Oooph.

It's Monday.

While I'm not typically a huge fan of Monday's, this one is a little better than most. I actually have a special report running tonite that I'm pretty excited about. The story premise is using acupuncture to boost fertility. If you want to check it out it runs tonite at 5 or you can watch it after the fact on-line at the main page of this website (look about halfway down the far left side of the page for the link that says "Special Reports").

So, over the weekend I received two emails which both asked about various aspects of my job.

To answer J.L.'s question about wether we leave space on the scripts for editing sake.. no, not really. The computer program we use works like a glorified word processing program. When we input our scripts it leaves the left side for the director's cues. The director is the person who sits in the booth (which functions like command and control for a newscast) and he or she directs the show.

Just trust me when I say I'm making "directing" sound WAY easier than it really is. I've included a picture of just one of the tools the director uses during the newscast. This is the video switcher and I couldn't even get all the buttons to fit into the shot.

Okay, now to answer the question they both asked.. "do I get to pick my own stories". It depends. To give you the best answer I have to tell you a little bit about my average day.

I get in about 8:45 or 9am. I spend the next half hour looking through story ideas people have pitched to me via email, calls, or stories I find on-line. I compile a list and take it into our morning editorial meeting. When it's my turn, I read off my list of usually about 3 to 6 ideas and the producers and managers discuss which one they like. Sometimes I have a vision for a story and will really push to cover it. There are days when I get to cover a story that I pitched and days when I don't.

I get out of the meeting by 10am and start the process of calling people to line up interviews. I tell you what, no one likes it when I call and say to them, "yes, the interview is for tonite's newscast and I need to come in the next few hours".

While I wait for calls back I hop on-line and try to do as much background research as possible. About half the time I'm covering something that I don't have any "institutional" knowledge of.

If I'm lucky I get an interview (or two) sooner than later and am out the door by 11am. I work with a photographer and we shoot the story and fly back to the station hopefully no later than 2pm.

I sit down at a logging station which is basically a machine that plays the tape we shot along with a computer. That's when I log the interview. From there, I return to my desk.. type up the script.. get it approved by a manager.. cut the audio (which is my voice) and hand it all off to the photographer by 3pm or 3:30pm.

He or she then sits down and puts the whole thing together shot by shot by shot to air in the 5pm newscast. I'm still amazed at how fast we work to get a story on the air.

I think my biggest challenge is trying to simplfy a complicated medical story into 90 seconds. Inevitably something has to go and it's my job to try and pick the most important facts to include. When I'm angling for more time because I just can't possibly leave out a certain detail, my bosses will tell you I take that aspect of my job very seriously.

And just briefly to M.F. Yes, I do enjoy anchoring but I'm also very happy doing exactly what I'm doing now. It's a perfect mix of both and, honestly, I like my medical beat so much that I have chosen not to apply for anchoring jobs because it would mean losing this beat and losing out on the great variety of things I currently get to try. I have a great job that really satisfies me professionally.

Want to email me your own question? sstricklen@kgw.com

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