So I'm finally kicking off my wonderful internship at the NBC 4 Studios! Although I only intern 3 days a week (Thursday, Friday & Saturday), those 72 hours are action packed! From going out on breaking news stories, helping to write the script for the news show or making calls for the reporters, each day has its own excitement.

On my 1st day, I started working at the Assignment desk and got the rundown on what all the Assignment Editors do, and believe me it's more than just answering the phones! They are responsible for assigning the reporters with a photographer, listening to the police scanners for a any breaking news, and then responding to the millions of calls and emails the station receives.
I just mainly transferred calls to various reporters and the weather and sports departments, wrote down story ideas people called in about, and looked up scripts of the news shows when people had questions or missed something in the program. I never knew that people would call in to rant about an anchor’s outfit, request an attorney, ask what day of the week it was, or curse about the weather report. I know it's the News, but they don't know everything!

I was excited to go out on my first story with the the anchor/reporter Mike Jackson, who's also the only black male on-air talent at NBC 4. He normally covers the Crime stoppers beat so we went to Delaware Couinty to interview the Sheriff about this robbery. The camera guy (or photographer aka "photog" as they're called in the business) on the story with us was Charles Busby, who also does the video work for my Church, New Salem and helped me get the internship.

On my Day 2, I went on another story with reporter, Patrick Preston, to a COTA bus stop on High Street where he had to talk live TV about an attack that took place on the bus. I asked him if he ever got nervous before he does a story, and he said that you get used to it after a while and realize that you're just doing a job like everybody else, except yours is on TV. I also got my official NBC 4 badge today so now I'm not just some random stranger roaming the station, I'm a part of the crew.

It's amazing how the pace of the news day changes dramtically from the weekday to the weekend. On Saturdays, not as much goes on, and the day is much more laid back. I got to go on a story with the weekend news anchor, Mindy Drayer, and she was so much fun to work with. No diva star attitude or anything, and she's been in the game for 20 years. We got to do a lighthearted piece on a girl that had a lemonade stand to raise money for her grandmother's cancer treatment. Mindy let me do the interview, and I was a little nervous at first because what if I didn't ask the right questions? But she said I did fine, and that you always want to cover the basics and ask what a regualr viewer who may know nothing about the topic wants to know.

One week down and 9 more to go...who knows what else will be in store at NBC 4!