Back to the Grind...

For most people, Saturday is the first day of the weekend. It's time to catch up on the things they don't do during the week. It's time to relax...

For me, it's the first day of my work week. I work the morning shift on Saturday. I come in during the end break of our local news, and get busy. I hit the ground running, with CBS Saturday Morning. It's the 2 hour national news spectacular. It's a busy show, with lots of manual switching. It has many opportunities to fail, or, as I like to see it... succeed.

CBS offers programming, with the exception of prime time or live programming, with PSAs where breaks are scheduled. Why?? (in my best game show announcer voice) So you can broadcast great CBS programming, even if you don't have paid sponsors!

We used to allow these PSAs to play, instead of utilizing the time for commercials. Our new owners are all about making money with every opportunity presented. It should be this way. Master Control Operators have to "cover" these PSAs. It's a skill that you need to develop quickly. Let me explain...

There is one frame of black between programming, and the PSA. One frame?? Yes. There are 30 frames in one second of video. This means you basically have 1/30th of a second to make your move. Can it be done?? Sure... If you can fully depress the button that fast. Me??? I like a little fudge with my PSA covers. It's a time when I get to have "artistic expression". The key is to find the right spot. Most commercials and promos don't have speaking all the way up to the end (Thank you). This is where I dip to black. Why?? Because that frame of black, and the switch to the beginning of the PSA is hidden, so it's pretty. I have to clip the end just right. If I hesitate, a frame of the PSA will show. They are loud to get your attention. It's ugly. You've probably seen something like this on cable. I look up in the network monitor, and wait for the PSA to pop up, then I take my break.

Why wait??? My break matches the time of the PSA break. If I go too early, the end of the PSA will show. This is ugly too. By waiting, I ensure I cover to the end. It's about giving viewers clean air, so they never know what's going on behind the scenes.

Sometimes, there's a bumper. Sometimes, these breaks don't come with a "bumper". (A bumper is a 5 second "You're watching" or "watch this show". Sometimes, it's something like "2 minutes national break/1 minute local". This means that I have to watch the time the break hits, and count ahead for my hit time. If the break is supposed to hit at 07:24:45, then that's it, right???

Wrong! We count frames here. 30 seconds, for us, means 30... with no extra frames. We have to keep things tight, to conform to network timings. But network... is network. We have to work around them. They don't have to count frames, so all commercials go black to black. This could be up to five frames per commercial, heavy or light. Four commercials in the break?? That could be half a second!

But now, it's time for March Madness basketball! These breaks are easy. Network gives is a 5 second bumper for these. "Watch this show, this night, only on CBS." It's live sports, so there are no PSAs to cover. They go to black, and my break runs. Coming back clean is key. You can't come back late, so you have to be fast on that button.

I'll share another secret to being a Television God tomorrow. What will it be??? Maybe you'll have to check in, and find out.