OT: Looking for Producer of Magazine-style Show: to consult with us.

[Mark Suszko]

This kind of thing was my internship in college: I was the producer for the wednesday edition of a weekday show very much like PM Magazine. We had one producer assigned for every day of the week, responsible for all the programming for his or her day, and a supervisor to coordinate us all.

Each weekday had it’s own main theme; it could be pets, travel, home improvement, culture and entertainment, human interest, etc. a secondary theme, and some filler pieces.

My responsibility as day producer was to go out and find story ideas and guests to interview on location or in the studio. This was before the internet, so my main technique was to randomly flip thru the yellow pages until I hit on something that stood out, then I’d work the phones. I had to write the scripts and prompter copy, then assist the director keeing time during the tapings and advising when to roll in various tape elements. We tried hard to roll everything live-switched to tape to avoid more time-consuming editing.

The format would be: taped open, pair of hosts give a rundown of what’s to come, a short break, back with segment one, break, some patter in reaction, break, back with segment two, more reacting between the hosts, break, back with in-studio interview live to tape with someone relating to one of the two taped segments, then community calendar and news, some patter about the location, if we did a remote taping of the hosts. Then a quick look ahead to the next day, and out, about 25 minutes. We would shoot remote interview packages early in the week, post for one or two days, then roll those segments into a live to tape recording on Friday. Friday we recorded a week’s worth of episodes and then they would play the following week. So you were always working on at least two shows, the current one and one a week ahead. The filler pieces were things like community calendars and news stories with a 2- week shelf life, not too current, obviously.

We also had to be crew for each other’s segments, so in addition to producing my day, I would be a reporter or cameraman for anotehr producer’s “day”. I have to say I reveled in this job and it was super hands-on; I got to do everything there but run the head-end itself. My fellow students had menial internship jobs at the big ad agencies or O&O network stations downtown, but all they were allowed to run was a copier or coffee machine. Me, I wound up with skills and a reel, ready to work.

[Bill Davis]

I somehow missed this.

If you’re still looking, my wife contributes on-air segments to a local daily broadcast show of this type.

I could ask her to check on if her producer would be open to talking to you.

He’s run a show of this type on a daily basis for many years.

You can reach me via email here.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Ralph Chaney]

Bill,

Yes, if her producer could lend his advice and experience to our project, that would be great!

Please ask your wife to go ahead. We could work with him in whatever way he prefers.

Thanks, Bill, much.

-R.

-> Ralph