Evening star., 1950-05-21

~ SOA A4c A4O1 gwen W Q4SSi
and II your nature is an i'm
perturbable one untainted by any
hint Of excitability. you might be
Just the man to take up television
newscasting as a career. You had
better listen to some one like Bry-
son Rash. however. before you
give up some quiet but dull job to
enter this new field. Mr.. Rash.
presidential announcer. White
House correspondent, special
events director and several other
things for WMAL. is finding his
life more and more dominated
by his nightly "Telenews" pro-
gram on WMAL-TV at Z.
He has been doing "Telenews"
for seven months now. which is
upward of 140 telecasts. and he
had discovered that there are at
least lao different ways a man can
be thrown curve by a television
news show. He is confident the
number is considerably greater.
No one will admit having dis
covered the true television formal
for news presentation and there
are even those who contend that
asking TV to do spot news cover
age is like asking a newspaper to
do song and dance act. Still,
something of a formula has de-
veloped, a sort of blend of tech
niques, involving motion pictures.
occasional still pictures and COM
mentary accompanied by the
image of the commentator.
I'VE have only ourselves to
blame for the major problem in
television news" Mr.. Rash was
saying the other day. In radio
we always emphasized speed. We
couldn't compete with news
papers on detailed coverage of a
story. but We could get it to
people quicker We could tell
them about a story before 1t could
be set in type In a newspaper
plant. Now that we're in tele-
vision. people still are expecting
us to tell them the news while it's
happening"
This emphasis on speed leads
'Telenews" through paths that
would leave a worrying type
complete wreck before telecast
time each day. The pictures-the
same as are shown on CBS-TV
half hour later-are edited in
New York late in the morning,
processed and placed aboard an
afternoon plane.
BY telephone. Mr.. Rash gets
from New York a description of
the news film stories and the fight
number and waybill number of
thes film shipment. From this re-
port from New York he rearranges
the stories according to their news
value, then goes to the WMAL
newsroom about 4:30 to read the
complete file of the days news.
From this he gets his Tomorrow
Mornings Headlines" and rewrites
copy for local news and major
stories to be used on the live por-
ton of "Telenews." While this
is going on. the film is arriving
it is fervently hoped by all con-
cerned-is being picked up by air.
port limousine to be rushed to the
Statler terminal. A page takes it
from there, drops the accompany
ing copy at the Commonwealth
Building studios of WMAL-TV,
whips the film out to the trans
mitter at American University.
Mr.. Rash gets back to Common
wealth about 6:15, edits the New
York copy for errors and late
news developments. gathers up the
ball scores, puts the whole thing
together in proper order. takes
deep breath and it's 7 o'clock
and he's on. Meanwhile, Film
Editor Charles Bloomquist. at the
transmitter, has been editing the
film to conform to Mr.. Rash's
lineup of the stories, writing
titles. slicing in the commercials,
and the production staff has been
gathering together music and spe-
cial effects.
This, as you can see. is a rou-
tine fraught with possibilities
for spectacular mishap. especially
since Mr.. Rash has not seen the
film and Mr.. Bloomquist has not
seen the copy until they get to-
Rether on the air they hnne