DeBlog: How Does The Morning News Get On The Air?
By Kate Raddatz, Good Question Intern
Working in TV news isn't your typical 9-5 job. When you work in morning TV news, you face an even bigger challenge: your sleep schedule.
This week, I shadowed Jason while he was filling in for Mike Binkley in the anchor chair at WCCO This Morning.
A lot goes into putting on the news programs in the morning. At WCCO there's a 4:30, a 5, a 5:30, a 6, a 6:30 a.m. and then a noon broadcast to fill. That's a lot of time! Compare it to the nightly news where there's a 5, 6, and 10 p.m. The morning news has to find the right balance of content and conversation to give viewers.
The on-air team at WCCO This Morning is pretty diligent with their bedtimes to accommodate their unusual work schedules. All of them go to bed before 8 p.m. It makes sense. The team typically arrives at the station around 3:30 in the morning!
That doesn't even include the overnight producers who are researching and picking stories for the next morning. They could work 9-5 ... that's 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Things I learned interning the early morning shift: there's hundreds of scripts for the morning newscasts, the anchors and reporters do their own makeup (yep, the guys too!), and working at those hours really does change your life.
Is it still hard sometimes for the WCCO team to get up at 2 a.m.? Yep! Angela Davis admitted to sleeping through her alarm once (pretty good for one day out of five years). But the whole morning team alters sleep schedules and social lives to do what they love: bring you the news.
Check out my video above to see more of what goes on at WCCO in the early hours of the morning!
