I hate (some) radio people.

[SeattleShooter]

To summerize:

All the stations and radio (lets not forget print) were at this press conference at the police department. About five ten minutes in the press conference this guy in radio shows up and learns a lesson on not showing up late...oh...the mote box does not work because the PDs mic cable is frayed and crackles...

start watching about 1/4 into the presser. Right after a man who is balding. has a goatee, and glasses is done talking. Thats when the radio guy steps in with his mic on a enormous articulated mic arm.


http://www.king5.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=211994

[f11vid]

It always astonishes me that people whose medium IS audio,never have directional mics,never have the proper adaptors to get into a mult or sound system,and even if they hold their audio recorders practically in the mouths of subjects at press conferences,end up with muddy audio.

[Brock Samson]

Seems most of the time the radio guys are really far on the non-technologically savvy end of the broadcast people spectrum, resulting in recorder-in-mouth shenanigans. I dunno, that might be a bit of an unfair statement...who knows.

[Freddie Mercury]

The radio guy did two things right: He didn't put his mic flag on (might not have worked on that mic anyway) and he backed off when everyone reacted. There are radio folks in my market that would put a giant flag in everyone's shot and not worry about it. The way the paper is getting, they might be putting their little handycams on the podium soon.

Kudos to those in the room who immediately let that guy know the score, especially the firm, "Don't do it!"

[svp]

I always get PO's at print guys with there little tape recorders. They know the press conference is starting in two minutes yet they wait till the guy or gal is up there talking then they all swarm in like bees to place their little tape recorders on the podium, sometimes knocking the mics off. Why don't those idiots put them up there BEFORE the speaker walks in? TOTAL IDIOTS. I can't wait for print to die!!!!

[photogguy]

To summerize:

oh...the mote box does not work because the PDs mic cable is frayed and crackles...


Sorry, but my nit-pick sensor went off...



Main Entry:
2mote Listen to the pronunciation of 2mote
Pronunciation:
\ˈmōt\
Function:
noun
Date:
before 12th century

: a small particle : speck



I'm thinking the word you're looking for is "mult-box".


There are radio folks in my market that would put a giant flag in everyone's shot and not worry about it.

A lot of radio stations have a policy to TRY to put the mic-flag in the shots of TV cameras to get free air time for their logo.

[svp]

A lot of radio stations have a policy to TRY to put the mic-flag in the shots of TV cameras to get free air time for their logo.

There have been a few occassions where I've been to press conferences and all of us TV guys agreed not to put on mic flags. Radio shows up and is determined to use a mic flag. I walked up to the podium, took his mic flag off, and told him he could have it back after the press conference.

[cameradog]

That was interesting, but I enjoyed the commercial for Stupid Prices even more. I got a laugh out of somebody naming his business Stupid Prices. Great marketing idea. If there were a Stupid Prices store in my area, I would definitely want to go there at least once to see exactly how stupid those prices are.

[5600K]

Nice outrage from the rest of the press. I'm impressed. I would have been angry with that radio reporter as well. My market is a big mic flag market. The local newsradio station has mic flags. Very rarely does a presser NOT have mic flags. The only times seem to be when we go to Harrisburg/Lancaster and play by their rules. ;)

[Chicago Dog]

I was at a press conference recently where the radio reporter showed up with a recorder and an audio cable that was far too short to reach between his seat and the mult-box. Instead of biting it and just standing near the box, he decided to pull it over as close as he could.

Doesn't help his case that the chairs weren't bolted down. He could've just as easily have moved a damn seat.

But, in fairness, it's not just the radio guys...

A few years ago, the mother of a couple kids who fell victim to an angry, estranged husband was getting set to finally do the press conference we'd been expecting all afternoon. Print, radio, and television: we had a mic rake set up, complete with an array of flags from just about every outlet in the market. It was a big deal that she finally surfaced (lawyer in tow), but everyone stayed professional.

That is, until one jackass of a reporter suddenly decided -- as mom stood there, ready to go -- he didn't like the mic rake set up. He commanded his spineless shooter to hook her up with a lav instead.

Before I could protest, all hell broke loose. Another station decided they weren't having any of that, so they pinned a mic to her sweater, too. Another folded to the overwhelming urge to pin a mic "higher up." Another gave in. And another. It was a flurry of cables, barrels, wireless transmitters, and competitors' limbs, trying desperately to one-up each other.

When the dust settled, the poor woman looked like she had the Jackson 5 (plus two back-up singers) holding a private tiny concert on the chest of her sweater.

The lack of professionalism to one another and lack of compassion for this poor woman still pisses me off when I think about it.

[1911A1]

It always astonishes me that people whose medium IS audio,never have directional mics,never have the proper adaptors to get into a mult or sound system,and even if they hold their audio recorders practically in the mouths of subjects at press conferences,end up with muddy audio.


I always wondered about that, too, until it was explained to me by a friend who's a radio reporter: Radio station owners are usually even bigger tightwads that teevee station owners are.

[shootercub]

"DON'T DO IT!"

hilarious!! what a tool.

[Necktie Boy]

Radio is pretty cheap....The dude gets a recorder, a 25 ft cable(if lucky), and a mic.....Nothing else.....Mexican presser are fun....Beside the paper people with hand recorders, the reporters also have them to review the interviews...They use it for writing the story. Never asked to see why they didn't just watch the tape.

[LongTimePhotog]

Why do we think it's all about us? Print and radio folks have a job to do as well. I bet noone here has ever came late to a presser. It's a freakin press conference not a feature natpack.

[Freddie Mercury]

Why do we think it's all about us? Print and radio folks have a job to do as well. I bet noone here has ever came late to a presser. It's a freakin press conference not a feature natpack.

Your statement is ridiculous. Did you look at the video? Did you see the mic and where he was attempting to place it? I hope not, because if you have no problem having your shot obstructed, then you have no business shooting.

Everyone else managed to get their mics positioned before the presser started. By stopping the press conference and putting his monster mic in the middle of the podium, I would argue the radio guy thought it was all about him.

[satop]

is the video still active? I couldn't get it to play.

[5600K]

is the video still active? I couldn't get it to play.Yes. I just viewed it. Try using firefox instead of internet exploder.

[cameradog]

This radio guy reminds me of a clueless chief I had who started a mic flag war with our competitor. He put us under a mandate to display the stupid flags on our mics at press conferences. If one of us left it off, he would call us after the story aired and demand to know where the mic flag was. Our main competitor responded with their own mandate. The also-rans in the market followed. My chief decided to escalate by ordering BIGGER mic flags, the big triangular kind. Our main competitor did the same in response. Then the others followed.

Our photogs were all issued flat-based mic stands. We all preferred to use our folding stands to save weight and bulk. The flat-based stands also stood up higher and exacerbated the eyesore of our mic flags. So the chief instructed us all to use the flat base stands, to put our mic flags higher than the competitors, so that we could get our mic flags in the shot while framing out the competitor's flag. Our competitor responded by buying similar stands to compete, so that we couldn't frame them out.

This is where it gets stupid. The chief caught me in the photog's locker room and showed me a huge post, probably 18" long, that would screw into the base of our mic stands. At most podiums, it would put the mic right in front of the speaker's face. "I'm gonna buy one of these for every photog," he said. "I want our mic flag right in front of the guy's mouth so they can't frame it out."

"That's gonna look ridiculous," I said. He looked a little taken aback. "It's bad enough that we have to use these mic flags, but if we do this we'll ruin our OWN video just to piss off the other guys."

He grumbled something about how it would be worth it to irritate them. But we never got those extended stands.

I stopped using the mic flags after that. When he would ask about them, I would say I couldn't find it, that someone else must have taken mine out of my locker. He replaced them for me, and they kept "disappearing." I turned in four mic flags with my gear when I left.

[Chicago Dog]

It's a freakin press conference not a feature natpack.

The next time you're told to hoof it on over to a press conference about an announcement regarding a story every media outlet in your market is covering, be sure to rattle that line off at the assignment desk.

It wasn't a matter of "coming in late." The guy was going to screw everyone's shot with a foot-long boom mic.

Try using firefox instead of internet exploder.

I didn't have a problem watching it with Internet Explorer. Firefox is not the end-all of internet problems -- far from it.

[dw438]

The bigger the mic flag ... usually the smaller .... uh, I mean the smaller the tv/radio station. Little UHF station in big market brings out a HUGE mic flag showing their FCC-mandated channel plus the channel they occupy on their area's dominant cable provider. Amateur hour.
Wish it were like DC or a savvy government/sports news conference operations, without mic flags or with mult boxes connected to 1 or 2 mics. News conferences are starting to look like those Reuters or APTN feeds from the Middle East ... mic flags and multi-colored, branded wind screens. Ridiculous.

[Ralph Wiggum]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3TOTQW0-DxM

[Land Rover]

Why do we think it's all about us? Print and radio folks have a job to do as well. I bet noone here has ever came late to a presser. It's a freakin press conference not a feature natpack.

I don't think that's why the issue was brought up. We all expect to work together to get our jobs done but I too have wondered for years why the radio guys have to shove a mic or recorder down their throat and cover the bottom half of the face of whoever is talking. Its not needed to get good sound nor is it polite.