Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Bored with Sports?

I just recently watched a spoof that aired on the BBC (my favorite channel) called "The Anatomy of a News Package." I would post the link but this is a high school site and it has an unsuitable word in it. So you can probably just google it. Anyway, for those who don't know, a 'package' is basically a story that you see on the air. It's what an anchor tosses to when they say, so and so has the story. We do that in sports too. We have rising stars, game wrap-ups, highlight packages, etc. What this spoof does however, is make fun of the way we do said packages. It calls news reporters out on how predictable and unoriginal our format is. So I wonder, do fans feel the same way about sports packages?

Trust me when I say that all stories are not created equal. In that same vein reporters don't feel creative every day. It's hard to be terribly witty on a regular basis. Just ask Jay Leno. So sometimes we get lazy which is a horrible thing to say but it's true. But on the days that we actually do get a little creative and witty and put a lot of effort and care into our stories, is it actually worth it to you the viewer/reader?

The Catch it Kansas show is a perfect thing to dissect when it comes down to my question. Do you all like the way the show is put together? We try to keep it as quick and as engaging as possible without making it a total strain to put together. There's a total of about 25 people that make this show possible every Friday night so it's easy to get a creative vibe going when there are that many people around. We try adding new things all the time, like this year when our producer (we'll call him Brian Funruh) added in the column on the right hand side telling you what's coming up next. We have Bryan Holmgren do packages while I call my highlights on the set just to mix things up. We have packages from Grant, Trista and Melody usually accompanied by live highlights called by Bruce just so it doesn't get mundane. Does that help?

I'd love to get some viewer feedback on it with some ideas. Well, creative and useful ideas that is. Please, if you're feeling in a non-witty/unoriginal mood I'd rather you wait until you hit your creative stride :).

No comments: