Tube of Plenty (or not)

The TV news producing bidness can be very taxing. One only has a finite amount of time in which to squeeze news of the day. The problem may be exacerbated by the finicky news goddess who seems to prefer feast or famine, but nothing in between.

Tonight is a great example of feast: a sweeps package running nearly 4 minutes, a franchise package running 2:30, a night-side reporter package also running 2:30, a city council meeting, high school graduations, two weekend stabbings, two gubernatorial candidates in town. Typically, I've got about 9 minutes for actual news content. The three packages took all of it. Sports was full, but I could steal a little from weather.

Fortunately, I've learned a bit from Mervin Block, writing and rewriting until the stories were short, sharp, and strong (I hope). The result was a packed, but informative cast. At least I hope so.