television stations are in Northwest D.C. This is the highest point in the city. The signal doesn’t have much of a chance it will get blocked by anything.
So as the person answering the phone, you listen to see if you can hear that auditory craziness. If the sound quality isn’t good, you ask Mr. Pundit if they’re on a cell phone. If they are, you ask him if he can switch to a land line. You know. That super big phone that plugs into the wall. Weird, I know.
An interesting but not entirely germane side note: do you have any idea what these live pundits are doing while they’re live on air. We all know they’re doing an interview, but there’s a good chance Mr. Pundit is at home. And wireless phones are not uncommon. We once had a woman on a cell phone with a strong, clear signal (the exception, not the rule). She was walking her dog. I’m pretty sure she was enlightening the world about foreign affairs or bureaucracy while Poochie was doing his business. Not important, but a little funny.
Anyway, let’s get back to the newsroom. Think back to the last time you listened to talk radio. Rush Limbaugh or whoever you jive with is taking listener calls. Do you remember how every woman sounded a little like Julia Child? People’s voices don’t sound normal over the phone. I know I cringe whenever I catch the sound of my voicemail message. When you pump that sound through the radio waves, it sounds even worse. FM radio is infamous for that fuzzy, distorted radio/phone voice.
To counter this, we use a special filter on anything recorded through a phone line. This goes for the phone interview I do at my workstation as well as for anything that goes live on the air with the anchors. I can guide you through my editing process. I choose an FFT filtercalled “telephone bandpass”. This gets rid of the hazy sound. On the other hand, I have to be precise about it. If I accidentally filter something in-studio anchor says, then his voice sounds distorted.
Make it Shorter and Get Rid of the "Ums"
Radio doesn’t get to close down on the weekends like other businesses. People drive on the weekends, so they need their traffic and weather. On the eights. And they need someone pumping the news into their ears. A nice distraction, lest they unleash their road rage and slam into that guy in the red pickup who seems determined to cut them off at every turn.
And the station where I intern has more weekend employees on duty than the normal nine-to-five, paper-crunching office building. But the news is another story. It never completely stops, but on the weekends some of the main headline-factories do. Government gets weekends off. So does Wall Street. But all-news stations still have hour blocks to fill. No to mention slow news directly translates to low ratings for the station. People will only enjoy listening to radio if they can tune in to something interesting. Pete the windsurfing budgerigar isn’t it. And neither is last week’s big budget meeting.
Stations can only recycle news if they can find a way to add to the information people already know. One fresh way to do this is by airing interviews with experts. That way, listeners get a new point of view.
That’s where interns like me come in. The station I work at is a CBS affiliate. That means we can air CBS material and we also run a CBS news update at the top of ever hour. So say we need something to fill the weekend newscast (we always do). There’s an illuminating interview with Dan Raviv and a guy who just published a new book comparing military protocol to how the rest of the world is run. The interview is seven minutes long, but the producer wants something to fit in a three minute space.
No, we don’t find a shorter interview. Instead, the intern takes Dan Raviv and his friend to the chopping block.
The block is actually a computer program called Adobe Audition. It is an audio-editing program that displays recorded sound as a waveform that scrolls across the screen as it plays. I keep meaning to look up how commonly used the program is, but I do know that it’s the program I learned in my radio classes at school. I wasn’t at all proficient when I started, but this internship has focused my skills. Now, I spend more time in front of Audition than I do at Microsoft Word. Which, for a junior in college, is saying something.
The first thing I do on the CBS interview weight-loss plan is separate the different questions and answers in the interview. I copy and paste the original interview into a blank sound file. That way, I’m not altering the original copy, so I always have something to go back to if I mess up, which, believe me, happens. Then I isolate each question and answer by adding a few seconds of generated silence between each question and response. This makes choosing which questions stay and which and gives me flexibility if I want to change the order of the questions.
After I’ve chosen the questions I want, chances are the interview is still too long. I’ll still have to trim some off the responses. So I start with the parts that have to go—the parts that sound bad.
People don’t usually speak in a clean way. That goes for conversations on the street corner as well as planned interviews. People stutter, they say “uh” and “um”, they repeat words, they take long pauses. And this is why radio stations have interns.
I actually really enjoy cleaning up what people say. Actually, I like physical cleaning too, and editing people’s not-yet-proofread papers. The act of taking something imperfect and smoothing out its flaws is empowering. In my time at WTOP, I’ve gotten much better at this. At first, the “um” would be gone, but the surrounding words would sound jerky or clipped. Even worse, sometimes a digital click or a pop would spike up where I cut the “um”.
The evening producer gave me a tutorial on how to edit human speech. I learned to delete the “um’s” waveform in Audition. Without moving my cursor, I then generate 0.2 seconds of silence where the offending “um” used to be. Then I fade out the tail of the preceding word and fade in the beginning of the next word. To finish it off, I gradually eat away at the silence I created until the pause between the two words sounds natural.
On a radio station sometimes described as NPR on caffeine, pauses are clipped to a minimum. Breathing isn’t a priority for guests on a fast-paced news station, I guess. So I also spend a lot of time shortening the gaps where people stop to find their next word. The consensus varies on this technique: I had a radio class where the professor warned us against cutting out breaths. The theory is that this sounds unnatural and can even be unnerving on the ear. It doesn’t sound too out of place on WTOP though, so this might be more of a matter of style.
After the interview is cleaned up on the most primitive level, I take some time to edit the responses of questions for content. One of my gurus in the summer portion of my internship taught me a trick—cut from the end of a response and work back towards the beginning. As people on the air answer a question, they start to repeat themselves. Human nature has them spit out the main part of their answer in the first few seconds, leaving time for blabbering. The same rules of flow apply to cutting content—fades and gaps should fall where a cut sounds unnatural. And special attention must go to inflection. Nothing stings the ear like weird inflection.
Finally, I run the finished cut interview through a compressor. Without being too technical, you could say this stretches out the waveform a little. It makes the tail longer, and mellows out the highs and lows. Many different compressors exist. The one I use is named after the station and gives the recorded voices the characteristic sound of the station.
Now that the actual Audition editing is done, I need to make sure it can fit into a newscast. This is where my journalism major comes in. I get to write an introduction. Actually, I am replacing an existing introduction. Dan Raviv already told his audience about the guy he interviewed, why the interview is important to them and how it fits into current events. Of course, Dan Raviv won’t be making a personal appearance on my local station today, so I need to rework this intro so one of my station’s anchors can read it. And Dan’s lovely intro gets the boot and mine goes in.
Ok, I admit. I don’t always listen very carefully when I do the grunt editing. I get a little caught up in looking for “ums”. So I usually take another listen. Then I write, not like the thesis of a paper, but more like a sample plate. I want listeners to wonder and care about what they are about to hear.
To end the journey, I save the finished sound file under a special number system. Then I stick it right into the story. This lets the anchors call it up by pressing a button.
This process is low-pressure, mainly because it goes on the air the next day at the earliest. I’ve got some time to be fastidious about the details. On the other hand, my heart really starts pounding when I have to edit a live interview to be aired in its improved form later in the same day.
But I’ll have more on that later, lest I begin to sound like a chipper textbook. I mean, let’s face it, I’m much more interested in this than the average junior in college.
And the station where I intern has more weekend employees on duty than the normal nine-to-five, paper-crunching office building. But the news is another story. It never completely stops, but on the weekends some of the main headline-factories do. Government gets weekends off. So does Wall Street. But all-news stations still have hour blocks to fill. No to mention slow news directly translates to low ratings for the station. People will only enjoy listening to radio if they can tune in to something interesting. Pete the windsurfing budgerigar isn’t it. And neither is last week’s big budget meeting.
Stations can only recycle news if they can find a way to add to the information people already know. One fresh way to do this is by airing interviews with experts. That way, listeners get a new point of view.
That’s where interns like me come in. The station I work at is a CBS affiliate. That means we can air CBS material and we also run a CBS news update at the top of ever hour. So say we need something to fill the weekend newscast (we always do). There’s an illuminating interview with Dan Raviv and a guy who just published a new book comparing military protocol to how the rest of the world is run. The interview is seven minutes long, but the producer wants something to fit in a three minute space.
No, we don’t find a shorter interview. Instead, the intern takes Dan Raviv and his friend to the chopping block.
The block is actually a computer program called Adobe Audition. It is an audio-editing program that displays recorded sound as a waveform that scrolls across the screen as it plays. I keep meaning to look up how commonly used the program is, but I do know that it’s the program I learned in my radio classes at school. I wasn’t at all proficient when I started, but this internship has focused my skills. Now, I spend more time in front of Audition than I do at Microsoft Word. Which, for a junior in college, is saying something.
The first thing I do on the CBS interview weight-loss plan is separate the different questions and answers in the interview. I copy and paste the original interview into a blank sound file. That way, I’m not altering the original copy, so I always have something to go back to if I mess up, which, believe me, happens. Then I isolate each question and answer by adding a few seconds of generated silence between each question and response. This makes choosing which questions stay and which and gives me flexibility if I want to change the order of the questions.
After I’ve chosen the questions I want, chances are the interview is still too long. I’ll still have to trim some off the responses. So I start with the parts that have to go—the parts that sound bad.
People don’t usually speak in a clean way. That goes for conversations on the street corner as well as planned interviews. People stutter, they say “uh” and “um”, they repeat words, they take long pauses. And this is why radio stations have interns.
I actually really enjoy cleaning up what people say. Actually, I like physical cleaning too, and editing people’s not-yet-proofread papers. The act of taking something imperfect and smoothing out its flaws is empowering. In my time at WTOP, I’ve gotten much better at this. At first, the “um” would be gone, but the surrounding words would sound jerky or clipped. Even worse, sometimes a digital click or a pop would spike up where I cut the “um”.
The evening producer gave me a tutorial on how to edit human speech. I learned to delete the “um’s” waveform in Audition. Without moving my cursor, I then generate 0.2 seconds of silence where the offending “um” used to be. Then I fade out the tail of the preceding word and fade in the beginning of the next word. To finish it off, I gradually eat away at the silence I created until the pause between the two words sounds natural.
On a radio station sometimes described as NPR on caffeine, pauses are clipped to a minimum. Breathing isn’t a priority for guests on a fast-paced news station, I guess. So I also spend a lot of time shortening the gaps where people stop to find their next word. The consensus varies on this technique: I had a radio class where the professor warned us against cutting out breaths. The theory is that this sounds unnatural and can even be unnerving on the ear. It doesn’t sound too out of place on WTOP though, so this might be more of a matter of style.
After the interview is cleaned up on the most primitive level, I take some time to edit the responses of questions for content. One of my gurus in the summer portion of my internship taught me a trick—cut from the end of a response and work back towards the beginning. As people on the air answer a question, they start to repeat themselves. Human nature has them spit out the main part of their answer in the first few seconds, leaving time for blabbering. The same rules of flow apply to cutting content—fades and gaps should fall where a cut sounds unnatural. And special attention must go to inflection. Nothing stings the ear like weird inflection.
Finally, I run the finished cut interview through a compressor. Without being too technical, you could say this stretches out the waveform a little. It makes the tail longer, and mellows out the highs and lows. Many different compressors exist. The one I use is named after the station and gives the recorded voices the characteristic sound of the station.
Now that the actual Audition editing is done, I need to make sure it can fit into a newscast. This is where my journalism major comes in. I get to write an introduction. Actually, I am replacing an existing introduction. Dan Raviv already told his audience about the guy he interviewed, why the interview is important to them and how it fits into current events. Of course, Dan Raviv won’t be making a personal appearance on my local station today, so I need to rework this intro so one of my station’s anchors can read it. And Dan’s lovely intro gets the boot and mine goes in.
Ok, I admit. I don’t always listen very carefully when I do the grunt editing. I get a little caught up in looking for “ums”. So I usually take another listen. Then I write, not like the thesis of a paper, but more like a sample plate. I want listeners to wonder and care about what they are about to hear.
To end the journey, I save the finished sound file under a special number system. Then I stick it right into the story. This lets the anchors call it up by pressing a button.
This process is low-pressure, mainly because it goes on the air the next day at the earliest. I’ve got some time to be fastidious about the details. On the other hand, my heart really starts pounding when I have to edit a live interview to be aired in its improved form later in the same day.
But I’ll have more on that later, lest I begin to sound like a chipper textbook. I mean, let’s face it, I’m much more interested in this than the average junior in college.
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