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Press Passes...who its get them? Who don't?

M

mleach

OK...I know at first it seems like a silly question, but with security as tight as it is today, are there guidelines to who gets press passes to cover an event or not?

The reason I ask, in my hometown every year they have a festival. Quite a few major stars come to it every year. This past year it was Las Vegas' own Wayne Newton. However this past year a friend of mine told me the people who run the festival have gotten picky on who gets a press pass to attend certain events, such as the press conference featuring the celebrities. One rule he told me was that in order for someone to receive a pass from the folks at the festival, the person who gets the pass must be employed at the station full-time. No part-timers allowed. Is this a normal practice? Does the people behind the event do a background check on all of those who request a press pass? Ratings play a role?

I know that when I first I got into the business and covered my first event, I was this close to Tom Bosley from Happy Days. I wanted to ask him a few questions. However some guy came up to me and said the Bosley will NOT say a word to me. Why? Because my station wasn't "important" ( yes we had low ratings back then ) and that I did NOT look like a radio person( ? ) . Never mind the fact that I had a press pass. BTW..Bosley had no problem talking to the other members of the press, just not me. Big let down.
 
Most of the time (unless security is stupid) press passes are NOT worth the paper they are written on, anyway. It's better to know a cop on the scene.

I can make a press pass easily on my computer - even signed by the Governor.

You are not Jimmy Olsen at the Daily Planet. It's the post 9/11 age.
 
People who want press passes need much better grammar than is contained in the subject line of this thread...
 
I am sure the extra "its" in the subject thread was a typo :)
The rest of the thread as far as grammar goes, looks fine to me.

Press passes as to who gets them, depends on the event and who is the sponsor. Once when the band Alice In Chains was in my hometown, I contacted the venue to get a press pass. However I was turned down since the band's concert was sponsored by another radio station in town, not the one I worked at. Of course the "other" media in the area, such as newspapers and TV, not a problem there.

When I did country radio back in the early 90s the station I worked at brought Conway Twittty into town.
This was about maybe a year or two before his sudden death. At the time we had this woman who did weekends for us and she was a huge fan of his. When she contacted the venue ( on her own BTW ) for a press pass, she was turned down. The concert hall ( and her station ) gave her this "..lady, you are only PART-TIME, you are not that important !!" line.

Needless to say she quit and is still bitter to this day at what happened.
 
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