In the TV news business, this usually means the news producer will be calling for a live report from the scene. This means some reporter will spend the next hour standing ankle-deep in slush and snow along an interstate highway or major state route reporting that traffic may be snarled.

There are many different reasons for live reports or “live shots.” News personnel say there’s value in having a reporter “live” from a nearly empty or deserted venue to report on an event that occurred several hours ago.

The major news operations here have multiple ENG (electronic news gathering) trucks, equipped with videotape editing equipment, microwave transmitters, cell phones and computers. Stations can go live from several different places during a single newscast. And they do.

Many television news producers don’t need much more of an excuse than a fresh snowfall to dispatch an ENG truck — WNEP-TV calls them mobile newsrooms — to provide reports.

It’s not without risk. Michelle Lima, 30, a reporter for KSAT-TV in San Antonio, Texas, was killed on March 27, 1999, when she was struck by a car while doing a nighttime stand-up from the berm of a highway. (Safety expert Mark Bell, of www.engsafety.com, points out she was not wearing a reflective vest.)

Area TV news bosses view these live reports as a storytelling tool.

“It can be a tool for a couple of reasons,” said John Wessling, WNEP-TV news director. “One is to show something that is going on live at the time and the other is to help with the production of how you tell that story .¤.¤. or the pace of the newscast.”

“Here’s the way I look at it,” said Al Zobel, WBRE-TV/WYOU-TV news director. “There’s a lot of times you bring a reporter up on the set or you put a reporter in front of ‘the wall,’ as we call it. What’s the difference with being on the set, being in front of the wall or being out where a story may have occurred.”

The technology works best when it is used to cover breaking news. This week, Tom Clark, WNEP chief meteorologist, was flying in Skycam 16 at 5 p.m. when a plane made a forced landing in Blakely. Instead of being just another setting for a weather report, Skycam 16 headed to the crash site for a live look at the crash.

While nobody expected a live shot of a plane crash during a newscast, some events seem to be tailored for live TV. When state police arrested Andrew Vikara III for the murder of Kristy Grega last summer, the defendant was led to his arraignment just as the 6 p.m. news began. Stations were at the state police barracks for live reports and they carried Mr. Vikara’s “perp walk” live.

While not commenting on the timing of the perp (perpetrator) walk, Mr. Wessling concedes police and politicians do understand live television.

“If the question is, are there things in our society that are orchestrated for the maximum amount of television news coverage? It happens all the time,” he said. “All you have to do is watch what happens in Washington. As broadcast journalists, we have to use our own best judgment, but we have to take advantage of the opportunities we get.”

“We try very hard not to be manipulated,” Mr. Zobel said. “I’ve had situations in my career where (officials) have called me to say they are going to move a planned event to 6:01 so we could have it live. I told them that they can do whatever they want, but if they do move it, I’m going to go on the air tonight and tell (viewers) that you’re moving it to accommodate what you perceive to be live coverage.”

Virtually every time 28 News has a live report, the anchor will add some information to the story. These are known as “anchor tags.”

“We want the reporter to focus on one particular aspect of the story. There are a lot of different angles in a story. We want the reporter to focus in on one,” Mr. Zobel explained. “If there is other information that is important to the story, that is what the anchor is for.”

News 22’s news production personnel have not adopted “anchor tags” for live reports. Mr. Zobel admits that there is some resistance to the idea. Both 28 News and News 22 will script one question from the anchor to a reporter doing a live report, but beyond that, it’s all unscripted.

“We do not generally script a question for the anchor to ask a reporter,” WNEP’s Mr. Wessling said. He said that if an anchor has a genuine question about a live report, he or she is able to ask it. The producer, who talks to the anchor through a hidden earpiece called an IFB, may also suggest a question for the anchor to relay to the reporter.