By Ethan Kwassman (NCC News) November 10, 2010, 7:30 pm
Our team consisted of Lauren as the anchor and me as the producer. Because we were the two-person team, Kit and Gino did their live reporter wraps in studio that they did for a previous newscast. The rundown and scripts were completed in a timely manner and the local and national stories flowed from one to another. We were well prepared for the newscast, but we had to drop one local story (Cuomo Transition) and one national story (Pentagon Missile) because the actual time of one of the live wraps and one of the anchor-actualities were longer than their estimated durations. However, we were able to go into the break before the tease with an national/international anchor-actuality story. We ended the show a little bit early, and we were very close to being exactly on time.
In terms of pacing, audio was used to break up readers. In between the readers in A1 and A4, a live wrap and an anchor-actuality was used. In between the readers in A5 and A7, another live was used. An anchor-actuality in A8 also was used to break up two readers.
Our rundown consisted of:
Headlines:
I felt that the most newsworthy story to tease in the headlines were a women seriously injured in Manlius accident, why Upstate Medical hopes to raise $15 million, and how absentee ballots are helping to decide the 25th congressional district race. Out of all the stories in the rundown, I felt that these were the "top" stories.
To start off local, we began with a story about election commissioners continuing to count the absentee ballots in the 25th congressional district race. This story served as a solid lead story because the election was just last week and the race is still too close to call. Many people in the area care about this story. Also, it's timely because Cayuga County is the first county in the district to have its ballots counted today.
A3: Cancer Center
The next story followed nicely because it was another hard news story related to the Onondaga County area. Kit did an excellent job covering this story. Construction on Upstate Medical University's $74 million Upstate Cancer Center project will soon be underway. Kit got good soundcuts from the Assistant Director for the Cancer Center. The story is timely because Upstate Medical has a $15 million fundraising campaign currently in place.
A4: Altmar Vote
To keep it local, we followed with Lauren's anchor-actuality about residents of Oswego County voting today on whether to dissolve the small town of Altmar. It was smooth transition from the medical story with economic implications to a town vote story. It is a timely story because the voting takes place today. It also would attract listeners since it involves controversy regarding whether the village should dissolve into the town of Albion as a way to decrease resident tax dollars. Lauren was able to get a good soundcut from the clerk of Altmar Village.
A5: North Manlius Accident (updated link after newscast)
Next, we followed with one of our headline stories. We did a reader on a 20-year-old woman severely injured in a car crash on North Manlius Road this morning. The woman was taken to Upstate University Hospital. The Minoa Fire and Police Departments had arrived on the scene at the time of the newscast. The locality of this story made it fit in the newscast.
A6: Fire Proposal
Keeping with local fire department related matters, we jumped to a story about a proposal to cut operating costs in the Onondaga County Fire Department being put on the back burner. Gino did a solid job on the live wrap about the Legislature being hopeful that the proposal will be in place by the end of the year. The story also has good proximity because it concerns the Onondaga County area. Gino also got great soundcuts from Fire Chief James Green of the Dewitt Fire Department. This story was newsworthy and timely because these proposals and procedures are taking place now, and it's another hard news story.
A7: Cuomo Transition
Next, we jumped to more of a state story, but it flowed nicely because it involved political issues like the previous transition. However, we had to cut this story as well as the Pentagon Missile story because we would have gone over before the break. We had less time to broadcast these stories because we ran out of a time due to a longer-than-estimated anchor actuality and live wrap early on. This story is timely because Andrew Cuomo became the Governor-elect in last week's election. It's also newsworthy because it's certainly interesting to all of New York State listeners.
A8: Obama Indonesia
We had to jump to a national/international story from a local story because we dropped the state story due to timing issues. However, in the rundown the Cuomo transition flowed nicely to Obama's visit to Indonesia. Lauren did an excellent anchor-actuality on Obama's speech to Jakarta, where he said that Indonesia's democracy and religious tolerance should be an example to the world, and where he also offered his condolences to all the families affected by the recent natural disasters. She got a good soundcut of President Obama from the speech. The story is timely because Obama just visited Indonesia and is still in Asia. It's also newsworthy because Indonesia has been a part of many newscasts within the past couple of weeks due to the impact of the natural disasters that occurred there.
A9: Pentagon Missile
This national story had to be cut as well because of aforementioned timing issues. However, in the rundown, if flowed nicely from the Obama Indonesia story because it's a Washington-related story. The story of the Pentagon being unable to explain what created a vapor trail off the Southern California coast is such a newsworthy story. It has an element of mystery to it because it was thought to be a missile. It's definitely an intriguing story for listeners. The story also has a great deal of timeliness because the Pentagon recently made this announcement, following their investigation.
A10: Tease B
Next, we teased the kicker and weather forecast.
B1 (Kicker): SU Win
Our kicker was a story on the Syracuse Orange burying the memory of last year's LeMoyne loss with a resounding 91-48 victory over the Dolphins at the Carrier Dome. It was soft news and the listeners, even the casual sports fan, are sure to perk up and tune in when it's about the Orange basketball team. It was also interesting because the Orange got upset last year to LeMoyne in exhibition play, and this was their way of getting some revenge, or making up for that loss. It was timely because the game was last night.
B2: Weather
Lauren read today and tonight's weather before getting to current weather. She didn't read much or any of the filler for the newscast and that's maybe why we finished the newscast a little early. She was certainly able to fit in the close, and it's better to be a little under, than over. Overall, the newscast was a success. Our team was well prepared and we got key contributions from Kit and Gino, who both did reporter wraps for an earlier newscast. Despite cutting a state story and a national story due to timing issues, we still got in one newsworthy national/international story (an anchor-actuality), and a good core of hard local news stories to round out the newscast. Our group was very satisfied with how the broadcast turned out.
END OF SHOW
Floaters
We had to cut two stories anyway to end almost exactly on time, but we used a New York gay marriage lawsuit story as a floater. It was pretty newsworthy considering that civil rights groups are trying to build momentum for a Supreme Court showdown by filing lawsuits to challenge the US Defense of Marriage Act. It was also timely because the lawsuits were filed recently. The New York element of the story makes the story have good proximity but it's also a national story as well since it involves the Supreme Court and federal law. As such, it was good to have this as an additional local/national story.
We used another short reader as a floater in the 2011 New York Special Olympics coming to Central New York. This story was timely and newsworthy for the Syracuse area. The plans were just recently announced at a press conference by Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney and Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner. However, we pushed it to a floater story because we thought all the other local stories flowed better for the time-being. Also, we were planning to use it as an anchor-actuality at one point, but we were unable to get a hold of anyone for a soundcut, and alreay had all of the other stories mapped out. This story certainly could have been used if we needed time to fill, though.
