Friday, March 1, 2013

First month down

It's been a crazy month.

I started working at The Weather Network exactly one month ago and I love that I get the opportunity to have an on-camera role for my career. It's something that I've been working toward since 2008.

The first three weeks at TWN were all about training and learning the inner-workings of the programming operations. Each shift at TWN is different depending on what time you go on-air, which means that each shifts presents its own learning curve.

The first week was overwhelming as I tried to take in as much information as I could, but the more I immersed myself into the varied weather we see in Canada (and the reasons behind it) I began to feel more comfortable.

After two weeks of shadowing, I started practicing in front of the green screen and familiarizing myself with the many different maps and videos TWN uses to present the weather. At the end of my third week, I had an on-screen test with my manager to see if I was ready to go on-air.

It was a tough test, a lot of things were thrown at me on the fly, but I handed them well and I received word that I was ready to make my on-air debut.

I wasn't expecting to be on-air until the beginning of this month, but the storm that hit southern Ontario on Wednesday put a wrench into those plans. All hands on deck were needed, so I reported to work at 3 a.m. on Wednesday and went live on-air at 6 a.m.

Over the next five hours, I was on-air every 10 minutes (approximately) switching back and forth between the national and GTA feeds, showing pictures and tweets that viewers had sent in.

I was pleased with my performance, as were my colleagues, and it felt good to be thrown right into the fire immediately without a safety net.

When will I be on next?

I just received my March schedule, so here is a list of approximate times I will be on-air over the next four weeks (keeping in mind that TWN has five feeds, so my appearance on your feed may depend on where you live):

March 4, 5, 6 -  2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

March 9,10 - 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

March 14, 15 - 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

March 16,17 - 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

March 21, 22 - 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

March 23, 24 - 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

March 28, 29 - 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

March 30, 31 - 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.