How Could I Forget My First NHL Experience?

On March 10th I covered the Capitals vs. Penguins hockey game. It was a lot more crowded than Wizards games. The first way I noticed this is by the lack of parking. Normally I don't have trouble finding parking during basketball games but I had such a hard time trying to find parking for the Caps game. When I made it through the press check-in I went upstairs to the top of the Verizon Center. This is where reporters sit for hockey games compared to the almost court-side seats we enjoy during Wizards games.

I really didn't get to watch much of the hockey game at all! I was keeping John updated on the scores of away games like the Wizards and other NHL games. During both intermissions, I went down to the main concourse level to interview fans in a man-on-the-street style. Since this was Evgeny Kuznetsov's first game with the Caps my focus was to get a variety of people to express their feelings towards his arrival and his performance so far. I was happy to get at least eight clips of usable audio for the feature department of WTOP to put in their community piece.

After the game John sent me to collect audio from players and the coach's post game conference by myself. He was anchoring all sports casts for WTOP from the Verizon Center so he couldn't leave the dial in device set up in the pressbox. It allows him to call into the station and broadcast his updates live on the air every :15 and :45 of the hour. After a certain time of the night sports is increased to the :30 of every hour as well. This was my first time ever being at a hockey game, let alone covering one professionally. I was unfamiliar with the routine of the media and where exactly to go- John gave me general instructions but nothing specific. I asked staff for directions to the locker room and followed other reporters around the locker room. I assumed whoever the huge group of media swarmed around to get audio would be the important players to record.

After that, I went to the coaches press conference and sat really close to record his comments through the mic and recorder I had. When I went back to the pressbox with John, I began to edit the audio. This was one of my first times editing game audio and trying to locate interviews on the jumbled memory card he supplied me with inside the recorder. Turns out the coach's audio was unusable because there was too much static. From that night I learned to never use WAV format for audio like I was taught in one of my classes but to use MP3 format. I also learned to use the media box in the back of the press conference room to record audio straight from the microphone the coach talks into, and how to push my way to the front of players to get clear audio. I learned this is a very fast paced business. My editing skills are now so much faster since becoming familiar with what to look for in audio and what to cut out. I was informed that the designated length for radio clips is between 10 to 12 seconds and to send clips to the reporters when I am finished with each one individually, not to wait until I am done editing the entire person's audio.

It really made me a better editor and gave me an improved ear for picking out sound bites.

5/7/2014

Yesterday I helped with the Nationals day game. It was originally supposed to start at 1:05 in the afternoon but with a rain delay, first pitch was at 2:45 pm. It felt like I was at the field all day long- the game took forever. Afterwards, I want downstairs to record the manager's post-game conference and then I rushed over to the locker room to get audio from the players.
I learned I need to be pushy to get good clear audio and get the mic close to the players. It was also really cool when I was the only one to ask Doug Fisher if I could get a few words from him. I was nervous and slightly stumbled over some of my questions but I felt so accomplished afterwards that I could go up and ask him on my own and come up with some questions about his return to pitching after being placed on the DL. It all went so smoothly which is what I was very happy about- and no other news source thought to get audio from him. It was a very excited personal experience.
When that was finished, I edited the audio back in the press box and sent it to the sports reporter there from WTOP. He seemed very surprised with my quick work and getting so many clips edited and sent over to him.
Even though it started kind of rough, it turned out to be a good day.

5/5/14

On Monday, May 5th, I came into the station and edited a lot of post game audio. This included clips from four Wizards players and the coach after their game one victory in the second round against the Indiana Pacers. Then I waited during the rain delay for the Nationals game to continue. I didn't get out of the studio until 2 o'clock in the morning. This internship has definitely adjusted me to the late hours that come with sports reporting.
 Once the Nationals game began again, the sports reporter and I were talking about local sports and the outcome of the Wizards game. He gave me a brief explanation of his script writing process and advice from his experiences in the broadcast radio world. This included small station employment verse network radio.  

4/23/2014

On Wednesday I covered the Nationals baseball game against the LA Angels. I get there before the game starts to make sure the WTOP reporters have everything set up and have help with anything they need. Once the game starts, I keep score and stats for both line ups. I also keep the reporters updated on other sports games going on so they can include the scores in their sportscasts. This time included the Orioles updates, three NBA playoff games and three NHL playoff games. After the game was over, I went down to the coaches post-game conference and recorded his audio. Afterwards I rushed to the locker room to get some player comments. We were able to get Jayson Werth, Adam LaRoche, and pitcher Gio Gonzalez. Once that was over, I went back up to the press box and uploaded the audio and edited it. Once I cut up about 3 to 4 clips per person, I email them to the WTOP reporters with a description of each clip. They then used this audio on the radio during the sports segments.

4/9/2014

Last night I covered the Nationals Baseball game against the Miami Marlins. This was my first time covering a baseball game as well as being at Nat's park. While John Warner was focusing on the Nats game, he asked me to keep him updated on the Orioles game.Throughout the game I was also in charge of keeping score of the Nats game and how the players score and how far they make it around the bases and who got them out. The game lasted FOREVERRRRR. But when it finally wrapped up after 11, John and I went to college audio from the manager's post-game conference. Then we went into the locker room to get player audio and we went back to the press box to edit that audio for the radio segments.

3/26/14

This Wednesday I covered the Wizards game against the Phoenix Suns. I stayed with Dave Preston on the press stand that WTOP is assigned to while he dialed into the station every 30 minutes to give live updates on the radio. After the game, we went to the coach's post-game conference and recorded his Q&A with the media. Then Dave and I went back to the press room and I edited the coaches audio while Dave went to the locker room to get player audio. I was under deadline to edit 4 audio clips to send back to the station and play it on air by the 10:15 segment. This gave me a little less than a half an hour to edit the sound.

2/26/2014

This Wednesday I came into the station and worked with John Wagner. He had just gotten back from spring training with the Nationals so she gave me a bunch of audio to cut up and edit. That took a few hours so after that, I left.

2/19/2014

This day I arrived at the DC United soccer practice at 10 am with fellow intern Ricky Lasser. It was pouring rain and I got drenched. Then Ricky and I waited in his car until practice was over and we came up with questions to ask players after practice. We were the only news outlet there so PR sent us over about 4 or 5 players to collect audio from. Afterwards I edited the audio and sent it to George Wallace.

2/17/2014- I am sitting at the WTOP station after being snowed out last week. There really isn't much going on at all...actually nothing is going on. I got here at 7 pm and there is only a MD vs. Duke women's basketball game going on. I am with Rob tonight and he is doing his work....which I don't think is much since there are really no games to cover. I am here catching up on all my blog posts because he told me there was nothing for me to do so I should just play on my phone or something. After this I will go through their news feed and see what's new in the sports world.

2/5/2014- I covered the Wizards game again with Dave Preston. We sat in the same spot on the scaffold hovering over the tunnel leading to the Wizards locker room. The visiting team was the San Antonio Spurs and even though we went into double overtime, the Wizards ended up losing. Dave and I went to the conference room to catch Wittman's statements. Then we went to the locker room to get audio from Wall, Ariza, Gortat, and maybe Seraphin. I was one of two girl reporters in the locker room and there were about 15-20 other guys. Dave and I edited some audio on his computer and sent the clips to the station. I left the arena at 11:30 that night.

First game coverage

2/3/2014- This was my first game coverage at the Verizon Center in D.C. The Wizards played Portland and they won. Normally I am not much of a basketball fan but this game was fun and made me excited about the sport. I followed Dave Preston around between the press lounge and the scaffold that some of the media sit on while typing up game recaps. After the game, Dave and I rushed to the press conference room where Wizards head coach Randy Wittman said a few words. After uploading that audio to Dave's computer, we rushed to the locker room where the players give post game interviews. We got some words from Seraphin,Wall, Beal, and Nene. We got all the audio we wanted so Dave cut 4 clips from Wittman and 5 clips from the players that he sent to the station to air with some game recap. I left the arena about 11 that night.

Second day at WTOP

1/29/2014 I arrived at the station a little before 7pm after leaving my work....so much traffic, D.C. is crazy. I met another sports intern named Scott who also goes to the University of Maryland. He had been sitting at a desk since before I got there, looking through a manual binder on Burli operations. No one from the station came up to me so I introduced myself to the only sports reporter in the room. His name is John and he told me about the games that were going on at the time. The Miami Heat were playing OKC, there was a hockey stadium game, and a GW mens basketball game. John had me record post game audio and edit it into clips for him to play on air. I left around 10pm that night.

First week at WTOP

On Monday January 27th I arrived at the WTOP station on Idaho St. in Washington D.C. at 9 a.m. and waited at a desk until the sports reporters came in around 10:30. Once I met George Wallace, he gave me the run down of the gadgets and the daily routines. Since WTOP was giving up ENPS in two days, I was told to explore Burli NE and get used to it. Then George told me to come into the station around 6pm because that's when all of the sports games are. He said there really isn't much to do during the day so he asked me to look up Superbowl fun facts. I left around one or two that afternoon.