What Do I Do?

I just finished up posts about the six month anniversaries of my graduation and the historic April 27th tornado outbreak, so I thought you might want to know what I have been doing for the past six months.  (Or maybe I am somewhat vain for thinking that.  At least my family will get a good read out of it.)

I started interning at WCBI-TV in Columbus, MS in January of 2010 which was during my junior year of school.  (The station is about 30 minutes from MSU.)  I went in two mornings per week to intern under the morning guy, Jason Dunning.  I forget what time I had to wake up in Starkville, but I was always in Columbus around 4:15 AM and left after the morning show so I could get back to a full day’s worth of classes.  (As you will read in a minute, that hard work paid off!)  Jason definitely taught me a lot while I was there, and I am grateful for the experience.  After I had been there a few months, they started letting me do fill-in work, so that is where I made my live debut.

Fast forwarding about a year, I had been accepted to graduate school and was fairly set on going that route, but the News Director at WCBI offered me a job a couple of weeks before I was to graduate.  After weighing the pros and cons, I decided I could not pass up the job.  Several of my friends were going to move all over the country for jobs.  I was born and raised in North Mississippi;  It was too perfect to start out in an area I know and, most importantly to me, where all of my family could turn on the TV and watch me.  I know the geography here well, so I was  good fit.  (Don’t get me wrong.  I am definitely looking forward to spreading my wings at some point.  I do want to experience life outside of the Magnolia State!)  I’ll admit I was not too thrilled about starting to work full-time only two days after graduation.  A little break would have been nice!  But I won’t complain.  (A couple of my classmates are still job hunting.)

I work Monday through Friday as the morning and noon meteorologist.  I usually get to the station around 3:45 AM (thankfully I live a block away) to prepare for the three hour morning show.  At first it felt like I was running a marathon, but now the three hours go by somewhat quickly, and I use every weather hit to try and improve.  In addition to weather, I also record a weekly financial segment called Dollars & Sense where I interview a local financial analyst.  I also have a weekly segment called Get Fit Fridays where I interview a local fitness guru.  I usually go to the gym earlier in the week to get footage of whatever we are talking about to show during the live interview.  Of course, I edit that myself and enjoy doing that.  On Thursdays, I have the 1st Time 4Caster segment where a kid (4th-12th grade, usually) comes in and does a 3-Day forecast.  Everyone loves the segment, and it is probably one of the highlights of my week.  It has been great getting to work in several facets of the news business–not just weather.  (However, when it comes down to it, I am a scientist/meteorologist, and that is my passion.

Being in a small-medium size market, I also have a lot of free reign.  I build all of my shows and do not have to consult with others about graphics I use or areas of the country that I talk about.  I also got together with our website guy and totally redesigned the weather page for our station.  I put a LOT of effort into my work.  I want the final product to look good, and I want to grow as much as I can while I am there and while I have the kind of creative freedom that has been given to me.

I have already had some neat opportunities.  I got to introduce bands at a local festival, and I have spoken to school kids as well as senior citizens about weather.  I’ll admit, I was more nervous about those school talks than I should have been, but they turned out fine, and I have enjoyed educating the public on a personal level about weather safety.  And no, it still hasn’t gotten old getting recognized in public!