Be All You Can Be

"It's time to get this show on the road."

As I was going up to the production room during tonight's 5:00 p.m. broadcast, I thought about the wording of that common phrase.

"Ha! We really are working on a show!"

The last two days of interning at KAKE-TV have encouraged me to really get my head in the game about the broadcasting business.

So what if the package isn't always perfect? So what if you get scooped by a competing station? So what if the background sound ruins your soundbite? So what if the board-runners mess up the order of the supers? (Supers are the little labels at the bottom of the screen.)

Things happen. Problems arise.

But, for every road under construction, there is a detour. For every door, there is a window. For every obstacle that comes your way, there's a way around it, or over it, or under it... most of the time.

Talking to some of the anchors, reporters, and producers, I have found out that there are so many things to this business.

Things aren't always perfect, but that can't be said in any job, really.

There is a lot of investigation. There is a lot of interacting with people, interviewing them about their reactions. There are so many opportunities to get to know the community, the state, the nation, and the international community so much better. (And maybe the space community, if you're into NASA news?)

There is some kind of a label that people carry around when they work at a TV station (especially the reporters and anchors). People recognize them at the grocery store. Organizers ask them to judge their events. Even police officers sometimes remember them, as one photographer told me, when they get pulled over for speeding.

But, even more so, they get the opportunity to -- in some cases -- change people's lives... to inspire people with others' stories of courage, honor... to inform people with stories of their neighborhood's dealings (whether good or bad)... to interact with people and hear out their stories.

As someone once told me, "Every person has a story. News is not just about telling their story... it's about showing it, too."

So, in the meantime, as I continue to dive more and more into this crazy business of broadcast and journalism in general, I will keep things like a "one-man-band," "storyteller," and "the people you invite into your living room every night at 6 o'clock" in mind.

Until then, I will just borrow a line from that famous U.S. Army slogan -- "Be All You Can Be... A Journalist."