Rundown Rationale, 3:30 Newscast 10/21/10

October 21, 2010
3:30 p.m.

By Marisa DeCandido (NCC News)

I began our newscast with a reader of a Dewitt police officer who was injured in an accident this morning. His name had just been released, making it timely, and the accident had shut down the left lane of Interstate 481 South for a few houes, making it a newsworthy story to the general public. I followed it with another reader of the release of names of two men who had been shot Wednesday night because it went along with the theme of identities being released and "accident" type stories.

From there I put Jackie's anchor actuality about a woman arrested for robbery in Cicero. It flowed nicely from the crime aspect of the shooting, and also broke up the readers. Then I put Adam's live wrap about the Jordan-Elbridge parent's lawsuit against the district because it had a law aspect involved, similar to the robbery story.

Next I put a reader about the County Legislature not overriding Joanne Mahoney's veto because a reader flows well after a live wrap. Also, the content was political and related to a local controversy, like the Jordan-Elbridge story. After that I put another reader about construction at Upstate Medical University's Syracuse University campus because it was a local story involving rescue/health institutions and their finances.

Then, I put in Cayden's live wrap about certain sneakers being banned in the NBA because he made the local spin about Syracuse University basketball players, which related to Upstate because both discussed SU. I also wanted a live wrap to break up the readers. After this I put in the story about Four Lokos and their health concerns because it also related to SU, but had a national tie because it had recently been on the wire for being banned at a New Jersey college. After this I put in Jackie's second anchor actuality about NPR firing one of their analysts because it flowed nicely from a reader and had a national tie. I finished the A block with a story about a missing crewman on Lake Ontario because it had a national tie, but was also local because it happened near our DMA and Oswego Coast Guard crews were helping the search.

For the kicker, I used a story about an East Syracuse woman winning the lottery because it was a local feel-good story.