Submitted by Hal Clement, 10News Anchor.

Since I’ve been been in this TV news business for a while, people sometimes ask me, “Have things changed much over the years?” Let me see….how do I answer this appropriately? Let’s just say YES!

When I started, we shot film. Film had to be developed, which took some time. Then film had to be edited…meaning literally chopped into sections and glued together with what was called “film cement.” Since I did some film editing, every necktie I owned had little splatters of film cement on it. It was hard to get out. And despite my best efforts, sometimes those splices in the film broke on the air. It was no fun to be narrating a film story, and suddenly…whoops…film break…back to the studio. I did sports back then, and it was much better to show film of the Padres playing than to try and describe it without any film.

Then…voila….videotape came along. Sharper, cleaner, didn’t have to be processed, and it didn’t break. The next big step…..we could go LIVE from different locations! That was the biggest breakthrough and continues to be a staple of TV at every level. So the technology has improved dramatically over the years.

Is the business still stressful? Sure. Does it sometimes seem as if everything is happening at once? Yes. That doesn’t change. Neither does the effort and commitment of the people I work with. You expect us to bring you the best news coverage we can. We expect that of ourselves as well… always have, always will.

Technology is great, but my co-workers make the job what it is — a pleasure every day. So I guess, as the old saying goes, the more things change… the more they stay the same.

Tags: Uncategorized //