Newscast #1 - Kayla Starcher - Spring 2021

To say that our first newscast was a whirlwind would be a vast understatement.

Our class had to quarantine for ten days before we were able to film, so we had to push the newscast back a week. This gave me more time to come into my own as a producer and get my feet under me. I spent a solid five hours one evening watching WVU Newscasts from years past just to see what I was working with. I studied scripts and rundowns from last year’s newscasts like they were sacred texts. 

The day we did initial story conferences with the reporters was long—it seemed to drag on forever. But I learned so much in those hours, sitting in on meetings with Professor Dahlia and the reporters. I’m comfortable with editing and newswriting, but not to the extent this job requires. In these short weeks since production began, I feel like I have doubled the amount of information that was originally rattling around in my brain.

Writing the script was my favorite part of making newscast one, aside from boothing the show on filming day. I’d never written a script that long before. I spent hours going over templates, researching topics, bouncing ideas of the reporters, and writing and rewriting the same paragraph until my fingers went numb. The final script is something I’m really proud of. It wasn’t perfect. It needed a solid round of revision from Professor Dahlia before it was show ready, but I think for my first time, it was great.

We were finally released from quarantine and permitted to go into the studio. I’m not a morning person in any way, but I was awake voluntarily at 6:00 a.m. because I couldn’t wait to get to the studio. I sat in the producer chair, and I wasn’t even nervous. Maybe I had a bit of jitters, but I felt confident that I knew what I was doing. I messed up a few times—gave the anchors a false cue or two—but I am proud of what I did. I can see myself continuing to do this happily for the rest of the semester and into my professional career.