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News Room
The Assignment Desk is the heart of the newsroom. This is where information is processed
and from where crews (Reporters
and Photographers) are dispatched. The news assignment desk is manned around the clock
every day of the year. The Assignment Editors on duty are responsible for gathering
and covering news. They gather news by checking the news wires, monitoring
emergency service radios, keeping track of reports from the ABC network, and answering
viewer phone calls. They cover news by working with Reporters, Photographers, Producers
and News Managers to decide what stories to cover and how to cover them. That's when the
assignment desk turns into a  dispatching center, using two-way radios and cellphones to send crews to
stories.
The Producer is the person directly in charge of each newscast,
deciding which stories go where in each newscast, and how they'll be presented. It's a
real juggling act: when you subtract time for commercials, weather, and sports there's
usually only about fifteen minutes of time for news in a half-hour newscast. It's up to
the producers to decide which elements are most important. Then they write the newscast by
typing the script for each story into a special computer. The computer automatically tells
the Producer how much time it will take the Anchor to read each script.  With that information
the Producer can tell exactly how long (to the second) the show will run.
The Anchors are the people you see on the air presenting the news. They act as
“anchor” for the newscasts by introducing Reporters, Meteorologists, and
Sportscasters. When they are not on air, Anchors can act as reporters, or assist the
Producer by writing some of the stories.
Reporters and Photographers go out into the communities of
Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania and find out what is going on. They then tell you
about it with words (written by the Reporter) and pictures (taken by the Photographer).
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