PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — After my first two weeks at WAVY, I can confidently say that I’ve learned more than I have in the past five years.
Before starting at WAVY, I had very little television broadcast experience. I took one class in the spring and used my phone to film all my various VOs, SOTs and VOSOTs. Television wasn’t on the radar at all.
In fact, the class I took almost completely discouraged me from television news. But every opportunity is a learning experience.
The best advice I received last year was to expand my skill set across various types of journalism. I am more of a print and radio journalist, but I thought television would be good to practice in the event a good job offer came along down the road.
I grew up watching bits of Sportswrap on WAVY whenever I had the time and decided I’d put myself out there and apply to be the WAVY sports intern. I didn’t really have a shot at getting the position. Did I?
One cold Michigan night, I received a call from Craig Loper, the sports director at WAVY. We talked about why I wanted to be in sports, what experience I had with editing and what my career goals were.
Here I am, two weeks into my work with the Sportswrap and I couldn’t be more proud of what I accomplished.
On my first real day, I worked with Craig to put together the whole show. He showed me how to use the system for script writing. Would you believe it — script segments I wrote aired on the show that night. I also edited some of the boards for local teams in VHSL soccer.
My second day was Brian Parsons’ first day back. We went to film the Cox vs Maury High School girls’ soccer game at Powhatan field. It was my first time using the camera and the footage I took didn’t make the broadcast.
However, being out in the field to help Brian capture the only goal of the game was still an absolute blast.
I just need more practice with the camera.
Since my first day, I have mainly helped with quick statistics and scores. I even got some hands-on time editing videos for the broadcast. If a game is still going on during broadcast, you bet I’m behind the scenes with score updates during the breaks.
Above all, I have learned to always ask questions. Even more so, don’t just ask how to do things. Ask if you can do things. Being the person that’s always there to help out is not only a great way to make a good impression, but it is the best way to do some really cool stuff.
It’s been surprising how much I’ve been able to do just because I asked to do it.
Although this has only been two weeks, so much has changed. I am happy to say that my view of television broadcasting is vastly different than before. So much so that I hope to continue television reporting or producing in some capacity in the future.
I know my opportunities during this internship will only grow exponentially, and I am very much excited to see what the rest of this internship has in store for me.
