My Life in Television: As it turns out, I still play with toys.

"There is an every day product that is most likely in your house that can kill you and your family right now, without warning... we'll tell you about that and much more coming up during our hour long newscast... stay tuned!"

I worked in local television news for thirteen years of my career.  I am a behind the scenes guy.  Should you ever see me on the news, it's probably because I robbed a bank... because local television doesn't always pay so well.  I'm kidding... I won't rob a bank...

I specialize in audio.  When I told my Mom what I did, she sent me this.
I come by my sense of humor honestly.

In television I have met some of the most amazing, generous, emotional and colorful people I could have ever imagined, outside of theater life.

When I was in school, a professor once asked our class, "What are television stations on the air for?"

We all knew this was a noble purpose.  We all knew we could easily find the right answer.  We all were wrong...

"To keep people informed"

"To serve the community"

"To protect our community"

"To keep the government in check"

"To report the news!"

The list went on.  Every member of the class tried to out do each other with the pure nobility that is working in the news.

Please keep in mind that I am not knocking on news.  I have much respect for the people who work in news.  Many of my friends still do so and there are times I often miss it.  Live television is a rush and a challenge, and being a part of a team that can reach your community with an important message can really ignite a spark within you.  Granted, I'm sure there are people that feel that way about working in fast food.   Seriously, click on this link.  There is a career out there for every one to feel passionate about.

But what our professor told us about that day was a rude awakening...  however, it was very much true.

" You have it all backwards.  Television stations are on the air to televise commercials.  TV stations are on the air to make money!  All of the shows you watch, including The Cosby Show (this was a long time ago) and even the news are the filler between the commercials!  Commercials make money!"

"HOLY CRAP.... TV is a Business" we all thought to ourselves?  It is.

So, when you watch the news, they want to keep you watching.  They need you to see the commercials.  It's a fair trade.  Really, you are staying informed and the news is staying on the air.  But the term commonly used, in the business, is that news can become "infotainment!"

After 13 years in local news, I left and made the step into commercial production.  It's a lot of fun and a completely different challenge and it's more closely affiliated with the core purpose of television; making money.  I didn't necessarily wish to leave the news game as I really did love it, but commercial production gave me more of a creative outlet and was more conducive to my home life and time with my daughter.  She is, quite often, my driving force.  Big surprise there, huh?

But I still have the bug for live television.  I still love the challenge and the thrill.

So now, I freelance in sports production.  It is wonderful!  I wish I could do it more often but I am sort of a "weekend warrior" in the field.  As well as the previously mentioned "challenge," the camaraderie is wonderful!

Depending on the scale of the show, everyone shows up on site for a broadcast either a day, a few days or just six hours before broadcast, or "air."  Whether there are 20 or 100 members on the crew, everyone knows their role for the broadcast and their place in the hierarchy.  Each member is focused on their job and typically they do this very professionally!  We work together as a team and we usually work together quite well.

I have a lot of respect for most of the people I work with.  Inside jokingly (I think I just made that up), I mostly respect the audio people.  I am an audio people and we are seriously outnumbered on these shows... we have to stick together!!!!  But overall, we all get along well, doing our respective jobs.

Quite often these are ten hour work days.  We spend the six hours before the broadcast setting up our equipment and making sure everything works.  We spend the first few minutes of the broadcast on the air hoping nothing broke since you last checked it.

Being on the air is the easy part.

And then we spend a few hours after the show putting everything away.  I love these shows and I love these days.  And in all seriousness, I would never sit back with my feet up on a console during a broadcast.

I walk away from these shows with a real sense of accomplishment having aired a live program that was very challenging/ exciting, that was aired to very much keep you entertained while not even hiding the fact that it is making money, without any pre-determined outcome.  It's very fulfilling.

So.... this past weekend I televised a women's soccer match (yes yes yes..." football" for the non-American readers out there... I have no idea why we don't call it football here.  The name seems very accurate for this particular sport. Moving on...)

I had told my daughter that the game would be over by 4.  It was over by 4:05.  At five she called me from home very upset.  "Daddy... why aren't you home now?  You said the game would end an hour ago?!?!?"

Of course I explained to her that I would be home soon and that we were all working very hard to clean up everything we were using to put the show on the air.

She took in what I said and replied with "So, you've been playing with your friends all day and now you have to clean up your room and put away all of your toys?"

With a tear in my eye and a smile I could not hold back, I simply replied "yes dear.. exactly!"  I was home within the hour.

See what I've done here? 

I typed this terribly long story about how serious I am about my career and how much I understand and appreciate every aspect of it only to really tell you how sweet my kid is and how wonderful a child's perspective can truly be!