Digital Media Producer
News Media
Role: News Producer
Aired Summer of 2019
6PM A Block, Featuring Anchor Movement
Read about my full experience below
My Journey through the News Industry
While I was working toward my associates in Digital Media Design at Texas State Technical College I was able to land a job at Nexstar Media Group Inc. This station is located in Abilene, Texas and is ranked 164th in the nation as far as market size. I started out as a production assistant working the evening shift for KTAB where I first learned how the work the cameras. Every day I came in eager to learn all the aspects of production and over the next six months my enthusiasm paid off.
One of the lead production directors helped fast track my training on the other positions like graphics operator and audio. Of course, I did not stop there as I began to take interest in learning the final challenge of directing. It was also around this six month period that several production employees had transferred to other departments creating vacancies in key positions. One of those positions was for a weekend production director for KRBC which was just down the hallway. Given that I had been actively learning my production manager offered me the position.
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Thus, I made the move and joined the dark side with the KRBC crew as the new weekend director. During the week I was still a production assistant, but on the weekends I directed all of KRBC evening shows.
News Producer
Now I am not going to lie but directing a live show is no push over and honestly quite stressful. As soon as you hit the opener it is a straight adrenaline rush because it takes multitasking to the next level. Ensuring all production members stay on task, all cues are given, camera shots are all set in time, and handling all my own duties on the director's board. Plus, on the weekends we didn't have a producer so I had to share that responsibility with the anchor.
My work schedule was already quite bad, but now I was working every weekend with my position still being part-time. So, like always I continue to learn as much as I could to improve
my situation.
After about four months of directing, KRBC's evening producer resigned and its vacancy was temporary filled. I once again saw an opportunity, so I consulted my friends in the newsroom and with their guidance I applied for the role. Thankfully, I earned the position and was transferred to the news department in January of 2019.
This was my first time in a producer role and it was definitely a trial by fire like my previous positions. I remember one time just a couple of weeks into the position our lead anchor who produced the 5PM show got sick and could not come in. Well little old me who barely had learned the work flow now had the 5, 6, and 10pm shows to produce basically by myself. Thankfully, we got through it all, but boy I will never forget that day. I eventually got used to the struggles of a news producer and over the next eight months learned how to overcome them.
As a full-time employee now, I was now in charge of the 6pm show. I knew these shows like the back of my hand, but there was still quite a learning curve. The first one being time management. I had four hours to produce my show, yet the issue was not having enough of time. It was that vital elements I needed like reporter packages or videographer footage basically all came in thirty minutes before the opener. All of which required all the essential details like CG times, lower thirds, adding all production cues, and more small details that ensure a smooth show. The number one lesson I learned was to always have a plan B. Then get a plan C ready because if it can go wrong it will.
In August of 2019, I finally said goodbye to my friends at the station and headed off to Dallas to pursue my bachelors in Animation & Gaming production at the University of Texas at Dallas. In the end my short run in the news industry was quite the learning experience, and now everything feels pretty easy compared to it. I cannot wait for the day when I once again take on the role of producer and persevere through new challenges with an amazing team of people.