Team 1 Rundown Rationale

by: Lauren Fabrizi (NCC News)

Nov. 3, 2010, 7:22 p.m.

Our team consisted of myself, Lauren Fabrizi, as producer, Marquise Francis as anchor, and Callan Gray and Dan Grossman as our two reporters.

Although ENPS was down for quite some time, our team was able to pull everything together and have the show run very smoothly!

A1: Headlines

We teased a national story (A3), local story (A6), and state/local story (A9) in our headlines as a way to briefly introduce multiple aspects of the 2010 midterm elections.

A2: Maffei Buerkle

As of this morning, the winner of the 25th Congressional District in New York was still undecided, so I wanted to lead with this story as the Maffei/Buerkle race has been very popular in local news for a while. Originally, Dan was going to do a recorded wrap on the race. However, he could not obtain a source, so for time purposes he changed his story, and a reader was done instead.

A3: Republicans

Another major headliner this morning was that many Republicans were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, so we made the transition from local news to a national story. Marquise did a nice anchor-actuality on the topic, and obtained his sound bite from ABC newscall.

A4: Cuomo

Going from national news to state news, we covered our next story, the race for New York governor, with a reader. Not only was Democrat Andrew Cuomo elected, but Cuomo's father held the position of govenor in the 1980s and 90s. So this story also had a 'human interest' effect.

A5: Schumer Gillibrand

Continuing with state news, our next story was another reader on the Schumer/Gillibrand race for New York Senate. The story briefly discussed that Schumer and Gillibrand were elected for the NY Senate term.

A6: Marcellus High

To change up the pace, an anchor-actuality was done on the voters present at Marcellus High School Tuesday night. Marquise obtained an excellent sound bite from a Marcellus resident about her reason for voting Republican. This story also marked a transition from state news to local news.

A7: Sheriff

Keeping with local news, a reader was used to cover the Onondaga County sheriff race. Kevin Walsh was elected to his 4th fifth-year term. The story was newsworthy because Walsh's victory will enable him to become the county's longest-serving sheriff. However, after the completion of A6, we were slightly behind on time, so I dropped it.

A8: Marijuana

Although it was a stretch, our newscast went back to national news with a voicer to spice up the pace. Dan went through multiple story topics trying to obtain a source. Although Dan was unable to speak with someone, he did a very good job on his voicer on Propisition 19, a law that if passed, would permit California residents to legally possess and grow the drug. The vote for Proposition 19 was Tuesday night, along with all the midterm elections, so it fit into the 'election' theme.

A9: Valesky Russo

Transitioning from national news to local news, Callan did an excellent live wrap on the victory of Onondaga County's senate incumbents David Veleskey and John DeFrancisco. She obtained her sound bite from Valesky's opponent, Andrew Russo.

A10: Roberts

Keeping with local news, a reader covered the 119th Assembly District. The story discussed how Democrat Sam Roberts easily defeated his opponent, Republican John Sharon. But with A8 and A9 going a little longer than estimated, it was cut, just to be safe.

A11: Tease

A story on a local family's diabetic daughter, along with the weather, was teased.

B1: Diabetes (Kicker)

Although our entire A-block covered the midterm elections, I wanted to change direction altogether for the kicker. So I used a reader to cover the story of a Camillus couple and their diabetic daughter. It was definitely a good human interest piece because it discussed how the couple wanted to buy a service dog that would be able to monitor their daughter's blood sugar levels.

B2: Weather

After Marquise read the kicker story, we were right on time. No filler-weather was needed, so Marquise read today and tonight's weather at a perfect speed and ended with the current temperature.

B3: Music and Close

After the weather, Marquise hit the close at exactly the right moment, and ended the show on time.

Although no floaters were in the Z-block, we had some lined up (Green Party Recognition and Oneida County Sheriff Race), but with time constraints due to ENPS being down and being the first group to go, I was unable to transcribe them into the rundown.

However, we had a total of 9 stories in the A-block, and with some stories going over the estimated duration in the "actual" column, I anticipated that we would most likely have to drop 1 or 2 readers, which is what happened.

Dropping both A7 and A9 before the break was a good move, because by doing so, Marquise did not have to cut anything from the kicker or rush through the weather. Despite the obstacles of the day, our team worked well together and came through in the end for a great newscast.

Team 1 Rundown Rationale

By Ethan Kwassman (NCC News)

October 20, 2010, 12:25 pm

Our team consisted of Lauren as the anchor, Marquise as the live reporter, and Callan did the recorded wrap. The rundown and scripts were completed in a timely manner and the local and national stories flowed from one to another. We were in studio with some time for Lauren to review the script and to go over preliminary newscast essentiels. We were well prepared for the newscast, but we had to drop two national/international stories (Midwest Storms and Indonesia Disasters) because the actual time of one of our anchor-actualities was longer than its estimated duration. However, we were able to go into the break before the tease with an national anchor-actuality story. We ended the show slightly close to being on time. Our rundown consisted of:

Headlines:

I felt that the most newsworthy stories to tease in the headlines were National Grid's proposed rate hike, an Oswego school board's decision to not remove a member, and the Cicero Police Department on the verge of being abolished. Out of all the stories in the rundown, I felt that these were the "top" stories.

A2: National Grid

Callan did an excellent job covering this story. Syracuse National Grid customers are condemning the power company's first proposed rate hike in over a decade. Callan got very good crowd national sound as well as good soundcuts from people on both sides of the issue. This story served as a solid lead story because the public hearings were last night, it's a local story, and many people in the area care about this story. This story is also timely because the rate hike debates are ongoing.

A3: New Process Gear

The next story flowed nicely because it also concerned economic troubles in the Onondaga County area. We followed up the National Grid outrage story with New Process Gear, a DeWitt auto parts plant, laying off 220 workers in January. We stayed local and continued with another hard news story. This story is timely because it's another one of those economy being down stories and the plant recently informed the New York State Department of Labor about the job cuts.

A4: Oswego School Board

To keep it local, we followed with Lauren's anchor actuality about the Oswego School Board voting not to remove one of its board members. It was a smooth transition from the economy to a school vote story. It is a timely story because the vote was Tuesday night. It also would attract listeners since it involves controversy regarding the school board member violating board policy. Lauren was able to get a good soundcut from a school board member who voted to remove the member in question.

A5: Cicero Police Department

Next, we followed up one of our headline stories with another one. Marquise did a solid job on the live wrap about the Cicero Police Department on the verge of being abolished. The Cicero Town Supervisor is leaving the fate of the Police Department in the hands of voters. So, it's another voting story, which follows nicely from the Oswego School Board story. It also has good proximity because Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney told town officials that Cicero should avoid the additional cost of a police department and rely on the county sheriff's office and state police. Marquise got great soundcuts from the Cicero Chief of Police. This story was newsworthy and timely because these decisions are taking place now, and it's another hard news story.

A6: Former County Deputy

Keeping with local police related matters, we did a reader on an Onondaga County sheriff deputy, who resigned last month, being charged with sex crimes involving a 14-year-old boy. The locality of this story made it fit in the newscast.

A7: Bullying Study

Next, we jumped to a national news story, but it flowed nicely because it involved ethical issues like the previous story. Lauren did an excellent anchor-actuality on a national survey conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, which found that 43 percent of students interviewed have been physically abused, taunted, or harassed. She got a good soundcut from Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who reached out to bullied students across the nation. This story is timely because of all the recent suicides related to bullying, and because the survey results were recently released. It's also newsworthy because it is certainly a human interest story.

A8: Midwest Storms

The next two national/international stories on the Midwest Storms, and the Indonesia Disasters, respectively, were nice readers written by Callan. However, we had to cut both of them because we ran out of time due to a longer-than-estimated anchor actuality early on. The Midwest Storms story flowed nicely from the Bullying Survey one because it's another national story. It was timely and definitely a top national story due to the amount of impact it's creating in a number of midwestern states.

A9: Indonesia Disasters

This international story had to be cut as well because of aforementioned timing issues. However, in the rundown, it flowed nicely from the Midwest Storm story because it's a storm-related story. The Indonesia Disaster is such an newsworthy story because of the timeliness of three disasters (earthquake, tsunami, and volcano eruption) occurring at roughly the same time. The impact is obviously a factor as well with 272 people having been reported dead and over 500 missing.

A10: TEASE B

Next, we teased the kicker and weather forecast.

B1 (Kicker): Michael Jackson

Our kicker was a story on pop legend Michael Jackson making $275 million in the past year, thus, earning him the title of Forbes' Richest Deceased Celebrity. It was soft news and interesting to the public because Jackson never held a spot on Forbes' annual Celebrity 100 list when he was alive. Also, many listeners are sure to perk up and listen when it's a story about Michael Jackson.

B2: Weather

Lauren read today and tonight's weather before getting to current weather. She started to read some of the filler for the weather forecast and that's maybe why we didn't end the newscast right on time. However, she was able to fit in the close.

Overall, the newscast was a success. Our team was well prepared and everybody made a significant contribution. Despite cutting two major national/international stories due to timing issues, we still got in one newsworthy national story (an anchor-actuality), and a good core of hard local news stories to round out the newscast. Our group was satisfied with how the broadcast turned out.

END OF SHOW

Floaters:

Syracuse Fire

We had to cut two stories anyway to end close to being on time, but we used a Syracuse fire story as a floater. Because there weren't many details on this story other than it being an early-morning fire at a two-family home in Syracuse's West End, it wasn't very newsworthy. Property damage was only outcome of the fire, but this story was good to have as an additional local story since it was timely.

Hancock International

We used another short reader as a floater in Hancock International Airport being awarded a $500,000 grant to create incentives to lure low-cost airlines. This story was timely and newsworthy for the Syracuse area. However, we pushed it to a floater story because we had planned to use it as an anchor-actuality but were unable to get a hold of anyone for a soundcut, and already had all of other stories mapped out. So, we didn't want to place this in the rundown because it may have ruined the flow of the newscast. It certainly could have been used if we needed time to fill, though.