“Hi there! My name is Jess Brady and I’m calling from the CBC…” For real?!

Last night before I went to bed I made sure I did one very important thing – I set my alarm.

And I made sure it would be loud and annoying enough to wake me so I’d get up and be ready for my first day as a shiny happy intern at CBC.

And the plan worked! I got to the station right on time after a very brisk walk in the balmy -28° morning air. No tardiness for this girl anymore!

Once I was in the toasty warm station things moved pretty fast. I was introduced to almost everyone in the newsroom and got a tour of the building. I got my own desk and then it was off to the morning story meeting.

It was a bit of a slow news day, but it was neat to see a professional pitch session.

Afterwards I picked up my Marantz recorder (not at all like the ones at school – I was shocked to see a very large black box with a strap on it lol) and then I started looking for stories to potentially pitch. I didn’t have any assignments for the day, but I wanted to make myself useful.

After running through a few ideas (“Hey Russ, are cougars a problem in this neck of the woods?” = story on a cougar attack thwarted by a family dog, “What do you think of this as a kicker? 1937 Canadian penny sells for $402,500 at auction in New York!”) I eventually found a story that was really relevant locally (H1N1 vaccine surpluses in Nunavut and the Yukon). I ran it past one of the reporters and he gave me some contact information for a source.

And then it was off to the races!

A little while later I was on the phone doing my first interview as a CBC intern and it was pretty cool! I ended up being able to write two versions of the story: a short version with one audio clip and a longer wrap style piece that I get to record myself. I’m pretty chuffed :)

I’m tweaking the writing a bit tonight so the stories are ready first thing in the morning. Hopefully they like my work! I feel a bit rusty and out of practice to be honest, but I just need to get back in the saddle I guess lol.

Anyway, that’s pretty much what my first day was like! I got to meet some more awesome people that I’ll be working with for the next month and got my feet wet too.

All in all, day one was a success.

That being said, I need to go and make myself some dinner that will hopefully be a success haha.

Hope everyone’s doing well out there!


Jess