The post will be showcasing my experience as an intern for the Hampton Roads Show at WAVY for the Spring 2024 semester.
This semester has been a whirlwind of excitement and new experiences for me. This is all thanks to being an intern for the Hampton Roads Show (HRS). I went from feeling hopeless and confused about my career after graduating because of my lack of experience to having a better idea of what I want to do after May.
INTERNSHIP ANALYSIS
As an HRS intern, my responsibilities include setting up the studio before the show starts. This includes turning on the lights and monitors, setting chairs for the guest interviews, and tidying up the kitchen for chefs. After setting up the studio I give the hosts their mics and mic the guests. During the show, I floor direct by giving the host time cues from the director and doing any last-minute preparations for the show from the producer. Below is a video of me calling out cues for the start of the show.
Once the show is finished, I have to clean up the studio by turning the monitors off and washing the dishes if we have a chef on the show. I also make sure to wipe down the surfaces in the kitchen and sweep the floor. Post-show, I write posts and clip videos from the segments in the show. After this, I do some producing by working on the rundown for the next day's show. With this, I was able to put to use the knowledge I gained from my News for TV and Digital Media class. In the rundown, I put in graphics for the monitors, filled the supers for the segments, script-match, put in the guest names, and filled in the sponsors board and wrap and credits board for the end of the show. On Wednesdays, I split these tasks up with another HRS intern, but on Fridays, I did these by myself. Despite all of these tasks, I was able to finish them all effectively, which I appreciate the internship for doing. There was not one moment where I felt stressed or struggled to balance the internship and assignments for my classes.
Among all of this, I've had the opportunity to go out on the field with one of the hosts to Newport News for a segment with TPMG Urology. During this, I was able to see the difference between being out on the field and working in the studio. I got an idea of how the camera set-up works, and got the chance to listen out for any audio issues during the interview with the urologists.
The guests on the HRS show has been one of my highlights from the internship. They never cease to amaze me with their businesses, events, talents, and help to the community. Everyone has been nothing but kind and patient with me when micing them up, especially when I first started. My favorite segment on the show is when we have Live Music Friday which is where we have local artists perform on the show. Although it is hectic when setting them up, their performances are amazing.
I especially enjoy seeing the starstruck look on their faces when they first walk into the studio. Seeing that look reminds me of the first time I walked in the studio and saw all the magic happening behind the scenes. Below is a video of me micing up one of guests.
A memorable guest that we had on the show was a pony named Prim from Triple R Ranch. I was shocked when I heard that we were going to have a horse on set because I didn't even think it was possible, but it was. Prim was so well-behaved and was one of my favorite guests on the show.
Another infamous guest that we had on the show was Rob LaZebnik, who is the writer and co-Executive Producer of The Simpsons. He had came on the show to talk about the challenge he set for himself to try 60 things he's never done before he turned 60. One of these things was being a Grand Marshal for 71st Parade of Nations in Norfolk. Meeting LaZebnik was a special moment for me as I am a huge fan of The Simpsons and consider it a comfort show of mines. I thought he was going to be intimidating due to his status, but he was really kind and down-to-earth.
I also spent some time in other departments at WAVY. I sat down with the sales department and learned the importance of sales for the studio. I started the day by sitting at the department’s morning meeting and got a grasp on how their meetings typically work. After that, I learned about how important the number of viewers is for sales during TV screenings of the news in the area. I also learned how sales gain their clients and the creative aspect of it by them having to create presentations and ideas to get their client's attention. I also sat down with the promotions department and learned about the different types of content they produce and the endless amount of ideas they have to come up with to create eye-catching promos for WAVY. It was a very different experience seeing them create the content rather than seeing it on TV.
WHAT THE INTERNSHIP DID WELL/ADVICE FOR ORG.
I really enjoyed my internship experience and don't have much advice for how to improve it. One thing that I would recommend WAVY to do would be to give the interns more tasks. There would be days where I would finish early or wouldn't have much to do. I would also recommend having more hands-on stuff to do when shadowing departments rather than just sitting down and talking. Other than that, WAVY did wonderful in treating the interns the same as employees and giving them the same amount of respect. Before starting I was worried about the employees being annoyed with me because of me being an intern, but they immediately proved me wrong. Everyone at the station welcomed me with open arms and treated me as an equal. Another thing that WAVY did good in doing was giving interns a hands-on experience within their departments and not being afraid to put us out there.
SMART GOALS
In the beginning of the semester, my SMART goals were:
Explore all the WAVY departments to find my career path.
Increase my interpersonal skills, such as listening and speaking clearly, without shutting down when speaking to higher authorities.
Increase my knowledge on what occurs behind the scenes in the news industry.
The SMART goals that were met was increasing my interpersonal skills and increasing my knowledge on the news industry. Since interning at WAVY, I have gotten comfortable with greeting people and having everyday conversations with them regardless of their status and position. At first I was hesitant to do this out of fear of appearing unprofessional, but the environment at WAVY is very welcoming and laidback at times. Everyone was willing to have a conversation and answer any of my questions. I also gained this through talking to the guests and interacting with them.
As for the third goal, I definitely got a better grasp of how the news industry works since being in it. It has its times where it's stressful and there's a lot going on, but it also has its fun and chill times. There are times working at HRS where I had to do a lot of running back-and-forth, and work under pressure with a time-constraint from the guests not arriving on time or technical issues with the mics. I learned that the industry requires a lot of patience and you have to maintain a cool-head in order to keep things out of control.
I was able to meet the first SMART goal partially as I haven't had the chance to explore all the WAVY departments yet, but I was able to find my career path. I want to take a stab at producing and doing news writing for broadcast news or for magazines and blogs. Writing has always been a passion of mines and working in the scripts for HRS has opened my eyes to this passion.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY IN A FUTURE WORK EXPERIENCE?
What I would do differently in a future work experience is be less timid and more confident in what I am doing at the job. At WAVY, I noticed that I still had some of that timidness I had before interning there. Despite me getting comfortable with my tasks, I still have some hesitance. Also, I want to be more comfortable in doing things by myself. There were some times that I relied on the other intern I worked with to do some things because I was afraid of doing them wrong. I want to change this and stop being afraid of making mistakes. I've been a perfectionist all my life so the thought of doing something wrong gives me anxiety, but in my next experience I want to change this. Another thing that I would do differently is take charge of things instead of waiting for someone to tell me to do it. This internship taught me that its okay to do this and that it is actually recommended to do so to learn the job better.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR ME PROFESSIONALLY?
After this blog post and semester, I will still be interning at WAVY for the next few weeks. After my internship, I plan on pursuing a career in journalism. I hope to start working in the news industry at local stations, such as WAVY, and/or news publications. I want to find a job outside of Hampton Roads, but for a starter, I don't mind working in the area to gain more experience.