Newsroom....

Let me try to explain what it is that I actually do for my "real job."   This won't be easy...most people don't understand my job, even some of the people I work with don't fully understand what an Assignment Editor does all day long.

I went to college at Ohio Wesleyan University back in the early 80's.   Back in the dark ages....before newsroom computers were the norm.   Back when TV news was fun.   We came to work every day thinking, "what can we do today that is so whacky, viewers won't know how we pulled it off!"   We did some pretty crazy stuff.   We did a liveshot from inside the Goodyear Blimp.   We did a liveshot from the Giant Slide at the Ohio State Fair (that didn't go too well, I might add).    We even did a liveshot from on top of a 40 story skyscraper (no safety rails...and it was very windy!).   Things are a lot different in the TV news business today.   It's much more serious...it's become a business, not an "art form".   There is still plenty of originality in the business, but in the quest to "feed the news beast", most of it gets left behind where viewers can't see it.   Still, my job as Assignment Editor has more impact on the show than most would believe.   That's both good and bad, however. 

So, what does an Assignment Editor do?   Well, imagine if you will the hub of a wheel.  In the newsroom, the "desk" is the hub.  Information goes in and out from the hub.   A good assignment editor is a jack of all trades and master of his own.   Of all the qualities an assignment editor must possess to be good at his/her job is to be a journalist first.   That is often over looked.    You have to know what a story is before you can tell it.   Anyway, my job is to do a lot of things at once.   I have to listen to a total of 17 police/fire scanners, answer the phone calls from the public, reporters and photographers, tune in liveshots from our microwave trucks and satellite truck...do uplinks via satellite to other NBC affiliates and the network, and handle all of our logistics; i.e. making sure we have the right equipment (live truck, satellite truck, helicopter) at the scene at the right time.   Assignment Editors are the ones who find the "spot" news...the unplanned events like fires, shootings, plane crashes, bank robberies, etc.    We works under intense pressure and the next deadline is always right around the corner.   To give you an idea of how fast things can happen and change in a night, I tell you how things went the other night.  

A man suspected of killing a deputy sheriff in a nearby county was finally found and arrested after a 40 hour manhunt the other night.   He was arrested about 9:00pm in a county where we can't hear the police scanner traffic.  I heard on a secondary (back) channel that the alert for the man was canceled.  That can only mean one thing...that he's in custody.   So the mad dash began to find out where he was arrested.  I made a flurry of phone calls...about 10 in the space of about 8 minutes.   The local sheriff's office, the local police department, the local newspaper, an adjoining county sheriff's office, two Ohio Highway Patrol posts...you get the idea.   I had a crew in the town where the apprehension took place, about 4 miles from the scene.   I moved them, their live truck and the satellite truck to the apprehension scene, then had to make sure we could get a live shot in without using the satellite truck.   Luckily, we could do it with just a microwave truck, so I could move the satellite truck back to the sheriff's department HQ where the suspect would go after his arrest.   The satellite truck moved back to the Sheriff's Office and the crew with the live truck stayed at the apprehension scene.   I sent another crew from the station to the sheriff's department HQ (about a 1 hour drive) and had them hook up with the satellite truck, since I knew we couldn't do that live shot with a microwave live truck.   I also recalled a reporter and photographer who were working on a piece for the upcoming sweeps period from their story so they could help out in the newsroom.   I then had to extend the satellite window we already had booked for an extra five minutes for the 11:00pm news.   It's now 9:20pm.  All this in 20 minutes.  Lucky for me, I work with some VERY talented people.  We pulled it off.   We went on the air at 11:00PM and had a liveshot from the scene of the arrest, with an interview with the man who spotted the suspect and called 911...then to an interview with the Sheriff, who was very happy to have the man accused of killing his deputy off the streets, and then to a reporter back in the newsroom who covered the local football game where the slain deputy was remembered.   In all, it was a great team effort.  The producer made all the necessary changes "on the fly" to make it work and the crews in the field busted their humps to make it happen.   It was great.   Especially when our main competition just plain wasn't ready at 11:00pm.   It made us all look good.   But no one at home knows that the assignment editor is the one who made it all come together.  That's a shame.   In years past, there were three names that appeared a the end of every newscast in Columbus.  The Producer, the Assignment Editor and the News Director.  I wish they'd start doing those credits again...not because I like my name on screen, but because it shows pride of ownership.   If I hadn't heard the cancellation of the alert, we wouldn't have been in position to do all the things we did that night.   And without a good team, we could NOT have turned the best coverage in Central Ohio!!!     I am truly blessed by those I work with at NBC4!!!!

One thing that made this night really "special" is that we assignment editors have been operating in a temporary area with all our scanners, computers and phones tossed on top of each other.   It's kinda like being back in the late 60's at a concert with the "wall of sound".   Basically, it sucks.   Normally, the assignment desk sits about a foot or two off the ground at one end of the newsroom, so the assignment editors can look over the room and see who is at their desk, who's in the conference room, etc.   But our desk was almost 20 years old, ergonomically awful and it's colors...well, let's just say the guys at Queer Eye  would probably have a stroke and fall over dead at the sight.

Here's a look at what we're building at WCMH...eventually, it will be the new assignment desk...in the mean time, we're stuck here...

Gotta give credit to everyone in the newsroom though.  Building this desk has been a long and very LOUD process, and they've all tolerated it!