On the Air (Behind the Scenes at a T V Newscast) - Hardcover

Lucid and detailed, a survey of the many people, responsibilities, and tasks involved in TV production. Focusing on station WRGB-TV in Schenectady, N.Y. (successor to W2XB, home of the country's first TV news in 1928), this mother-son team profiles the people who hold key jobs and tracks the complex production process, including policy decisions, how last-minute news is inserted into the tight schedule, and such nitty-gritty tasks as sorting out the multicolored copies of each story (done ``by whoever has time to lend a hand''). Though comments about the effect of what's chosen to air are beyond the book's scope, there are a few hints of larger motives behind inclusions: e.g., a story about an abused kitten, questioned by viewers, is later justified by the newscasters: ``We want the public to know that people who can do what they did to this kitten may do it to human beings as well.'' The crisp b&w photos suggest the nonstop pace, the variety of participants, and the intricacy of the technology. An attractive, sturdily informative presentation. (Nonfiction. 9- 12) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Grade 4-8-- Another probe into life in a television newsroom proves that television equals excitement and a book about television equals drab. Accompanied by a significant number of black-and-white photos (mostly of people staring at monitors), the text begins with a historical account of television station WRGB in Schenectady, New York, and then explains the various jobs of members of the staff. Wire services, tape room, script development, chroma keying, weather, sports, and other technical services are all covered briefly as the text logs a typical day. The writing is better than Koral's In the Newsroom (Watts, 1990), but the Hautzigs' book lacks a table of contents, color photographs, a glossary, and an index. It's a bare-bones rendition of a behind-the-scenes look at a TV newscast. --Judie Porter, Media Services Center, Portsmouth School Department, RI
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.