Interview with David Ono

 

Q. What specific role do you play in the presentation/development of a breaking news story?

A. Breaking news, you mean news that is happening right then, usually, I am on the anchor set. I'll just sit there and have to deliver the information to the audience. The assignment desk is going to find out what's happening and send a reporter to the scene and also make phone calls to officals, like the police or the fire departmen, depending on what the breaking news is. Then they'll relate the information to a producer, the producer will tell me in my ear. While I sit down on the anchor desk, I'll write notes or . . .I have a computer on the desk too, so I can pull up something wired on it.When I'm told to do it, then I'll just kind of re-read or say it to the audience.

 

Q. What is that earpiece you wear in your ear called?

 

A. It's called an IFB.

 

Q. What does that stand for?

 

A. Inter Frequency, something-or-other (laughs).. I don't even know, we just call it an IFB.

 

Q. Where do you get your news from; the television, the Internet, or the newspaper?

 

A. You mean personally, I get it from everything. I get it from the wires of a computer, the Assosiated Press, Press Releases, newspaper, our reports, radio reports as well. I get it from almost every source, magazines, even everything we go through, read and watch.

 

Q. If you can change one part of your job what would it be?

 

A. The long hours, lots of hours. Like, I came in this morning- I'm up at 3:00 a.m., came in at 4:00, and I work until about 6:30 p.m. or 7:00 p.m.tonight straight through. Plus, I worked six days this week with those hours. You only get one day off, so its a lot of hours.

 

Q. What would you say is interesting about your job?

 

A. Umm....It's always exciting. It's interesting. It never gets boring and things are always happening. There is always interesting news in the world, there in no such thing as a boring day. Everyday is exiting and everyday is interesting, some days are sad, some days are happy but, there is always something interesting going on.

 

Q. How did you know you wanted to become part of the newsmaking?

 

A. I did an internship when I was in college, and just the environment I thought was interesting and exiting. So, I just stayed in it and worked my way up and around and stuff like that and never knew I wanted to be an anchor man, but that's just what turned out to be. I started out as what's called a Chiron, or, I typed in the sport scores and stuff like that in the computer that puts them up on the screen. And then I eventually became a writer and then a producer, and then a reporter, and an anchor after that. It took several years. I've been in this business for quite some time.

 

Q. Is there any advice that you would give to someone who is aspiring to be a news broadcaster?

 

A. Just to keep in mind that it's extremely competitive, it's a very demanding job, but at the same time, the payoffs are very good, it's very exciting, but its tough to find jobs. You have to have a thick skin because some people think you're not very good, and other people think you are great. It's just a matter of who you talk to and you go to understand that, that is just part of the business. It's just like anything in the entertainment industry, there are people who are going to like you and people who are going to hate you and you just have to understand that is just part of it.There is no such thing as having everybody love you. And even when you are discouraged, if you believe in yourself, you gotta kind of follow that and stick to it and try your best, and hopefully it works out for you.

 

Q. What is one special memory or event that you can always recall?

 

A. There are a lot. There are a lot of things I think are pretty equal. I mean . . . I covered the Oklahoma City bombing and when Jessica McCloy was pulled out, the wailing in Midilan, Texas. All of those are all memorable news events. The OJ Simpson verdict, I remember all those quite distictly. But I also had some interesting interviews with people like Madonna and a number of presidents, stuff like that where you meet personalities that so many people talk about all the time and you have the chance to meet them and talk to them in personally hang out with them for a day and stuff like that. I think those are equally memorable.

 

Q. How do you find television news differs from all of the other mediums, like the newspaper and the Internet?

 

A. Well, television has to be very fast. It's gotta compete against other television shows and now cable and stuff like that. So news is changing in television, it's gotta be faster pace, it's gotta be more exciting, so television news now is almost a combination of entertainment and news, otherwise people would tune us out, because they want to be entertained, they want to be kept interested as well as informed and so you can't just go on and read a bunch of facts on the news because nobody would watch. You've got to keep in mind that you've got to be visual, you've got to show them the best video, you have to have the best writing, you have to have the best presentation, you have to keep things intersting, you have to keep in mind that you want to keep the best stories on the show and not bog it down with stories that people don't want to hear about or be bored with. The advantage to a newspaper is that they can put a whole bunch of stories in the newspaper and people can sum through the pages and read it when they feel like reading about it, but TV, you have to give it right then and there otherwise when they turn the channel, they are never going to come back, usually, so you want to come back to them. And so you have to keep all that in mind when you do the news on television.

 

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