WMBD-TV: January 20 & 27, 2009

OLLI took two separate trips to the WMBD-TV studios in January, 2009. The double booking was necessary in order to accommodate the nearly 40 members who wanted to attend.

We were all treated to a wonderful tour, but members on the first trip were able to experience something special -- live coverage of the inauguration ceremony of our 44th President Barack Obama.

Tim Beisel, Operations/Marketing Director for WMBD-TV, started each tour by explaining the commercial production process. He said producers often record several hours of footage at the advertiser's location, then spend up to a week in the editing suite. The end result is a 30-second commercial with music and graphics.

We also walked through the control room, where producers and directors receive network satellite feeds, create the newscast graphics (stock reports, etc.) and manage the schedule of each newscast. When news breaks, these staffers are responsible for determining what stories should be cut from the existing script, then make sure the information is placed into the anchors' teleprompters.

Most of our time was spent in the actual studio where WMBD broadcasts its morning, noon, and evening newscasts. Meterologist Marcus Bailey demonstrated the weather portion of the broadcast, which involves a "green screen" and computer graphics.

Viewers at home see Marcus standing in front of an enlarged radar, but in reality, he is standing in front of a wall painted green, and producers place the radar behind him electronically. He uses monitors (hidden in the walls just outside of the green screen) to help him see what is being broadcast, and is then able to point to proper parts of the radar or map.

While we were in the studio, we were also able to experience the anchor's viewpoint of a newscast -- complete with the hot studio lighting, in-desk monitors, and script teleprompters.

OLLI at Bradley University would like to thank Tim Beisel for a job well done!

To view WMBD-TV's website, visit http://www.ciproud.com/.