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I asked my husband to guest blog about Emily's field trip (since he went with her), and he's finally getting around to it even though this actually happened 7 months ago, during the previous school year:

I love going on field trips. I loved them when I was a kid, and I still love them as a parent. The best kind are when you get access to places that aren't usually open to the general public. Like one time when we got to ride in a B-52 bomber jet taking off from Moffet Field... oh wait, that was in my dreams. But one year we did get to go on a tour of a bread factory that made food products for Oroweat. It was only through Hannah's classmate's family (they owned it) that we had such open access to the factory.

The B-52 girl of my dreams (circa 1992)

Recently we were privileged to be able to tour the KPIX studios in SF. Emily's 5th grade teacher has a friend that works there, and he was gracious enough to arrange for us to visit with a whole bunch of his coworkers. KPIX channel 5 is our local CBS TV station, and it's also the broadcast studios for The CW Network (channel 44 or cable 12).

One of our first stops was the central control room. This is where they control all of the shows that are broadcasting 24-7. There were a ton of screens but not too many people, so I guess most of it is automated or pre-programmed. A few different shows were being broadcast at the same time, as CBS has multiple channels besides channel 5 (and also CW network).

Central Control Room

Another room that has almost as many video monitors is the editing room. While we were there, someone dropped off raw footage of a Golden State Warriors story - it would've been fun to see some of it. Instead, the guy showed us the weather cameras, and let us remote control them and turn on the wipers.

Showing us the controls for the weather cameras

In the office area, we visited with the staff in the news gathering room. Here they monitor a variety of sources for breaking stories, including the police radio, internet, and even facebook and twitter. If something is happening they call the reporters to rush over there in one of the news vans we saw parked in front.

Nearby was Allen Martin's cubicle. Allen Martin is one of the co-anchors of the 5 PM and 6 PM news. We had a nice chat with him as he fielded all of our questions. We came during March Madness (NCAA Basketball Tournament) so it was a slow day at the office, with most of the programming devoted to basketball games.

Chatting with Allen Martin

The lady in the graphics department demonstrated how they create different graphics, such as the maps they use to show where the news is happening, and also the different text and graphic overlays. Our Mac-evangelist friend Stan will be happy to hear that they use Macs here.

Adding graphic overlays

The favorite area that everyone looked forward to with anticipation was the broadcast studio. Both kids and parents enjoyed sitting at the different desks and posing for photos! The kids also loved the weather green screen, pretending to forecast all sorts of crazy weather. Interestingly, the chairs behind the desks are super adjustable (you could raise it 24"), so that everyone looks about the same height when seated.

A very rare moment when there weren't 50 kids trying to sit at 3 chairs.

Co-anchors Emily and Caryn

Everyone loved seeing themselves in front of the weather map

I think this is how I'll sit when I interview Kobe Bryant

At the end, everyone had an opportunity to record a promo singing the CW "44 cable 12" jingle. It was definitely a memorable field trip for us all! Special thanks to Emily's teacher Miss Vidal and her friend for arranging this wonderful treat.

Everyone that wanted to could record the jingle by themselves

Behind the scenes

I don't think the green screen was meant for this many people at once