What You Don't See Makes Me Awesome

You know... I can't call myself a "Television God", and not show you some proof. Time for talk is over. Here... Let me show you something...
What you're going to see is a local break that is scheduled during "CBS NEWS Up to the Minute". This, of course, is licensed to them, and should they want to sue me, all I can say is that I don't have any money. Each hour of the 2 hour program has 2 local breaks, and an alternate, should you need to use it. They occur at 25:00 and 55:00 (2:25. 2:55, 3:25, 3:55.) I talk about PSA swaps and Promo Swaps in a previous post called, "Back To The Grind" Check it out!
I wanted to show you one, so you could really see what it looks like. I could explain it for an hour, and you still may not get it. This break, because I know when it's scheduled, is given a clock time, so it runs automatically. I actually dial this "in" time back by 15 frames (half a second), so I don't catch the beginning of the PSA and look sloppy. Will it clip what I'm leaving? Maybe, but that will look way better than the other way.
Check it out! The bottom screens are CBS Network. You will see that they go from programming to PSA, and back. The top screens are our local break. We play a paid spot, then some PSAs and a promo for our news. When we go back to news, the switcher takes network, while the local spots stop, and cue the next element.
Sorry about the shaky hands, as I drink lots of coffee. And that high pitched hiss?? That's the motors for all the equipment, as well as the A/C in our small temporary space. (See... "A Change is Gonna Come")

So... Why would they do this? It's odd to put commercials over commercials. Why do they do that?
They do this so that, even if you don't have advertisers for the program, you can still run great CBS programming. Some stations may find it hard to sell advertising time at 2:25 in the morning. This helps them maintain programming. The days of stations going to color bars in the overnight are gone. All CBS Morning News, as well as the late shows, do this. "CBS This Morning" actually has alternate programming during some breaks. Each hour does have required end breaks, that a station must fill, as network goes to black.
Hopefully this explains it better than my words. If you have any questions, never hesitate to ask me. I love talking about my job.
Sometimes these swap breaks come unannounced, or with very little warning. A 5 second bumper is a wonderful thing.
I hope I don't get in trouble with my boss, for posting videos of all our "Secrets of TV", or for posting all sorts of copyright infringement. Make sure you check out our great local advertisers!

A Change Is Gonna Come

Four years ago, when I first started in Master Control, things looked a lot different. We played beta tapes right over the air. Every time there was a break scheduled, you'd better be right there. You had to set up your time wisely, so you could pull off everything that you had to, on your shift.
We were on the verge of major change. Within three months, we were using an automation system to run the station. This meant that breaks could run automatically, by entering clock times, and you could make your programming tight, with very little work. This freed up a lot of time. My life at work became quite nice, as I could relax a little, and still get my work done.
THIS...

HAD BECOME THIS...

As things got smaller, and more automated, the area I had, seemed to get larger. So many little computers... Some that I use for my job, and some that do things by themselves, were all that we needed. Things were changing for the good. While always changing and upgrading, we still managed to to do the same duties. But again, we are on the verge of a major change...
First and foremost, my job duties are going to change. We were bought out by Sinclair Broadcast Group. They own quite a few stations in this market. We're going to be running them too. I never get the definitive number, as I get knowledge on a need to know basis, and I never need to know. The rumored number is somewhere between 6 and 12 total.
This means more program feeds to take, more promos to record, more commercials to ingest. My job will become ingesting and monitoring. I'll be running all these stations, and there will be no time for monkeying. Attention to detail will be key. Entering the right clock times, and doing it on the right station, at the right point in time will be of the utmost importance.
I won't be tuning in live shots anymore, as that is part of news, and news will be responsible for that. Same thing with tuning in their satellite feeds. I'll miss that, as it was something I liked doing. Someone in news will have to figure it out when they send 4 live elements to the same street corner. Good luck with that!
I love my job, and I'm always looking for the next challenge. Now... the challenge is looking for me. We are overhauling Master Control, to add these new stations, and the equipment that comes with them. To do this, we'll be taking over another compartment, and renovating ours. Part of the process is taking Master Control, and putting it somewhere else. The spot chosen for this was my department head's office.
It always seemed bigger when... Oh, who am I kidding? It's tiny. Can it be done? Can you just move the working part of the TV station to somewhere else? Do you have to shut down the station?
I don't use the word amazing that often, but this really was amazing! They moved all that stuff, while I was still on the air, watching some Doctors show about farty, poopy, pregnant women with tramps stamps of old lovers. Then, a Dr. Phil episode about women who married a serial rapist. By the end of this two hour period, it was done. The humanoids watching at home had no idea, of the monumental task that had been performed.
They had moved the main switcher in, and my ingest computers first. As I turned around to remark that I would need "this" or "that"... there they were, carrying that object I would need. Just 4 guys moved an entire working TV station, and made it look so easy.
People say that there's no way Superman can change clothes in a phone booth. I beg to differ. I can run a TV station in a phone booth. Just look...

So, it is a little bigger that a phone booth, but not much. I'll be posting more pictures of the construction, as it goes on. Be on the lookout for more posts from me. I'll be trying to add video next, so I can show you aspects of my job that you may think are cool, as well as, things you didn't know happen.