By Autumn Jones

Rarely in any city does a massive national event come off without a hitch.

But this past week, there must have been a lot of brotherly love in Philadelphia.

The Republican National Convention came with 2,066 delegates and alternates, 15,000 media, 15,000 volunteers, and almost 45,000 demonstrators. When this wave of people first converged upon the city, locals groaned about coming to work, and many opted for vacations at the Jersey shore. They were trying to avoid the traffic, which reached an unprecedented level as a result of the deluge of delegate buses and media vans. Making matters worse for the townsfolk were rumors of riots from parades of handkerchiefed protestors.

In the midst of this controlled chaos, I worked as an intern at a local television station. And I loved it. An internship's main purpose is to offer real experience and exposure in the career one is considering. What better way to do that than to assist a managing editor during the stress-ridden production of several newscasts for the Republican National Convention?

I'm not lying when I said I loved it. The pace of the event, not to mention the kickoff events covered the weekend before, was incredible. Everyone at our station was involved in the convention preparations and coverage in one way or another. The team split its time planning coverage of the protests, figuring out what equipment was needed to outfit the media booth, and trying to determine when the infamous station shuttle (actually a minivan) to the First Union Center was ever going to return and who had already been left behind.

Sure, there were some technical snags. One night, the fax machines refused to work, and scripts had to be painstakingly printed page by page. The computers the various media in the large tent used were sometimes slow, and troubles with audio linking anchors with producers would arise from time to time. And people were always on the phone. If you didn't have a cell phone, the frustration among the five people who needed immediately to reach you was almost funny. (How did they do these convention things without cell phones?)

With everyone's help however, we produced some great, professional newscasts - newscasts that met and almost topped everyone's expectations.

The city of Philadelphia put on its own show. Businesses hung "Welcome GOP Convention" signs and prepared for the influx of people. Venues like the Politicalfest at the Philadelphia Convention Center, Independence Hall, and various museums created historical exhibits and interactive events covering convention topics and past presidents so the public could be part of the action without attending the actual event.

The Philadelphia police force was certainly in the limelight. For safety and control, every five or six officers had a supervisor, encouraging the police to act as a team and to quell any rash behavior from an individual. One day I had to ride a cab to 15th and Chestnut for last-minute office supplies at Staples, a ride that took me right through the middle of a protest on Broad St. People - some wearing costumes - lined the streets, chanting. One woman wore a noose around her neck, and her dress was stained blood-red in all directions. What she was protesting I'll never know, but I certainly remember that costume!

Tuesday, August 1st, was the big day for police. I came into the station at noon, and by 2 p.m. different protests were erupting all over the city before our eyes. First Broad and Spruce, then the warehouse at 41st and Haverford, and the Callowhill ramp off of 676. Demonstrators linked arms, or gripped each other through hollow PCP pipe, making it difficult for police to break through. Police even received a tip from FBI agents about a bus full of poisonous animals! Over a thousand poisonous snakes, frogs, insects, skunks, and other positively yucky creatures were supposedly to be used to fill a red bus, which would then be parked in a strategic location.

Our station was absolutely buzzing with people talking and rushing with videotape - it was amazing to watch the action these protests created in both our station and the many other news media around the city. Producers scrambled to break into regular programming and cover the protests.

The police were under pressure all day long, whether riding bikes or horses, or forming a solid line to block protestors. We watched tape after tape of lines of blue shirts, and people chanting and carrying their signs. I even saw video of one older cop attacked by protestors. In response the attack, the cop pulled his gun, but another officer near him shouted, "Put the gun away!" He did.

It was actions like these that kept the protests safe and secure, and for the Philadelphia police, their show came off without a hitch.

Speaking of shows, the convention held at the First Union Center can definitely be considered a grand old party, with emphasis on grand. I was there watching when the first beams of the media pavilion tents were raised off the ground with cranes. When the construction was completed, it was revealed that the tents could withstand all kinds of inclement weather, including winds of 90 mph. They were amazing fabric structures, filling the parking lots surrounding the center. (One of the tents did in fact leak, but there were no hurricanes to test resistance to the wind.) Inside, workers took apart the Skyboxes, even tearing out walls and flooring to turn them into snug but comfy media booths for television and Internet broadcasts. ~ I spent three of the four nights in our media booth, particularly for our nightly broadcast. But the impressive view through the thick glass window behind the anchors was one of my sharpest memories. Wall-to-wall people in aisles reminded me of our reporters down there, elbowing their way through the crowd to the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware delegations. The podium was like nothing I had ever seen, and the giant screens gave the speakers a larger-than-life presence. All around the ring of media boxes, lighted signs represented different networks and Internet events. Camera lights were on, people were talking - I could see Sam Donaldson across the way in the ABC network box.

The delegations seemed very proud to be there. One night the delegation from Maine put a stuffed moose on top of their sign, while Indiana had a basketball on top of theirs. These people really worked during those nights, rallying to unify their party and deliver the roll call that would nominate George W. Bush. It worked, coupled with speakers like Laura Bush, Dick Cheney, and Gen. Colin Powell, appearing to thunderous applause. (Meanwhile, up in the media booth, we would sit, anxiously anticipating each of these speakers. We knew the exact time of their appearance through minute-by-minute rundowns of events faxed to the station earlier that day, and we knew whether the show was running heavy or not. It was tricky to time a live shot from the floor of a particular speaker throughout our newscast.)

In this grand old party, I believe my most distinct memory would have to be on the last night, when the confetti and balloons poured from the ceilings in never-ending waves. George W. Bush's speech had gone very well, and the crowd erupted in music and sound, as red, white and blue rained from the rafters. The members of the Texas delegation waved their big white cowboy hats, their trademark during the event. In the media booth, we just stared and watched, mouths open, as the balloons continued to fall and the indoor fireworks flashed, while people danced to the music of Chaka Kahn.

There is not enough room here for me to relate all the sounds and sights from spending a week inside the Republican National Convention, nor is there enough space to talk about the months of planning and the money that went into this event. As an intern, I greatly valued this opportunity. Politics aside, the media show was absolutely HUGE. Newspapers, magazines, television, Internet. Despite the debate about whether political conventions should be covered to this extent, the scope of the media presence there was awesome. I appreciated the exposure to the media around me - here and now, I was finally beginning to understand how the media works, what it takes to keep it going, and why it does what it does.

During some downtime, I would watch veterans in the news business talk about this year being the second or third convention they had covered. This one was my first. It had excitement, stress, and sometimes a lot of waiting. But as far as I'm concerned, it indeed came off without a hitch.