January 20, 2009, is one of those moments in history you'll remember in your golden years - the Inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation's first African American President. The coverage and attendance by our fellow Americans in Washington D.C. was unprecedented. A brand new day had come to our nation.
Here at the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center, we spent much our day preparing for our local coverage that included a special edition of Channel 3 News at 5 PM following NBC's day long coverage. The thinking started long ago, but the day's plan fell into place as we got set to bring our viewers the local flavor of what the day meant.That was our mission of the day. Behind the scenes, the staff worked in a state of controlled chaos which usually comes on a big news day. On Inauguration Day, we not only had the 5 pm special, but the 6 pm and a special 7:30 pm broadcast to prepare and to execute as well.
At 5:00 as the Director of the 5 pm broadcast, I called for the show open and our anchors Carole Sullivan, Eric Mansfield and Romona Robinson wove it all together into an hour filled with many live guests, reporters and feature packages about an historic day. Romona, herself a proud African American, evoked great reflection from local political strategist Arnold Pinkney and the Reverend E.T. Caviness who graciously joined us in the studio.
What I found the most interesting about the day wasn't so much what we were doing, but the emotion surrounding the fact Tuesday marked a new beginning for us all - even though many of the same problems remain. We all seemed to feel a bit of hope for a change. The transfer of power was so overwhelming that words can't do justice.
But, the pictures did. The day was poetic justice for the new age of high definition television. The coverage was stunning from a technical standpoint, despite the few stray camera shots that I'm sure gave the on site directors a little indigestion from time to time.The high definition cameras made you feel as if you were right there...standing in front of the new President... walking beside the first couple... and feeling a connection to being part of history. In particular, I found the shots of the Capitol Building, the White House and the Inaugural Parade absolutely stunning in high definition. Even though I was preparing for the broadcasts, I found myself curiously staring at the high definition monitors in the control room. It was hard to pull away.
Plus, you can not underestimate the technical feat such coverage brings. The networks had the unenviable task of bringing viewers worldwide the action, wherever it was. Many times, the action was simultaneous. Hundreds of cameras were positioned throughout Washington D.C. Try to think back on how many different vantage points you saw throughout the day. As a director who is used to working with multiple location shots, this was still astounding to me.
In Cleveland, our job was relatively easy - to bring local reaction to the Inauguration. But, our entire staff did an outstanding job from anchors to reporters, to everyone on the technical side.
Somehow though, we are still a little bit glad that big events like this only come along so often.
