A few seconds into the first story of the broadcast on Monday the computer feeding text to LCM TV’s news readers froze up. After a moment of hesitation Peter Shifman reached for a stack of papers and found his place.
During a break, Shifman gave a brief nod toward the printed script and admitted to a misconception he harbored about the big time network newscasters.
“I always thought they had it memorized,” he said, smiling broadly.
LCM TV is a recent addition to the Lake County Magazine online lineup. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at noon they stream live broadcasts of news, weather and sports. Shifman is joined on screen by Megan Berger. Behind the scenes Terri Larsen prepares the news while Mark Stanghellini handles the technical details.
It’s a small crew, so they expect a few hiccups.
Last week Berger broke into laughter while reading a story. During Monday’s broadcast Larsen chided the news crew several times for mispronunciations — each poke eliciting a smile at the time and good natured chuckles during breaks.
“You can tell we have absolutely no fun whatsoever,” Stanghellini observed.
“I think it’s great we’re not your normal news presenters,” Larsen added with a laugh. In fact, they refer to the half-hour newscast as just that — Not Your Normal News.
They present the news live on lcm-tv.com and archive each episode on their own Lake County Magazine website. Larsen and the volunteer staff hope to fill a niche, bringing information — and, as they expand, opinion — to those who do not go to more traditional sources.
After a few weeks, the project is still a work in progress. But it runs a bit more smoothly each time.
“This is new to me,” Shifman said. “But I was a little more relaxed this time.”
Berger, a self-professed scanner junkie, contributes to Lake County Magazine. But Monday was only her second time on air. Still, she shrugged off stumbles with a kindly, unflappable manner.
“I watch the news at home now,” she said with a grin. “They’re not perfect either.”
If the atmosphere is less than formal and the staff on a learning curve, the news itself is serious. They pull a few national or statewide stories and then focus in on local matters. They try to give each piece some attention, breaking from the newsbriefs format normal to radio and some television.
At the moment, the LCM TV crew simply read news, weather and sports from Larsen’s script, prepared as close as possible to broadcast time. As they add time and staff, the crew expects to dress things up with video, soundbites and interviews.
“We want the community to be in touch with what’s going on,” Larsen explained. “We’re also providing a forum for the community.”
