What I Miss About Small Market TV....

[ewink]

On the weekends, being the only photog, my video made up 80 to 100% of the first block!

Now I'm lucky if I get 20 seconds between weather and sports...

Anyone else miss anything about your first, dinky market station, or am I the only insane one? :)

[ September 26, 2005, 05:35 AM: Message edited by: ewink ]

[adam_s]

Yeah, everyone seemed to be your age. Everyone was relatively new. We all were "in it" together. Felt like an extension of college...I'll never forget my 1st mrkt. Cheyenne, Wy..

[ September 26, 2005, 05:54 AM: Message edited by: adam_s ]

[Latin Lens]

El Paso, TX!!!!!

I miss the commradarie (misspelled). Everyone worked and learned together on a daily basis.

And i don't know about anybody else, but everything felt so much simplier.

And i miss making $7 an hour!!!!!!!

[Lenslinger]

Definitely the camaraderie...

I miss calling my competitors in a cross-town bureau as part of my morning beat checks.

"Dude, you burnin' me on anything?"

Unthinkable today, but not back then...

I miss puking spent vodka out the window of another station's live truck.

Well, not really - but it did happen.

Mostly, I miss the circus atmosphere of cranking out news in a kick-ass college town. I just don't miss the pay...

[whatsatripod]

I miss the get togethers at the local pub! The two way would explode with hey going out after highschool football meet us here!! Everybody would be there from all the stations it was great.

[Salty Photog]

I miss the parade and festival nat packs, and never having to do live shots because the truck never starts.

[High Contrast]

i miss the long term established relationships that i made. actually, i stay in touch with a few of them, exchanging story ideas and talkin the same ol trash. friends for life in odessa, texas.

[Mighty Dyckerson]

I miss the cockroaches that would crawl up my ass while I was taking a dump in the men's room. I'd pluck the cockroaches from my crack and plant them in the GM's sandwich in the break room frig. He never did figure out why his pastrami was so crunchy.

[SmlMktChief]

High Contrast...

What station did you work for in Odessa? Who do you still know that works here?

I miss all the guys that have gone to bigger markets and I am still here. But, I am not going anywhere because of the age of my parents and my wife's mom. Some day I will be able to look back and laugh! HA HA.

[Run 'n' Get 'em]

Originally posted by SmlMktChief:
High Contrast...

What station did you work for in Odessa? Who do you still know that works here?
Check out his profile...namely the email address

[SmlMktChief]

Ya, that would be the EASY thing to do. But, I don't do easy.

[Latin Lens]

How could i forget the "fresh meat" that came in regularly. Production, news, whatever!!!

It seems everybodys to old to "hook up" in bigger markets or they're married.....

Did i mention, i miss my $7 an hour?

[One_Tall_Photog]

I miss the amazing story count we banged out on a daily basis. I also miss having 2-3 minutes to do a feature piece every now and then. And just like almost everyone else, the camaraderie. Hanging out with the competition's photogs on the weekends.

[photogguy]

I miss driving 2 hours one way to shoot a vosot or basketball game or whatever...

..especially in snow so heavy I could barely see past the hood of the car. I was young enough to not see the logic of pulling over for a bit.

(My first market was Traverse City/Cadillac Michigan...better known as the Great White North.)

[TightShot]

I'm here now. The only thing I missed for the period I was gone is shooting. Most of the rest sucks a lot of days.

[Alternative]

I miss being able to get to fires and actually shoot flames, even though the scene was on the other side of town. Small city = less drive time.

[mi3ke]

Working in San Angelo.....nothing, absolutly nothing.

Cheers, Mi3ke
KOB-TV

[Lensmith]

I miss being able to "shop" for furniture for my apartment by cruising through the studio props department. No joke! That's where my first living room set came from! No money and they were changing out the interview set. I asked the GM if I could have it before they tossed it in the dumpster. Hey, it worked great. Black leather couch and chair. All I had to do was cover the numerous cigarette burn holes with a little black tape.

[Shaky & Blue]

Come on folks! The best thing about working in a small market these days is that you'll soon get to trade in your broadcast camera for handicam and become one of Rosenblum's VJs. Who wouldn't look forward to that?

[sixtycyclehum]

Originally posted by ewink:
On the weekends, being the only photog, my video made up 80 to 100% of the first block!

Now I'm lucky if I get 20 seconds between weather and sports...

Anyone else miss anything about your first, dinky market station, or am I the only insane one? :) I'm still here in Champaign-Decatur-Springfield and loving the weekend nat-paks and features...

I don't know if you remember me but I talked to you once at a little train derail in Stonington. ;)

[Lenslinger]

I've given this some thought, and realized there is much to miss about the small market years.

I miss the incredible police access of the dawning of the age of 'COPS'. Truth is, I ain't been to a decent early morning drug bust since the day my 8 year old was born. BAck in the day, some buddies and I had a local cop shop so enamored with their own reflection we got invited to screen autopsy films - provided we brought the finger sandwiches.

I miss strolling through a departmetn store only to see our weekend anchor man the cosmetic desk at her second job. I miss cashing in my own weekly stipend, only to come up empty three days later. Had it not for my now-wife's/then girlfriend waitressing gig, I'd have surely starved. Or overdosed. Or died from exposure or alcohol poisoning or soem other wretched plight reserved for TV geeks too stupid to just say no once in a damn while...but I digress.

I miss rolling on every fender-bender like it was the second coming of Christ. Well - not really, but at the time it was a balls-out good time. If I could count the times I cut off a grandmother in the name of bent sheet metal, well, I'd be an accountant or some other respectable trade, instead of peering through tubes all day.

I miss flirting with co-ed interns and actually thinking I had a chance at romance, instead of weirding out some young lady because the furry guy that reminds her of her Uncle Stan keeps shooting goo-goo eyes at her from across the newsroom.

I miss leaning into the scanner's mysterious glow and first learning how to decipher the ancient language of ten codes, southern accents and snuff-mouth, instead of recoiling at the slightest hint of unauthorized static invading my sacred bliss of my current news cockpit.

I miss trading shots of Old Grand-Dad with crusty old local legends I grew up watching. When I entered the TV world in 1989, the station I worked at was stuck somewhere between 1954 and 1979. As a result, I got to work with the coolest cats from the golden age of local TV. Too bad the gear sucked...

Still, I kinda miss backpedaling among tobacco sheets and farmer spit at Opening Day as an antique 3/4 inch recording deck banged on my hip, threatening to yank the orange Ikegami off my feeble shoulder should I step on the forty feet of unspooling command cable between my feet.

I miss gaining a solid rep as a quick study all because I mastered the art of white-balancing, tripod placement and nat sound appreciation within a year of first pulling the trigger. These days it takes a bit more to impress the suits, not to mention those crusty bastards hanginbg out in the news edit bays.

I miss teaming up with an equally inexperienced partner and single-handedly turning ninety percent of the weekend newscast before congregating with every other news nerd in the tri-county region for a raucous round of apartment-patio jello shots.

I miss having the energy to be an on-air one-man-band, you know - run all day schlepping outdated gear only to break out the necktie around midday to shoot my own stand-up, rush back to the station, edit it on uncooperative edit decks before rushing to a bud's house to view the finished product through a haze of catcalls and, ahem - herbal therapy.

These days, that finished product is alot sharper, my days are usually shorter and my bloodstream a hell of a lot less toxic. Whereas I use to run and gun like a newsman on fire, I've hit a far more sustainable pace in my late thirties. Yep, the TV, the conditions and paycheck improved over the years. Too bad most of the fun got sucked out along the way. I guess it's never too late for night school...

[ September 26, 2005, 09:26 PM: Message edited by: Lenslinger ]

[bluetito]

I miss pulling up to the bar on a weeknight and seeing 3 or 4 other news trucks parked out front. I also miss being busy. The days flew by so fast because of the small staff. Now I'm part of a much larger staff and sit around doing nothing for at least four hours a day...and stupidly I signed a contract.

[Flaca Productions]

Originally posted by bluetito:
I miss pulling up to the bar on a weeknight and seeing 3 or 4 other news trucks parked out front.and everyones pager going off at the same time....

[ewink]

Originally posted by Shaky & Blue:
Come on folks! The best thing about working in a small market these days is that you'll soon get to trade in your broadcast camera for handicam and become one of Rosenblum's VJs. Who wouldn't look forward to that? I declare under ewink's Law, that you are flogged sir.

ewink's Law states that anyone who brings up ROsenblum in a non Rosenblum thread get's flogged and must buy everyone Tacitos.

[ewink]

Originally posted by sixtycyclehum:
quote: Originally posted by ewink:
On the weekends, being the only photog, my video made up 80 to 100% of the first block!

Now I'm lucky if I get 20 seconds between weather and sports...

Anyone else miss anything about your first, dinky market station, or am I the only insane one? :) I'm still here in Champaign-Decatur-Springfield and loving the weekend nat-paks and features...

I don't know if you remember me but I talked to you once at a little train derail in Stonington. ;) I remember that. Damn state police wouldn't let me through and I had to drive all through the back roads of Christian County to find a way around. :(

[Tim78]

Ah yes, how is market #82 anyway? Are viewers adjusting to the switch???

sixtycyclehum, has your station found a replacement anchor for Michael Marsh yet?

[LuccaBrazzi]

-I miss shooting a live-shot before a minor league baseball...and...after putting away my gear and still having an hour to kill before the first pitch--(and I knew the team GM)--taking batting practice...and shagging flyballs in the outfield!

I used to do this A LOT! I even pitched BP a few times...and even batted against Hall-Of-Famer Bob Feller when he took his "roadshow" to our town.

(True story: I hit one of his pitches over the LF wall (it was only 315 down the line.) The next pitch, the ol' bastard threw one at my head! He wasn't too pleased that a TV "cameraman" took him deep.)

-I also miss covering "Election Night" from a coastal town about an hour from our "main market"...and because we were there all night and we had a lot of time to kill before our next hit...throwing a football around with the other shooters who were also killing time...or playing stickball with a wadded-up gaffer's tape "ball.". We'd chip-in and buy a few pizzas & a few six-packs...and eat from our vans.

But mostly--I miss being in my young 20's again: Being young, dumb, no cares in the world, full of energy and daring.

Man---I miss those carefree days!!!

[LuccaBrazzi]

I should add: We bought six-packs of Cokes, not beer!

[photogguy]

Another Great White North story...

The station was doing the newscast live from the snowmobile festival...live from the frozen lake!!! Man was it cold!

After getting things set up, we had a significant period of down time, so we had a curling tournament, using ice-filled milk jugs!

Gawd, were we bored. And cold. :D

[MisterNiceGuy]

Ewink, I've got to agree with you on your posting. I remember being the "man" at my first station and getting all the nightside and overnight weekend stories.
I started in Abilene, TX in market 163. It was rough some days, but I learned so much. I remember being a one-man-band, or VJ, and writing all the vosot scripts I shot. The anchors at that level were very nice, supportive, and encouraging. I knew them very well, and talked to them all the time and worked very closely with them. There were NO producers except for an AP later on during my stint there.
Ah, but I don't miss the pay, the overnight weekends of listening to the scanner for accidents, fires, and shootings. That killed my sleep time, and my health. : (

[bassetf5]

I started out in Cadillac myself... got there in the middle of December driving a VW bug (no heater to speak of), pulled into town and the main street had about a five-foot snowbank down each side... with the tops of the parking meters dug out so you could pay, and a little path through to the sidewalk two or three times a block.

had a great time for two years, shooting film and driving a Pinto wagon. probably will retire there.

[Buck]

Way back in the day at my small town shop I was one of only 3 photogs. Our "chief" used to get pissed at me and the other guy because we used tripods and it made him look bad. He even told us so.

What I don't miss: the money. Back in the early 80's fresh out of college I was making a whopping $4 an hour. Dad was real happy I went to college to make less than the folks at Burger King.

[WillyG]

I miss the gear - NO KIDDING!!

The (very) small market that I started in edits non-linear and shoots on XD-Cam.

Here I am editing tape to tape. So much for making it to the top 20. :rolleyes:

[bluetito]

I miss the overnight producer who called me out in the middle of the night to bogus news events. When she learned that it was bogus she'd call and say..."well since the station pays you for 4 hours anyway, why don't you check out this this and this as well.........."

[phxvos]

At my station they would pay us an extra $25 for shooting a spot news story—overnight—that made air. I would pull all nighters listening to the scanner just to cash in. We were also scheduled for six, 10 hour days per week. No overtime...they had us on salary. $175 per week. I miss being strong enough to carry a TK, a 110, two camera battery belts...one was a spare, and a light belt...which weighed more than the two camera battery belts...all at the same time.
No one complained because after all..."We were working in f*cking TV!"

High Contrast & SmlMktChief, this was in Odessa...KOSA.

[Latin Lens]

again i post.........

i miss not knowing who mike rosenblum is....i miss not knowing what a vj, who drives his own car to shoots and i miss not ever having to hear about some already half way rich guy whine and complain about how he wants to make more money..... and i miss my $7 an hour.

[Bars and Tone]

I miss having new gear and when something broke it was fixed real fast. I also miss doing stories about the good things that happen out there not just the bad a.k.a. shooting, stabbing, murder.

[sixtycyclehum]

Originally posted by Tim78:
Ah yes, how is market #82 anyway? Are viewers adjusting to the switch???

sixtycyclehum, has your station found a replacement anchor for Michael Marsh yet? The switch confused alot of people at first but now people have figured it out...the 2 1/2 stations in question have great sets and better graphics then they used to...alot of turnover at the station and yes a new anchor will start in October.

Check your PM.

[exassignedphotog]

I went the other way, I went from a larger market to a small market to get on the management side.

I was 26 and was considered the "old sage"

Photogs asked me for shooting tips, eventhough if I would have been a photog back in my old market I'd of been just another shooter.

Getting a lift back to the station from the competition when the live truck broke down (more than once)

Having to come in at 0 dark 30 for the morning news to edit the morning show as well as run cameras and prompter in the studio because the studio tech called in sick, only to have to stay all day.

Going on a road trip and having the vehicle break down 4 states away.

"Borrowing" equipment from the college tv station.

Shooting and editing 5 pkg's for the 5:00pm in the first block.

Still going to the station website and seeing the same anchors and a couple of the same reporters.

[bluetito]

oh i almost forgot. the 1979 suburban live truck!!!!!!1 yeah!!!!!! miss that guy. I hear it's still in operation too.

[Curves Ahead]

Sleeping with all the female reporters!! Damn there was some hot ones in my first news room!! Now...there all married! :mad: Stupid bigger markets!!! :D

[eyeshoot]

Young hot reporters (female) that was the only good thing about smaller markets, but as for the rest. who needs it. El Paso?! are you kiding me, that was prison time.

[ewink]

Interviewing the Clark County sheriff, I figured out something else I missed.

Being on a first name basis with the Sheriff, Chief of Police, ect ect...

I remember on the weekends we'd call...

"Hey Neil, can you comment on the whatever happened last night?"

"Yeah, come on by the house. We're B-B-Qing!"

"Sweet. Package and dinner all in one stop!"

Just the fact that the sheriff and the city Chief made themselves availible to us when ever we wanted was cool. Now there are like 16 levels of PIO you have to wade through... bleah.