What to Do?

For the first time since being let go I have a serious problem, do I go back into news. I kid you not in the same day I found two openings and I have no idea what to do. I'm not going into deal about either one, nor will I say what market or stations. One sounds cooler than the other, but do I want to go back to the belly of the beast.

One would involve an hour of travel and is only weekends. The other is mostly weekdays with random weekends. They have one thing in common... part time. I would lose my unemployment, but at least I could have a real job and not this Do some work for free and maybe something will happen gigs.

If I get the weekend gig, then I will have a harder time starting up a small production company. The weekend is when all the weddings and recitals happen. What little ground I have made into this business will be lost.

Why can't anything be easy with me. I always feel like have to make a decision of these natures. Do I want to go back into the industry that felt a nasty taste in my mouth or do I want to try and get this thing off the ground. I'd also lose my new favorite day, Sunday. No longer will I be able to go to church and then play ultimate Frisbee.

I just wish there was a giant billboard telling me which path is the best to take. No matter what happens from this point forward I will always be second guessing myself. If I go back into news, then I will wonder if my life would have been less complicated as I am standing on a beach being pounded by a hurricane. On the flip side, I will always wonder if I made the right choice by not going back to what I know.

Why can't real life be more like the board game.

Nine Years in The Making

Almost 4 years ago to the day I pulled all my press passes off my living room wall and started organizing them in a picture frame. I love looking at it, it was a reminder to me of what I had done in those first 5 years. Today I sat down and put together a new press pass picture frame. I left the center unfinished, at first I tried to get them so there wasn't any empty space, then I thought of something, I'll leave gaps in the middle, to remind me I did not leave the news world on my terms. I would have at least wanted to have been in the business for 10 years, a decade, but I came up short by a year, 9 years of a career. I did a lot and I just want to list some of the things I was able to do. If it was not for my position as a photographer, I'd probably never get to do most of these things (In complete random order).

• 2003-2005 Ohio football championship games



• 2004-2006 Boys and Girls state championships- I love football more, but every year these games were played on my birthday. What a way to spend that day, working a 13 hour day in the Schottenstein Center with a bunch of other media people.



• 2003 MAC Basketball Tournament- I was in West Virginia and the number two guy became ill and I had to do this tournament by myself. I learned how to manage my time.



• Jessica Lynch Homecoming Parade- Saw my video on the Daily Show



• 2002 MAC Football Championship- Toledo beat Marshall in Toledo.



• Marshall at Troy- The first time I ever had to deal with 90 degree weather in October.



• 7 Presidential visits- I only have four badges, I gave a few away. A great privilege, to see the President, but a pain in the ass to deal with. The Secret Service just had to have all media at these events 4 hours early.



• Went to an event with Governor Bush.



• Bowling Green at Ohio State- Took Shorty along and BG lost by 7. I took a lot of great pictures at this game.



• 2005 Fiesta Bowl- My favorite Ohio News Network moments, too bad I had a sinus infection or this would have been the greatest moment. Funny side story, the bomb squad dog thought my camera was explosives; security loved that.



• 3 Obama events- I even got to ride around with the traveling media, that's where I learned a lot of those guys at pretentious bastards. No offense, but to tell me to sit in the back of the bus was uncalled for. Still, I was 50 feet from our President-elect.



• 2005 & 2006 Ohio Wrestling championships- This will sound strange but The Wife loved covering the wrestling championships with me. She would log everything and we spent the whole day together. It would kill my back, but quality time on the clock with The Wife is always great.



• 2003-2005 Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds- It felt like every time I went to either park something strange or ridiculous would happen. Example 1: At the Indians I was dizzy and needed sugar and my battery in my wireless went out. I scurried over to the wireless and my sports director asked what I was doing. I said; "I'm out of juice." Some sports writer thought I said something about Jews. I almost got banned from Jacobs Field because I slipped back into my southern Ohio accent. Example 2, Chud and I were hungry and did not want to pay for the food the Red had for the media (I think it was chicken or maybe fish... couldn't tell) We ask the media info guy who was maybe a few months shy of 100; "You go up the stairs... rumnamnana then you humramanana. We turn and and say thank you and any time someone needed directions we would state; "Go up the stairs rumamahadana."



• 2004-2006 Indianapolis 500- I loved going to the 500, well going the weeks before the actual race. It's impressive how large that track is and how fast these cars move. Favorite moment, asking Helio Castroneves for an interview, he gives us the sign for 1 minute, turns, and goes into the bathroom. He comes back out and give a great interview. I always wondered if he washed his hands. Favorite phrase: There's a window over Terra Haute. I said it once and almost got DJL to spit out his salad.



• 2003 Motor City Bowl- GO BG!



• 2006 & 2007 NCAA Basketball tournament- I covered UNC as they choked in the elite 8 and then the Final Four. The first year I had to cover the first two rounds by myself and mind you I had never shot a game or interview about UNC that year, big learning curve about the team for me. Favorite moment; yelling at Dan Dakich.



• 2003 Memorial Golf Tournament- Most memorable thing was on the final day, I sat at 1 till the leaders past, ran to hole 2. Mind you I was carrying a 40 pound two piece camera, a 20 pound tripod, 20 pound back pack with water and tapes. I get the leaders and sit and bake in the sun on number 8. Then run up hill to number 9. I had an intern and she started caring the back pack and I was out of water. I run over to 11 and finally head back to 18. By the walk up hill on 18, the intern too the tripod as well. The sports director Moose thought I was going to die. I found out later he had the interns watch me and had them keep giving me Gatorade and water. I finished off 5 20 ounce Gatorade and 6 bottle of 24 ounces.



• Virginia Tech Shootings- The only time I started to break down on a story.



• 2005 MLB Home Run Derby- I saw Big Papi crank balls out of the park and into the river. The balls were literally flying in front of my face and I was in the upper upper left field.



• 2006 Cleveland Cavalier playoffs- LeBron looked like he was older than me (he's 7 years younger) and I almost had flames burn my eyebrows off.

I also covered events like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a sniper running around West Virginia and then another on in Columbus. A hurricane off the Carolina coast and much much more. I had 9 eventful years and even though I did not go out on the terms I wanted, I still have all the great memories and they can never take those from me.

Really? An Empty Snack Bag?

I got an email from Shawn about how my former chief Barnard had found some items in my truck and Shawn had them. I kept wondering what was in the box and some of the items were things I wanted. Like a card from The Wife tell me how much she loved me and my Netflix DVDs I was going to return on the day of dread.

Then there were some items that made me wonder and all three are pictured to the left. First, a nearly empty bag of potato chips. Why would you put those in there and also he put them on the bottom so what little chips that were in there are now dust. Second, a hair brush... I know some male reporters have hair brushes, but I have short hair and don't even use a comb. Some reporter left it, so if you are missing a brush leave a comment or call me and I can return it. Finally a map of Wake, Durham and Orange counties... that the station gave me... two years ago... that are missing almost all of I-540 and the 64 bypass.

I have mixed feelings about this box, mainly because said chief never called to ask me if I wanted any of this. I know he hates confrontations, but come on man, I worked with you for two years at least call me and tell me you gave the box to Shawn. I feel like management thinks I have leprosy and they can get it if they call me. Reason #95 to get out of news.

Turning the Corner

Today was the best so far, I had an interview with a production house and it looks like I might get some freelance work. With the way the news industry is going, I think this is the best option. WUSA just announced they are going to the VJ/back back/embed/one man band system. In all honesty I thought it would be 2010 before major changes like this would become common, then again the economy sped up the process.

I had to think, do I want to continue on in news and circle the country a la Grapes of Wrath finding news work, or did I have to get out now and hope and pray that I find a company or decent amount of freelance work to make everything work. I'm thinking it's a combination of the two and I hope this works out. I would love the normalcy of the schedule and the ability to take my time on projects.

State Of Panic

While working a live shot last night for the 6pm show, I heard weather guy say, we were going to have flurries. For the norther states this is nothing new, but immediately groaned and knew stupidity was about to arrive.

Five to ten minuets later I get a text message warning us (all photographers) that we maybe called in from 2AM-10AM to shoot snow. Seriously, we were wanting to go nuts over flurries. I know we had a little flurries the other day and a couple of us got some video, but to panic this much is ridiculous. When The Wife woke up she noticed a dusting of snow, but by the time I woke, it was all gone. We freaked out for this? Well it's because I'm in North Carolina... WRONG!

I open up my iGoogle page and I noticed that WSAZ out of Huntington, WVa had breaking news! I know it sounds odd that I have a Huntington feed, but it's the only station that I can get a reasonable amount of news from Ironton. So what was the breaking news "Slick Roads Causing Problems." What, who ever heard such a thing, slick roads means I might have to be cautious while driving? That you WSAZ! I know I'm being a little cynical over this, but why is that breaking news. Breaking news is like the town of Poca is on fire or the Governor just freed all the prisoners at South Central Correctional Center not the roads are slick.

We need to stop this freaking people out over the sublime, if you want to do a story about slick roads warning people to drive slow that's fine, just don't throw out the all caps BREAKING NEWS.

Back to North Carolina, I understand people freak out over the littlest of winter time weather, but we don't have to encourage it. If we say flurries, treat it like that. Tell the morning crew to shoot a little and if it's still going on have the day siders shoot some. I'm getting to cynical for TV news.

What Are They Thinking

For some strange reason there are three people at the station that are former employees of WNWO in Toledo, Ohio (I am in this group). So when I was informed that WNWO might be pulled off of Buckeye Cable I laughed. From what I have read and was informed, WNWO wants to be paid to be on Buckeye Cable.


If you would run a cable station and had enough people wanting you, then you can ask the cable providers to pay you for their service. I believe ESPN generally garners around $3 per household. Then you have local stations, they are required by the FCC to be shown by the local cable companies... for free. You may be thinking that the locals are getting shafted, no not really. You see they get paid in ratings. When you fill out a ratings book or have one of those boxes that records what you watch, they get those numbers. Most people in Toledo have cable and do not go "off air" for their local stations.


So I find this situation hilarious, a station may refuse to allow the local cable system with 115,000 homes to show their programming. Never mind the news is dreadful, people will not be able to watch any NBC programming unless they unplug their cable and hook up some rabbit ears or their digital converter. I can see how they think they will get more money out of this, but if Buckeye Cable calls their bluff (and I think they will) then they will loose all those viewers and then loss all those ratings and lose money. WNWO is hoping people in Toledo will get mad enough that they will call Buckeye Cable and force them to relent and they will have to pay WNWO and they will actually be profitable for once.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, will the FCC force Buckeye Cable to pay and then we have a mad dash of other stations trying the samething or will Buckeye Cable just start showing the Detroit NBC station.

Tired of Dead People

In the news business, you get to cover a lot of fun stuff like people being killed, AWESOME! For the most part, the deaths we cover are generally spaced out, but lately I have had to cover 4 high profile murders and it is starting to take a toll. I am tried of it, it's not fun and you have to be serious. Day in and day out we have covered these local deaths with very little breaks. Being on nightside it is magnified, because 11pm producer wants something new. I don't blame her, it's just we have a limited number of night side crews and with the luck of the draw I'm covering one of the deaths.

You joke around about it, you try not to think about it, yet it is still there. Today I covered a vigil almost three hours away from the station. All the people there did not even know the girl, she didn't even live there. The only connection was she was found there. After four weeks of death I need a long break from it. Luckily, I have a vacation coming soon and hopefully after all the death stories will have passed

Their Like Seasons But More Suck

For those not in the TV business let me give you a little insight into the world of television news. Four times a year companies like Nielson find out how many people are watching different shows. From there the sales staff can figure out how much to charge, the more people the more money. We in the business call these four month sweeps. You can tell when it is sweeps because there are always new episodes of your favorite shows. In news a lot of times you see those "You will die if you don't watch tonight's 11pm show!" or "Did you know you can contact 9 different forms of the plague from eating out? We'll tell you which restraints will kill you." You have all seen those stories.

The month of May is a HUGE sweeps month and we went all out and I somehow got tapped to do one of the series. The concept my three part series is that kids are giving out too much info on Facebook. So we set up a couple of accounts with two of our reporters and these accounts had actual photos of two people that are in their early 30s, so it's not like we tricked them. The reporters set out and invited a lot of kids and within three days had over 100 friends.

You can watch the videos to find out what happened, I'm just happy they are over. In a normally I will churn out one story and for the most part move on to another the next day. Not on this bad boy, we worked for over a week on it. We interview three kids and their parents and the Attorney General of North Carolina. I cracked out my light kit ever time and I think most of the lighting is really good. You can hopefully tell I put some work into it. Then we spent one whole day in a studio with a jib camera so we could get some great flying shots. Then I spent 5 days editing. I never take that long to edit, but when lawyers are involved it takes a lot longer. I would finish one piece, send it off and then legal could have problems with it so we would fight over what needed to be changed and then I would most likely change everything.

By the end I was numb, I blame these stories for a lack of posting this month. I think they are two pretty good stories and hopefully someone gets something out of it. I hope I get out of doing a sweeps story in July.

Small Market News

If you have been living under a rock for the last few weeks, there was a female marine killed by a male marine in Jacksonville, NC. Now this is not technically in the Raleigh market, but it's close enough. Then on top of it there happen to be a few connections to the Triangle, because of this I am blogging from a Days Inn in Jacksonville.

Due to some issues we had to feed our story over the Internet so we actually got to watch the local news. These stations so not have a lot of resources and most of the on air presence is either real young of people who have been there since the dawn of time. Some of the stations looked good, the graphics could be used in Raleigh, but some... wow were real bad, I mean one looked like it was out of the 80s and with a set to match.

I never worked in a any market this small, I started out in Toledo (at the time in the 60s) and then to Charleston, WVa (also in the 60s). It amazes me to see reporters that young learn how to be in news. I created a phrase, they are playing reporter not being a reporter yet. Some day they may be the next network anchor, but right now, they are probably one year out of college. I wish them all luck and hope they move up the ladder, I'd rather keep working with Boston Stevie and The Serg.