A day with NewsCenterU

By Maisha Downey

With a staff of 25 students, teamwork is essential for success at NewsCenterU, the weekly campus TV news program.

Every Friday the group meets for two hours and tapes the next week's show.

At 2 p.m. half of the staff works with the technical details in the studio and control room. This includes composing camera shots, creating graphics, and checking the sound levels on both anchors.

At 3 p.m. the rest of the crew arrives and ties up any loose ends before the actual taping begins at 3:30 p.m.

When the anchors are taped in the studio, the technical staff makes sure that the correct supers appear on the screen to identify interview subjects and that the anchors are looking into the correct camera.

The entire program is usually taped in less than thirty minutes. Anchors and reporters must quickly fix mispronounced words because the filming is done in one take.

After the week’s news, weather and community calendar are taped, the show's producer gathers the staff to discuss aspects that should be improved. Transitions between stories, sound levels and graphics are some of the items evaluated.

Because the staff switches job responsibilities every two weeks, they are forced to help each other learn to keep the show running smoothly.

The program airs on the campus cable channel 19 daily at 8:30 a.m., 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

Any student interested in joining the NewsCenterU staff is encouraged to send an email to unews@uwrf.edu.