Wednesday, February 2, 2011

TV News vs. Law School

Since childhood, I've been passionate about all things media, particularly tv and radio.  I made my own radio show at age 10 - CNE: The Best Music Radio (available now on cassette tapes), and I've had my fair share of internships and reporting gigs at both radio and tv stations. At one point I even created a tv resume reel of my best reporting and anchoring clips - which I would not dare show to any news director, ever.

Around the time I graduated from college, I decided the tv news reporter route was not right for me, since, at the time, I didn't want to fight for an entry-level $18,000/year tv reporting gig in some middle-of-nowhere town.  The whole 'Pay your dues' in tv news mantra wasn't clicking.  So with my broadcast journalism degree in hand, my solution was law school. I knew legal training would give me the necessary tools to become a successful leader in the entertainment/media industry.  Ironically, after I finished law school, my first gig was working at a talent agency which specialized in news anchor and reporter clients - where I made way less than that $18k/yr at which I once snubbed my nose. Hooray for the economy!

During law school, I also inherited my fair share of debt owed to Sallie Mae or the Department of Education -- I'm really not sure at this point who I owe, as both Sallie Mae and the Dept. of Ed keep playing hot potato with my student loan repayments.  One minute Sallie Mae says they'll collect.  Then they say they've sold a portion of my debt owed to the Dept of Ed.  Then the Dept of Ed gives it back to Sallie Mae.  I pray it gets lost in the shuffle or that my Upromise  account rises exponentially.

Sometimes I wonder where I would be today if I pursued tv news reporting.  Who knows?  Besides, I'm pretty content where I am now in my career (I work in site licensing/publishing) and I live vicariously through my former classmates who are successful tv reporters/producers/writers.   Plus, after viewing the following news report featuring former Good Day NY Anchor Jim Ryan, I feel like my resume reel was pretty golden, even with the clip of me as a weather girl incorrectly pointing westward to California and saying "...And yesterday, on the east coast, New York set a record high for snowfall ".

 I had the green screen to blame (sorta) -- what excuse did these guys have?

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