My field trip to KQED was very interesting because it wasn’t exactly how I had expected it to be. Also because I didn’t know exactly what went on at television stations. I had many expectations, some were met but others weren’t. I learned a lot throughout the field trip. It helped a lot that the tour guide knew much of the information about the station. Here are some things that I learned during my visit to KQED.
 
At the worksite it was pretty calm and quiet. It wasn’t one of their busy days so we didn’t get to see much being done. What we did get to see though was a live radio broadcast being made, people moving sets from one place to another, and people getting programs ready to broadcast. They use a lot of equipment at KQED and much of it is expensive, especially the cameras that are used. They have lights and camera all over the studio. What was interesting for me was going into the control room where they control every little detail during a recording or live show being broadcasted. I think that for me working at a place like this might be interesting but I wouldn’t want it to be as calm and quiet as it was. I would want to work at a place where more things are going on daily. To work at a television station you need to know about multimedia. You have to be up to date with all the new technology out in the world today. It’d be easier if you took classes in high school that teach you about technology such as computers and how to work cameras. Multimedia is a great class that teaches all of that.
 
Some of the things that I learned about this career is that it really helps if you take internships or volunteer because that way you meet more people that could possibly get you a job somewhere. They told us that everyone starts as an internship and works their way up. Any little thing that you can do will really help you out. I think that what surprised me the most is how the lighting is so important. It takes people that are well experienced to work on the lighting because it really changes the way the room or people look. Something interesting I discovered about the job is that they need to have very good communication skills because everyone has to work as a whole to make sure nothing goes wrong while they are recording or broadcasting. They have people that help them communicate between the studio and the control room. Otherwise things could get a bit chaotic. Something that I wish we could have seen was a show being broadcasted live. It would have been nice to see how things are while they do live shows because it sounds like many things are happening at once.
 
Overall the trip was interesting even if we didn’t get to see much. I would like to go back on a day where they are more busy so I can see what everyone’s jobs are. It was a nice experience because there was much I didn’t know about television stations. It was also nice being able to see the studio. I never knew how much work went into broadcasting shows.

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