Who Else Works in Television Broadcasting?

Appreciate hearing from you. Perhaps you'd care to comment, tech-wise, about this current post contrasting live 1080i images from CBS and NBC. As indicated, was wondering if true-1080i bit rates (what vs CBS?) from NBC multicasting might account for NBC's live-1080i look, which seems to get lambasted often here. Thanks. -- John

I currently work for Comcast Spotlight in Little Rock, AR. Spotlight is the ad sales division of Comcast and I am a commercial producer. I worked for a couple of years editing for a local newscast at a Fox affiliate before that, and spent several more years in production and master control at a smaller independent Christian TV station prior to that.

There are dozens of TV industry members that participate at AVS, and countless more that read us on a daily basis.

Do people in television actually work? Don't they just sit around and, well, watch TV? Maybe get a blister on your little finger, maybe get a blister on your thumb. That ain't working - that's the way you do it. Get your money for nothing and get your chicks for free.

I worked in television for almost 20 years and whenever people say how great it is to sit around and watch TV for a living, I remind them of two things - the pay generally sucks and the TV sets that surround you only get one channel. And of course there's some work required as well...

I'm a freelance Director/Editor. Yes I sit around and watch TV all day. Then I go home and sit and watch TV all night. I'm a facinating individual.

Well, I do have a cable box in my edit bay with every channel Comcast offers here, and I'll usually have a movie on in the background, but there are days that I'm running all over the city or beyond lugging a camera, tripod and light kit, so it balances out. And yeah, as lokar said, the money ain't great. Maybe if your a GM or other bigwig, but not for most of us.

I am Manager of Studio Operations/Director for Sun Sports/FSN Florida. I handle all the operational stuff at the studio and direct the studio programming. Been in the business 24 years

Ahhh, the great "do you want quantity or variety" debate.

I was an Engineer up until 3 months ago, got out of the business for more money and better hours. Mainly handled the MCR and News automation systems, but did transmitter and studio maintenance as needed.

Used to work Master Control too several years ago ( I sometimes miss my friend the BetaCart).

i'm a freelance technical director. If you don't know what that is, I'm the guy who hits the buttons to actually edit the show live. If you see a camera change from 1 to 2 or a graphic come in, or a replay happen or some kind of transition, I'm the person hitting the buttons to make that happen. I take direction from the director primarily. Generally, the technical director is also in charge of making sure all the facilities are ready for air, working properly, etc. On some union shows, like for ABC, i'm also the "supervisor" of the technical crew. I work for just about every major sports network. I started at local stations doing everything from audio engineer to directing the 5,6,10pm news. After that I moved into marketing/promotions which was awesome doing 35mm films shoots from helicoptors, etc.

Those who think people in television don't work haven't done 5 baskeball games in 5 days in 3 timezones for 2 different networks in the middle of winter.

I'm what's called a "Studio Engineer", as opposed to the guys on the mountain, who are the "transmitter engineers".

We design (some), install (most), maintain (nearly all), and operate (some) of the equipment.

I also work with satellite (Bonneville Satellite Company, our sister operation), do the MATV system design and operation, interface with the Cable and DBS companies, and do troubleshooting of interference and reception problems.

Been hanging around TV and Radio stations since I was a kid. Worked in electronics in the Navy (and, at a local radio station, P/T), TV station back home for a couple of years, KSL for the last 28.

Got started in radio in high school. After college became the night man and engineer for a D/T AM/3kw automated FM where I was thrown in a 3 year period an AM channel change and diplex an additional AM on the same tower, rebuilt 3 studios, and rebuilt the automation. Then was hired to upgrade an underbuilt 100 kw FM, convert an old line AM to automation and co-located with the FM, transfered to another company owned station and build out another underbuilt 100 kw FM in a larger market and while with this company assisted other engineers with underbuilt upgrades in several upper medium/small large markets. Then got into TV in the early 90's when the stations Transmitter Supervisor retired where I still am and are (now a FOX O & O station after the big network swaps of the mid to late 90's) but not only doing transmitter duty, I also do all of the audio projects and many of the RF projects (my boss' strong point is RF so he calls for some of those projects for himself!)

Hey, just another day in paradise!

I started my career in broadcasting as a Master Controler, cool name...boring job, except for the fact that I could record my fav shows directly off the sat feed days in advance. But don't tell the boss. I then worked as a Promotions Producer for the same station. Small Arkansas Christian Network. Currently I'm enjoying my new job as Producer/Shooter/Editor at UAMS (Univ. AR for Medical Sciences) office of Marketing & Communications. Some of the stuff I do sees broadcast, like the commecials for the hospital, but it's a lot of in-house stuff that never sees the light of day in the broadcast spectrum. The real rush comes from filming surgeries...that never gets old. "I'm sorry Doc, but could you do that incision again so I can get another angle?...Thanks."

I don't work on the broadcasting side, but I am a visual effects producer for one of the leading VFX companies for television. In a typical season, our company is working on anywhere from 14-20 different network TV shows. Although I don't personally appear on them, you can see some of my coworkers on the Heroes and Ugly Betty season 1 DVD sets. The "Green is the new Black" segment on the Betty discs is a particularly good example of the kinds of invisible effects we do for dozens of shows you aren't even aware of. It's fun but crazy hours. Browsing AVS Forum is my way of taking a few minutes to relax each day during lunch.

34 years of both radio (primarily) and TV (2 years).....
Radio was everything from DJ to transmitter/studio engineer/CE...Oh...did I also mention...in the smaller market facilities, I not only tuned transmitters...I cleaned toilets.....
In the early '80s I worked as Transmitter Supervisor for WMUR-TV9 in Manchester, NH....at the time there was NO STL (studio-transmitter link), so there was a rotating crew that ran the transmitter from a mountaintop about 6 airline miles from the studio (strangely, there WAS a TSL for the ABC network feed (6 GHz link)...it was WWII surplus, "heavily modified"....
Got out of the industry in 2004, after a short (~1 year) part-time stint with NH Public Radio, as weekend board op/asst. engineer....
Nope....as others have attested...NO big bucks here.....just lots of fame, glory and sex.....(BTW..if you believe that last one....I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'm trying to unload, cheap.....0

I worked in broadcast for 8 years, PBS, then a NBC affiliate, and a CBS affiliate, working in the creative service departments mostly. Then I moved on to working for non-broadcasters, so I could utilize my skills in graphic design and web design/development, as well as Video production, editing, and effects. I'm also a home theater junkie so AVS forum is a site I visit daily. You can see my portfolio at www.kevinmanus.com

also, in regards to the post about watching T.V. all day, people in television actually work long , hard hours under tight deadlines, and with the knowledge that you can be fired at the drop of a hat for a small mishap, new managment, or whatever the news director or GM seem to think may prevent them from losing their own jobs. All of this stress for horrible pay. If there is anything bad to say about small and mid-market local T.V. It's that these conditions are making it harder and harder to find qualified individuals, and that the end product is indeed suffering.... just my 2 cents

I'm a software developer for Florical Systems, a TV broadcast automation vendor.

- Tom

Hey cool, the station that I recently left ran Florical, we started way back on the first version of AirBoss NT. I worked with Barry, Dale, etc on various issues throughout the years.

I've only been with them since late last year. But it's fun stuff.

Before that I was also working on broadcast related software, but less directly (with a now-failed small startup company).

PM me your name and I'll pass along greetings.

- Tom

I presently work in maintenance at KXTV Sacramento and sell consulting and design services on the side as Video Technical Resource.

Television equipment designed by me and sold by Grass Valley Group starting in the mid-eighties on include the 9505/9510/9520 NTSC sync pulse generators, the 9560 PAL sync pulse generator, the CV-20 series component analog format converters and NTSC encoder except for the CV-24, the MAX series M9201/9221/9211 analog NTSC to/from D2 digital equipment, the M9131/9136 SDI distribution amplifiers, the SMS 8301/8103 CAV to/from SDI converters, the SMS8121-FS SDI frame sync, the SMS8116 autotiming SDI to analog NTSC converter, the 8980 HD tri-level sync generator, and the last thing I did for them which is the 8981-FS SDI frame sync. All of this was done as a contract engineer. You can often find this stuff on EBAY now. I was a GVG employee for a while before all that and worked for a while on the venerable 300 switcher design team. If any of you out there are still using any of this equipment I hope it continues working well for you.

Prior to doing all that I worked in maintenance at KTXL and as a transmitter engineer at KVIE in Sacramento. It all started with a BSEE from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California back in the ealy 70s.

My broadcasting career covered the entire gamit, just about. My first job was part time board operator at WMEX, an AM station in Boston, in 1962 while going to broadcasting school. Upon graduation I got a full-time on air position at WSJR, a 1k day/250w night station in Maine, in 1963 for $55 a week. Whoopie!

There I found out that I wouldn't be going very far if I stayed in an on-air position. Uncle Sam came knocking on my door and the draft was coming so I joined the Air Force and got into electronics maintenance.

When I got out of the AF I decided to put my electronics training together with my continued interest in broadcasting and signed up at DeVry Tech in Chicago. Upon graduation I got my FCC First and got a job at WCIU-TV there. A couple of years later I changed jobs and worked for 10 years in the radio-TV-audio department of media services at Northeastern Illinois University. During that time I built a low power FM station, WZRD, that went on the air in 1974.

In 1979 I moved to San Francisco and was hired by ABC. I worked as a board engineer at their AM and FM stations, KGO and KSFX. In 1985, I was transferred to KGO-TV where I worked until retirement three years ago. At KGO I did just about every engineering job there is - projection, camera operator and later robotic camera operator, graphics, still store, video tape, tape editing, audio, and finally TD. I spent my final years as a TD in Master Control.

Without a doubt, it was an interesting career! I saw so many changes over the years it's hard to remember all that was involved in the various positions. The biggest changes, of course, were caused by the introduction of the computer. But that's another story.

Larry
SF

My bosses dream job! He keeps saying his final years before retirement, he wants a nice QUIET MCO job!

I have a question for all you guys. Why is it necessary to fill uip our screens with all kinds of garbage like bugs and crawls and whatever else they desire.

Thanks in advance

That's a question for the producers, executive producers, editors, commissioning editors, channel controllers, consultants, marketing executives etc... Very few of whom will be reading this thread...

i'm an anchor/reporter/producer at a small market tv station...and the simple answer to the question of why you have all that crap on your screen is because we're ordered to by the higher-ups (either the news director or the GM). We don't really have a choice in the matter. I understand the need for letting the public know at times about certain news items (ex: school closings), but I can understand your frustration: it would be nice just to be able to watch the news orr even tv shows without having some huge crawl falsh up on the screen because of something that could have waited until a less intrusive moment. Anywya, to comment, i log onto these forums after a long day of work to catch up on high-def release/programming news. Helps me relax after reporting on the depressing stuff you see all day on the news...
anyway, my main msg is don't blame the on-air personalities or the prodicers for the crawls, blame the higher-ups...if they're really bad and are an eyesore and an annoyance where you live, call your respective station and complain...they do sometimes listen if enough people call and threaten to switch to another station for their news-watching habits...it's all about the ratings and the advertising money that goes along with it...

Who do I call about SD programming being stretched all the time?