Feeling like a producer

This morning started off interestingly enough. I joined Karen Lee at a Syracuse Police Department press conference, where Sgt. Tom Connellan and Chief Frank Fowler updated the local media on two recent cases.

Update #1: Last night's shooting on Ellis St. on the West Side left one injured and one in critical condition today. Richardo Davis, 21, is on life support at University Hospital after receiving multiple gunshot wounds. The other victim, Tyrone Mulligan Jr., 18, was already treated and released for a single gunshot wound. The shooting was a drive by, and there was possibly a third party with Davis and Mulligan. No suspects or motives have been determined.

Update #2: Asa Holiday, 29, was arrested yesterday and arraigned this morning for sexually assaulting a 69-year-old woman in her home on March 8th. The assailant was invited into the victim's house after he posed as a construction worker in need of food and something to drink. Amazingly, the woman was able to fight off the 6'2" 190 lb. man with her bare hands.

Karen went live outside the Public Safety Building at noon, and we headed back to the station. I spend the rest of the day writing VOSOT versions of the stories we covered and VOSOTs and RDRs for air. I felt like a producer with all the scripts I was writing. It was fine, but it confirmed that producing is something I'm not interested in. I'm all for reporting.

I also was given a writing test by my boss, Steve, for a video journalist/reporter position I applied for. I had 90 minutes to write 5 RDRs/VOSOTs.

I'm looking forward to hearing from him about the stories, and seeing what comes of the job opening. I still have to get my reel to Steve, but told him I could have it in by next week or the week after.

Wish me luck!

Constant Change of Events

Last night was another crazy Wednesday at News 10 Now. It's become a running joke that when I come in on Wednesday nights, everything goes haywire. Kat's stories always seem to fall apart or change or aren't what we expect them to be, and last night was no different.

Initially we were going to a meeting for people learning how to be politicians, but we found out the dates were wrong and the meeting was Thursday night.

So instead we headed over to the Syracuse University campus to do a story on forged tickets from Saturday night's big basketball game against Villanova.

We interviewed Syracuse Dept. of Public Safety chief Anthony Callisto, who told us there were about 200 forged tickets sold to the public, which prevented victims from getting into the game. These forged ticket buyers didn't know their tickets were fake since they were mostly purchased on Craigslist.org. Right now, the Syracuse Police are looking into the case. There are no suspects as of yet.

Unfortunately, Callisto no longer had the real or fake tickets in his possession. They were already in evidence, so we could get any shots of them. When we got back to the station, we started to do a VOSOT on the piece because there really wasn't enough material to package it. Until we got a phone call.

Another reporter, Joleene Des Rosiers had been following the partially collapsed building on North State Street in Syracuse that has forced part of Route 81 to close down. She had done a few VOSOTs yesterday, but nothing else. Syracuse city lawyers met with the state at City Hall downtown to discuss demolishing the building, but Joleene left before any of the lawyers left the building or were willing to talk on camera.

But at around 6pm, we got a call that Juanita Perez-Williams from the Syracuse Corporation Council would talk to us. We interviewed her and later interviewed Anthony Tartaro, the owner of the partially collapsed building.

As it turns out, the real reason the building has not yet been demolished is because Tartaro, the city, and the state are debating over who's going to pay for it. Neither the city, state, nor Tartaro can afford to knock down the building, a demolition project that would now cost more than $1 million. The portion of Route 81 near the building will continue to be closed off until the city and state decide the next step.

Kat and the photog, Ben, edited the package in the live truck, until Kat went live with the story at 10:15pm. I wrote my story in the truck also, but didn't' get to edit it. I'm hoping to have enough time to edit the package Friday.

For the latest, check out www.news10now.com.

Until Friday, happy newsing.