News and commentary
Dec. 12th, 2003 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
csberryI have just had a slight life change over the past couple of months. The whole leaving job/living w/ in laws phase is still in progression, but there has been a smaller fluctuation that I feel a slight need to address.
For about 8 years I was drenched in news and politics. The daily grind of the morning drive talk show required that I spend most of my day reading/watching news. My news source folder in my favorites was near 100 with about 40 of those I was guaranteed to read every single day. As the years went along, I got more and more immersed in trying to stay up on everything at the absolute moment it happened. I never knew when something would happen and I would have to put together a show immediately (if you snooze, you lose in today's 24/7 news cycle). I had to quickly snag audio from TV or the internet for us to use on the show. I had to come up with angles on a story, good guests (and then be able to schedule them at a time that works well for the both of us...not too many people like doing 30 minutes at 6:30am, let alone when you first come on the air at 5am), and some information that most other news sources don't have. Between the War on Terrorism, Columbia crash, and Iraq, the frequency of having to go into the station on Saturdays to provide live coverage kept increasing. Do you know how hard it is to reach people on the weekends...even if you have a home or cell number in your rolodex! Anyways, the search for the unique guest or exclusive/obscure story was the most intimidating aspect of my job. Surfing thru all of the wire stories to find something that no one else in the market has isn't an easy thing to do. I was always grateful that I wasn't a talk radio producer before the arrival of the internet.
So...for the most part, ever since I left the job I've paid relatively little attention. I investigated the AL tax thing, would visit a couple of sites during the week, and read the local paper (though mostly just the Sunday edition). For me, that was almost hermit-like behavior. Well, I feel like my pendulum is swinging back into balance. I've started paying more attention to the presidential candidates and have started reading more news sites on a regular basis.
What this means is that I'm starting to, and will continue to, link more news onto my journal. Despite my employment in talk radio, I've always felt that there were 2 things you didn't talk about in public as not to offend: politics and religion. If you want to get along, these subjects should always be avoided. So, what I'm going to start doing is lj cutting a "News and Comment." You are more than welcome to look but if you don't want to enter my political realm or feel offended by it, you can just put on the blinders and enjoy other aspects of my journal.
For about 8 years I was drenched in news and politics. The daily grind of the morning drive talk show required that I spend most of my day reading/watching news. My news source folder in my favorites was near 100 with about 40 of those I was guaranteed to read every single day. As the years went along, I got more and more immersed in trying to stay up on everything at the absolute moment it happened. I never knew when something would happen and I would have to put together a show immediately (if you snooze, you lose in today's 24/7 news cycle). I had to quickly snag audio from TV or the internet for us to use on the show. I had to come up with angles on a story, good guests (and then be able to schedule them at a time that works well for the both of us...not too many people like doing 30 minutes at 6:30am, let alone when you first come on the air at 5am), and some information that most other news sources don't have. Between the War on Terrorism, Columbia crash, and Iraq, the frequency of having to go into the station on Saturdays to provide live coverage kept increasing. Do you know how hard it is to reach people on the weekends...even if you have a home or cell number in your rolodex! Anyways, the search for the unique guest or exclusive/obscure story was the most intimidating aspect of my job. Surfing thru all of the wire stories to find something that no one else in the market has isn't an easy thing to do. I was always grateful that I wasn't a talk radio producer before the arrival of the internet.
So...for the most part, ever since I left the job I've paid relatively little attention. I investigated the AL tax thing, would visit a couple of sites during the week, and read the local paper (though mostly just the Sunday edition). For me, that was almost hermit-like behavior. Well, I feel like my pendulum is swinging back into balance. I've started paying more attention to the presidential candidates and have started reading more news sites on a regular basis.
What this means is that I'm starting to, and will continue to, link more news onto my journal. Despite my employment in talk radio, I've always felt that there were 2 things you didn't talk about in public as not to offend: politics and religion. If you want to get along, these subjects should always be avoided. So, what I'm going to start doing is lj cutting a "News and Comment." You are more than welcome to look but if you don't want to enter my political realm or feel offended by it, you can just put on the blinders and enjoy other aspects of my journal.
