I'm the VJ from the NPPA mag. Any questions?

[AlexLucas]

Hi guys, I'm Alex Lucas, one of the ex-VJs from WKRN, the one you've been reading about in NPPA magazine. Now that I've taken a job at the very excellent and capable WTVF in Nashville across the street, I've decided to stick my head above water and answer any questions you might have. WTVF was surprisingly understanding about the article that came out, so I figure now I can answer any of your questions about my short stint as a VJ. VJ is a satirically comical/touchy subject with photogs everywhere. In Nashville, if you're going to talk about the veej, it's going to get "3am at the honky tonk bar" kinda ugly rather fast.

I decided I wanted back in news, regardless of the cost or what my wife said. Many of you know what I mean by this, because just like me, you live for this job. You love it. You can't think of doing anything else. Well, I paid the price to get back in. I'm now the weekends overnight photog at WTVF. After ten years of coming in early and staying late, I'm starting all over again. But hey, it's a good shop, they show genuine concern about their staff, and right now, a little stability looks like heaven to me.

Right now, all the things you have been reading about VJ have been prepackaged for your consumption. I think that Jackie Pillers, Mitch Jordan, and I are the only ones that have even dared to break ranks even after they left.

Before you throw me some questions, I have a few things to say:

1. I don't hate Rosenblum. Not in the slightest. Rosenblum didn't take my job from me. Hell, I probably owe him a beer or something for all of the ideas we went over. I even E-mailed him after I left WKRN, and he was nice to me. I was never hostile to his ideas. It's just that I don't believe that VJ is going to work for the speed of news. It's an incredible pace to keep up. Rosenblum is smart, he makes millions in cable, he's got guts, and he knows what he's talking about when he's talking cable. He's just not a newsman. Speed people. Can you do it fast? That is always the question.

2. I believe that management was disingenuous about VJ from the start. It is, and always will be, a brave marketing face on cutbacks. We all should have drawn straws and fired people randomly to be fair. Instead, WKRN made unfair their pastime. They were going on two news directors in a year that toggle from smiling to screaming at you in the morning meeting in six seconds flat. That mean spirited behavior was intentional, and is a huge part of the master plan to ditch staff. It got me, because everyone knows I have too much pride, so they kept poking at me, harassing me, sometimes at least six times a day on the phone, over inane stuff.

3. Joe Gregory, my old chief photog, is the best boss I have ever had, and should be NPPA "Chief of the Year." Also, there are some damn fine people at WKRN. I miss them all like family, and I think of them every day.

So there you go.

If you have any real questions, not just snarky internet stuff, I'll be happy to answer them.

Shoot from the hip, ladies and gents. Fire away, and I'll answer when I can.

 

[Tim78]

Alex,

Was there a certain moment that iced your decision to leave the station? Perhaps when you said enough is enough?

 

[Chicago Dog]

Hey Alex, thanks for sticking your head up from the foxhole.


After reading the article in NPM, I wasn't at all surprised. Most of us called this stuff from the beginning. Your main point -- the speed of news -- is what most people outside of the business don't understand.

I commend you for sticking to your guns. It sounds like there was lots and lots of hell to pay. How you reacted to that entire situation aptly illustrates how many of us feel. Volunteering your experiences so openly (without the pre-packaged PR crap) was greatly appreciated. What was supposed to happen and what actually happened are two very different things -- and I speak for many of us when I thank you for validating the endlessly circulating rumors.

Finally, I don't believe many of us felt Rosenblum was out to take our jobs away from us. Management groups that believed they could hire inexperienced "journalists" for cheap because they had a new buzz-word for one-man-bands are more to blame for that.

I felt Rosenblum was more trying to "cheapen" my profession. It immediately put me on the defensive. While it's true that anyone can pick up a camera and press a button, very few can do more than just "shoot tape."

Very few can do what you and I do, and that's what makes us valuable.

 

[cameragod]

Hi Alex welcome to b-roll. I don’t know if you have read any of our earlier “discussions” with Michael dating back over the last 3 years but speed has always been one of the more obvious Achilles heel’s of the VJ concept that Michael has refused to acknowledge. In fact for all we know he still doesn’t get it and is out selling the VJ model to his next brilliant failure.

I have real trouble writing about the aftermath of Hurricane VJ, real people have had their lives wreaked by Michael’s hot air for the sake of proving a model that has failed everywhere that has tried it. I feel sad for them and “told you so’s” help no one. But if we don’t talk about it Michael will turn up in a few months time like a phoenix to tell us we are obsolete and the next big thing is VJ version 2 or with all the other failures are we up to VJ version 6?

Anyway thank you for speaking out Alex and hopefully other management teams will listen and take anything a consultant tries to sell them with a lot of skepticism.

 

[pinecone]

Congratulations on making it over the wall, Alex.

I guess my biggest question has to do with morale at the station. I understand that management is making life difficult for some people in attempt to run off higher salaries and bring down costs. It is a bad deal but, that isn't unique to WKRN.

But, that aside...what was morale like at WKRN?

- when this VJ program was announced?
- during training?
- when the VJ model was fully implemented?
- during the last week you worked there?

We are being given rosy reports that everyone was embracing the VJ program with open arms and there was excitement for the future. The PR campaign has been well orchestrated.

I understand that the rank and file will not openly complain to management, but we all talk to each other privately and vent.

From you view how was the morale of the people at WKRN?

 

[sierra-zulu]

Welcome back to the world Alex... What kinds of things should we look for leading up to the VJ thing. What kinds of buzz words were being used by the suits-and-ties? Fortunately, am my shop, the OMB thing is probably not gonna rear its ugly head again because there is an understanding that VJ means Video(photo)Journalist who shoots the video that is used to tell the story.... our OMB's are more likely the older fotogs who shoot better pix than the old OMB's and ask better questions than most reporters. But what if, in a future GM's office there comes the MR idea--what were your hearing before it happened, what do you think we can do to nip it in the bud?

 

[AlexLucas]

There were a lot of messages.

I walked out. I walked out on a station I loved.

First of all, the day I knew I wanted to quit was the day that they said I needed to do a more personal profile piece on a corporate headquarters coming to town (VJs do NOT go with the standard flow of news, and VJs never shoot press conferences! VJs do not photograph public officials! VJs do docu style everything!), specifically Nissan's corporate headquarters relocating to TN. You can see the dilemma when they get a headline confirmed, and have nothing else, but still are REQUIRED to do pieces that are DOCU STYLE. "Alex, we need you to find someone that will be getting a job at Nissan, and follow them around while they talk about it." (You can already see the problems inherent in their demands, the place had just been formally announced an hour ago, and they're asking for the roster!) My thoughts about it? 'They're setting me up for failure.' Again. I hate failure. Hate it with a passion. That day they sent me to three different places all over town to get all the information for them, go and buy and look up the blueprints, call the city council, find more people for others, hand all of that morning's legwork off, and start your REAL story (empahsis theirs) sometime around 1pm for the 4pm. They literally kept making me do leg work until noon with a phone call every thirty minutes, with panicked voice saying, "whatcha got?!?! Not good enough! More!" and then I was allowed to shoot my story sometime around 1pm. Three hours for my work. The location was a half hour away from the station. You have to digitize in a one to one ratio. That kind of deadline scares a veteran reporter, much less a photog that just got his beat a week and a half ago, and his equipment a month before. You're babbling your VO for the pkg out loud while you're driving home, and praying to God you remember it.

They didn't know what they were doing. They had a mandate, "no double crews," and by God, they were sticking to it. If the mayor got run down in a kid's crosswalk, they woudln't have sent a second person. They were that perfectly clear about it. One man can do this. One man WILL do this. One man will do this on standard news deadlines. This is what we have decided. Now go do it!

Well, that was when I realized that if I was alone, if I was succeeding daily, where others were failing or just not trying (some VJs, who just couldn't do it, would literally do nothing for days), then the next time I would be told at 2pm to get a pkg on for four. Then 230 the next day. Then a 430 pkg shoot for 6 when they missed something and saw it on the competition. I was becoming a toy to them... the shortstop, the universal catch-all to not make them look like clowns for missing the headlines. Unfortunately, take a 40 man newsroom, and now you have four that can turn the same day reliably? Take a wild guess who gets all the work and the heat? Take a wild guess who gets no backup while the rest are still learning how to edit. Guess where all of the criticism from the GM, the ND, the Assistant ND, and the producer goes? After all, the world is watching this VJ thing. You better be good.

It all lands squarely on your head in a phone call twelve seconds after your pkg airs. And by the way, they just saw all the competitions pkgs today, and they're going to be asking some rather pointed questions about your failure.

Me? Even they cannot doubt that I could do the job, and fast. So they expected the hard news lead out of me every day for the 4 or 5. Everyone else had time. I literally had minutes. They wanted to see how far it could go. They knew I could do it, so every day, the pressures were on me, and four other guys to get the entire city's REAL news done for the day so everyone else could do the flea market story. Four guys did all the leads. For me, it was always due that afternoon. Guaranteed. I was the first one to break into daily speeds. I pushed the bar up and didn't know it. I broke from the herd first, and that was it for me, I couldn't hide. They never had any expectations of backing off on me. I was a poster child for speedy VJ news, and treated like the stepchild.

If you're the lead every day because you're quick, then you're criticized every single day for the lack of depth of your content. Those twelve seconds after the pack rolls, are the worst moments of your day. Every day, you get the grocery list of what was wrong. Every day, you go out and see two photogs, a live truck, and a reporter on something that you have to do alone.

Do you want to know who the ones were that could do it?
Photogs. Every single one of them were photogs. Photogs, the useless people to them now, were the only ones who could really do the job. Photogs who could write? They better hide under the desk! You can hear the hounds coming for you.

After I walked out that morning, I honestly thought that management realized what they did to me. Double crews were formalized back days after I left. I think I was a wakeup call. Also, several people walked out in the next week after me, and they all said I was the one that inspired them to leave. I never meant for that to happen. But still, I would have hated to be the boss and see a new person come in every day and walk or give notice.

They should have learned their lesson. You can't make a one man band arrive late, fight with a live double crew every day, and then yell at them about the other guys superior live product, and expect them to stay.

One man just can't carry the world on his shoulders, while the bosses sit around and call themselves innovators in the press.

 

[Lensmith]

Alex,

Thanks for taking the time to explain things more in depth.

I'm glad you were able to find another job close to home, even if it means "starting over" with the shift.

You speak often of being yelled at. When you say "yell"...were they really yelling? Did you really think they were being unfair with their criticisms of your work? Did you really feel this was part of an orchestrated effort to get people to quit rather than emotional stress by managers to make the VJ concept work as promoted?

Was the gear holding up to the daily grind?

Did the main anchors (not just the morning or weekend talent) ever become VJs as was promoted or was that another element of the sales pitch many of us felt was a false statement never intended to ever be attempted in the first place?

 

[AlexLucas]

Welcome back to the world Alex... What kinds of things should we look for leading up to the VJ thing. What kinds of buzz words were being used by the suits-and-ties?
---
what do you think we can do to nip it in the bud?

Honestly, you're a photog, just like I am, there is nothing you can do about it if they get the idea in their heads. You're a photog, a lensmonkey, a cameraguy to many offices. You're instantly replaceable. There are a million talented guys that want your job. Look, you just have to learn this: if you make more money than average photog pay in that market, you're a liability. You must always live prepared in this business. It took me a decade to find that out. It took me a decade to realize that my natural, up front loyalties must match a location that has loyalty to you, up front. I'm now with a loyal organization with a tradition, so I don't feel so bad about giving them my full pull on the rope, even at 3am. I just don't feel like the rug is coming out under me.

Management is never going to ask you about the VJ. If they ask you about anything, you already work at a decent shop, where they think deeply about their decisions and the people. They won't go VJ then. Many places see you as a cog in a big gear. That might be possible. As a photog, in most shops, your contribution to the decisionmaking process in a news organization on many days is, "I'm grabbing lunch, anyone want Arby's, McDonald's, or Wendy's? The train is leavin' now! Write it down!" Just be happy where you are. Enjoy it. I went through a tough time to get back to a business where people bellyache all the time.

The best thing you can do is watch your companies financials. Still, don't fear the VJ, it isn't coming around everywhere. It's not taking the industry by storm. It might never go further than Young Broadcasting. If they are acting desperate, it might be time to think about getting a tape ready, but many of them aren't even thinking about VJ. Still, this business is going through a turbulent time. Listen to the words under the management's statements:

Is there consistent talk of, "Do we really need to have three or four stations in a market?" If you ever hear that, I would say make that tape. Also, my favorite is that, "we've got to try something." Trust me. You'll know when it's coming. The VJ thing is inconceivable to many shops. So the vast, vast, vast majority of you are safe. This is a hiccup in the news business, in my opinion. Actually, it was a wild, interesting ride when you look back on it. I got decades of ND quality experience on what works and doesn't work in TV in a very short amount of time.

Worry about your financials before you worry about your tape.
My wife and I went on a hardcore debt removal plan the second I heard funny words coming from management at WKRN. I had put chess pieces in motion the day I started hearing "we gotta do something," from the GM. My reaction to "we gotta do something," was, "$&*@. I'm one of the weekend photogs. Adios Lucas." When they hit you with "we gotta do something," you know it has nothing to do with job performance. So my wife and I shaved every dollar for two years in preparation of management "doing something." I was six months into WKRN, and felt terrible about thinking "something is going down, here, I just can't put my finger on it." I wasn't going to get a 'rope a dope' treatment, not after working for a Sinclair station in my history. I've been in newsrooms when they can people. Businesses don't fire warning shots. They just walk you out without being allowed to say goodbye. This one had nothing to do with job performance, which I try my best to stay at the top of the heap. Trust me, we could all just smell the tension. With a little meditation and prayer, and a lot of financial diligence, I ate a lot of noodles and became debt free the very month that I became a VJ. Unfortunately, I had to exercise the out plan. Trust me, you'll know what to do as long as you trust your gut.

I personally think this VJ thing is a fad, and I got put in a position where I couldn't ride it out. (Back when 3/4" tape came out, I remember all the old photogs told me that management decided then that if it wasn't processing and light meters, that anyone could do it, and they started to try to one man band successfully back then. Guess how that worked?) Rosenblum says it's all "point and shoot" these days, which is like saying bridge building is all supports and road, or space shuttle launching is all one big red button. You have to know where his unique concepts end, and the sales pitch begins. You can't hate him for putting a little topspin on the serve.

Trust your gut, and don't panic. Always have a tape ready if the organization is disloyal, and never turn down a business card for a potential freelancing gig, whether you take the gig or not.

What I am saying is that most likely VJ isn't coming for you, and WKRN might just be a ship dashed on the rocks by the sirens.

Let's hope it all works out. There are a lot of good people at WKRN, and I wish the best for them, I just couldn't live with that kind of instability.

 

[AlexLucas]

Alex,

You speak often of being yelled at. When you say "yell"...were they really yelling? Did you really think they were being unfair with their criticisms of your work? Did you really feel this was part of an orchestrated effort to get people to quit rather than emotional stress by managers to make the VJ concept work as promoted?

Was the gear holding up to the daily grind?

Did the main anchors (not just the morning or weekend talent) ever become VJs as was promoted or was that another element of the sales pitch many of us felt was a false statement never intended to ever be attempted in the first place?

There were morning meetings that got EXCEEDINGLY hot. So my answer is definitely yes. No kidding. Real yelling. I got it too. From here on out, these are all my opinions. They were unfair with the criticisms. The expectations were intentionally unfair. These are all my observations, so take them with a grain of salt.
Intentional?
My answer is unequivocably yes. So there ya go.
A good friend of mine turned to me on a crime scene and said, "Hey Alex, you know what they did to you? All the criticisms? All the upset behavior? They're pretty much doing that to everyone now. You were one of the first ones."

The gear can't handle it.
The internal lens of the Sony Z1U is not designed for Winter. The small motor designed for autofocus is not that tough. Also, don't get all that plastic cold, it stops moving, leaving you with a busted camera until it warms up.
Never drop it, even from a foot. It's not going to take it. It will shatter. Period. I should know. I was wearing a leather jacked and it and the super slick strap slid off of my leathered shoulder and hit the bumper of my car slowing it down on the way to the pavement. Everything just flew off the camera. Mics, cables, parts. Everything. It's so light, that you could easily slide it off the table without knowing you bumped it. You'll never automatically grab for it because you know it's there.
One VJ took a hit from a small kids soccer ball and it tore the flip screen right out of the cam. Ooof. It was a team of kids under eight. Not exactly high velocity if you know what I mean.

I think the cams look great, but only if you're all HD. It's mostly the format, not the camera. If you use the DV formats, it's dark and detail lossy. If you shoot HD, down convert to DV, and cut, in full light it looks passable for Beta. Low light? It looks like DV. It's still a bad lens, but the format looks good. If it is HDV to HDV, you should really see what it looks like. It's absolutely great. But they're not doing that. It's all SD instead of HD format, so you get a more DV look to it (greyed blacks, bad low light sensitivity, flat colors, edge issues... basically if Monet was a video format). You can fight it with a HDV capture to DV down convert, but no matter what way you slice it, the camera is not taking in all the light it can with beta, and it isn't crisp or colorful.

I give them a year before they stop working and need to be replaced. The engineers have agreed with us. It's more of a disposable camera now. *Shudder*

Main anchors are exempt from VJ.
One of the main anchors, the morning anchor, Neil Orne became a VJ. He was good, and a good person, but he no longer VJs. Some people were trained, but never got to the VJ world, because they were always live in the 4, 5, or 6. I still say my number 13 is an accurate depiction of how many are working on stories on a daily basis.

There ya go.

 

[Sooner]

Big ups Alex. Thanks for letting us see that whole thing from your perspective.

 

[F4 Fan]

Alex,

Any funny or humorous moments that you care to share with us from your days as a VJ? I’m in the Bay Area and the KRON stories run the gamut from not bad – usually ones shot by former shooters or reporters who use to shoot – to the college station or public access level. It even looks like some of the former reporters are – dare I say it – beginning to dress like photographers. Jeans, polo-shirts, even camera vests. Two part stand-ups were the fashion for awhile and some were incredibly painful to watch.

And I’m just curious but who paid for this, Young Broadcasting or the local station itself? Any idea of what it cost to convert to this system?

Since the VJ system has been successful in Europe, any ideas of where it might work in the U.S.?

Was there ever any truth to the rumor that there was to be a reality show made from this?

 

[newsindc]

Alex what about pay, did you guys get a bump in pay, was there more ot. And who controled the hours that you guys worked. MR made it sound like you could work when you wanted and feed your story from home. And what about the new VJ's were they hired for the same pay as the currently employees or were they short changed..

 

[Lense_Cap]

MR made it sound like you could work when you wanted and feed your story from home...

hahahahahaha... remember the "I'm editing from my house and cooking bacon naked" bit? That was great.

Alex, thanks for sharing. Sound like you handled it the way a true photog would. I really feel for you guys at WKRN and KRON.

One of the reporters I work with is from CA. It was always her dream to work at KRON someday. She was shocked when I told her about the VJ thing. She's looking at Baltimore now.

 

[AlexLucas]

Alex,

Any funny or humorous moments that you care to share with us from your days as a VJ? I’m in the Bay Area and the KRON stories run the gamut from not bad – usually ones shot by former shooters or reporters who use to shoot – to the college station or public access level. It even looks like some of the former reporters are – dare I say it – beginning to dress like photographers. Jeans, polo-shirts, even camera vests. Two part stand-ups were the fashion for awhile and some were incredibly painful to watch.

And I’m just curious but who paid for this, Young Broadcasting or the local station itself? Any idea of what it cost to convert to this system?

Since the VJ system has been successful in Europe, any ideas of where it might work in the U.S.?

Was there ever any truth to the rumor that there was to be a reality show made from this?

I suppose that the funniest/painful moment with being a VJ is when the other crews are around, and they make fun of you. I remember one time there was a meeting (but VJs don't do meetings!) and I walked in with my little Sony Z1U and it was the first time a lot of the photogs had ever seen a VJ running around by himself. So then a second later, and the tiny town bureau station an hour away comes in with a GL1, and all the photogs start giggling. I of course know them all very well, and I start joking about how this thing is throwing out my back. Not the camera, but the mini-gen, the 3k HMIs, and the atom bomb I have to carry to get enough light for the lens. That gets a chuckle. A reporter pulls out their camera phone, and says, "do you want me to pack it with this?" Another big laugh.

All the newsies know I am a big jokester, so they let me have it both barrels, and anyway, this is the first VJ sighting for a lot of them. VJs just don't go to news events anymore.

Then the press handlers move me over with the GL1 so the big guys can have some space, because they think I am some city council camera enthusiast, and not really working for a professional news organization. The photogs are chuckling. I start smiling back at the photogs. "And who are you?"
"News 2."
"Really?"
"Yes, from Nashville."
"Who's your reporter?"
"You're looking at him."
"Really."
"Yes. We're doing a new thing. Video journalism."
"Oh, the new thing... oh... Oh. Yeah, the little camera thing. Gotcha."

We get in a pile up that day, against a window. I am getting bounced all over the place because the photogs are making space, and I can't even get the "gain exposure" knob to even acknowledge anything but a silhouette. Besides, changing exposures on the cam only takes five easy steps (move the camera out of 'lock'/place camera into AE override function/press another AE override preset button/refocus/grasp wheel which is right below the lens/twist tiny wheel about fifteen times). So screw it, I have to move the background by moving myself. Part of the time I am doing the 'hail mary' over the top of the photogs to get a workable shot. They're just dialed out, diked, and rebalanced. My colors are all, of course, all over the map.

You get more funny moments with the reporters who haven't shot since market 202 in 1974. The camera is auto everything, but they just don't have the sensibilities to turn on every light in the house if you're not setting up anything, and just don't understand the timing of a steady shot, or why you need to use or not use a window. One day, a top drawer, high quality veteran reporter of decades comes back, and has accidentally flipped the ND filter on the cam while he was shooting. The poor guy thought the viewfinder was dark. We turn on the cam, and it's freaking out, silently going "ND2! ND2! ND2!" for hours, and he thought, "what the hell does that mean?"
So me and another photog sit him down.
"Okay, there are these filters in your camera that help the overall light input, and uh, they're uh, are like a pair of sunglasses on a bright day, and.." he just looked at us like we were speaking some crazy moon language.
"Look Alex, I just want to know one thing... Is it fixed?"
"Well technically it was never 'broken broken'... but..."
"Good. Don't want to know all that technical crap. Thanks. I'll get you a beer sometime."

The video looked like you were spelunking at the state house with the hypergain on.

After that, I started digging around in the internal menus of all the reporter's cameras and setting them for everything auto I could do for them, and started putting little stickers on the outside where their buttons should be set.

----
I think the VJ system will never work in the USA, strictly because of time. If you work for a state based, ultra-slow paced, lazy television news network, where they sit around and send you to do things for a week, then the VJ thing is fine. Matter of fact, it makes a tighter story when you control everything. It could work here for magazine formats. It already works wonders in minidoc cable TV. It just can't work when you have a hardcore news cycle like the US does. Nowhere else in the world does the news move this fast. Nowhere else in the world has this much pressure, local or national. I am sure it works great in Sweden. But Sweden isn't the USA. Government TV likes cheese festivals and holidays. The news here in the USA is not a job like anywhere else. Sure, you could go to Darfur and do a half hour show by yourself in a week, and it would be incredible. You could go to New Orleans and follow the cops for a ten minute segment for three days. It would be phenomenal. You can't expect it today, and have any resemblence of competetiveness.

Once again, this is all just my opinion.

 

[NYC Street]

Alex-

Actually, when we were predicting exactly the kind of scenarios you've survived, THAT was opinion. What you've reported is a lot more than just your opinion...it's an up close and personal view of a reality that few of us would ever want to live.

Thank you for posting it.

I'm certain that our pal MR won't dare to respond...other than, perhaps, to whine that it wasn't his vision, but Young's implementation that caused the trouble... which is crap. The system remains completely inadequate for news coverage.

 

[Flaca Productions]

alex,
first off - good for you for getting your financial house in order - no matter the motivation. you'll be more and more thankful the older you get.

secondly - thanks for sharing your thoughts, observations and opinions here in a calm, lucid, well-written way. it does everyone a service.

i guess my questions would be - what do you think the outcome of this switch to the VJ system will be in nashville? what do you think the station/ownership have as a goal? lower personel/equipment costs? do they HONESTLY think that they are doing the viewer a better service with the VJ system? do you think its going the way THEY thought it would go? are you getting any reactions from these postings from your colleagues (at any station) in nashville?

thanks again for taking the time to post - its really interesting.

best of luck.

 

[AlexLucas]

Addressing the next few questions...

First, the pay thing:

I was moved to day shift and I never got overtime. I never got a bump in pay like KRON, and I was never offered a bump in pay. The pay thing for me never changed. I will say this: I made it to five figures in overtime the last year, and after the VJ model was instituted, I never got overtime again. So when I looked at my tax returns for the year, I cursed a lot. At my 'good' years at WKRN I didn't make any more than any other photog's basic pay, I just ran a lot of OT. A bunch. On average I would say ten hours a week. Maybe they looked at my tax return, saw what they payed for me last year, and thought, "oh, we can get two VJs for Alex."

This slides right into the goals part of the questions:

Once again, this is my opinion: It's cost control. The GM made statements of hopelessness before, that they couldn't beat the other guys. That they would do anything to stop the slow death to the other guys. The numbers were never terrific, but after my original news director left, they tanked, and they never got the edge back. News 2 was an edgy newscast, it always had exclusives, and it really punched at the competition regardless of the numbers. Scrappy little News 2 was no joke. It dragged down a lot of kills out there on the Serengeti. If you got big spot news, "the Deuce" would eat you alive, and they were always on the air ten minutes before you. I dare say they had the best spot news skills in the country. That's saying a lot in Nashville, because we have some outrageously good scanner hounds round here. Still, on day to day stuff, it was a slow erosion.

WKRN wasn't winning, and after the high expense of the purchase of KRON, I think the group decided risks are necessary, and cutbacks were too. So why not take risks and cutbacks at the same time? I think at the time to them, VJ sounded like a magic bullet.

Still, I believe it was cutbacks. There were enough spot firings in other departments around the time of VJ to tell you that something was going on. The plan? Just like any other business. Keep the lights on, keep the place running, and keep the profits within projected earnings.

And this comes to the KRON question:
Why does KRON feel more sane than WKRN? I don't know. I just know that KRON came out to see us, and talk about the transition, and I think they did it in a little less clandestine way than we did. Also, the photogs got raises, while we were slashing people. They seemed to be further from the rough handling of management, and I think they had more of a chance to ease into it, instead of being harrassed and tweaked all the way through the process. I also think that they embraced more of the 'MR style,' leaving the big news behind, which was something that the producers and managers at WKRN just couldn't do. Could you do it? I know I didn't want to do it. I got in this business for the real stuff. I didn't want to cover a chili cook off, or a kid's day at the zoo more than once a week.

We were told we were getting away from the big stuff, and a lot of times at about noon I was called in the field to drop my current work and go cover 'the big stuff of the day' across town for the four. That late start was, of course, the system wanting to get away and then realizing that it couldn't, then shuffling madly. It causes a lot of frustration when you get picked up and moved aroumd a lot in a day.

So then you went alone, with a late start on something important happening all day, wondering how you're going to pull it off. Then you got the pkg done. Then there was the same phone call twelve seconds after your package airs, telling you whether you're worthy or worthy of contempt.

I think KRON skipped all of that roughhouse behavior. I think that is why they appear to be happier over there, to be perfectly honest. Although I might be wrong.

Once again, anyone out there that doesn't like what I say, should remember that this is all just my opinion.

 

[Buck]

Thanks for the posts and the insight. I've been reading your former co-workers blog here: http://news2vj.blogspot.com/ He seems like a great guy, but clearly he's drinking the company kool-aid and keeping quiet (and I don't blame him).

 

[Baltimore Shooter]

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I think the VJ system will never work in the USA, strictly because of time. If you work for a state based, ultra-slow paced, lazy television news network, where they sit around and send you to do things for a week, then the VJ thing is fine. Matter of fact, it makes a tighter story when you control everything. It could work here for magazine formats. It already works wonders in minidoc cable TV. It just can't work when you have a hardcore news cycle like the US does. Nowhere else in the world does the news move this fast. Nowhere else in the world has this much pressure, local or national. I am sure it works great in Sweden. But Sweden isn't the USA. Government TV likes cheese festivals and holidays. The news here in the USA is not a job like anywhere else. Sure, you could go to Darfur and do a half hour show by yourself in a week, and it would be incredible. You could go to New Orleans and follow the cops for a ten minute segment for three days. It would be phenomenal. You can't expect it today, and have any resemblence of competetiveness.

Alex, first, I thank you for your frankness and willingness to tell us how it really is.

However, I have to differ with you when you say the OMB format is okay for docs, cable and magazine shows, as I disagree with your statement. You said earlier about how bad the contrast range, flat colors, edge issues, etc. is with those small cameras, so why would I want to sit through a doc or a new magazine and see aweful pictures? Why would I want to waste my time on that s**t? You are right when you said that this industry is changing, and not for the better. It used to be that documentaries were actually cool, you'd learn something as you were facinated, glued to the screen. Now, the documentaries we see on A&E, Discovery, TLC, etc. are dull, cable access looking shows that I think are giving docs a bad name and soon an exec will declair the documentary "dead", claiming that the 18-49 demos are leaving for the internet because the doc's ratings are going lower and lower everyday.

WELL NO F**KING WONDER EINSTEIN, THEY LOOK LIKE CRAP, THAT'S WHY PEOPLE ARE LEAVING!!!!!

I don't watch half as much TV as I did just 2yrs ago. Why? It's not because the internet is there, it's because the networks don't want to produce quality programming, they just want to produce cheap shows. So what do people do? They look elsewhere and elsewhere has become the internet. Why not the gym instead, well because we're lazy. We're too lazy to work out but not too lazy to turn the TV off and go to the internet.

And it's not just because I work in TV, some of my car club buddies say the same thing as well, along with some other friends. A couple of them I know even got rid of cable TV alltogether because they can't stand the cheap, cable access quality that they see these days. Hell, I might even do it soon myself.

They don't want to pay $80/month for that, but they are willing to pay for quality television and unfortunately, in the last 6-8 years, quality is getting lower and lower. So you'll see more and more people go to the internet and other forms of entertainment and information while the network execs scratch their heads and try to figure out where all their viewers left.

So Alex, I beg to differ with you, that the OMB and handycam format doesn't work at all for dosc, magazines and cable TV, unless you're doing one of those "funniest home videos" types of shows.

Warren