For KBIA News, I’m Laura Parkinson
This week I started to anchor at kbia– the radio NPR affiliate. I was a bit nervous to do it by myself, but I was able to do it and have some fun with it. Anchorining consists of compiling the newscasts from AP stories and student stories. There is so much responsibility in deciding what is relevant to the listening area, what stories fit the time allotted and editing them down. Then of course doing them live. I do four live broadcasts after the national news - one at 4, 4:30, 5 and 5:30. I did them all on Monday with the help of a grad student. Yesterday I only did the one at 4 p.m because I had to leave early.
What I’ve learned so far includes the importance of keeping news tight to the time allotted. For example I have either 1:30 or 1:45 minutes to do the newscast. This means choosing shorter stories that affect our listening area. Also, pronouncing words correctly is KEY. I really screwed up yesterday with the word “pseudoephedrine” and it was really embarrassing. But it’s live and the only thing to do is just continue. My coworkers at the restaurant were really nice and said how much they enjoyed listening to me on the radio. That made me feel good despite the mispronunciations.
You can listen to one of my podcasted broadcasts here