What's In A Picture?

As I have mentioned before, one of the really great things about doing my job, is never knowing what will happen in the next second, which might become a story, or at least hot conversation in the newsroom. As an example, I was sitting at my desk writing the 6 pm news, while Victor Sotelo was editing video for a 6pm story at a computer about 10 feet from my desk. As we edit, the last frame of video is frozen in place, until the next video is ready to add on. When I happened to glance at the computer monitor, I was surprised at the image I saw. The frame I saw is below. What do you see? (It is actually a burning tree next to a house on fire in Abilene this weekend.)

I Want News

There are days, and then there are days. A large dry-erase board is on one wall of our newsroom. The day's assignments are posted there, with the reporters name assigned to the story, the story name and for which of our many newscasts it is expected to be completed.
As I may have mentioned before, there are days, and then there are days. Days are when the board is overflowing with projects completed or being developed but expected to be done. Days are when everyone also has an idea or two to toss into the mix about things we need to report, people we need to profile, story ideas to follow.
Days are when all the cameras are working, the batteries are all charged, the live trucks are all available, and people have remembered to put gas in all the news vehicles.
And then there are days. Like today. When the assignment board is about half full, there were not a lot of workable ideas presented, and one or two of those other things didn't fall into place. Sometimes, when it's a "slow" news day, there will be some stormy weather for Dan, or David has a new head football coach at a local high school.
And then there are days. Like today. Not a bad news day, just nothing really exciting, but still things you need to know about. We do our best to put together an interesting half hour of information, no matter what kind of day it has been in the newsroom.
But the wonderful thing about the news business is we never know what's going to happen in the next minute which will create our Top Story for a day like tomorrow.
That's when we'll be back with all the news that hasn't happened yet.....

Breaking News

Most evenings we can all take a dinner break between the 6 and 10 o'clock newscasts..
That's MOST evenings.. But when there are severe storms in the KTAB viewing area, or when there is Breaking News, its all hands on deck.. We listen to police and fire radios and scanners all day.. Accidents, fires, shootings.. Those are all incidents we may hear on the police/fire radios.. Of course, we get phone calls and e-mails from viewers about what's going on too..
I also have radios and scanners at home.. My wife has "good ears" to pick up what's happening.. My children hated the scanners, but actually have heard useful news over the years.. Obviously, we use the information only for news coverage..
Wednesday (04-08) I was home for a meal break when the Abilene Fire Department started broadcasting a fire at The Windsor, a multi-story retirement community at North 4th and Pine, downtown.. In news, we really (believe me) don't wish for bad things to happen, but when they do, we have to be prepared to cover them.. That fire call ended my dinner break.. My wife put my dinner in a plastic dish, and I rushed back to the station, just in case.. Altho there was significant smoke and water damage to several apartments, there were no serious injuries and this did not turn into a major event (unless you live in one of those damaged apartments)..
This will obviously lead our newscast at 10pm.. But things are under control, and we have a plan for the 10pm news..
So, that gives me an opportunity to write this.....