Posts related to Television News and the crazy business is will always be.
There are some interesting things happening in Orlando. A search is currently going on for a missing mother of three from Orlando. Michelle Parker has been missing more than two weeks now. She’s 33. She disappeared after dropping her kids off to ex-fiance Dale Smith’s house. That same day, an episode of ‘The People’s Court’ aired regarding a dispute they had over a...
What is is like to have Labor Day off? I can’t say I’ve ever had it off. Television news never sleeps, and for that reason – I’ve worked the last 10 labor days as far as I can remember. I can’t say I mind. The days are quiet, people are happy and things get done in a quiet, controlled atmosphere. The roads aren’t busy. And I can use a day off some other time...
Have you ever been to a sporting event and noticed you happened to land a spot in line with the television cameras? It’s the kind of seat you either had some really good contacts in order to swing the tickets, or you just happened to be in the limelight by chance. You know you called your friends to tell them ‘watch for me, I’ll be on’. I have to believe that was going...
I can barely remember the day O.J. Simpson was acquitted. But I do remember where I was. It was 9th grade, and I was in a band class at Southwest Junior High in Forest Lake, Minnesota. A bunch of us played percussion and we’d hide in the back behind the bulky instruments during rehearsal. Bass drums provided excellent cover from the enemy sniper (the instructor). But on October 3, 1995, we...
I have enjoyed living in different parts of the country. From the Midwest to the Southwest and now to the Southeast, I’ve learned a lot about the lay of the land and what LIVES on that land. I’m talking about creepy, regional creatures. In Minnesota, there wasn’t really a threat from one, main creature. I guess a black bear would come to mind, but I bet I’ve seen one in 25...
By now you’ve seen the famous image released by the White House of President Obama and his staff watching and hearing elements of the mission that took out Osama Bin Laden. When I first saw the image, it wasn’t the Commander in Chief who caught my eye, or even Hillary Clinton’s terrified facial expression to which she later remarked, “I am somewhat sheepishly concerned...
This is always a busy time of year. Sweeps periods fall during four different months of the year. While we continually run hard ALL the time at WFTV, we focus on putting together stories for sweeps that really get to the bottom of a topic – we put some extra ‘oomph’ into it. Today my photographer Dan and I were in Daytona Beach meeting a computer forensics pro – a truly...
Today my photographer Dan and I were on a shoot for an upcoming story. We stopped by his house after the shoot was over and I apologized to his neighbor. Let me tell you why… Last week while Dan and I were rushing to finish up a story, we had to stop at his house to get a special camera. I was on the phone. He ran in to grab the camera. I had to use the bathroom. I finished up the call as I...
My buddy Kenneth Moton is heading to a colder climate – but a hot television market. Kenneth is a reporter at our station WFTV and he just landed a job at WPVI, the ABC station in Philadelphia (Market #4). Kenneth works night-side on the same shift as me and is often going live in some dark, spooky places covering crazy stories! He’s always been a happy and positive guy in the...
Something I learned immediately when I got a job at KVOA was how to spell T-U-C-S-O-N. It’s amazing to see how often it is misspelled on national, cable and local television news coverage, even in the newspaper. It’s also mispronounced a million different ways as well. I’m hoping the news out of Tucson will shed a little light for fellow news peeps to spell and say it right!
