My Real Job

With all this photography, I bet you forgot what my real job is.
Here are a few of the promos I've produced for KSL during this past ratings period.

This is the most recent promo. I got to work with Nadine Wimmer on this one. She is the nicest, most talented anchor ever! The eye-opening story airs Monday at 10.


This next one was for a story by Jennifer Stagg. Definitely one of the BEST reporters at KSL. You should see how many friends she has on Facebook. Everyone loves her.
The story is definitely a tear-jerker, so beware if you watch the complete story.


This is a promo for an "Ed Yeates Special". He's our medical reporter. He actually retired a while back, so he only comes back for the REALLY good stories. The full story is here.


This next spot isn't a promo for a regular story, it's a promo for our COVERAGE on Election night.
We call it a POP, or Proof of Performance spot.
I take clips that actually aired on television and make them into a promo that shows off how AWESOME we are.


These promos are only a fraction of the reason I've been so busy lately.
My boss has been off for the past month and a half because of surgery and I've been working his night shift. It's a nice change, but A LOT of work on top of the fact it's also Sweeps.
When this month is over, I think I deserve a day at the spa, don't you?
(Tell Tom will ya?)

A Sure Sign of Sweeps

We're not actually in sweeps yet, but we're gearing up the promos and pumping up the promotion already.

Because I'm the only girl in my department, I tend to get the sappier stories. Here are my latest two promos.


Here's a link to the story.


Link to the story.

Ukraine Temple Promo

It wouldn't be General Conference in Utah without a documentary from Carole Mikita.
Here's the promo I produced for her documentary on the Kiev, Ukraine Temple running this Sunday at noon on KSL 5 TV.

July Sweeps

Here's a promo I produced for July Sweeps.
Story airs this Wednesday on KSL 5 News at 10.

Creating News

Part of my job is pitching story ideas for KSL 5 News.
Once in a while they're good enough to assign to a reporter!
This is one of them.
I'm the "employee" they're talking about in the intro to the story.

How cool is that!

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Pretty awesome right?
I've never gotten a shout-out on the news before!
I feel so special.
The picture of "MOM" is also mine. (That's why it's not very good.) I'm glad they didn't give me credit for that.

Tomorrow, I think I'll have KSL do a story about how awesome Canadians are.
What do you think?

May Sweeps #4

May Sweeps is finally over! :)
Aaaaaaaaand WE WON! :D
It was a tough race but KSL 5 News beat out all the other stations at 10 o'clock to end up NUMBER 1! WOOT!

This was my last promo for sweeps.



You know what else is number one?
STUDIO 5!!!
DOUBLE WOOT!

Here's a promo I made for the show today.

May Sweeps 2010 #3

Here are more of my promos for May Sweeps.

1) Studio 5: In It to Win It
I make a cameo in this one. It was SOOOOO fun to shoot! It's not every day you get paid to make sure balloons don't touch the ground. :P
I love my job.



2) KSL 5 News Investigates: How a Utah company protects itself from customer complaints.
Story airs Thursday at 10 on KSL 5 News. Edited by Lance.



***UPDATE: Here's the link to the story.***

May Sweeps 2010 #2

Here's my second promo for sweeps. Story airs Monday on KSL 5 News at 10.



Let me know what you think. Would it make you want to watch?

(Let me translate: Don't even think about leaving my blog without leaving a comment FIRST.)

***UPDATE: Here's the story by Kathy Aiken.***

May Sweeps 2010

Sweeps is here...again...
I guess I should get used to the idea they will never stop coming, but one can dream.

Sweeps occurs four times a year. This is when TV ratings matter. Our newscasts have to beat the competition so we can get the most advertising dollars.

But to be honest, sweeps isn't that bad.
We get free lunch to kick off the "book" (another term for sweeps).
We get really awesome news stories to promote.
We sometimes get treats throughout sweeps.
We get lunch and prizes to celebrate the end of the book.

Okay, most of what's good about sweeps has to do with food.

Plus, I get to show off my amazing promos!



If this promo doesn't make you angry, the story will.

Our investigative team has done their homework on this one (as usual). I don't want to give it away, but just know they stalked several parking lots, several times a day, for WEEKS to see who was using the stalls. The results were shocking.

Watch this Thursday on KSL 5 News at 10.
As usual, I will post a link to the story once it's aired.

*UPDATED: Here's the story.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Blogger Power!

(image from House of Smith's)
Today was the big day for our blogger group, Service Soapbox.
We're a group of bloggers (duh!) who want to make the world a better place.
Today was our first official event. A baby shower to benefit the March of Dimes.
One of the things The March of Dimes does is help struggling new moms with diapers and other necessities.

Check out all the loot we brought in for them!
(These pictures are also from House of Smith's. Shelley takes better photos than me.)

Just like a REAL baby shower, we had some amazing food and decorations.
This cake was make and donated by Amber from Amberlicious Cakes.

Are you drooling yet?

The decorations were equally impressive.
Shelley from House of Smith's brought her amazing Rose Forms. Have I mentioned Shelley is my BBFF (blogger best friend forever)? LOL!
Seriously though, her blog is amazing.
These flower arrangements were also donated by Karlie from Garden House Floral. She is way talented.

My friend Ashley was my "plus one". She's such a trooper. Ashley doesn't even have an active blog but was still happy to come with me.
Someday you should ask me what we did after the shower with silicone breast implants.

Ashley eating a delicious cupcake. We were on a sugar high for hours!

Did I mention KSL showed up to do a story (for Studio 5)?
I wonder who told them about the event...? LOL.
Brooke Walker was there in the flesh, but I forgot to get a picture with her. (But it's not like I don't see her every other day of the week.)
Watch Studio 5 Monday at 11 to see her report. I'll post the story after they air it on Monday.

I was in charge of games! I gave out prizes for the people who knew the answers to these questions:
Greatest amount of children born to one woman – 69 children by a Russian woman in the 1700’s. She had 27 pregnancies and gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets

Oldest woman on record to have a baby (naturally or with a doctor's help) – 70 years old, she had twins in 2008

Oldest man to get a woman pregnant - A farmer in the Indian state of Rajasthan, fathered his 21st child at the age of 90!

Youngest girl to get pregnant and have a baby - Lina Medina (born September 27, 1939) is the youngest confirmed mother in medical history, giving birth at the age of 5 years, 7 months and 21 days.

Youngest father – 13 years old British kid in 2009

We also gave prizes to the woman with the most kids, the longest labor, shortest labor, longest time between kids, shortest time between kids, etc.

We had SO many donations for the shower, EVERYONE got to go home with a prize! I won five passes to a Roller Skating rink!

Ashley one a free car wash! Too bad she has to drive 45 minutes to use it in Draper.

Here is the entire Blogger Baby Shower planning committee! What a bunch of gorgeous women if I do say so myself! I love love love these women! They worked so hard and pulled off a really successful event!
I should also mention the whole thing was planned over e-mail. The committee never actually met in person.
That's Blogger Power!

***UPDATED: Here's the story that aired TWICE on KSL! Once on Studio 5 and once in the 4 o'clock news!

And here's the link.

Seeds of Faith

It's almost General Conference weekend, and just like you can depend on inspirational talks and spiritual guidance from LDS leaders, you can also depend on a touching documentary from KSL's Carole Mikita.

Every six months Carole does one or two documentaries, usually an hour long, that have something to do with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Six months ago I made my first "doc promo", and I guess they liked it because I was asked to do it again. I was even referred to as the "Doc girl".

Working with Carole Mikita is an huge honor. There are few people more respected than her at KSL. She is a Utah staple, like green jello and fry sauce.

In 12 years, she has produced more that 30 documentaries. And trust me, she puts her entire being into them.

When I showed her this promo, she started tearing up, and then I started tearing up. It was a girly moment, but it just goes to show how much these stories mean to her.

Check out my promo and tell me what you think, and if your watching Conference on KSL 5 this weekend, stick around for "Seeds of Faith" Sunday at noon. You won't be sorry.



*Updated* Carole's documentary was unfortunately not put online. In order to watch it, you would have to contact KSL directly and find out how to get a copy.

Mixing Work and Family

I was asked at work to make a 15 sec commercial for a Studio 5 contest. Contestants could win tickets to see The Lion King in Utah if they sent in a video of themselves singing their favorite song from the movie/broadway show.

Easy enough right? The only problem was I needed examples of home videos for the promo.

This is where my wonderful sister comes in. She has very talented kids who love to sing and act. She took several videos of her kids singing in different places in her house. It worked perfectly in the spot! I just wish I had more time to use videos and sound.

Talk about 15 seconds of fame! This spot will be running for two weeks on KSL 5 TV.

The other girl in the commercial is my friend from church. I wish I could have used her singing in the spot because she's amazing! But I didn't have time so I only showed the part where she holds her cat up like he's Simba from the Lion King. LOL! Great job guys!

Here's another promo I did for sweeps.

Here's a link to the KSL 5 News Investigates story if you're intrigued.

February Sweeps

We're in yet another ratings period. We already know we'll have this one in the bag thanks to the Olympics, but we're not about to slack off.

Here's my first promo this sweeps. The story runs Monday night at 10.


*Updated: Here is a link to the Caveman Diet story by John Hollenhorst.*

And here's a promo for Studio 5. It's a little more creative than usual so I thought I would post it. This spot will run all next week! :-)



Let me know what you think of my latest work! (Or if you have any questions about the spots.)

L.A. Harker "The Director"

We're working on some super-secret promos at KSL to air during the Olympics (since that's when all of Utah is watching our station). They're going to be AMAZING! We were shooting for three days straight, and because my boss is awesome, he let me direct the shoot for the promo I'M producing!
Most production companies use what's called a green screen. It's usually paint on a wall, but we've discovered green sheets work just as well. We used four green sheets for this shoot to make a GIANT green screen.
That's me and Kory. Kory was our camera man. He is one of the most "chill" people at KSL, and super fun to work with. "With Kory there's no stress, only success!" (I just made that up, so no stealing!)

That's Nadine Wimmer, one of our star anchors! She's the nicest T.V. anchor you'll ever meet. She's super genuine! No T.V. ego's here!

That's my boss trying to steal some of the attention. He's definitely a wacky boss, but wacky in a good way. Everyone loves him. I can't imagine anyone else giving me an opportunity like this. He the kind of person that wants you to learn and take ownership of your work. But he doesn't throw you off a cliff either. He was around during the shoot to lend a hand (and a laugh) here and there. Can you believe I can actually put "director" on my resume?? "Director L.A. Harker" I like the sound of that!

We even had a make-up lady on set! That's how you know it's the real deal!

Our audio guy, Todd. I guess he got a little bored when we weren't shooting.

Here are a few more camera secrets for you. Nadine is pretty short, so we had her stand on a box to be closer in height to Bruce. And the X's on the greet screen are for tracking.

By now you're probably sick of hearing about my job, but I'll just tell you one more time that it's TOTALLY AWESOME! Bruce and Nadine are the best anchors in Utah. They were super great to work with. My boss is awesome, my boss's boss is awesome, and needless to say, the owner of KSL is awesome. ;-P

From the Today Show

One of the funniest parts was AFTER this package aired. Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera were on camera, and they just looked stunned. I mean, what are they supposed to say after that? So they just talked about how both Jay Leno and Conan are "really great guys."

KSL in the News

It's not often news organizations make the news, but this past week, KSL has been in the major Utah papers THREE times!

You know how I blogged last weekend about how amazing we did during Sweeps, even with Jay Leno as our lead-in? Well apparently I wasn't the only was talking about it.

Here are snip-its from two of the three articles, both from The Salt Lake Tribune. Enjoy!

TV: KSL continues dominance despite Leno flop

By Vince Horiuchi

Tribune Television Critic

12/03/2009

KSL Channel 5's late-night news is like the Coca-Cola of local newscasts (an odd analogy if you know who owns KSL, but I digress).

The 10 p.m. newscast with Bruce Lindsay and Nadine Wimmer is a popular brand, just like that delicious caramel-colored beverage. It's a local tradition, a reliable television entity that's so ingrained in Utah's viewing habits that it would take a nuclear disaster to unhinge its dominance in the ratings.

Not even Jay Leno can ruin it.

The November sweeps are over. Once again, KSL led the ratings race, even after a disastrous debut from "The Jay Leno Show" as the lead-in to the late-night news.

For the 10 p.m., Monday-through-Friday ratings for November, KSL got a 10.1 rating;

KUTV Channel 2, 9.1; KSTU Channel 13, 5.5; and KTVX Channel 4, 4.4. Ratings refer to the percentage of Utah's 944,060 television households watching a particular program.

Lead-ins are vitally important to local news stations. Affiliates depend on those 9 p.m. shows to attract viewers who will stick around to watch the news. So far, "Leno" has been a huge failure -- although not a surprising one, as low ratings were predicted by national critics.

But KSL has weathered the "Leno" show flop better than any NBC affiliate in the country. In fact, KSL had the highest-rated late-night news of any NBC station in the country last month, according to Con Psarras, KSL's news director.

Article #2

KSL still leads in late-night TV news viewers

Ratings » Overall audience is down for those spots, continuing a trend.

By Vince Horiuchi

The Salt Lake Tribune

12/03/2009

Despite one of the worst lead-in programs in years that has crippled other local NBC television newscasts around the country, KSL Channel 5 remains the ratings leader in late-night TV news.

All stations experienced drops in viewership from the same time last year, a downward trend that has continued for at least a couple of years as Utahns turn to the Internet for news. But KSL has experienced a small decline, even though its new lead-in program at 9 p.m., "The Jay Leno Show," has had some of the lowest ratings for that time slot.

"Leno" averaged a 4.4 rating in November, while the one-hour dramas NBC used to broadcast in the 9 p.m. hour, including "Medium" and "Law & Order," averaged a 6.2 rating, according to NielsenMedia Research.

According to November "sweeps" figures, KSL still led the Monday-through-Friday, 10 p.m. newscasts. Ratings during a "sweeps" month are especially important for television stations because that is when advertiser's rates are calculated.

KSL led with a rating of 10.1, followed by KUTV Channel 2 with a 9.1. KSTU Channel 13's news at 9 p.m. was third with 5.5, and KTVX Channel 4 was fourth with a 4.4. KJZZ Channel 14's news at 9 p.m., which is delivered by KUTV, posted a 1.1 rating.

A ratings refers to the percentage of Utah's 944,060 television households that are watching a particular program.

"NBC deserves credit for trying something different," KSL News Director Con Psarras said about the network's decision to move Jay Leno to prime time. "The lesson to KSL and other stations is we're on our own, and we sink or swim on the caliber of our own product. I'm gratified that we have the kind of product that attracts viewers on its own.

Another Sweeps Has Passed

I've only worked in T.V a year and a half, but it seems each ratings period is tougher than the last.

Ratings, or "sweeps", happens 4 times a years. Feb, May, July, and November. This is when the number of people watching TV really matters. Our rating, in comparison to the competition, helps us determine what we can charge for advertising. The higher the rating, the more money we can charge for advertising. Makes sense?

The most important newscast is the 10 o'clock news. And as an NBC affiliate, that means the new Jay Leno show is our new "lead-in", the show which leads into our news. If the lead-in has a good rating, then the news usually has a good rating too. This is because people are lazy and will usually watch the news on the channel they're already watching.

Jay Leno is not my favourite person. His average rating during the month of November was a 4.0.

At our competition, the CBS affiliate, they have shows like "The Mentalist", all the "CSI" shows, "Medium", and "NCIS" at their lead-ins. Needless to say, these shows are more popular than Jay Leno, with average ratings of 14.0.

This puts KSL at a huge disadvantage. This means my job, getting people to watch the news, becomes even more important. That's where my promos come in. We bust our butts to make eye-catching promos for specific stories. The promo will run for a few days, trying to get as many eyeballs as possible to see the promo so they will purposely tune-in to our news when the story runs.

I am happy to report, after a tough start... WE KICKED BUTT!
This is from the press release:

"At 10 p.m., KSL 5 News was the nation’s top-performing newscast among NBC affiliates.

Monday through Friday, KSL 5 News at 10 grew its lead-in ratings 253 percent. The Jay Leno Show provided an average 4.0 rating Monday through Friday and the average rating for KSL News at 10 was a 10.1."

What was the rating at the competition? 9.1. This means they lost viewers every night at 10 p.m., while our news GAINED viewers every night at ten. People are actually changing the channel to watch our news!

I am sooooooo proud to work for a quality T.V. stations like KSL. And I'm so glad we have amazing stories to promote. I've already posted a couple of my promos from this past sweeps. Here are my final 2.

The first is for another investigative piece. One of our reporters went undercover with the "Utah Valley Special Victims Unit." As soon as they told me that, I had a brilliant idea for the promo. Watch and see!




Here is my other promo. It was for a Carole Mikita piece. She's the religion reporter. This means she covers everything LDS-related.

The story behind this story is amazing too. You see, the LDS church is very tight-lipped when it comes to the media, even if the story we're trying to cover is a positive one.

Carole has amazing contacts at the church and once she found out a missionary couple played a huge role in helping kids in Cambodia, she set out to find them. Unfortunately, the Missionary department of the church didn't want to play ball, and never found (refused to find) this couple for Carole.

Days went by with no luck and Carole, who is LDS herself, told me she was at the point where she was praying and asking the Lord to help her find this couple. At the last minute, the head of the Humanitarian Department at the church came to Carole and handed her a piece of paper. It had the name and number of the missionary couple, who were happy to talk about their humanitarian mission in Cambodia. It was amazing to see Carole get teary-eyed as she told me this story.

That's another reason I love KSL. We have the Lord on our side. (KSL is owned by the LDS church.)

Here's the promo for the story.



And here's Carole's story.

And The Winner Is...

Bag #11!!! The Flower Power Black Strap Bag with the pink flower.

Good Choice Voters!!

Here's how the votes broke down:
Bag #11 - 4 votes
Bag #7, Brown/Blue Flower Wrist Bag - 3 votes
Bag #15, Black Gym Bag - 3 votes
Bag #2, White Formal Wrist Bag - 2 votes
Bag #4, Light Green Wrist Bag - 2 votes
Bag #9, Flower Power Brown Strap Bag - 2 votes
Bag #13, Light Green Polka Dot Strap Bag - 2 votes
Bag #1, #6, #12, & #14 each received one vote.

Want to know who won the beautiful bag? Watch and find out! (Yes, I know I look awful. Please don't make fun.)



Thank you to everyone who voted. This will not be the last time I give away free stuff on my blog. This has been so much fun for me! And hopefully for you too.

If you did not win a bag, don't forget you can get one 15% percent off at lillymaebags.com with the coupon code 74860. A few people commented they would like a certain bag, but with a strap instead of a bracelet, or vice versa. Or they wanted a certain bag, but with a flower, or with the eyelet for headphones. My friend is more than welcome to take requests and customize the bag for you. Just send her a note on the "contact us" page on her website.

I have a few already on my wish list and I know I'll be giving a few of these away at Christmas. SUCH a good (and inexpensive) gift idea!! Plus, now I know which bag everyone likes. Tee Hee!

The Promo that Broke Me

Stephanie Nielson is a blogger, just like me! Except unlike me, she has more than two posts. But hey, I'm just a beginner.

A year and a half ago, Stephanie was in a plane crash with her husband and another friend. Their friend died. Her husband was burned, and so was Stephanie. Except Stephanie's burns covered more than 80 percent of her body.

Although Stephanie lived in Arizona at the time, she has ties to Utah, and her blog the NieNie Dialogues is really popular here, so KSL covered the story a few times.

Stephanie's appearance has changed dramatically since the crash. And now she lives in Provo (just like me). It took her a long time to post pictures of her "new self" on her blog, but as she's adapted to her new life, her fan base has grown immensely.

A few weeks ago, Stephanie and her husband were on Oprah. I watched the episode while at work, and cried. She is an amazing person, with an amazing spirit, and an amazing testimony of the gospel.

KSL is the first local station to get a sit down interview with Stephanie. The reporter, Ed Yeates, has come out of retirement temporarily to cover her amazing story. He even uncovered details NOT revealed on Oprah. I don't want to give it away, but it's pretty juicy!

Because I was already a fan of Stephanie's (and I'm the only girl in promotions), it was unanimously agreed that I should do the promo. I watched Ed's interviews with Stephanie, and cried all over again. Although her face is scarred, she still resonates beauty. I'm not used to getting so attached to someone I've never met.

Please watch, and be kind. I worked really hard on this promo. Then watch her story on KSL 5 News at 10 on Thursday, Nov. 5th. There's so much in the story that I couldn't get into a 30 sec promo. I know Ed will do the story justice.

Lance, thank you for your help with editing. You did a great job.
Stephanie, thank you for letting the world into your life.

This just in! L.A. Harker has a blog!

I think this officially makes me a Utahn.

Other things that helped me pass the test:
I recently watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
I Scrapbook.
I've teased the hair on the crown of my head AND I've had an A-line haircut.
I love bows. Bows on babies. Bows on adults. Bows on pets.
Coldstone and Cafe Rio make my world go round.
L.A. Harker + David Archuleta = Love

Ways I still have to do to seal the deal:
Camp overnight for something free.
Have ten kids. (Or any kids for that matter.)
Make a Jello dessert.
Spend endless hours making my own cards, when I could buy the same thing for $2.

I've thought about starting a blog for a while, but didn't because a) fear of T.B. Harker's ridicule, and b) I didn't think I would have things to write about. Then I figured, how will people know how funny my husband is if I don't tell the world! Like when tells me "You're as crazy as you are beautiful!" or "Have you seen Sleepy? How about Dopey? Because I KNOW where grumpy is!" Plus, I work in TV News. I'll ALWAYS have something to rant about.

Where do I turn for inspiration? To Libby, of course. She's hilarious, with just the right amount of sarcasm (which is a lot). My goal is to make my posts just as entertaining and thought-provoking as hers. I also want my blog to be like the NieNie Dialogues. This is a woman I've never met but she opens herself up to the world. Her blog was popular even before she survived a plane crash that left her more than 80 percent burned. She was beautiful before and her beauty still shines through the scars. Her blog makes me cry almost every time I read it. KSL is doing a story about NieNie during this November sweeps. I get to produce the promo. Which means I'm tearing up at work almost everyday while watching her interviews.

You'll see that promo soon enough, but first things first. The first killer story we're doing this November is from the Investigative team. Enjoy my promo!

L.A. Harker



UPDATE: My co-worker Mutt would like props for coming up with the name for my blog. Props Mutt.