Q. I've been working in radio news for six years now, and while I enjoy the job and the station where I work, I feel I should move into TV news.
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My job now has me doing live reports on scene every day, and I've won several awards, but I worry that my lack of a video aircheck will be a problem. What is the best way to get the TVs to open their door?
Living on Air
A. I went to an expert -- Paul Davis, program director for the
Foundation for American Communications -- for help on this one. Davis is one of the few journalists to have served as president of both the
Radio-Television News Directors Association and the
Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). He has extensive experience in both radio and TV, and spent nearly 13 years as news director at
WGN-TV, Chicago. For three of those years, he was also news director of
WGN Radio. -- Joe
Davis' advice:
"Ask a buddy who shoots for one of the local stations to shoot a stand-up for existing video they have, and then have the buddy edit in his voice-track using the station's script. If he/she is a strong radio person in which they are interested, they should have
already asked.
If the person looks normal, an audio tape only with a mug shot can be submitted. I hired several radio people into TV without them having a tape when I was in the 62nd market. One question they might have is if the person can also shoot video ... the new one-person band and all that. I would be willing to critique someone with only audio tape if they asked."
Davis, who volunteers his coaching and mentoring at several journalism conventions throughout the year, was doing it again at the SPJ conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.
Coming Wednesday: He wonders why employers rarely say in job postings how much they will pay. He thinks this would save everyone a lot of time.
Thanks for the help, Hans. Can you tell us what...
