Columbus

April 27th – 28th

Red, White & Boom! Preps – NBC4



Had a couple of meetings with the local NBC station about the upcoming RWB show on July 3rd. It’s a huge fireworks display in downtown Columbus. For as long as I can remember, NBC4 has televised it live.

A few years ago, I got involved with the project. It’s a lot of fun. Each year I am presented with new challenges, which is always a good thing!

I also did a few graphics tests over at Lyon and got to see their newest truck – “10” a few days before it was ready to roll to it’s first gig.

The tests can be frustrating every year. Like many TV stations across the country, they no longer have a graphics department. All of their graphics come from a “Hub” – theirs being in Richmond, VA.

A “hub” is a place where they make ALL the graphics for numerous TV stations every day. This way the TV stations save millions of dollars because they don’t have to have the staff or expensive equipment.

So the people who work at a station that is “hubbed” never get to interact with the people building their graphics. They send a request via email and viola! The graphic is sent back to them electronically.

I feel really bad for everyone that works at a “hubbed” station. My first reason being, I have a lot of friends who have lost their jobs because of "hubs". Plus, in any TV station across the country, I can guarantee you, the art department is THE coolest place to visit & hang out! They are always dark, music playing, cool & crazy stuff hanging on the walls and the most bizarre little trinkets places on everyone’s desk/work space.

Escaping from the circus of a newsroom to the art department for 5 minutes can revive anyone!

Back to RWB….
It’s frustrating because I don’t get to interact with the artists assigned to the project. I give the specifics to my client, who then fills out the correct forms, sends them to Richmond and a few days later I have graphics to test.

In life before “hubs”, I would sit down with the artist, he/she would give me a graphic, I would test it out on my laptop and then we would know right then and there what tweaks needed to be made.

Now the process takes much longer. And I miss out on the interaction with the artist. Typically on every project, during the course of all the meetings, I would always learn a new Photoshop trick or at minimum, get to catch up with the artist and what’s new in his/her life.

So… yes, I understand why TV stations “hub”. The money saved is astronomical. However, I am against them because I have watched so many people lose their jobs because of them. If I still worked in TV News, I likely would be jobless. I am also against them because it has made “quantity” more important than “quality”.

In looking for photos of the art departments I have worked in over the years – I didn’t have much luck! Mainly because I haven’t worked at a station since 2001 – which was before I had a digital camera. Like many of us, I have boxes and boxes of photos. So I am sure there are tons of them to share, I just don’t know what box they are in.

But I did find this one – it’s framed in my office. It was my last day at Ch. 6 in May 2001.

JR - Nic - Fritch

I also came across this one, it made me giggle. It’s from one of my birthdays. I am guessing maybe 1999? Showing a much younger Dave & Nic.


Of course in both photos, the lights are full blast and neither show the cool surroundings. (Lights were on because we were taking photos)