Terriers in Charge: Alex Dowd (COM’24)
Each Friday morning, at a time when most Terriers are still asleep, Alex Dowd is hard at work preparing for the live broadcast of BUTV10’s Good Morning BU. As producer and anchor of the weekly show, Dowd (COM’24) arrives at COM’s Studio West by 5:30 am to begin prepping for the show, which airs at 10 am each week. Like its network morning show counterparts, Good Morning BU features a lively mix of news (campus, local, and international), entertainment, and sports,
As the show’s coproducer, Dowd is responsible for developing story ideas and editing packages and is on-air talent as well. She also oversees the writing room. Throughout the week, she’s scanning news sites, looking at international, national, local, and campus headlines for stories that she feels are a good fit for GMBU, as the show is known. She and writers meet each Thursday to hammer out a rundown and a script. The next morning, the staff of nearly 40 gathers for a quick run-through at 9 am before the cameras begin rolling live an hour later.
The show, which launched a decade ago, is the only live news program produced by BUTV10. As such, Dowd says, it offers invaluable experience to the students working as writers, correspondents, editors, and tech crew.
“GMBU is great for the students at COM because we are able to provide live television experience. It’s a learned skill. Preparing for a segment versus performing it or delivering it live feels completely different,” she says. And because there are no retakes or do-overs, cast and crew have to learn how to improvise or quickly recover from any flubs and then move on.
These skills will no doubt come in handy for Dowd. After she graduates in January, she will become an on-air reporter for KGUN 9, the ABC affiliate in Tucson, Ariz.
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