by Mike Drake
Five journalism students from Peninsula College had the opportunity to travel to Olympia and meet with Austin Jenkins of National Public Radio, Rachel LaCorte of the Associated Press and TVW’s Vice President of Programming Mike Bay.
Our first stop was at the White House where we met Jenkins and LaCorte.
Jenkins has worked for NPR for the last 14 years. He told us about how switching from TV to radio changed his career.
He also gave us valuable tips for interviewing sources and explained why it is vital to photograph a crime scene in 360 degrees.
We left the White House and took a small tour of the Capitol building area.
As we ate lunch together in the cafeteria, we could hear music being played.
After lunch we followed the sounds that echoed off the marble walls and floor, and we discovered an entire orchestra tuning their instruments.
We stayed and watched Kamiakin Middle School’s orchestra play “America The Beautiful” in the rotundra of the Legislative Building.
After lunch we walked to the set of Olympia’s TVW, where we met with Bay.
He took us behind the scenes of “The Impact” and explained different aspects of producing a TV show and delivering news to citizens.
Bay also discussed how cost of cameras and equipment for TV are astronomically high.
One camera cost $10,000.00, and TVW has fifty-five in total.
Once we left the set of “The Impact”, we were invited to the Control Room.
Bay briefly showed us a few of the technical aspects of TV production.
He showed us a mobile studio unit that has the capability to record or broadcast live from any location and let us watch a technician working on the online version of TVW.
The video of Kamiakin Middle School’s performance can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dru8gQYwcdQ&feature=youtu.be
