"Let Me Call You Back, I'm Driving"

In today’s technology-driven world, it is nice to know our government is not afraid to step in and restrict the use of electronics in lieu of our health and safety. The banning of drivers talking on cell phones is supposed to be a great new law; not only is it designed to reduce the number of distractions for drivers, but law-makers are hoping it will reduce the number of distraction-caused accidents as well.

Harvard researchers estimated that one in 20 car accidents a year in the United States are linked to cell phones. They also say about 2,600 deaths result from those accidents every year. Although these estimates are a little sketchy because it is hard to determine the cause of many accidents, it can't be hard to imagine one in 20 car accidents being attributed to cell phone use, right? And even if the total number of accidents or deaths from cell phones is lower than the estimation, why not play it safe?

We all know there are many more distractions for drivers than just a cell phone. But eliminating one allows drivers to juggle the rest of the distractions without holding a phone to their ear as well. Now drivers will have two hands free to eat fast food, smoke cigarettes, and deal with the kids in the backseat all while having a conversation with a friend on the phone. I don’t know about you, but this seems much more efficient to me.

Despite the positive aspects of the law, many businessmen and women alike are probably not happy because it can significantly reduce the amount of time they are able to interact with clients. In today’s “time is money” way of life, driving time is time lost unless a business deal can be made while on the road. Businessmen and women might be afraid that they will bring in less money if they are not allowed to use their driving time efficiently.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger kept this in mind when passing the bill, which is why hands-free devices are allowed. The purpose of the new law, which goes into effect July 1, 2008, is to eliminate a distraction for drivers. Since, of course, it couldn’t possibly be the conversation that is distracting to drivers, but the fact that they have a phone held to their ear, the law allows drivers to talk on phones with ear pieces. This way they are still allowed to make business transactions and keep our economy running smoothly, all while being stuck in traffic. However, the law will ban text messaging and checking e-mail while on the road, which we can all agree is probably a good idea. Law-makers are hopeful that with both hands on the steering wheel, drivers will be safer while on the road.

The "only" problem with the new law is enforcing it. With the penalty being a $20 fine, drivers are not going to be too worried about getting pulled over for using their cell phones. And let’s be realistic, it is going to be pretty difficult for the police to tell if a person is on a cell phone unless they are stopped at a light or driving slowly. It is also hard to tell the difference between text messaging and picking a new song on an iPod. Though the law is great in theory, it seems a bit unrealistic when it comes to enforcing it. I guess the government is just hoping that the law will scare people away from driving while on the phone.

Sports Reporters Need Not Apply

If making it in TV is hard, making it in sports is nearly impossible. Not only is it hard to find open positions in the sports broadcasting field, but it is also hard to get hired on. At a news station there are several reporters and a handful of anchors, who also report on their “off-anchor” days. This makes getting a news position much easier than a position in sports.

In general, most stations max out at two people in the sports office. That’s it. Just two. One anchors during the week, the other during the weekend. On “off-anchor” days they report, although, it is not as necessary to have a reporter for the sports office, because most games can be recorded on TV. The only reason there are sports reporters is for local sporting events (such as high school football or a home game for the local professional team).

So, imagine trying to apply for a job in the sports office at a news station. Chances are you’re not going to find a station hiring for sports, and if you do, think all of the aspiring sports journalists that will be applying as well. A lot of sports journalists start out in news, and when their time comes, switches over to sports if a position opens up. Others start out in radio, or start by calling play-by-play for a local high school or college team. This allows them to create a tape that they can send out to stations when they are applying for a job.

Another problem with going into sports at a news station is that having sports reports on the news is beginning to die out. Few people watch the evening news for their sports update; unless you are watching to see highlights of a local high school game or see a local sports story, there is no point in watching the sportscasts.

ESPN has wiped out any need for local sportscasts. ESPN’s Sportscenter is an hour-long show dedicated to game highlights which runs about 10 times daily. They run a highlight for almost every professional game and for all different sports. They also show highlights for several college games, and definitely all important ones. They have clips of golf, tennis, and even swimming. If it’s sports, ESPN has it covered. So, why would anyone sit through 50 minutes of news to hear a 7 minute sportscast on a local station, if they can get an hour’s worth of sports and see highlights for everything? They don’t.

Sports lovers go to ESPN for their game updates, and when Sportscenter is not on, they go to the internet. The internet has become a huge detriment to local sportscasts because people do not need to wait to see highlights, they can watch live updates of games online and get up to the minute stats and scores. Fans can get online and find out how their favorite team or player is doing within seconds. No fishing through unimportant information. No waiting through highlights of games they don’t care about.

Since local sportscasts are being run off by ESPN and the internet, what are the aspiring sports journalists doing? Applying to ESPN of course! To apply to ESPN you must submit a resume online, then wait by the phone hoping for a call back. However, as hopeful as you are, the fact of the matter is that your resume is floating around with the other hundreds of resumes that are submitted daily.

So, my advice to all aspiring sports broadcasters: if you are good looking and know every score and statistic for every major league baseball game in every season since 1950, you’re probably in. As for the rest of us—good luck, we’ll need it.

Bad Table Service? Think Again

You just got off from work, after a long hard day, and you're starving. You're exhausted after your eight-hour shift, and the last thing you want to do is go home and cook dinner for yourself. So, you call a friend or your significant other and ask them if they would like to go out to dinner with you. Your friend agrees, so you both decide to eat at your favorite restaurant. You love that they have great food, great service, and it isn't too pricey.

When you get to the restaurant, you are told by the host that your table will be ready in five to 10 minutes; even though you can see open tables, it's not a big deal, your stomach can handle waiting 10 more minutes. After ten minutes go by, you see a group of six people walk through the door and get sat immediately at an open table. Now, you're starting to get frustrated, as it has already been 10 minutes and other people are getting sat before you. A few more minutes go by, and your name is called. Once you’re at your table, it takes the server a little while to get to you, and after you order your food, it doesn't come out for another 40 minutes! By this time you are very upset at your server for taking so long. When you get the bill, you pay the amount and decide she doesn’t deserve a tip because her service was terrible, so you leave.

Most people would be frustrated to have this experience at their favorite restaurant; however, people don’t realize how little their server can control. Not tipping your server is one of the worst things you can do, and most people do not understand why. At the end of every night, servers must “tip out” the bussers, food runners, and the bar. When a table stiff’s their server, at the end of the night, the server will be paying for that table out of her own pocket. This is unfair to the server, especially if there was nothing wrong with her service.

Let me take you behind the scenes of the scenario I described. When you were waiting for a table, the reason it took longer than 10 minutes was because the host was new and was not great at predicting wait times yet. She didn’t want to give you too long of a wait time because you might have left and gone somewhere else, but didn’t want to give too short of one either; so she decided five to 10 minutes was a good happy-medium. There were open tables because it was a Wednesday night, and not all sections of the restaurant are open during the week; the open tables were tables that were not going to be sat at all that night. The group of six people that walked in and were sat immediately had a reservation, so a table was ready for them.

The server took awhile to get to you because she wasn’t ready to take your table, she already had all of her tables full and didn’t know she was taking an extra one as well. She was running around taking care of her five other tables when you were sat, so by the time she got to your table, you had already been there a few minutes. The food came out late because the kitchen was behind. An unexpected party of 15 came in about 20 minutes before you and the kitchen was backed up making their food. It took the kitchen awhile to recover and catch up again, so your food came out later than usual. The server had no control over the kitchen, even though she was asking about your food every couple of minutes.

When you decided not to tip her, you are making her pay for her coworker’s shortcomings. She couldn’t control your wait time, or that the host sat you at the wrong table. She also couldn’t control how long it took to cook your food. Instead of focusing on the aspects of your meal that she couldn’t control, you should focus on the server herself. Was she kind? Did she apologize for the wait? Did she bring refills when you needed them? If you can answer yes to these questions then she deserves to be tipped for doing her job. So, the next time you are at a restaurant, think twice before stiffing your server, because probably deserves the tip more than you think.

Big Dreams Usually Mean Lots of Work

Ever been told to “be careful what you wish for”? Many of us have at some point in our lives, but many of us probably never understood its truth until we got what we wished for. We all know that the good comes with the bad, and that when you reach the bottom there is nowhere else to go but up. But when your dream job keeps you at the bottom for what seems like an eternity, it is hard to not to get discouraged. There are probably several professions that have this “lull” before the big promotion comes, but television broadcasting has to be in the top ten worst.

When people dream of being on television, perhaps as an anchor on a nightly newscast, or as a sideline reporter for ESPN, many have no idea what the job entails, or even how to get into the business. Dreamers see the glitz and glamor of having the life-changing story they wrote heard, or having their face recognized by thousands, or millions, of people. What dreamers don’t see is the rough road to making it big.

That road is filled with unexpected twists and turns that try to throw people off track. Most start off working for a station so small they have never heard of the town it’s in, working long hard hours on stories that don’t interest them, and getting paid close to nothing. New hires almost always get the least-desirable shifts, so if your new station has a morning show, you better bet you’re going to be working for it. This means getting to the station sometime around midnight, or before, for a newscast that airs at six o’clock in the morning. Most news does not take place in the middle of the night, so you will probably be working long hours searching desperately for something you can make “newsworthy”.

The long, hard hours are filled with operating a camera, possibly conducting an interview, writing a story, and editing your own footage—otherwise known as “one-man banding it”. You’ll combine all of this into a package that you’re not extremely proud of for the newscast, then go home and sleep and start the process all over again.

All broadcast stations revolve around the “market”, or the number of people the broadcast will be aired to. The lower the market number, the bigger the market is. For example, New York City is market one, Los Angeles is market two, Sacramento is market 20, and Glendive, Montana is market 210 (which is the smallest). Most people in the industry set their goal at being in a top 20 market, some strive for top ten, which is very hard to get in to. However, most start out between 75 and 100.

After you send out tapes of your work to every station you can think of, you hope that you get into a station you want. But if a tiny station in North Dakota is the only one that calls, you will probably be packing your stuff and moving to a town you never knew existed. Most try not to stay at a small station longer than necessary, so once your contract is up (usually two years) you will be sending out tapes again in hope to jump to a bigger market…which means moving again. This will typically be the pattern, until you finally get to a market that you are happy in. It can take ten years to reach a top 20 market, but once you’re in, the jump to top 10 is a little easier, which should be encouraging!