KBIA, Lots of Pitches and T/F Festival

I worked at KBIA this week and I have to say I really enjoyed the experience. The atmosphere was great and people were more than willing to help me when it was obvious I didn't have a clue how to make something work. It is a little frustrating if you are assigned a story and then have to work with it, regardless of the subject's availability. I'm waiting right now to hear back from Steve Hollis, manager of the Office of Community Services. It's Friday, so chances are, I might not get anyone to call back today. On Tuesday I covered the Gary Forsee reception at Memorial and then helped a B1 student write, cut and voice the piece. It's a great learning experience in a laid back atmosphere, which sets it apart from both the Missourian and KOMU.

I tried to get tickets for the True/False film festival when they went on sale through the J-School this week. Unfortunately, I have class from 9-2 on Tues/Thurs so I had a friend go for me and when she got to the window at Lee Hills Hall, the tickets were gone. We've tried the Cherry Street Artisan, and I am planning on showing up to try and buy tickets at the window before one of this weekends shows. I'd really like to see the film, Very Young Girls. I'm doing a research project (paper/presentation) on human trafficking and I think it might be an extremely informative film into the faces behind the exploitation.

I knew coming into this class that pitching stories was going to be the most challenging part of each week. I thought that the pitches Amy and I proposed on Wednesday were full of good ideas, but I agree that they needed to be developed. They needed a hook and an angle. It's always going to be a challenge, but I'm learning to keep my mind open to the idea of new stories throughout the week (as opposed to trying to scrounge something up on Tuesday nights). I'm finding it's absolutely exhuasting to take reporting and political science capstone in the same semester...along with three other upper level courses. But I'm excited that we're almost halfway through and I think i've learned more in the past 6 weeks than I did the entirety of last semester. Hopefully Amy and I can develop and produce an awesome KBIA piece about Full-Service gas stations. I've worked with Amy before and she does a great job with sound, I enjoy it as well and as long as we give the story enough meat, it should stand alone as a super interesting piece.