You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
The Night Shift.
I’m a disoriented gerbil on nocturnal walking wheel.
I’m an A.M. kind of guy in a P.M. kind of world.
At least this week.
I’m a first shift news gatherer carrying a 2nd shift basket all week long.
It’s just the night shift you say.
And you’d be right.
But it’s different.
It’s like driving a new car for the first time.
Sure it’s a car. Sure you’ve driven before. But the pedals are an inch out of place. The mirrors don’t exactly reflect what you are use to seeing. The car pulls to the right slightly when it use to track just fine.
That’s the News night shift.
In most professions they ask if you did something to piss off the boss.
The difference is, the night shift leads up to the premiere newscast of any TV station, the 10pm show.
It’s when the most amount of eyes could be watching.
The ratings potential for the 10pm news is maximum.
It’s been a long time since I was the night shift reporter. 18 years to be exact.
When I was a much younger man, I use to come home at the bewitching hour. I did it regularly when I was the night reporter in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1996.
In the West Michigan winters, sometimes I left for work in the dark and came home in the dark, sleeping through the day, and doing it all over again, never seeing the sun.
BAH!
It’s now 2013. 18 years putting news eggs in basket found in the light of day. That’s an awfully long time to work the day shift.
My biological clock is set to the rooster’s crow.
My cup of morning Joe is synchronized with the dawn.
I have news contacts, developed over the years. They too are conditioned to a morning ritual that often includes me pestering them, calling them, emailing them, texting them, and all before 7:30 am
But that’s about to change this week. That’s because I am on the night shift?
1:30-10:30 P.M Yuk.
I was so bugged by the change, I had trouble sleeping Sunday night.
why?
Because it is just different, that’s why.
My job is all about preparing for the unexpected.
For some reason, I was not ready for the expected unexpectedness of my new shift.
Why am I on night shift? It’s premiere week on ABC.
The new fall line up is being unveiled this week. New shows, new hopes for new eyeballs and better ratings.
The management hope is maybe I can work some magic and get a few of those eye balls to check out the 10 pm news.
Before I go off tooting my own horn, I also learned that one of the main guys on the 10pm show is on vacation, so I’m filling in for him.
So Monday morning comes and I’m up at 6:30 like always.
But I’ve slept badly, so I am tired.
I try and relax, but I can’t.
My body says shower, dress, and start making calls.
Instead I sit on the couch and watch the morons on Good Morning America.
My mind is racing. So far, I have zero leads? Not a great start. It’s 8:30 am. Normally I would be going to the 9am news meeting in 30 minutes with an empty basket.
Not in the night shift world. I’m still more than 5 hours from the 2 pm meeting.
By noon, I’m worried. My contacts are half way done with their day. They have stopped caring about the day’s events and are more worried about soccer practices and picking up a steak for dinner that night.
News for Andy? Andy who?
So I sit with co-workers I don’t normally see, don’t normally work with.
“What are you doing here?” they say their mouths agape.
“I’m in time out,” I say eye balling the boss.
He smiles.
I sit at the afternoon table with new faces and different voices. It’s unusual. They are my co-workers, but I feel like I am a new reporter at a new tv station. It’s messy, like a baking soda added to vinegar.
And then I remember what I like best about the night shift. When the night comes and the bosses go home, it’s the inmates running the asylum. It’s a skeleton crew doing more with less, but it’s more of a democracy making decisions on how to best gather the news and put it on the air.
If something happens at night, you don’t need 2 meetings and a closed door séance to decide what to do.
So my night ends at 10:30 pm on the side of the interstate.
A story I could have told in the day, instead I’m telling at night.
It’s still story telling. It’s still news. It’s still about presentation and performance and journalistic guidelines.
The only difference is, it’s at night.
The night shift.
Only 4 more days to go.
Life’s Crazy™