Breakfast with Amber

October 2021: Tiger TV

I'm not sure how to start this chapter. I just took a nap, and my brain's still a little foggy. All I do know is that I joined my school's TV station in October of 2021. Actually, it started in September when Martin, who was in my Japanese class last year, sent me an e-mail. Apparently, he was a member of the crew for Studio 21, one of the shows on my school's TV station, Tiger TV. They were looking for another presenter for the segment "Release Date," and Martin thought I was a good fit for the role since I mentioned in class that I had a YouTube channel. They met up on Tuesday afternoons at 4:30 and usually wrapped up by 6.

My first instinct was to reply, "Sign me the fuck up!" or something along those lines, but then I remembered I also had my Toni Morrison seminar on Tuesday afternoons. I suggested talking to Dr. Rando about letting me miss the first half of class, but Martin didn't want me missing class so I could attend and recommended that I join one of their other shows, The Not-So-Late Show, which met up on Thursdays at 4:30, and Newswave, which met up on Fridays at 2:30. I picked Newswave since I was already with the school's newspaper, so it wouldn't be that different from what it was already doing. It would also be right after my English lit class. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I'd go to sociology right afterwards, but since I didn't have sociology on Fridays, I could head straight there and fill in that slot.

Martin got me in touch with Devan, the producer of Newswave, and he told me that the first training session would be on September 24, so on the afternoon of the 24th, I left English lit class and made my way to Laurie Auditorium, the site of the Tiger TV studio. Devan had told me the studio was on the fourth floor, so it became a search for a way to the fourth floor. I found an elevator, but it took a long time to show up until finally, a custodian or somebody asked where I was going, and I told them the fourth floor, and they told me there was a set of stairs on the other side of the door I was standing right next to labeled "Sid Richardson Communications Center," which, in retrospect, seems like the perfect location for a TV studio to be.

I went up the stairs like the guy said, and I recognized the communications center as that place with the computer lab I went to that one time for Media Texts my freshman year and then never again. I spent a few minutes looking around for the TV studio, and once I found it, I began wondering where everybody was.

There was nobody there. It was getting close to 2:30, so there should have been at least one person already there. I checked my phone for any updates. Lo and behold, there was an e-mail from Devan saying he wasn't feeling well, and training was postponed to October 1.

So I did all this looking around for nothing, but at least I knew where the studio was for next week. I guess I was going back to my room.

I showed back up on October 1 and met the whole gang, who was more, well, male than I was expecting. I am not kidding. I was the only girl there that first day. Angelina joined the crew a few weeks later, and Madison was serving as an "international correspondent" during her study abroad in Sweden, but what was it about news that drove the ladies away?

Martin was also there. There must be a lot of overlap in Tiger TV because I also saw Devan working with Studio 21 when I finally landed the role there. For example, on the April 26 episode of Studio 21, which you can watch now on youtube.com/@tigertv14, he subbed in for my co-host. You can tell because he says "Splatoon 3 is not my taste," which was written by my regular co-host, Ian, when I know for a fact that he'd love Splatoon 3.

The presenters for Newswave were James Crosnoe and Caleb Reed, who dressed up in suits and ties (and masks) for every episode and sat at a big desk in front of a news-y blue background every week. I'm looking at episodes from that era, and their eyes look absolutely dead. I sort of thought they'd be a bit more awake at 3 in the afternoon.