By: Sophia Pedigo

All it takes is a  “4…3…2…” and a simple hand gesture for the room to come to life.

With its first airing in 1949, KDKA has over 70 years of experience providing the Pittsburgh area with news all day long. It is a fan favorite, filled with familiar faces and fast news. Around 12 PM, the building is hectic, making sure every last detail is ready for filming the infamous KDKA 12 News. Kristine Sorensen, Stacy Smith, and Ron Smiley all look over their scripts before everyone in the room turns quiet. 

The camp was invited to watch a 12 PM news filming and see the control room team in action. While watching the actual filming was interesting, the control room fascinated everyone. Seeing how efficiently the few employees had to work to make the show run smoothly was very impressive. We could then take that information about what to expect, at an obviously much smaller scale, when we made our own videos back at the university. There were lots of screens and buttons and the director had to call out commands to the studio every few seconds – it was a high-stress situation, but the work was worth it because the news report turned out great!

After finishing her part of the in-studio recording, Kristine Sorensen gave the group a tour of the KDKA part of the building. We watched her record a snippet for Alexas to play when told, “Alexa, tell me the news.” and your Alexa is programmed to KDKA News. We then were given a tour of where most of the behind-the-scenes action took place; the large room was filled with reporters, editors, and plenty of other people who keep the operation running smoothly. She gave a brief description of the jobs that were in the room and some of their media analytics. 

She kindly answered our questions, describing how you could start getting involved in broadcasting-related activities in high school, an option for what path to take for college, some personal experiences and examples of what your schedule may look like. We then remove our badges, say goodbye, and return to the CMI with more information than we had when we left.