View Full Version : Can you believe it?
gocanes
Dec 5th 2007, 03:15 PM
Has any one ever heard of taping an 11 o'clock news cast for the holidays? Our idiot GM wants to tape it so "The night time anchors can go to the Christmas party."
I'm serious. Wow.
Gil
Dec 5th 2007, 06:12 PM
Yes, I have seen stations in the eastern time zone tape the late news on Monday nights when ABC still had football. In fact, I think is one in the central time zone that comes to mind as well.
Usually it is an attempt to save overtime rather than to attend a station function.
I suppose it is too much to hope for that the station will tell viewers the newscast has been recorded ahead of time?
rawhead rex
Dec 5th 2007, 06:17 PM
when some broadcasts carried "recorded live" on screen.
Produce man
Dec 5th 2007, 07:20 PM
LOL, "recorded live".
Nature Boy FriarTuck00
Dec 6th 2007, 12:57 PM
Yeah, at one station I worked at many moons ago, they'd pretty much tape any 11:00 show if it was after a football or baseball game.
We even did it a few times if the network ran one of those movies that would go until 11:30. We'd roll at 10:30 with one shot to get it right, and if we didn't, then we'd have to do it live.
gocanes
Dec 7th 2007, 09:15 AM
But seriously, for a Christmas party? This isn't a sports special. It's just an excuse for the anchors to go get bombed. Believe me, I am all for the occassional drink, but I just don't think it's a good idea to have a GM making decisions about journalism based on making a party.
MaryRichards
Dec 11th 2007, 07:37 PM
Yeah, I remember the shop across the street would tape their 11 pm 'casts if they were going to air late after a basketball or football game, and maybe a movie too. But that was a much smaller market and many moons ago.
But a Christmas party?
This GM obviously a) has no idea how important breaking news is to the industry these days, and b) how effed he'd be if his tanked anchors went back to the desk to report the death of the mayor/local plane crash/you name it.
Sir Dropham Pants
Dec 12th 2007, 04:48 AM
I worked at a station many years ago that did that - once. The following year, we did the show live and the director was hammered. Fortunately there was one other sober director at the party who was none-too-happy about having to leave to punch someone else's show.
Bureau Chief
Dec 12th 2007, 07:42 AM
Seriously folks, its just television. Whats it gonna hurt that the info on the tape is 30 minutes older than normal? In most markets, there is nothing that will change on most 11 pm stories till early morning. Get over yourselves, its just teevee! LOL
If there is some major story that is breaking at the time, then things may need to be re-thought or a reporter held over. There has been many times when I thought we should tape rather than have a bunch of people sitting around the newsroom playing on the computer waiting for the football game to end. In a small market like ours, theres no excuse.
MaryRichards
Dec 12th 2007, 06:07 PM
BC - maybe nothing happens in 30 minutes in BFE.
In my market, the lead could change three times in the last half hour before 11. I think that's in part because of the size of the metro and also because of the competitive climate and push for a breaking headline in my market.
So it's all relative.
In this city - no way in hell you'd see any of the stations taping their 11. That daypart is a dogfight.
SpxGrunt
Dec 18th 2007, 08:44 AM
I can one-up everyone on this one. When I worked in a really small market back in the day, we didn't just tape our newscast for 11pm on Christmas and New Years Eve, we re-aired the 6pm! In sports, the ND told us "just do some generic stories or bowl game highlights from earlier in the day so your sportscast won't be dated by 11."
Produce man
Dec 18th 2007, 12:15 PM
Seriously folks, its just television. Whats it gonna hurt that the info on the tape is 30 minutes older than normal? In most markets, there is nothing that will change on most 11 pm stories till early morning. Get over yourselves, its just teevee! LOL
If there is some major story that is breaking at the time, then things may need to be re-thought or a reporter held over. There has been many times when I thought we should tape rather than have a bunch of people sitting around the newsroom playing on the computer waiting for the football game to end. In a small market like ours, theres no excuse.What about WX?