A recent newscast was packed with a little holiday punch — we did no less than 6 stories about lights, trees, or holiday festivities. Chalk it up to a slow news day — but still a fun broadcast. Here is a little excerpt of my anchoring…
** Be sure to check :42 seconds in — we finished our broadcast with a little bit about the Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree. After my summer working as an intern for NBC, I will always hold a special place in my heart for 30 Rock.
Filed under News and Reviews, On Air
Its the most… wonderful time… of the year!
Well, unless you’re traveling…
For those of you braving airport traffic this holiday season, you will see more security at airports this holiday season. Full body scanners are now in use at most major airports, including Missouri’s Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and Kansas City International Airport.
So what are your options? See my report for KOMU 8 News Today:
This story sparked a great discussion on KOMU 8′s Facebook page the morning it aired, and I’ve grabbed a few of my favorite comments:
Filed under News and Reviews, On Air, Reporting
Do you text and drive? Don’t lie…
Most drivers won’t admit they use their phone behind the wheel. Even more don’t realize the implication of distracted driving. So, for KOMU 8 News I created a simulated texting and driving test to find out what happens when eyes are on the phone, instead of the road. To keep things interesting, we recruited a few local celebrities – and made this story all about the competition:
Filed under News and Reviews, Reporting
Covering Robin Carnahan for the 2010 Missouri Senate elections was a tricky task… one made even trickier by last minute faulty technology and the fact that my producer and I were very, very young. Our troubleshooting skills were testing, yet I think due to our youth we were able to come up with a plan of action.
The original plan was to piggy back off a satellite dish used by KY3 (NBC – Springfield, MO). Being the wonderful affiliate that they are, the crew was more than generous to assist us for the evening. But due to satellite issues out of our control, we at KOMU would not be able to get that signal back in Columbia.
Our solution? Well — my field producer Michelle Flandreau had her laptop. So we decided to Skype in the reports. We sacrificed a bit of video and audio quality, yes. But the end results turned out well:
And we didn’t stop there. We live-tweeted the speeches given by Robin Carnahan and her supporters, which KOMU duplicated and posted on its twitter feed. I used “storify.com” to show a time-line of few of those tweets. You can either CHECK IT OUT ONLINE, or see the storyline below:
Filed under News and Reviews, On Air, Reporting
Its finally here — election week. Tuesday November 2nd will be one for the books.
And… newsrooms everywhere are gearing up for a loooooong night.
Here in Missouri, the Senate race has been very exciting. I will be going live for KOMU8 from the Democratic candidate – Robin Carnahan‘s campaign. My co-worker and good friend Theo Keith will be covering the Republican candidate, Roy Blunt.
One story Newsy covered recently — the possibility that the GOP will see more successful women this year. Why is that? Here’s our report:
Newsy video:
Also — on the local ballot here in Columbia, lots of “Propositions” to discuss. Sometimes these issues are difficult to understand — my previous story cleared up some of the confusion.
Filed under News and Reviews, On Air, Reporting
Ok voters — how many times do you watch campaign advertising, and everything seems so… garbled?
“Vote YES on “Proposition xyz“, to say NO on higher taxes!”
Wait, vote yes to say no? That doesn’t make sense! We’ve been just as confused as you — so we decided to clear up those issues during a recent KOMU 8 News Today segment:
Now, that’s just one set of issues on this year’s ballot — but Missourians will have many more to consider when the reach the polls Tuesday. Check out my story on KOMU.com for a full explanation on Proposition A, Proposition B, the Columbia Taser Ban and more…
Filed under News and Reviews, On Air, Reporting
I snuck away from Columbia for a few days to attend the 2010 Mid-America Emmys in St. Louis. What a great night!
KOMU had a strong presence at the awards… Our News Director, Stacey Woelfel attended as a presenter. Dream team Sarah Hill and Scott Schaefer were both up for awards, and Scott won an Emmy for his outstanding videography. Two of my classmates also joined us — Alex Rozier and Alex Belcher — both nominated for student awards.
A few members of the KOMU team
My job that night – a volunteer for the event, handing out the Emmy statues as the winners came on-stage. Up the stairs, hand off the Emmy, smile, walk down the stairs. Repeat. More importantly — it was an excellent night of networking.
Back stage was a blast — especially with our host and St. Louis native Ellie Kemper. Ellie plays “Erin” on NBC’s The Office, and kept us laughing in stitches the whole night. And we kept Office quotes rolling… “That’s what she said…”
Ellie Kemper, or "Erin" from The Office
Filed under News and Reviews
