And the Beat Goes On

Yesterday, I went out with Joleene Des Rosiers as I usually do on Fridays. This entire week, she's been covering the partially collapsed building on Route 81 as a beat. This way, we make sure to stay on top of the story and find out the latest.

After speaking to the building's owner, Tony, earlier yesterday morning, Joleene knew that the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) would be coming to the building during the day to check for toxic waste and materials.

But when we got to the building, Tony didn't have very much to say and wouldn't give us any details as to what the DEC was doing there. As far as we could see, the man from the DEC was just sitting in his truck outside the building.

So we went back to the station, Joleene made some calls, and we waited to hear back from the mayor or the state.

After receiving no word, Joleene decided she needed to get something. So we drove to South Salina Street, one of the few streets suffering from a lot of traffic congestion due to the detours from Rt. 81 near the building.

We interviewed two business owners. The owner of Rocky's said because the traffic was so bad, people were no longer willing to stop at his store during their drive if it meant giving up a spot in the line of traffic. But the owner of Vinomania told us that people are avoiding his end of the road altogether because they fear how bad the traffic will be.

We went back to the station, and quickly wrote and edited a nice little package about the business owners' perspectives about this collapsed building, Route 81, and the traffic brought on by all of it.

I also edited the majority of my package from Wednesday. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish it since the tape with all the interviews and soundbites went "missing." I'm hoping that'll turn up soon though.

After all this editing, Joleene, Ben (the photog) and I went back out in the field to shoot a live hit on the other side of 81 so viewers could see the collapsed building in the background. Joleene went live at 4:30, and I shot a live tag out that I edited into my package when we got back to the station. Joleene helped me fix a few parts of it, but other than that, it was pretty good.

I'd say it was an overall successful day, with lots of editing, writing, and shooting. I love going out with Joleene also. She always helps me and makes me feel really good and skilled about what I'm doing.

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.

A Little Less Reporting, A Little Less Fun

Once again, here's another update from my internship at News 10 Now.

In an entry dated 2-17-10:

A Little Less Reporting, A Little Less Fun

Before arriving to News 10 Now, I dressed up with every intention of shooting a standup for my next package and looking extremely professional.

I arrived exactly at 3:00pm for the nightside shift to learn that Kat -- who I normally shadow on Wednesday -- had already left to cover a story about the National Grid. Amanda was about to give me the option of going out with a photog (photographer) who was getting footage for a feature story, but realized eh had left already too.

This led me to spending my shift in the station. I spent a little more than an hour in the traffic room with Brad until I got bored. I learned the ropes of traffic, but reporting on it ever 15 minutes -- even though it's live -- gets pretty repetitive.

So I spent the rest of the night with an AP (Associate Producer), Courtney. She produced the Binghamton news for each hours, putting together the rundown and writing the News Minute for each hour, based on the latest news that came in.

I was able to take a break to eat and check my email, but like I said, the majority of the night was spent watching the AP write. The good news was that I did add some effects to my package from last week (the budget package) and dub it to tape. Success!