Stay Classy, Bismarck

[FredLeonard]

Yeah, watch his co-anchor, or I should say former co-anchor. She's been anchoring for three months prior to being paired with A.J. and she looked just as nervous.

She'd learned enough in three months to know what it means when the red light goes on. And working with a newbie who just dropped an F-bomb and an S-bomb on the air would make anybody nervous.

 

[michael hagerty]

Yeah, watch his co-anchor, or I should say former co-anchor. She's been anchoring for three months prior to being paired with A.J. and she looked just as nervous.

She'd learned enough in three months to know what it means when the red light goes on. And working with a newbie who just dropped an F-bomb and an S-bomb on the air would make anybody nervous.

Apparently, she didn't hear it at the time. He was looking down, talking directly into his microphone, and she had left her IFB (interruptible feedback) earpiece in her car. Word is neither he nor she knew what happened until the third commercial break, by which time the news director had driven down to the station and went to the set to demand an explanation.

But again, it takes a year for a lot of people. And some find out that they're a lot better at producing or reporting from the field than anchoring.

Sometimes they make that decision themselves, sometimes their bosses make it for them. I saw a lot of people who were considered very good anchors in market 100 or5-who got to market 20 and were told they didn't have it. And market 20 didn't mean you could hack a Top 5.

 

[michael hagerty]

Yeah, watch his co-anchor, or I should say former co-anchor. She's been anchoring for three months prior to being paired with A.J. and she looked just as nervous.

She'd learned enough in three months to know what it means when the red light goes on. And working with a newbie who just dropped an F-bomb and an S-bomb on the air would make anybody nervous.

Apparently, she didn't hear it at the time. He was looking down, talking softly (muttering, really) but directly into his microphone, and she had left her IFB (interruptible feedback) earpiece in her car. Word is neither he nor she knew what happened until the third commercial break, by which time the news director had driven down to the station and went to the set to demand an explanation.

But again, it takes a year for a lot of people. And some find out that they're a lot better at producing or reporting from the field than anchoring.

Sometimes they make that decision themselves, sometimes their bosses make it for them. I saw a lot of people who were considered very good anchors in market 100 or 50 who got to market 20 and were told they didn't have it. And market 20 didn't mean you could hack a Top 5.

 

[FredLeonard]

I have to say, the word "anchor" really has become over-used and over-blown. Anybody reading wire copy calls himself an "anchor." Ted Baxter called himself an "anchor." Reading off a TelePrompTer ain't rocket science. The indefinable quality that makes stars out of some "presenters" (the British term, and a far more accurate description) is another matter. But clearly, this kid had not mastered the basic mechanics of being on-air in a TV studio.

A.J. says he graduated from the University of West Virginia. The course requirements include producing TV newscasts, which are critiqued in class, available online and even broadcast on the statewide public television network. This wasn't his first rodeo.

Clearly, this kid, who thinks ESPN is going to call any day now, is a slacker who doesn't take things seriously. But the person who should be fired is the news director who hired him and put him on the air without proper support and without making sure he was ready. First time and she was watching at home; she should have been there.

And throwing the kid under the bus the next morning shows the station manager is an incompetent hack. They hired green; they got green. They should have slapped his wrist and made sure somebody was working with him.

 

[michael hagerty]

I have to say, the word "anchor" really has become over-used and over-blown. Anybody reading wire copy calls himself an "anchor." Ted Baxter called himself an "anchor." Reading off a TelePrompTer ain't rocket science. The indefinable quality that makes stars out of some "presenters" (the British term, and a far more accurate description) is another matter. But clearly, this kid had not mastered the basic mechanics of being on-air in a TV studio.

A.J. says he graduated from the University of West Virginia. The course requirements include producing TV newscasts, which are critiqued in class, available online and even broadcast on the statewide public television network. This wasn't his first rodeo.

Clearly, this kid, who thinks ESPN is going to call any day now, is a slacker who doesn't take things seriously. But the person who should be fired is the news director who hired him and put him on the air without proper support and without making sure he was ready. First time and she was watching at home; she should have been there.

And throwing the kid under the bus the next morning shows the station manager is an incompetent hack. They hired green; they got green. They should have slapped his wrist and made sure somebody was working with him.

With you on all counts except the word "anchor". That's all it ever meant.

 

[FredLeonard]

With you on all counts except the word "anchor". That's all it ever meant.

Sorry, no. The word was originally applied to the "host" or "play by play man" on CBS' 1952 convention coverage. From there, the term was applied to the on-air host of all CBS live events coverage (NBC continued to use the word "host"). It was not until Walter Cronkite also took over the CBS Evening News a decade later, in addition to live event coverage, that the word "anchor" was also applied to a newscaster. Before Cronkite became the dominant news figure, presenters were most often called "newscasters" or "commentators" (although "commentator" would most appropriatly be applied to people like Paul Harvey and others who presented news with a distinct viewpoint).

Before 1952, the term "anchor" was used to refer to the leading person on a panel show. For example, Lawrence Spivak "anchored" the Meet The Press panel (before becoming moderator). The term originated in tug of war games in which the "anchor" was the strongest or heaviest player on one side and did the most to keep his team from being pulled over.

NPR still refers to the main figures on All Things Considered and Morning Edition as "hosts."

 

[1069_KIFR]

Malls have 'Anchor' Tenants.

Ships and boats have Anchors.

 

[wrsg915fm]

[quote: "A.J. says he graduated from the University of West Virginia."

Absolute NO ONE in the state of West Virginia refers to "West Virginia University" or "WVU" as 'the University of West Virginia.' Not wanting to pick a fight, but...

 

[Kent]

A.J. says he graduated from the University of West Virginia. The course requirements include producing TV newscasts, which are critiqued in class, available online and even broadcast on the statewide public television network. This wasn't his first rodeo.

While there are a handful of exceptions, most of the course requirements for a broadcasting degree don't prepare you for what actually goes on in a station on a day-to-day basis. You get critiqued by a professor, most of whom don't want to teach and kept going to college because they couldn't hack it in the real world, or, most likely, a teaching assistant who's going to grad school because he either couldn't find a job in broadcasting or couldn't make it in a broadcasting job. Garbage in...garbage out!

Best advice I've ever heard a broadcasting professor give? "Get a job, any job, at a commercial station while you're here. Even if it's just sweeping the floors, you'll learn a lot more about the real world than anything you'll learn in this, or any other, class!"

 

[FredLeonard]

A.J. says he graduated from the University of West Virginia. The course requirements include producing TV newscasts, which are critiqued in class, available online and even broadcast on the statewide public television network. This wasn't his first rodeo.

While there are a handful of exceptions, most of the course requirements for a broadcasting degree don't prepare you for what actually goes on in a station on a day-to-day basis. You get critiqued by a professor, most of whom don't want to teach and kept going to college because they couldn't hack it in the real world, or, most likely, a teaching assistant who's going to grad school because he either couldn't find a job in broadcasting or couldn't make it in a broadcasting job. Garbage in...garbage out!

Best advice I've ever heard a broadcasting professor give? "Get a job, any job, at a commercial station while you're here. Even if it's just sweeping the floors, you'll learn a lot more about the real world than anything you'll learn in this, or any other, class!"

Where exactly did you go to school?

 

[michael hagerty]

Frank, he's got a point. There are exceptions. Columbia owns a TV station. The Cronkite School at ASU runs a newsroom and produces a daily half-hour that's carried on the local PBS station. But West Virginia? Probably what he describes or worse.

 

[mjlarochelle]

I got the vibe after watching Dave that AJ thinks he will go far with this and will NOT be anchoring in small market. What I don't get is why the media covered this as much as they did. I think it is so stupid that it lasted this long. So many more important things to cover. How many left on his 15??

For some, I'm sure it's a break from Boston Marathon bombing coverage.

 

[michael hagerty]

I got the vibe after watching Dave that AJ thinks he will go far with this and will NOT be anchoring in small market. What I don't get is why the media covered this as much as they did. I think it is so stupid that it lasted this long. So many more important things to cover. How many left on his 15??

For some, I'm sure it's a break from Boston Marathon bombing coverage.

Oh, absolutely. The timing was perfect. Two days after the capture. The country was ready for a laugh.

 

[Kent]

Frank, he's got a point. There are exceptions. Columbia owns a TV station. The Cronkite School at ASU runs a newsroom and produces a daily half-hour that's carried on the local PBS station. But West Virginia? Probably what he describes or worse.

On top of that, colleges get plenty of free help, as in other students. So, he likely got no help from his studies on how to handle doing news without a floor director. Also, the typical college is 3-5 years behind the corporate world, and, with higher education getting the budget ax in nearly every state, it's only getting worse. He was likely using antiquated equipment in college and had little, if any, experience with the equipment KFYR-TV used. Both of those obstacles present learning curves.

As for where I went to college, I went to Memphis State University, University of Arkansas and University of Missouri. I have degrees from two of them. The only one that had a good broadcast journalism program was Mizzou. Mizzou owns the local NBC affiliate and has actual broadcasters, not professors, teaching the courses. However, I didn't go to Mizzou for journalism and was already working in radio full-time while putting myself through school there. Mizzou also has an excellent print journalism program, which has a newspaper with circulation rivaling that of the corporate local paper.

 

[michael hagerty]

And AJ was two years removed from whatever experience college gave him. He told Letterman he took two years off right after school and was a bartender.

So now we come back to the News Director. Lots of people out of work. Lots of fresh grads from last year and mid-year still looking for their break...but she hires a guy who hasn't been near journalism for two years and after three weeks on staff, lets him anchor, not as an emergency fill-in, but as a permanent gig.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

This is why some small markets would be better off getting consolidated into a neighboring bigger market. This guy will probably find work at a small market Nexstar or Sinclair station

 

[michael hagerty]

This is why some small markets would be better off getting consolidated into a neighboring bigger market.

I'm not sure how that would fix anything. Can you explain?

 

[KeithE4]

This is why some small markets would be better off getting consolidated into a neighboring bigger market. This guy will probably find work at a small market Nexstar or Sinclair station

We're talking about Bismarck ND. There are no neighboring bigger markets. Fargo is the largest in ND, at #120 or so - still minor-league.

 

[FredLeonard]

The value of a college education for future broadcasters is all the liberal arts, science and social science courses most programs require. At my school, broadcasting courses represented 1/12th the total number of credits required for a bachelor's degree. Of those, maybe 1/8th dealt with studio mechanics.

I notice that often the people at the top of the broadcast news business were not in any of the "trade school" programs for future broadcasters in college. Disproportionately, they attended high-selective liberal arts colleges and research universities and majored in traditional liberal arts and sciences disciplines. No courses in how to read TelePrompTers (Ivies don't offer them).

The great practical value colleges offer a future broadcaster is they have student-operated radio stations, student-operated cable channels (or even student-produced TV programs) and student newspapers. That's where the real practical skill learning takes place.

As others have mentioned, A.J. did not impress me as highly qualified or a ball of fire. He wants to do sports; did he spend any time learning journalism and related production skills? He's from Delaware. The University of Delaware has a fine communications program (and some top people in the biz come from there). It also has in-state tuition. So why is A.J. going to West Virginia; couldn't he get in to the U of D? Or Temple? Or Penn State? Or other places with much better records of preparing and placing graduates in broadcasting?

From what A.J. said to Dave, he didn't exactly take time off after college tending bar at a Delaware shore resort. Apparently, it took two years for him to get a nibble. He said he did get a response from a station in Wisconsin but couldn't remember the name of the city. For a guy who isn't being overwhelmed with call backs, that's not encouraging. I'd expect more hustle from a guy who probably has student loans to pay off.

And I agree, an incompetent news director and management screwed the pooch on this. Sounds like A.J. and the station deserve each other. But I'm afraid, even if the station offers him another chance in Bismark, this guy would rather spend the summer tending bar in Dewey Beach, checking out the chicks, and standing by the phone in the sure and certain belief that ESPN will call.

Besides, probably a good bar tender can make more than somebody doing news in a backwater station.

The competition in Bismark should hire this guy. People will watch them (with DVRs running) to see how A.J. screws up next.

 

[DToTheJ]

...Sue Simmons, #1 anchorwoman at #1 WNBC in #1 New York...under very similar circumstances, four or five years ago... She's still employed, and delivered the on-air apology herself...

Actually, she left WNBC last year after the station decided not to renew her contract.