Assignment Manager and Meteorologist, CBS 21

>> My name is Nate Wardle, and I'm the Assignment Manager at CBS 21 and the fill in meteorologist, which is what my degree was in from Miller. I graduated in 2010 with a degree in meteorology. A typical day I get into work at 8 o'clock. I work an 8 to 4:30 shift. So I get into work and I browse the internet, looking at social media, looking at newspapers in the area, the other TV stations, at what they are working on to see if there's anything that we as a station have missed. Then I go into our morning meeting at 9:30 where we set up our day. Where we talk about where we have our reporters stationed for the day. What we plan on-- what stories they're working on. And then we come out of that and my job is to send the reporters and the photographers out, get them their tasks of the day, what stories they're working on. And then from there a lot of it is monitoring social media, making sure there aren't any big fires, accidents, anything like that, and just going from there and that takes up much of my day. A lot of it has become using the internet, using social media, it's the new tool that has kind of changed television. And then I get out of work at 4:30. I don't even see the newscast go on. And usually I try not to check my email. So usually I find out if everything went all right the next day. When something huge breaks, first we'll verify that it's actually going on. You know, there's several counties we have their scanners and everything. So if there's a major accident we can hear about it, and then we'll make the call to the county dispatch. Make sure it's going on. I'll dispatch-- if it-- depending on where it is and if we have a crew in the area, I may just send a photographer, or I may send a photographer and reporter. They'll go, as soon as they get there they'll be taking video. They'll be taking pictures, and sending that back through email. They'll be posting to their social media accounts, Facebook and Twitter, sending that all back and then we as a station use it. We'll turn around and share it on our social media, and then they'll do a story on it. Trying to find out not just what happened, but why it happened, who the key players are, and just making it a more compelling story than just that there is an accident down the street. Scheduling for me is pretty consistent. I work 8 to 4:30 Monday through Friday. Occasionally I get to pick up some weekend days, but for the most part its 8 to 4:30. Very normal schedule. But for many other of the positions that work at the station, the producers, they have a set schedule. They do the same shift every day. But if you're a reporter, you could be bouncing around. You could be working evenings, which is 3 to 11:30, you could be working the morning show, you could be working the normal shift which is 10:30 to 7, so that you're doing the 5, 5:30 and 6 news, because we don't have a noon newscast at CBS 21. [ Silence ]