During my 12 hour day at work, I got to experience the best and worst that our department has to offer. In the morning I went to Elmhurst for the taping of "Channel Surfing with Lisa". The equipment in the studio is great. It was very professional, everyone knew what they were doing. There were a few bumps along the way, and we had to stop taping, but they would just go back and pick up where they left off. Everyone knew their shit.

Flash forward to this afternoon. A truck shoot at Highland Park High School's Art Show. Now I've been through a lot of shit at Channel 8 during my many live shots, but nothing quite like this. Problem number one: the equipment. The truck is from 1983. It has a ripped up drivers seat with yellow crumbs of foam going everywhere. You can jam out to some tunes on the turn dial analog AM/FM radio which travels through one speaker which sounds like it is coming through a phone. But you might need to turn up that radio just a little bit louder to drown out the sound of a cabinet door in the back of the truck slamming open and closed every time you stop or accelerate. This lovely cabinet is directly below a shelf which now is half ripped out of the wall angled at 45 degrees with nails sticking out of the ends. The truck has no editing functionality. It only has one deck for recording...a 3/4 inch deck which probably was state of the art when Nixon was president, but not so much now. Not to mention the tapes are the size of a loaf of bread. The cameras are ancient. The tripods are big and bulky and falling apart and leaking slimy greasy residue from several of their moving parts. How about microphones? Well, there were no microphones, but if there were, I'm sure they would be shitty as well. Luckily, the school had their own microphones. Now, as for the production...it was completely run by the students. I have never seen a group as unorganized as this group. The production was like our first newscast at WIU. That is, if you were to stick it in a blender, run over it with a Zabonie, and then piss on it. I can go on and on, but I won't. Because in the world of public access, you can't take it too seriously. I guess for not really knowing anything at all, the kids did alright. And hey, its their show, not ours. We just merely provided the equipment, even though most of it was manufactured long before they were even born.