From Radio To TV at Fox 46/15
I wasn’t originally hired to do production, promotions, or even graphics. My initial job description at Fox 46 was a plain, simple, full-time board op. But overnight shifts are frightfully dull, and I wound up experimenting with the station’s Video Toaster 2000. This would have one of two results: I’d get fired, or someone would notice that I was demonstrating an interest in doing something other than manning the control room all the time. The station’s sole promotions producer at the time did notice, and soon I was helping him tag episodic promos for syndicated shows. In mid-1994, the station acquired a second-hand Video Toaster 4000, a much more powerful system…which came with absolutely no documentation whatsoever, and was on the verge of obsolescence. It sat in a room adjoining the control room, unused, until I began to feel my way around that system during the overnight shift as well. Early in 1995, Fox 46 premiered its own nightly five-minute weathercast, having acquired a relatively powerful PC-based graphics system in mid-’94. With these two tools at my disposal, I began to produce on-air work in earnest, though often unofficially.
