Spinning All the Right Dials...

I haven’t really blogged a whole lot about my job at WKST in New Castle yet, so I decided to make it this week’s subject. During the past couple of weeks, in particular, I’ve served as the audio board operator for the live broadcasts of the New Castle Red Hurricanes high school basketball games. I always think it’s funny that both of the announcers with which I work say at the beginning and at the ending of each broadcast, “Thanks to our producer/engineer Nicky Piszczor back at the station, spinning all the right dials…” Technically, as you can see from the picture I took and put up with this post, I’m not “spinning” any dials; instead I’m potting up or potting down the channels on the audio board. I guess it just sounds cool to say that ;)

Anyways, this part of my job involves getting the game on the air, setting the game to broadcast live on the web at the MSA Sports Network website, running the local spot breaks, and communicating with the announcer to make sure everything goes smoothly. However, as I’ve learned from current and past experiences on the job and elsewhere, things don’t always work out so smoothly. The station uses two kinds of equipment when broadcasting the games, either a Comrex or a phone system. Well, over winter break, the Comrex went out right in the middle of an exciting game. At first, I wanted to panic…I didn’t think there was any way I could get the game back on the air unless the announcer fixed the Comrex himself. However, I stayed calm and played some PSAs while I was trying to figure out what else to do. Thankfully, the connection was back a couple minutes later, and I put the game back on the air.

But it wasn’t over…a little later in the game, the same thing happened again, but I knew what to do this time…I covered and filled in the time, and eventually, we ended up broadcasting the rest of the game through the phone. Just this week, the phone system also cut out at the end of the game. This time I was more prepared. So here’s my helpful tip for the week…something I’ve learned on the job….DON’T PANIC!! Unusual and unexpected problems will happen while you are working on the job at some point…and all you can is make the best of it. I’ve noticed the people who work best under pressure are those stay calm and try to work with others to come up with solutions. Being able to work under pressure and deal with unforeseen problems on the spot are skills that I’m continuing to develop as I encounter obstacles on the job and at the school. Everything is a learning process, and I’m willing to learn all I can.