Interview with CTV's Debra Arbec
Miki Yokoyama
Issue date: 1/17/07 Section: Features
- Page 1 of 1
|
Before beginning your television career, what did you study and how did you end up at CTV?
Well, I was in sciences in Vanier College in CEGEP. I had the plan of becoming a doctor - I love science, but I hated math. That was the only problem. But then I took an elective, a humanities course, and then a creative arts course in documentary film and I absolutely fell in love with it. I just loved it. I loved the medium, I loved being able to tell somebody's story.
I never had any great dreams of becoming a journalist all through high school or the first part of CEGEP. It was just after taking this documentary course, that I thought, 'Wow, this is something that's really powerful.' So I switched out of sciences, much to the regret of my chemistry teacher who said 'You'll never make it! It's not a good decision.'
So I went into creative arts and I studied photography and film and then went to Concordia. But I didn't start out in broadcast; I started out in political science. I thought it was important to have a background in [politics before going into] journalism. I really wasn't that familiar with what programs were out there and what I needed to do. I wasn't sure. Was I going to be a journalist, was I going to do documentaries ? I knew I was going to tell stories, but I wasn't sure how. I was always interested in politics, so I started out there.
I did switch over, finally, to broadcast journalism at Concordia and graduated in that. Then I thought that I would get out into the world and start doing journalism and I found myself working in a clothing store. After I graduated, I couldn't get a job! I realized then, that it's really important while you're in the journalism program to do as many internships as possib le - I had done a few, but probably not enough - and to get working.
Was it more difficult for women than for men at that time?
I can't say it was a male-female thing. It was just that you get out of school and you just don't know what to do. What do you start to do? Sending out résumés. 'Ok, résumés, I don't really know. I have no experience other than the stories I have written in journalism school.'
And when I put a story together, it could take a whole week, whereas in the real world, it takes a couple of hours. So I sent out résumé after résumé after résumé.
Knocking at the door at CJAD radio week after week after week, I swear, Gore Sinclair, who was head of the news department there at that time, heard from me every single week. 'No nothing yet, nothing yet, nothing yet.' That's what I kept on getting. Finally, he called me up and said that he had an opening in the traffic department and I said 'I'll take it, I'll take it, I'll take it!' If I had to fold one more sweater…I couldn't stand it. So I started out in traffic on the morning show and afternoon show and then finally there was an overnight news casting position available and I got that. I was at CJAD for five years and while I was in traffic, I worked my five days a week, and weekends I would report for CJAD whenever they needed me. So at times, I was working seven days a week, just getting as many hours as I could.
Then I got the news casting job overnights, and then I got a call from the weather network, which is no longer here in Montreal. They were looking for a weather presenter/environmental newscaster, so I applied and I auditioned and I got the job. I had no background in TV, but I thought, 'Well, if I want to get into news - by that time I knew that I wanted to do TV News - then I would have to learn how to do TV.
Did you no longer wish to do documentaries?
At that point, in my fledgling career, there was no question. There was just no work for someone who really didn't have any experience. So I'd become a reporter/newscaster at CJAD in radio, but I really didn't have the experience to call up CBC or the NFB - which I had done and had been refused - and say 'Oh, I want to start working on documentaries .' So I really didn't have anything to offer. I had interned at CBC, I had interned here [at CTV] as well and it just didn't pan out at that point. Really, when you do intern, if you're lucky, you'll be put on the air, but it wasn't something that was done very often when I first started.
Now I've noticed that we are putting interns on the air, but when I first started it was a real rare occasion. When you just graduate from journalism school, you don't have the voice, you don't have the presence. It's something that you'll learn over time and experience gives you that ability. So at that point, I really didn't know what to do, other than learn how to do television. Because I thought, if I could learn TV, then I could tell stories.
If it wasn't as a documentary, well at least I could tell shorter stories, but I'm still doing what I want to do essentially. So from the Weather Network I ended up here and I now anchor the late show and I produce a piece a week, which is my version of a documentary - My Montreal. It's just a lovely way to express myself and tell stories about Montrealers.
Was My Montreal your idea or did someone suggest it to you?
It was something that the news director a couple of years ago approached me with, saying that she wanted to do a segment that talked about diversity in Montreal, but we weren't quite sure whether she wanted it to be hard news or more feature style. We've been able to incorporate both. It's just grown from there and it all depends on what comes up, what presents itself and that decides whether it's a harder news story or just something as light as a festival, but focusing on someone. What I tend to try and do is tell someone's story. I would prefer to tell stories through someone's eyes rather than as a whole.
Do you still go out and shoot?
I do everything. for My Montreal I do research, I do all of the phone calls for the interviews, I go out, I shoot, I interview, I come back, I screen, I write and then the editor puts the piece together.
When you began working for CTV, did you start anchoring from the very beginning?
I did! I anchored the weekend newscast. That's what I was hired to do. It was surprising. No one was more surprised than I was. It's really funny, because I got a call from Barry Wilson, who is our producer, and they were interested in having me come and do a screen test and an audition and I was pretending, 'Oh well, yes, I may consider this,' and all the while I was so excited and couldn't believe they were calling. They had seen me on the Weather Network, presenting the environmental news, and I had been in touch with Barry about possibly doing some work here, and when the position opened up, I was hired.
Did you practice or receive any kind of training before going on air?
Because I was doing something similar at the Weather Network, it was environmental news, but it's all basically the same thing. You read a teleprompter, you write, and you present. Luckily, I switched from one place to the other, [though] with a lot of difficulty. I can't say I was really very good when I first started. I was very nervous. Even though I thought that I was starting to build some experience, I was very terrible.
Are you still nervous now when you go on air?
No. Not anymore. I mean, there are times when it's a really big story and you might get the adrenaline pumping and then, once the camera goes on, it seems to go away. But there was a long time, I'd say the first five years, where I just really wasn't comfortable with what I was doing and it showed on the air. I'd make a mistake, or let's say a story didn't come up and I didn't know where to go. Or a disaster; the first story would fail, the second story would fail, the third story would fail, nothing was working.
What did the producer say then?
Just go with it. We worked the weekend show. We didn't have a lot of resources. We were all sort of putting the show together. I mean, it's a show that has resources, but not as many. So we were all multitasking putting the show together. I don't regret it. I am sort of disappointed that I learned on the job in the city where I work. Because I made mistakes, and the whole city watched me making mistakes. Had I gone to the Yukon, make the mistakes and then come back. That's what I would recommend to young journalists out there.
When you do an internship somewhere other than your own city, you don't know the area. Would you think this is more difficult in any way?
I guess it can be, but generally, the opportunity is better in a smaller town than it would be in a big city. So you start in a smaller town, where the politics aren't intense, the numbers aren't as great [and] you're dealing with a smaller area. Then you grow and your mistakes stay behind in another city.
What does your typical day look like?
My shift is 3:00 p.m. to midnight, Monday to Friday. Everyday, I come in at 3:00 p.m. For instance, today, I put a story to bed that is airing on Thursday, it's being edited now, so I just did the finishing touches on it this afternoon, I had it bedded by our news producer, put it into editing and voiced it. I also do a little hit at 6:30, telling our viewers what's coming up on the late show at 11:30, so I just wrote that up.
Do you need to be bilingual to work in broadcasting?
Absolutely.
So everyone who works here is bilingual?
In degrees. Some speak French better than others, but [you need to be] to be able to communicate, to be able to understand what's coming through on the wires, to be able to monitor what's going on on the French networks as well. The French networks air their newscasts at 10 p.m. , so you want to see what they're doing, see if you're missing anything. You need to be able to understand the nuances, too. You can't just get a general idea. It's almost imperative.
When you apply for a job at a TV station or radio station, what do you think is the most important thing you should know or most important skill you should have as far as what employers are looking for in new employees?
That's a good question. I think they are looking for people who are keen, people who want to work, who are interested in what a journalist does and that means the stories, the politics, the background, those that are knowledgeable, those that are interested in current events. They want to see all of these things. In television, they want to know that you have good presentation, that you look good on television. It's absolute, I mean, that's what television is, it's a visual medium.
In radio, you need to have a good voice. I remember, when I was in journalism school, in a radio class, I had a teacher who told me 'You should not go into broadcast, you should go into print. Your voice is too high.' It's funny, when things like that happen, they stay in my mind. That chemistry teacher that said I was crazy to leave sciences and the journalism teacher that said I couldn't go into broadcast.
Whenever someone told me I couldn't do something, that's when I did it. I think that's important for a lot of journalism students too. To think about what you want to do and have it as a dream, as a goal and keep moving toward it because it is very difficult. A lot of people that I graduated with from journalism school didn't find work in newsrooms, necessarily. They definitely found work, but not necessarily in newsrooms. You just have to keep plugging away.
Do you think it is more difficult for women than for men to find job as anchors or just in general in journalism?
I don't know that it's more difficult, but there is a different hierarchy. You know, a 6:00 p.m. newscast in this newsroom will probably for the next little while have a male at the desk, as well as a female, but there will always be a male for now. I'm not sure that's being sexist in any way, it's just balancing it out. I never felt that because I'm a woman I couldn't work in this business and couldn't excel and didn't have a place. I always had bosses who encouraged me as a journalist. I never really felt that it was a problem.
Do people recognize you on the street and come up to you with questions?
Yes, they do. People are really nice in this city. They don't haunt you. Maybe if they're walking by, they'll say 'Hello, I watched you and I liked your story,' which is really nice. It's not overwhelming, it's just nice. People are very, very friendly. They love CTV. It's the number one station in the city so it's the station a lot of Montrealers watch. They know everybody who is on the air. [Although, one time] a woman came up to me in a pharmacy and said 'I really don't like your lipstick. You have really got to try something else.' So that was kind of odd. But, yes, like I said, most of the time, it's really nice.
It sounds like a really interesting job.
It is, it is. I think it's one of the best jobs you can have. There are frustration s. There are frustrations when it comes to budgets, not having enough money to be able to do your stories properly or have the time to do it. And there are times when you don't want to do the stories, you know, like asking, 'do you believe in ghosts.'
What do you like most about your job?
It's a great job, you meet really interesting people. I just did a story marking the Hungarian revolution that I really wasn't that familiar with. And you probably read articles and seen news stories for the last weeks since Oct. 23. It's the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution. In researching the story I learned a lot more about the Soviet crackdown and the rising and then I met the people who lived through it.
They were just wonderful. I interviewed three people who were in Budapest when the Soviets came in to crush their uprising, ended up killing 28,000 people.
They survived and crossed the border into Austria with their children and then left everything behind and had everything taken awa y. You hear these stories and how they came to Canada and how appreciative they are of this country for everything they have here. We take so much for granted in this country. Just meeting people like that on a day-to-day basis, it gives me such an appreciation for my own life and everything I have.
Be the first to comment on this story