This morning, more than 40 Second Graders from Lennox took a tour of KSFY.  Their Superintendent had called me a few weeks ago to ask if the tour could be part of a field trip they were taking.  Of course I was happy to give them a look at the place.  But I admit, when I saw dozens of excited little faces coming up the sidewalk, I was worried I might not be able to entertain them for the hour that they would be at the station. Since they're only Second Graders, I knew talking about the in-depth parts of the job just wouldn't work.  I wanted to keep it basic, but interesting for their visit. 

We started in the newsroom.  I walked them through the edit bays, and showed them the tiny tapes we use for stories.  They were interested, but I could tell, they were hoping it would get better than this.  Then, we went int to the control room.  Lots of buttons and tv monitors immediately got their attention.  Some had questions about how things worked, but most, just seemed to like all the technology that surrounded them.  From there, we headed into the studio.  Immediately I could hear "oohs" and "ahs" coming from the kids.  When they saw a camera set up on our weather wall, and figured out that they could see themselves on a monitor, it was chaos. But in a good way.  It was so neat to see the kids get excited about what I sometimes take for granted.  Patrick Griesgraber showed them the ins and the outs of the weather center, and it was great to hear all of their weather-related questions.

In the end, I guess I didn't have much to worry about.  It seems a tv station is pretty interesting on it's own...at least for Second Graders. When the tour was over, I hope the kids went away with some good memories of KSFY.  I know their visit got my day off to a good start.