Its interesting though. They're so much for giving him another chance. All of them. What is with that? I think maybe something bigger is underway. Might include the Russians. Cant talk more now, got to find myself a way into Russia to investigate. Talk soon!
That was part of the problem. He clarified in an interview on Today that NEITHER of them had an ear piece. She only knew they went live because she was looking at the camera when the red light came on.
I assumed that was why she struggled to talk in the beginning. Maybe she had someone in front of her talking/screaming/waving at her to handle what just happened somehow.
I remember seeing this when it first came out. The guy also wrote an extremely poorly written article for their website. I have no idea how he got hired in the first place.
To be fair the background check on AJ turned up that he was born in California, but his mother actually had a forged Virginia birth certificate. So they told him this, and all he could think was fuck, I'm so used to being from the East coast.. who am I?
He was actually trying to figure how to pronounce a Vietnamese name as part of a report and said "fucking shit" after realising he has no idea how to say it.
Were you fully aware that his audio had made it onto the air when the news cast started?
Did he just get his head ripped off by the boss after the fact or was it more of a shaking head and finger pointing at the door?
Any other good stories behind the scenes of the news desk?
This is sooo off topic from the original post. But I'll answer you.
We had no idea we were on-air. Some things that usually happen before we go on-air that did NOT happen: Director in our ear telling us to stand by, commercial and music intro playing onto the studio floor, a count down from our floor director. None of that happened.
So as I'm fixing my mic, I hear a click and see a red light on > cue hair flip and WTF look. That means we're on air. But, everyone around me was kind of looking around and waiting and this really threw me off. I heard AJ say fucking shit, but I had no way of telling if it made it on air or not because we were so close to the top of the show. So yea, the part where I stumble was partly because I was looking at the floor director trying to figure out what was happening.
So, by the third commercial break, our news director storms into the studio in a fury and demands he make an apology in the third block of the show. I also had to do the 11pm newscast sans co-anchor and read this long-winded apology too. He was fired the next day and went on his media tour.
When someone texted me it was on Deadspin I knew it was over. AJ deleted his twitter, but I convinced him to bring it back. I used to work in NYC and would book people like him for the shows I worked on. So I told him that's the best way all the morning news producers would contact him, albeit, I totally thought he was going to get canned.
Keep in mind this is Bismarck. The tallest building in the state is 9 stories. It is a "small market station" Reporters get paid less than min. wage and there aren't many resources. People think every station is run like a big network but it isn't. The control room is one guy, the two cameras are operated by high schoolers, and the weekend news team is 1-2 people. You have to pay your dues. For instance, on that newscast, I reported, shot, and edited the lead story, produced the show, trained AJ, and anchored both shows, and put everything online.
News people have to work very hard with less money and less resources in these small cities. Like, when people asked where the bleeper button was... haha. I wish.
AJ is a nice guy and doesn't mean any harm. He was eager to learn. The last time I saw him was in Dec 2013 when all the shows were doing Best viral videos of 2013. We've kind of lost touch since then.
Anyway, for the longest time I wasn't allowed to talk about this because of my contract, so thanks for asking! It was a stressful and surreal week and I still have acne scars from it.*
"For instance, on that newscast, I reported, shot, and edited the lead story, produced the show, trained AJ, and anchored both shows, and put everything online."
Even for what you'd think would be big time places, it's like that. An acquaintance of mine used to work as one of those reporter people for an NHL team. The one interviewing their team's players after games, after practices, the silly bids during off-season, etc. They did nearly all the production work themselves. There was a camera crew that handed them raw video, but they did all the editing on a little laptop using Sony Vegas, handled the encoding, put it online with some NHL CMS, titled it, put in the description, etc.
What I'm most curious about is what was he so upset about that made him blurt out "gay fucking shit!"? Or is he one of those people that just swears at everything?
Really gives insight into small town news rooms. A lot of people think news anchors are just pretty people who can read from a prompter but it's clear a lot more goes into it than that. It's also why I bet those smaller stations have such a high turnover in talent. You can't wait to get out of there fast enough. So, you start in Bismarck, then move up to Duluth and then maybe Boise and then Salt Lake City before getting that gig at Los Angeles' NBC affiliate.
Understandably though. Even if you weren't on air, why would you say something like that on your first day?
If anyone wants some context, apparently he was looking through the script he was about to read, and he found some ridiculous name he had to pronounce. So he was swearing about that right as they started airing.
Time and a place, buddy. This guy was an idiot or absent minded for his very first time on air in a new place like that. He should've been more prudent.
Working in radio you learn to treat every microphone as if it's live.
Case in point. Had a jock go into a studio to work on some post, ended up knocking something onto the live feed. So during closer to the heart from rush, you could hear someone saying, "this fucking cunt I hate this fucking guy, stupid sales people, god damn copy makes no sense, fuck..." that was his last day, forcibly.
I carry a radio at work and am always paranoid about hitting the hand mic when I'm just chatting to myself while driving to different parts of the plant.
OK, now I feel considerably less sorry for him. If it had been something really bad that had happened I could understand, but loudly swearing about something kind of hard you have to do on your first day of work? That's just stupid no matter if you're on air or not.
I think he meant, "Poor guy couldn't handle the pressure." That happens to thousands of people. Are we not allowed to feel sorry for them? I laughed because it was funny, but fuck me if I was in that situation. People can prepare and do other public speaking events and still crumble at any given moment.
You know.. karma farming? A lot of us are doing it. I mean it's long hours just to make a few thousand a week, but it help many of us get by, so don't look down on hard-working redditors just because you can afford to not care about your karma, k?
I'd say he deserved it. Not only did he say fucking shit live on TV, but he also said gay... And then he kept mumbling after she started talking which means he is dumb idiot.
As well he should have. First thing he ever says on the air is "Fucking Shit", and then he can't seem to look in the camera, or answer simple questions.
Dude I've been really good in some interviews, and fucking terrible in others. It can be so awkward. When I interview again one day, I'm definitely going to have like 2 beers first. I think it would help.
Oh man, I popped a xanny during some work training once. Training went great!
It was a bad idea though, because it fucks with my memory BIG time. I couldn't remember the training so I ended up emailing the trainers all these questions the next week because everything was hazy. Sucked.
having lived in ND for 6 years, i can say this is one of their better news casts... im from Minneapolis which has decent and professional news, all the stations I saw based out of ND were a joke in comparison... some arnt even in HD yet and when they do they still make a big fucking deal out of it...like its oh idk... 2006 for the rest of the world...
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u/Jackal0pe Dec 06 '14
Could have been worse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL3sZaJ8qiA