What I Like About Big Markets

[Just Wondering]

I liked the threads about "What I Miss About Small Markets"

Soooooo, in giving equal time, What is so good about BIG MARKETS ????

[Lensmith]

Well...there was that really nice big paycheck with full bennies that helped me buy a lot of stuff and go on cool vacations! ;)

[texshooter]

Take home car & gear
Almost any equipment and lighting request being supplied
Decent base pay and OT
Travel, important stories (2 hurricanes this month come to mind)
Major league sports (Current NBA Champ city)
Sat trucks, chopper, etc
Work with better, more highly skilled people (in most cases), learn from some of the best photogs around
A boss who gives a crap about the photogs

[soonershooter]

Biggest market worked in: 29
Have WATCHED the news in markets 1,2,3,4,6,8

Therefore, I'll add:

Use of tripod STRONGLY discouraged!

[ September 29, 2005, 08:55 PM: Message edited by: soonershooter ]

[Madman]

Not the having to interview the 8 year old son of the town Fire Chief, who happen to win the poster coloring contest.

No school board meetings.

[1manband]

if you are in the middle of shooting your story and its close to air time, there is usually other crews to chase breaking news leaving you to concentrate on your stuff.(usually) o yeah and the paycheck and take home live truck.

[phxvos]

Working with reporters who really know their stuff. No more carrying the weight with just out of college talent.
Also, shooting one story per day instead of three.

[Some Guy in LA]

XD CAM!

[1911A1]

Originally posted by texshooter:
A boss who gives a crap about the photogs The news director? http://www.wordforge.net/forum/images/smilies/wtf.gif

[dan bach]

Originally posted by soonershooter:
Biggest market worked in: 29
Have WATCHED the news in markets 1,2,3,4,6,8

Therefore, I'll add:

Use of tripod STRONGLY discouraged! In Dallas, that's typically NOT true.

[High Contrast]

They pay my NPPA dues, sent me to Poynter, sending me to NPPA workshop. Making more working a 40hr week than I did working a 60hr week. no wrecks unless they have a major effect on traffic. I covered a 27 car pile up last month from our chopper.

[El Guapo]

Originally posted by soonershooter:
Use of tripod STRONGLY discouraged! This is what you LIKE about large markets?
Hmmmmm... :confused:

[Run 'n' Get 'em]

Originally posted by dan bach:
quote: Originally posted by soonershooter:
Biggest market worked in: 29
Have WATCHED the news in markets 1,2,3,4,6,8

Therefore, I'll add:

Use of tripod STRONGLY discouraged! In Dallas, that's typically NOT true. He didn't mention market 7 ;)

[Mr. Boomstick]

I'll tell you when I get there.

Currently in Mid-transistion of moving on up

[pre-set]

You guys are kidding, right? No schoolboard meetings? No tripod use? No city council meetings? Shooting 1 story a day?

WTF?

What do you THINK gets covered in larger markets? The same crap that gets covered in smaller markets, plus all the other stuff that doesn't happen in small towns. Multiple shootings and other big league crime, national politics and events and so on.

Because we don't have anymore TIME in our newscasts than you do (an hour is still 60 minutes wherever you are) we have to be a lot more selective in exactly what gets covered. But that DOES NOT mean that we don't cover the same things just because it's a big city. We just have to cover MORE of them.

Our average PKG time is 1:12. Try telling a solid, NPPA style story in 72 seconds! Yeah right!

School board meetings? We have 16 school districts in our immediate DMA.

50+ municipal, county or state seats of government.

5 million people, in a 3,500 sq. mile area.

2nd WORST traffic congestion in the nation.

Need I go on? And we still use our tripods (in spite of my sig!), still shoot more than 1 story per day at least 3 days a week, and don't make THAT much more $$$ than small markets because our costs of living/housing are so much higher here.


The grass IS NOT greener on the other side of the fence. There's just more of it....

[ September 30, 2005, 02:54 PM: Message edited by: pre-set ]

[mountain girl]

Living in a city that doesn't suck. That's a big one for me...

[texshooter]

Originally posted by 1911A1:
quote: Originally posted by texshooter:
A boss who gives a crap about the photogs The news director? http://www.wordforge.net/forum/images/smilies/wtf.gif Two steps below, bald head, chain smoker.

[dinosaur]

What I Like About Big Markets ..
The produce & deli depts.

[ September 30, 2005, 09:42 PM: Message edited by: dinosaur ]

[1911A1]

Originally posted by texshooter:
quote: Originally posted by 1911A1:
quote: Originally posted by texshooter:
A boss who gives a crap about the photogs The news director? http://www.wordforge.net/forum/images/smilies/wtf.gif Two steps below, bald head, chain smoker. That makes much more sense!

[soonershooter]

Re: My earlier post regarding tripod use

To dan bach: You are correct. First job was up the road in Denison, and the Dallas stations were on our cable (mid 80's). Dallas was very clean. Haven't seen Dallas news consistently since '88 but Big D TV looked VERY good. NY, Philly, DC--not so much.

To el Guapo: You need to fine tune your sarcasm detector.

[Natural Born Stringer]

Big markets... Top 20 right?

In this one there's many, but the one that comes to mind right off?

Channel 3 has some real good looking lady reporters. Yum, yum.... :D

Come on, you were expecting a SERIOUS answer?

[Hank Scorpio]

And a lot of wrecks, right MR Jr???

[Natural Born Stringer]

Originally posted by Hank Scorpio:
And a lot of wrecks, right MR Jr??? Naah, the car wrecks kinda suck actually. No one here knows how to drive. Screws up traffic something awful.

You know, to be honest I haven't chased a car wreck in a long time. I could, I hear them on the scanners all the time. But to me they just aren't news out here - news isn't something that happens dozens of times a day. Then again, because I do news on a very part time basis, I don't need to chase them anymore. But back when I was stringing full time, well it was either shoot that or go home emptyhanded most nights so I shot 'em. Didn't win any awards doing that, but I kept the family fed. And I learned a lot too, like what happens if you speed, drive drunk and/or neglect to wear a seatbelt.

As for the MR jr comment, well I really can't help the fact that I see things differently than many of you. The idea of a smaller camera isn't a decision based on quality, it's based on economics and ease of use, same reason stringers like me use 'em. MR's just showing stations what we stringers have known for years: News, specifically spot news, is more about being at the right place at the right time and less about what kind of camera you shoot it with. And a VJ station has better chances of being in that right place and getting the shots other stations can only dream of having. If that happens often enough, VJ won't just be a cheaper way to do the news anymore - it will be the way news is done.

I see it as the inevitable future. Eventually, we'll all be VJ's. You can argue it to death but that won't change the fact that a more flexible newsroom is the next logical step this business is going to take.

[INLANDNEWS]

Big Markets= stations have MORE LIVE trucks...not that all of them actually work properly though!