It's not as easy as you'd think...

Me producing Sunday Sports Special--circa 2005/Courtesy: jon nelson

There are some things that you just know how to do. And because of that, you just assume that everything associated with it will be easy.

It's not that simple.

For anyone who's known me since I've been working in TV, you probably are aware that I produced Sports shows and Sportscasts on and off pretty much since I started in the business.

Sure, there were periods of time where I didn't do it. After all, I was always a Photojournalist too. I shot a lot of video in that time and had more than a few bosses who just assumed that was all I did.

It isn't.

Today (5/4/11), I got to do something I've never done in all my years in TV, I produced a Newscast. You might ask: "Why is that a big deal?" "Didn't you say you've produced Sports shows?".

I did say that and I did produce Sports shows. Heck, I've won awards while doing it. I created or helped create a couple of Sports shows in Atlanta, so, yeah, I know how it's done.

Me and Mark Harmon interviewing Michael Boley/Courtesy: atlfalcons

News is different.

Sports isn't easy to produce, but it's different. I never really believed that until today. Sure, I worked in News off and on throughout my career and have a pretty good grasp of it. But I can safely say...producing a newscast is entirely different than doing Sports.

Why is that?

Sports is fairly straightforward and simple. There is a lot of ad-libbing involved, but you know the content. And you can be a little looser and more flexible with it. That means you don't have to be exact in your timing. For instance, when I did my Sunday Sports Special at WGCL in Atlanta, I always knew that I could go into the show about a minute light. I knew that my anchor, Mark Harmon would make the time up and if we were tight at the end of the show with time...I could tell him to pick up the pace and he would.

News is nothing like that.

When you are producing 30-minutes of a 90-minute news hole, you have to be pretty close to exact in your shows. You have to make sure things are timed to the second. You have to hit your breaks at certain times and you have to put as much content in the show as you possibly can.

Me working at Atlanta Motor Speedway/Courtesy:Me

With a sports show, you can put in a rough time for stories knowing that you don't have to be precise getting in and out of it. News, is completely different. And if you aren't exact, the whole show gets out of whack. If the whole show gets out of whack, then you have to start cutting things.

In a sports show, you can just say, kill a particular story and it isn't that big a deal. As long as the show times out in the end, everyone is happy. News is nothing like that. If you are really heavy it not only impacts the stories in the show, it impacts Weather and Sports. And neither the weather folks nor the sports folks like it when you cut their time. And depending on the people and situation, they may let you know about it.

Having been on the Sports end of it, I don't like cutting their segments. Really, I don't. Though the on-air folks need to know it isn't personal.

Let me give you an example. In Atlanta, when I first started, Sports came after Weather...right after weather. If the weather guys went long, which they on occasion do, it meant condensing the Sports. When it started happening 3-4 times a week, we (me and my anchor) finally had to say something to the News Director (the boss) about it.

The compromise was putting a break between weather and sports. It didn't always mean Sports got all of their time, but it did most of the time.

It was a good feeling today to get back in the chair. It's funny, I was a video photographer for 20-years and only produced for roughly 9 or 10 of those years. I like producing, it's something I took to pretty well and it's something most everyone who knew how I worked figured I'd be decent at. I don't miss the shooting part, heck, I actually have feeling in my shoulder for the first time in the past 5-years. Yeah, it hurts once and awhile, but its mostly depending on the weather or how much I use it.

I do, at times, miss going out on stories and the adventure of being in the field. I always enjoyed that part. But I'm older now. I've done an awful lot. I've been all over the country covering stories and been to most of the biggest events in my generation's lives. I'll always have that, it can't be taken away and the people, places and things I've experienced, most people can only dream of.

And even though I've moved back into News, my heart is and will always be in Sports. It's what I know best and the looseness and spontaneity of it I always enjoyed. Sports people and the people they cover don't generally take themselves quite as seriously as News people do.

But...lift a glass. Enjoy your beer. Me, I've done something not everybody can do, I crossed the streams. I changed flight. If it wasn't official before, it is now, I've become an honest-to-goodness news guy.

It's a little weird, but then again, it's early David Bowie. But it is somewhat appropriate: