Lisa Churchville, president and general manager of NBC Channel 10.

It’s a very compelling job. I’m engaged all the time. I never look at a clock and say, “Oh my God, I’ve got x-number of hours to go.” That’s how I would define boredom — if I thought I had a Groundhog Day feeling about my work life. The day is always over before I’m ready for it to end.

Ambiguity is a big part of the job, and that’s what makes it compelling. It’s just right for someone who, at day’s end, doesn’t mind the fact that the day scheduled is not necessarily the day lived. I find it intriguing that there’s sort of a mystery to the day. Some people like predictable environments. But in the various job functions I’ve filled throughout the years, I’ve always been happiest in the ones that are not predictable.

I spent my childhood in Alabama, went to Barnard College, got my MBA at Harvard. I’ve worked in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and now Providence. Every time I’ve turned around, I’m on a bit of an adventure.

I love the news aspect of my job, especially local news, where we’re playing a vital role in the community, providing information and news that people will use in their day — whether it’s how you commute home or what you do because of the weather or how you view where your children go to school.

I’m not producing or writing shows but I am always aware of what we’re covering that day. I’m not necessarily making content decisions, but I am looking at what kind of coverage we’ll be doing during anticipated events, like an election or the Olympics.

Some of the most popular things on NBC have nothing to do with us. We don’t do anything to make the Super Bowl happen! Sixteen hours a day of content doesn’t have much to do with us. All we have is 4½ hours and a presence in the community that will make people want to watch NBC.

It’s a high stress job. There’s a lot of incoming, a lot of balls to juggle, but there’s also a lot of very collaborative problem-solving. Everyone is trying to figure something out on this management team.

We see our ratings every day. We see our revenues every day. And those two metrics are totally measurable. Your ratings tell you how your audience liked your product and your revenues reflect how your advertisers liked your product. It’s a heavy report card business. I may not have been the only player on the team but we are keeping score.

I’ve worked for a variety of stations across the country — number-one stations and number-three stations — and every one of them has its strengths, and those are the things you derive pleasure from. Then you have the things that aren’t performing the way you hoped they would. It’s not all or nothing. There’s always something you can improve on and something that you have to make sure you don’t take for granted. Celebrate your successes and recognize where you have to reenergize.

My day starts early. I often have board meetings, at the library [Churchville is chair of the Providence Public Library] or the Chamber. I have one or two outside meetings a day — it might be with Save The Bay to talk about putting a weather station there. Or with a community group to talk about a tour of the newsroom, with a vendor or an advertiser to discuss a partnering opportunity. All of this helps with our perception in the community — to further why people will have an affection for Channel 10. If they tune to you, that’s applause. It feels good when somebody says, “I saw that piece.”

There is the day-to-day job on the one hand and, on the other, the extracurricular activities. That comes with the territory. I’ve always done volunteer work, but I would have never been on the board at Women & Infants were it not for this position. Two to three evenings a week there is something. It might be going out with clients or to a business function or a fundraiser.

Tonight, I’ll do Call 10 for DTV. And when I get home, I’ll answer e-mail that I didn’t get to today.

You have to be very self-directed. It’s about sales, and people who are attracted to sales environments tend to be slightly hyperactive, like me. There are some people who simply by nature want to have more on their plate than they can possibly get through and don’t mind that there’s going to be something left over for the next day.

There have been some tough times, tough economic climates, tough stories. Some genuine high-fives and some genuine oh-no’s, but overall I have to say that every day was different than the day before, and that’s good.

Now let’s take a walk because Call 10 is about to start.