Earlier this month we missed our MTA bus from Mariachi Plaza. The 92 was supposed to have us in route to the KLCS Television station in Downtown Los Angeles in under 34 minutes. Things however didn’t run so smoothly. The next 92 bus wasn’t going to come around for another for 40 minutes. Being that we had 60 minutes to get to the station, we made a collective decision to take our chances in finding an alternative public transportation route.
We went down the Metro Station’s elevator and hopped on the Red Line towards Union Station. After getting lost at Union Station and walking up steep hills on Temple Street, we finally arrived at the station. But, we were already an hour and a half late. We were almost certain the station was going to cancel on us. Luckily, our point of contact for the station saw our sweaty, tired and thirsty looking faces and showed us empathy. The station was nice enough to accommodate themselves to our late arrival and we began exploring the behind the scenes of PBS!
Our tour began with a visit to the broadcasting control room. We saw every possible episode being displayed across the station’s 8 million viewers’ home in real time! The man behind this operation introduced himself to us as Anthony. Mr. Anthony showed us how he operates the live streaming of over 100 shows in present time. He then spoke to us about his career journey. We learned about the need to major in journalism and television broadcasting for this type of work and we also learned about the different jobs and experiences Mr. Anthony attained before working for KLCS.
The tour continued with a look into the satellite receiving room. ICT/Digital Media was everywhere in this room; we were taught that the airways were even passing right through our bodies! We followed the receiving room with a look into the editor booths. There we saw an actual television show being edited by one of the networks editors and TV director. We had to stay very quiet but we were able to witness what it looks like to make edits to film. Our tour then proceeded into the audio room where we learned how the audio engineer perfects the sounds we hear out of shows. The tour finished off in the studio room where we saw live sets and were introduced to industry film cameras!
This tour was a one of a kind experience. We are extremely thankful to KLCS for hosting us and showing us the various opportunities available in the field. We had a lot of fun learning about ICT/Digital Media that day.