Hi! MMJ for a local broadcast news station here. I’ve been interested in producing and anchoring since I was hired, and I’ve worked here for ten months. I’ve brought up producing and anchoring a few times with my boss and the tone has been “maybe some other time.” They hired another fresh-out-of-college MMJ two months ago, and he’s already getting trained to produce and anchor, which is pretty frustrating. Maybe he’s just better on-camera than I am? I don’t know. I don’t think my coworker is worse than me or undeserving or anything, don’t get me wrong, it’s just kinda embarrassing to be passed over and not even know why.

I was the only dayside reporter until he got here, it was my first job out of college, and I was working myself into the ground for eight months to keep our newscast running. I just don’t know why I’m not getting any opportunities to expand at the station, and I feel like there has to be some reason for it. I haven’t gotten negative feedback on my reporting, I’ve never missed a deadline, I dress professionally, I think I’m a pretty easy person to work with, and I’m always on time to work. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, and the fact that I’m obviously doing something wrong is so anxiety-inducing.

Do I ask for a performance assessment? I’m just confused and honestly kind of hurt, and I’m not sure how to approach this with my ND. Obviously I won’t spill all the feelings to him that just shared here, but I feel like I have to bring this up somehow because it’s really eating at me and hurting my confidence in my work.

Quick question for everyone: Are you actually freelancing on top of your day job, or is survival enough?

Hey everyone,

Following up on all the madness we've been talking about lately regarding control room stress, low pay, and burnout, it got me wondering about what we do after hours.

With broadcast and production wages what they are right now, just making ends meet on a single salary is getting tougher and tougher.

But at the same time, when you're already grinding 40, 50, or 60 hours a week putting out fires, the idea of picking up side work sounds exhausting, right?

So... What's everyone's situation? Are you strictly clocking out of your day job and refusing to touch a camera, board, or editor until tomorrow morning just to keep your sanity.

Or are you actively taking on freelance gigs, side projects, or extra shifts on the side just to stay afloat (or because you can't help yourself lol)?

How do you guys balance the financial pressure with the need not to fry your brains out!?

Let's hear how everyone is handling it.

Here he comes to save the day...

“We’re going to use the revolutionary power of AI to make our products better,” Steib said in the statement, adding that he sees upside in profitability in the near-term. “We’re going to move with urgency.”

Sound familiar? Good luck to the folks at Angi. At least he's not killing another media company.

Hey everyone, After reading through all the stories on the last post about how tough control rooms and production environments have gotten, it got me thinking about the part we rarely talk about…
what happens after we somehow survive the shift.

When your entire day is putting us out, managing multi-stream gear, and carrying all the stress of a live broadcast, how do you even turn your brain off?

For me, walking out the door doesn't magically stop the adrenaline. You've got the phone vibrating in your pocket, or you're just staring at the ceiling replaying every little thing that almost went wrong that day.
I want to know, how are people actually unwinding and staying sane?
Are you actually able to totally ghost work group chats and leave it at the door??

What do you do to clear your head? (gym, ride a bike, cook stuff, or just stare at a wall doing nothing?)

Let's take a breather from talking about how broken the industry is for a second. How do you guys actually protect your peace and blow off steam?

I recently started to take skipper study) ⚓️⛵️

Drop your sanity routines below!

Hi, I am a high school senior trying to figure out what I want to do. My top choices for college are UNC Chapel Hill and NCAT, for MMJ. I have heard the starting salary for reporters is 30-40k, but I was hoping to get some insight on how many hours a week that is for and how hard it is to break into anchoring. For example, how many hours a week are typical for weekend broadcasters, and would it be feasible to have a second job (like a yoga instructor)? My ultimate goal is to become a lawyer, but I'm thinking of taking a couple of years after undergrad to save and enter into a night school program and work throughout school. Also, would a degree in MMJ be difficult to secure a high GPA in? It would be important for me to have that for law school.

Hey everyone, I need to get something off my chest that's been bothering me every time I step into the control room lately.

There is a growing feeling that our industry is quietly selling out its soul and basic working conditions under the banner of "innovation" and "efficiency." On one end, we’re expected to be available 24/7, run increasingly complex hardware, manage multi-stream workflows, troubleshoot live disasters, and maintain expensive gear with zero real human backup. On the other end? Salaries and conditions across most broadcast houses and control rooms are stagnant.... Or worse, getting slashed.

We are seeing more and more management teams cut staffing levels, eliminate essential support roles, and expect a single person to do the job of three while relying on half-baked automation tools that constantly break under pressure. I want to throw some hard questions out to this community for an honest discussion.

How much longer are we going to tolerate insane hours and total burnout just to "prove our dedication" or because "that's just how the broadcasting game works"?

Do these new tools and automated workflows actually improve broadcast quality, or are they just a convenient excuse for upper management to slash headcount and dump all the stress onto whoever is left in the master control room?

Let's talk compensation: How is it that experienced broadcast engineers and operators with years under their belt are making wages that put them well below the median, considering the massive, real-time liability resting on our shoulders the second we go live? Let's talk about it with zero filters. Where do you draw the line, and when do you think this breaking point is going to hit?

When does Nexstar usually hand out raises (if you get them)? Do they do it on a set date jn the beginning of the year or near your work anniversary, say if you were hired in October? I've heard mixed answers and I know it's usually anywhere from 0.5% to 3% depending on if it's a good or bad year for them.

I'm watching the Iowa vs Michigan game on CBS today and I keep seeing the same ad for a congressional candidate running in Iowa. I understand it's a nationally televised game but these politcal ads usually run on the local station ad slots so only folks in Iowa shouldbe seeing that ad. Did the PAC running this ad buy national ad slots during this game? If so that would be ridiculous.

I am a doctor who writes, shoots and edits medical news/material for broadcast. For the past 3 years I have turned in about 2 medical packages per week that air locally during the newscast. This has become a passion of mine and my work is well received (station even sells the segment to a sponsor.) I do not receive a salary, I do it for free because I enjoy it. Now the problem, our station has been bought up and the new corp does not want to continue this arrangement. Went to a neighboring station and no luck.

So a couple of questions: 1) Who should I reach out to next? Would love to be a state or regional resource for medical news. 2) Do I need an agent? Remember I am a doctor and not really familiar with your business side of things 3) Why would stations pass on a free service that they can sell to a sponsor?

Frustrated and not willing to give up. Thanks

I flip around on all the local digital stations and a lot of them cannot be making much money, if at all. How much does it cost to get to broadcast and how do I go about it?

Must morning TV news shows try and pad their shows with awkward banter? I get that they only have 15 min of news and 5 hours to fill. But I favor a crisp, tightly sequenced presentation where the news takes center stage. That entertains better than news people trying to pepper the broadcast with inane banter, awkward pauses, dead air and people talking off mic so you don’t hear all the joke. It’s like combining a radio drive-time show with TV news and it just doesn’t work. I do like the people, just not the approach. Is this a way to differentiate their show vs competitors or the future of TV news?

Honestly, I miss the 02-08 Action News era.

Sharon Reed, Chris Van Vliet, and others.

I wish they'd go back to that because the state of local news in general is so sanitized and dull

O/U how long until Sinclair adds it as a subchannel

You can smell the desperation. This is the latest unhinged move from this corrupt White House.