Election Day

A day in the life of a local news producer. On Election Day.

12.00 AM NOVEMBER 4
I head in to work at the station. Our evening anchor and I get together a game plan for the live local news cut-ins I'll be producing for her during election night between the 6:00 and 11:00 newscasts. We brainstorm ideas for local experts (mostly Purdue professors) to bring in to talk about different aspects of the election, like economy, race and gender, and political history.

12.30 AM
I spend the morning putting together our first news show of Election Day 2008.

4.00 AM
My anchors arrive. One will be heading out to a voting center where she'll set up a live shot for us to use during the morning show. We do a quick review of the line-up before she leaves with the videographer.

5.00 AM
We go on the air for a two-hour show. Looks live everything is going smoothly at the voting centers. We get interviews with the first voter at our live site and talk to some local high school teachers who are conducting an exit poll with their students. All good stuff!

7.00 AM
We go off the air. I put together a plan for our first two local cut-ins, which include more live-shots.

8.00 AM
The first two cut-ins done, I produce a third version for my male anchor to record before he has to leave on assignment. Then it's time to get on the phone and try to line up some interviewees for tonight's cut-ins.

9.00 AM
Done with my phone calls, I finally leave work and head to church, where I cast my vote and chat with my pastor. A sweet old lady gives me an "I Voted!" sticker, which I stick on my bag. I would wear it, but I'm just going home to change into my PJs anyway.

10.00 AM
I finally wind down and go to bed, setting my alarm for 4 PM.

4.00 PM
The alarm jolts me awake. I am amazed how fast those six hours went! I hit snooze once before rolling out of bed and checking my email. Looks like we've got a couple more guests lined up to come in and talk election for the cut-ins.

4.30 PM
Shower time. I'm really excited and pick out a super-cut (if I do say so myself) outfit to wear, motivated by the fact that people will actually see me tonight as opposed to most of my normal work days.

5.00 PM
I turn on our news channel as I get ready to go in to work. Looks like things are still running like clockwork for the voting centers!

6.00 PM
I arrive at the station and wave off the first round of comments and questions about my presence there. Yep, I'm here early. Yep, I'll be here all night. Nope, I don't mind. It's fun. I watch the 6 PM newscast from back in the control room.

6.30 PM
We go off the air. The evening anchor and I plot out the first cut-in, which will happen at 7:25, and I sit down to put together the newscast.

7.20 PM
It's twenty after?!! Slowed down by the fact that I can't use my own desk (our daytime producer is using it to run his software that comes up with our numbers for who's winning each race) and that I can't check my own email, I have to keep running back and forth to ask questions that I could've asked from two feet away if I had been able to use my own desk. Plus, the reporter's desk I'm using is filled with their own clutter, and you know how that is. I need MY clutter. Oh well! I get the scripts printed and sprint down to the control room to get them to the director.

7.25 PM
We go on the air. Everything goes pretty well.

7.30 PM
We go off the air. I return to the newsroom and pow-wow with anchor and directors to hash out a plan for 7:55.

7.45 PM
We're on a roll. I'm already thinking about what comes next at 8:25 as I print off the 7:55 scripts and get everyone ready to go back on the air.

8.00 PM
Off the air. The newsroom becomes a hectic crazy train of reporters and videographers coming and going, people from the sales department are answering phones, and production and engineering personnel trying to fix problems with our live shot's audio monitoring. The next few cut-ins come and go in a blur. They don't really get easier; instead, the simple fact that time will march forward whether you're ready for it to or not is a driving force to get through the next couple of hours.

10.30 PM
We go off the air from out 10:25 cut-in.
"One more, right?" I say to the evening anchor, who nods and suggests we meet with the evening producer to see how she wants us to work the last cut-in so that it transitions smoothly to the 11:00 newscast. We find out she's already written what she wants in that cut-in, so my job (for the moment) is done! I grab a slice of pizza from the breakroom and watch some of our broadcast before starting work on the morning show line-up.

11.05 PM
It's official. National news outlets call the race for President, and it's a historical moment. I watch John McCain's sweet, gracious speech as he concedes to Barack Obama, who will become the first person of color to be elected President of the United States.

11.30 PM
My boss brings me to her office so we can discuss what the morning show should look like. By this point, my brain feels like a sloshy mess of mush in my skull, but I try to keep it functioning long enough to get through this meeting.

11.55 PM
A few more reporters, production people, and videographers gather in my boss's office to watch as Obama gives his speech from Chicago. It dawns on me that this may be one of those moments I tell my kids or grandkids about somewhere down the road.

12.30 AM NOVEMBER 5
My boss and I get back to the reality that is the local news, and map out a plan for the morning show. I share it with the reporters who are now returning from their interviews with local race winners and losers, and we all get to work...a mad little frenzy of typing and reading out loud to ourselves. It's really weird to be in this environment, with people all around. I look forward to the time when everyone goes home, leaving me in the familiar quiet of the newsroom at night. The "election day high" wears off, and I notice I'm yawning a lot. I shake my head, hoping for my second wind to kick in soon.

2.30 AM
Finally, everyone goes home, and it's just me. I put on some music and eat a big Gladware container full of spaghetti and meat sauce I brought from home. My second wind finally hits, and I slowly but surely piece the morning show together, bit by bit.

4.00 AM
The anchors come in. I have the show all written and work on editing all of my videos. I'm actually ahead of schedule! The anchors think the show looks great (it ought to, for the extra time I spent with our superior planning it out and all the brain power I've had to muster to get it all together).

4.30 AM
Time to print scripts. i finish up the last of the videos and head back to the control room for the start of the show.

5.00 AM
The newscast goes well. At this point, my second wind is wearing off, and my brain is getting mushy again. I realize halfway through the show that I've been in this building for 12 hours.

7.00 AM
We go off the air. I print off the morning cut-in scripts and realize I still haven't checked my email.

7.15 AM
My last email is from the assistant news director. It says someone will try to call me Wednesday morning at 7:15. I look at the time, then immediately look at my phone, like I expect it to ring on cue.

It doesn't.

I decide to wait until 7:30 and then call it a day.

7.30 AM
Still no phone call. I email the assistant news director back to say that I didn't hear anything from this person and that I'll try to get in touch with them tomorrow.

The phone rings.

I answer, hoping it's the guy who wanted to schedule an interview. But it's not.

"Hello," says a woman's voice, "I'm sorry, but I just had to call in and complain because I think this morning's election coverage was terrible. I watched for 20 miutes and didn't see anything about a bunch of the elections."

Does this lady realize we cover election results for like 9 counties?

"OK," I say, "Which elections were you concerned with that you didn't see?"

"County commissioner--everything!!!" she replies. "I'm heading in to work and I don't even know who my new boss is going to be. So I just wanted to call and complain because I thought it was terrible."

"OK, thank you," I say. Thank you for taking what I've been working on all night, crapping on it, and flushing it down the toilet. If you work for these people, then I guess you'll hear the results once you get in to the office, huh? We've been running these results in a live crawl at the bottom of our screen all night and into the morning, and it's on our website. If you're really such a kiss-ass that you need to know the results before you head in to work, there were plenty of other ways we provided to help you find what you were looking for. Thanks for being a total bee-sting at the end of my fourteen-hour work day.

Oh well.

7.45 AM
I'm out. I suggest possibly keeping the crawl with our local results up on the screen all morning, laughing off the complaint with, "I can't do everything for everybody...figure it out yourself!" and head out the door with my usual sing-song "Have a great day! See you tomorrow!"

The election day high and it's second-wave energy boost have both completely worn off as I get in my car and drive home.

I'm glad it's not this exciting every day. I think it'd be a little too much to handle. That being said, I just LOVE election day! But I'm always very glad when it's over.