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Intern Name: Mark Hamilton
Internship Site: KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM and 1160 AM
Emphasis: Broadcast Journalism
Semester and Section: Fall 2008, Section 001
Week Number: 2
Number of Hours This Week: 19.5
Week 2 Report:
This is actually the first such report I have written for my internship, because I started a few weeks ago (before the semester even started) but it wasn’t counting as official University Credit until it was officially approved about a week and a half ago.
I can’t tell you how fortunate I consider myself to be completing my internship requirement with KSL Newsradio. Specifically, my internship is the Sports Radio Internship, and my responsibilities lie with Greg Wrubell, “The Voice of the Cougars.” It is wonderful to work with him, and I already feel like I am making huge contributions to the production team at KSL Broadcast House. I have heard horror stories of internships where you are basically a glorified slave, being sent to make coffee or to make copies and run errands. My biggest concern was that I wanted to feel needed and appreciated. And I do.
My only two complaints are the hours and the commute. It is rough working a part-time job and going to school full-time in Provo and doing an internship in Salt Lake. This is more or less how my week usually goes:
Mondays, at 9:30 a.m., I meet Greg at Legends Grille here on BYU campus. I help him set up the audio equipment for the BYU Football Press Conference that starts at 10:00 a.m. We not only record the press conference for posting to the web and for future use in radio broadcasts throughout the week, but it is broadcast live on the internet and KSL’s XM-radio frequency. Typically, a press conference starts with Coach Bronco Mendenhall, and then it breaks up into pool interviews of two of the players. That is where I spring into action, and I am expected to record good audio from both players and even ask them questions. I bring that back to Greg, and he uploads it to the internet.
Tuesday through Thursday, I’m up at KSL headquarters from 5:45 a.m.-8:45 a.m. Things are less set-in-stone, but usually, I am breaking up audio from press conferences, teleconferences, interviews, etc. into 5-15 second sound bites that can be used for broadcast. I also compile a list of these sound bites, called a “cut list” and distribute it to on-air personalities, such as Greg Wrubell. All of this is done digitally (or “non-linearly”). During the week, I also update stats sheets from the previous week’s game. All of the preparation up to this point is leading us to “game day,” typically on Saturdays. If you’re keeping a running-total, you probably realize at this point that after four days, I’ve barely done half of my hours for the week. That’s because…
Saturdays (or whatever day is game day), I have to be at KSL Headquarters 2 hours before game time. So, if the kickoff is at 1:30 p.m. like it was this week, I have to be there at 11:30 a.m. As soon as I get there, I am working with on-air personalities Randolph Fairbairn, Paul McHardy and Andrew Adams, pulling sound bites from other Mountain West Conference games, and the top-25 ranked teams’ games. This helps them with the pre-game show, spots during timeouts in the actual BYU game, and their halftime show. This all goes in a cut list like I described earlier. During the BYU game, these responsibilities continue, and I also answer KSL Newsradio’s main phone line, and also keep a running cut list of sound bite highlights from the BYU game. When the game ends, I record the post-game shows, and keep a running list of possible sound bites to cut later. When the post-game shows end, they start the “Cougar Call-in Show,” and I become a call screener. I answer up to 10 phone lines, and take down the information of the callers. When the call-in show stuff is over, I cut the audio from the post-game press conferences, player interviews and coach interviews into sound bites for use during the next few days, and compile a cut list of that as well. Also, during a game we frequently receive calls from ABC Sports Radio (ESPN) or Fox Sports (FSN) requesting audio highlights from the game. I then convert the files into .mp3 format and e-mail them to the appropriate people, who then air them on national media. By the time I am done working on game days, I am understandably exhausted.
As you can tell, I needn’t have feared that I would be doing menial labor at KSL. They put me to work, and I give it everything I have. You can ask any of them, and they’ll tell you what they tell me on almost a daily basis—they couldn’t do it without me. It has been both fun, and rewarding thus far. I also feel like I am getting an invaluable education in what really goes on in a newsroom.
If I had to pin down what I specifically learned this week, I think it would be what one producer told me on Saturday. After telling me I did an awesome job, and thanking me for everything I do to make the show possible, I told him if there’s ever anything else I can do, to let me know. He thought for a second, and then said,
“OK, there is something, I guess, that I would tell you—‘Take the initiative.’”
He told me that I didn’t have to wait for anyone to ask me to do things…if I saw a need, I should just do it, and they would tell me if I was doing too much, or overstepping my bounds.
It is easy to be excited about going to my internship, even on early mornings when I’m getting up at 4:00 a.m. because it is a great atmosphere. I’m really grateful and fortunate to be working with a team of producers that are positive and work as a team, and tolerate my lack of experience while helping me to learn on the job—literally.
That’s it for this week.
Thanks!
~ Mark Hamilton
