Brian Mortensen's blog - featuring thoughts on multimedia journalism, PA announcing, sports, travel, cars, pizza, photography and videography, and just about anything else that pops into my head!
I covered the Rally of The 100 Acre Wood this past weekend, and boy, it was a great time. I’m lucky I got the chance to do it – back in mid-January, Eric Blumberg, KOMU’s assistant sports director, asked if anyone knew about rally racing after he received an email from a viewer asking if we’d be covering it this year. I said something to the effect of “Hell yeah” when Blumberg asked about it. So I immediately went on Rally-America.com and went through the media registration process. I was thrilled I’d have the chance to finally get to a rally – in all places – about 2 hours from our station.
I’ve always loved watching the World Rally Championship – I have about 15 old VHS season review videos and “In-Car Experience” montage videos in a box in my closet – and I basically grew up watching this stuff without ever getting the chance to see it in person. When Cablevision added Speedchannel to my family’s cable package in the mid 00′s, I was finally able to watch guys like Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz, Marcus Gronholm, and other legends duke it out. I vaguely remember catching some of Speedchannel’s coverage of Rally America back then, too. So you can imagine how pumped I was to hear about the rally in Missouri. To be honest, though, I haven’t followed the WRC lately because Speedchannel has cut back big time on their coverage and essentially only shows NASCAR. But I knew Travis Pastrana had been competing in Rally America along with Ken Block and a few other “bigtime” guys, and that Subaru has always been a big entrant in the series. What I didn’t know was that now Ford has been making a BIG effort to get the Fiesta competitive – it seems they have a big budget for R&D, promotions, and signing one of the most popular American drivers in Ken Block and entering him in both the American series, and selected WRC rallies.
For the whole week up to the rally, I was pumped. I barely slept the night beforehand, even though I had to be up at 3AM to get ready, get to the station and get the gear, then hit the road, so I thought i’d be tired – but that’s nothing 2 big coffees from Quik Trip can’t solve! The drive down to Salem was fun – I’d never been down Highway 63 past Jefferson City – I’ve been east on Highway 50 for a ways, but I hadn’t experienced the fun of the one-lane-in-each-direction driving through steep, winding hills that is Highway 63 south of Jefferson City. I crossed over I-44 in St. James and from there, it really got fun. I could see just why the area was perfect for a rally – tons of hills, curvy, tight roads, and plenty of nature. I arrived in Salem very early, around 7AM, and figured I’d get breakfast, so I hit up the “Red Hen Breakfast Cafe” where I enjoyed a big homemade omelette. After I finished up there, I made my way over to where the “parc expose”, or basically where all the cars would park, and got acquainted with the media contacts from Rally America. View Larger Map
After that, I made my way up and down the street checking out all the cars as they rolled in. A good crowd had already gathered to check out the cars and try to get autographs by this point – about 8:30am. The crowd mobbed Travis Pastrana and Ken Block, so I figured I’d try to interview more amateur/shoestring budget type guys. I found some great interviews – Burak Tuğlu, driver of a 2001 Ford Focus, and Jason Grahn, codriver of a newer Subaru Impreza, then two volunteers – Thomas McDonald and Matt Smith, who had both driven down to Salem from Columbia, making the story even more interesting since they were 2 local guys getting involved. Meanwhile Tuğlu and Grahn had both traveled long distances to get to Salem, so it really added that unique angle as well to have them in the story.
So with all my interviews done, I waited around to head out to the stages. I went with a convoy of “inexperienced” photogs and headed out to a stage. After a lot of waiting around, the stage finally began. I set up on the inside of the 1st corner so I could have a full shot of the cars going uphill at full tilt. Of course, it made for awesome video and I was really happy with what I got. After the stage ended, we rode out to the service area. It was here I hooked up with Ford’s Brent Maurer – the account director and PR manager for some of their racing exploits. I basically rode around with him for the rest of the day in his luxurious rented Ford Escape – a nice ride. After hanging out at the service area and grabbing lunch from the always-great Caseys General Store in Viburnum, we headed to Potosi for the superspecial stage. There was a little more freedom here to move around and shoot where ever we wanted. I also shot a standup here where I talked about the modifications to Ken Block’s Fiesta that make it different from a typical street car.
The first guy off the blocks in the superspecial was Travis Pastrana, and on his 2nd turn of the loop, he broke a piece of his Subaru’s left-rear suspension. He struggled to the end of the stage and pulled off by the exit of the park and got out. From my vantage point up on a hill several hundred yards away, I could tell his Subaru was in trouble. His delay, and eventual retirement from the rally boosted Ken Block into the lead – a major shakeup in the rally and the championship standings. Had Pastrana held the lead and gone on to win, he would have built a commanding lead in the drivers’ championship, but with his retirement Block became an immediate contender in just his 1st season with Ford. I shot just a few more cars on the stage, then headed down to Pastrana’s car and got some video of him and his codriver trying to fix the suspension. I grabbed the stick mic and went over to Pastrana to ask him what happened, and he seemed happy to oblige for a quick interview – he was pretty funny, he said something like “Hi there!” in a tone I didn’t expect from a guy who just wrecked out of the rally. He blamed his exit on himself and overall had some great emotion – a great bite.
We took off from the superspecial and made our way back to Salem via Viburnum for a quick stop at the Ford service area, where the crew was working on Block’s car and getting it ready for the next few stages of the night, as by this point in the day the sun was setting. Maurer dropped me off in Salem, and we exchanged contact info. I think he’ll be a great contact to have in the racing industry – of course that’d be an awesome area for me to potentially work in the future.
I made the drive back to Columbia via Jefferson City and a stop at Kate & Ally’s Pizza – of course, a necessary part of any trip through there! On Sunday I began putting the story together and eventually we had it run in the news portion of the show instead of sports because of the Olympics shortening our time. Here’s the finished product, and I was really pleased with it. I got a lot of great feedback on it.
With the hope of adding more content to komusports.blogspot.com and brianmortensen.com, I went down to the station on Friday to take care of a bunch of stuff. First, I wanted to get as much video as possible from my news reporting days to post over on brianmortensen.com. I looked for numerous news stories I reported on over the summer with the high-quality raw video, but unfortunately it had all been deleted except for whatever was on komu.com. Of course, I should have gotten those stories immediately after I reported on them, but oh well. The video from komu.com actually looks OK on Youtube – so thankfully I was able to save them. I was bummed I couldn’t save one of the live shots I did for the “Tiger Treasures Rummage Sale” – a total bogus story, little news value but I had some good video and it fit in with the day – simply one of those slow news days in the summer in Mid-Missouri.It was a fun live shot because I was able to show several high-quality rummage sale items, so it was a productive live shot at least.
Once I dug up all my old news video, I began uploading it to Youtube. Meanwhile, I harvested some sports video for komusports.blogspot.com and uploaded it to Vimeo. After I found all the video, I saw KOMU was covering 2 local high school games – Fulton @ Mexico, and Helias @ Rock Bridge. On a whim, I took a drive to Mexico, then back to Rock Bridge on the premise of taking some pictures and such for the blog. It was fun – I was able to get some decent pictures with my crappy little point-and-shoot camera and get them on the blog before the sportscast aired. I called the sports office and told them if they wanted, they could add a web snipe shoutout to the KOMU Sports blog at the end of the highlights to tell viewers they could check out the blog for some pictures from the games. You can check out the pictures here: the Rock Bridge game and the Mexico game
Then yesterday, I went down to the station to upload the highlights to Vimeo. I also added a short video extra from the Mexico game – the “Crowning of Mr. Bulldog” – a celebration of the school’s “best man”. One of the players on the basketball team won, so it was pretty cool.
The site is really coming along well and I’d love to see us add even more content!
This semester has gotten off to a fantastic start. I’m enjoying my classes and so far I’ve been able to keep up with the goals I’ve set. My 1st goal was to spend less time at KOMU, and of the time I do spend there, make it worthwhile doing what I really enjoy – sports reporting, videography, and producing. I’ve definitely been able to do this so far in the semester. I’ve shot, written, and edited about a package a week either for the Sports Show or for a nightly sportscast while usually shooting highlights or going to a media day once or twice a week. BY “less time at KOMU” I mean not working any exhausting/time consuming live truck or PA shifts that destroy my sleep schedule/health/grades. Last semester I worked about 10-12 hours a week on live truck, and while it was nice to have the extra money, I really suffered from sleep deprivation and academic frustration. So far this semester, I’ve been able to enjoy my classes a lot more because I’m not on the verge of falling asleep in all of them!
My 2nd goal was to maintain my grades and ensure I graduate! So far, I’ve definitely succeeded. I’ve done well on my first few assignments in some of my more writing-intensive classes, so I’m excited about hopefully finishing my undergraduate career on a good note.
My 3rd goal remains working at building personal connections and an online presence. I’ve begun to go back through all my business cards of people I’ve met and email addresses I’ve gathered to stay in touch with them and try to retain them for future reference. A site like Linkedin is very useful for this as it saves me the trouble of getting business cards for some people. But, I’ve found getting in touch with people on Linkedin can be tough as they often don’t check their messages on it, hence the need for personal correspondence outside of the site. I’m hoping the connections I’ve made throughout my 4 years at Mizzou will help in the job hunt as I’m not particularly worried about future geographic location. As far as an online presence goes, I need to build my own website. I purchased the server space for brianmortensen.com, so I just have to go about actually building the site and such. I’d really like to learn Adobe Flash, and I’m strongly considering a free training session on campus for it in a few weeks – just not sure if it’s worth missing a class for it! And with that, I’d love to build a really cool brianmortensen.com with tons of flash and fun stuff like that, but we’ll see.
My 4th goal is to really nail this capstone project. I’m working with Will Maetzold, Cassandra Novy, and James Steward on expanding KOMU’s online high school sports coverage. So far I’m thrilled with what we’ve done. Will and I would like to shoot a few “Opening Drive”-type shows throughout the semester and add it to the KOMU.com sports page. So far we’ve both been swamped with work outside the station to really get it off the ground, but I know we’ll have plenty of chances to get a good few shows in. We need Scott Schmidt to make graphics for us – that seems to be the main holdback – and if we accomplish that, anchoring, producing, writing, and creating the show will NOT be difficult. I can harken back to my “old” days of MuTV when I anchored “Tailgaters” and basically wrote a script the night before we shot the show with a really basic outline – some intros and outros for prompter, some local readers, then guided chat with my co-anchor and guests. I’d like to follow that same format but instead of a ≈ half hour show, we’ll keep it short – around 10-15 minutes hopefully.
The capstone also has us expanding our video coverage. I’ve begun to take all the high school highlights and stories from the sportscasts and upload them to Vimeo. I then embed them in a blog post as basically a daily post on komusports.blogspot.com. I then add tags for all the athletes and teams featured in the video. The video quality on Vimeo is about 100 times better than KOMU.com, so it’s definitely worthwhile to get them on a different site for embedding. I’ll also put the Blumberg Off the Bench packages on the blog if it involves a high school athlete. I invested the $40 or whatever it costs to get a Flikr pro account – and it’s definitely worth it because another part of our blog will be to post pictures from games we attend. If we can’t shoot a highlight, I’d really like each of us to get to one local game a week to just get some pictures, stats, and storylines to include on the blog. We’ll also have a “weekly links” type section where we find stories in local papers – such as the Fulton Sun or Columbia Missourian – and link to them. It would sound something like, “The Missourian’s Joe Smith has a preview of the Hickman-Rock Bridge boys basketball game tonight, and why fans should expect a quiet night from Ricky Kreklow,” or something like that. I think I’ve laid the foundation pretty well – we just have to get down to doing the work!
This is the 1st Friday I’ve been free since the start of the semester! I’ve shot football games just about every Friday night, and with high school football just about over, I’m pretty much free now on Friday nights. I’m gearing up for a trip to Manhattan, Kansas tomorrow for Mizzou’s game against the Kansas State Wildcats. This will be my 2nd road trip (3rd if you count the Illinois game) for Mizzou football, and I’ve shot every game except for Nevada. It’s been a blast to shoot all the Mizzou games, despite the disappointing record and tough home losses. I can honestly say I’ve shot in all weather conditions this season – from torrential rain and cold during the Nebraska game, to warm and humid during Bowling Green and Furman, and plain ol’ chilly during the Oklahoma State game. Tomorrow looks to be in the 50s and overcast, so it should be comfortable. Meanwhile, producing sports has gone well. I’ve definitely improved since I began. It’s VERY easy – much easier than I thought. I’ve even gotten to the point to where I think “Hey, this isn’t so bad, I could do this for a living” until I realize it’s still not the greatest place to be. But hey, at least I’ve gotten some experience in it and had some fun with it.
I noticed my last update came after the Nebraska game. I traveled to Oklahoma State the next weekend to shoot the game down there – also really cool but a disappointing result again. I was greatly impressed with the quality of Boone Pickens Stadium – insanely nice overall. The attention to detail is immaculate – everything from deluxe catered meals for the media to OSU engraved elevator buttons. Clearly, ol’ Boone is sinking money into his namesake’s building, and I can definitely see the results. However, I thought the crowd would be a lot louder than it was – perhaps because the stadium’s capacity is around 55,000 – but after experiencing OU in 2007 I expected the same outrageous decibel level in Stillwater. It only got really loud after Gabbert’s pick-6 and OSU’s TD towards the end of the 1st half. Their student section seemed into the game the whole time, and their odd paddles certainly made a lot of noise. But, I can definitely say Boone Pickens Stadium, while VERY nice and luxurious, is not nearly as tough to play in as I’d expected.
I’m curious to see if Bill Snyder Family Stadium is any more hostile! I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures and such of the journey. Will Maetzold and Brandon Spiegel are joining me on this trip – Maetzold hitching a ride and covering it for Palestra.net, Spiegel also with KOMU.
Check out my Youtube for some of my packages – here’s an embedded link.
Put simply, Missouri did not have a good game last week. I produced the 6 sports, and I was pleased with how it went. Gervino went live from the 6th floor of the press box with a live interview during the sports block, and then a Cardinals gm. 2 NLDS highlight. We scrambled to get it in on time but I was happy with it overall. Chris did a great job of doing the highlights without a monitor. After we wrapped up the show, I headed off to Faurot Field, where after lugging all the gear in the driving rain to the media shuttle, I got my credential from Kyle Stokes, who was running the live truck. Upon arrival though, I discovered the power outage situation (more on that later) resulting in limited elevator service, so I had to climb 4 flights of stairs with all the gear while dodging rich old geezers clutching their wine and cheese within the club level. Of course, the rain and overall weather was terrible – cold, driving rain and a somewhat strong wind. So, once within the press box, I finagled a garbage bag to cover the camera and went down to the field. I immediately discovered it’d be really difficult to shoot like I usually would, so I had to literally create a photo booth-like setup by putting the garbage bag over my head and using it like a cape with my only view through the LCD screen. While it was tough to see long passes and ball trajectory, it did a great job of keeping the camera dry. And with a complete lack of big plays in the 1st half, I didn’t miss much. I was right behind the end zone where Gabbert scored on the QB sneak, but unfortunately on the complete opposite side of the field for the safety earlier in the game. So, I departed the field with Missouri holding on to a 9-0 lead.
About that power problem – I’m guessing the extreme rain caused some sort of fuse to break in the campus power plant, shutting off all the power to the stadium. I was told the lights and all power shut off to the stadium for about 10 minutes. After backup generators fired up, the main scoreboard and PA system remained off – creating an eerie silence and dampened (literally) atmosphere for the entire game. On one hand, it was really cool because the whole crowd stood for most of the game and really paid attention to what was going on. They didn’t need much prodding to make noise on defensive 3rd downs or for the Mizzou touchdown. But, I think people began to lose energy as the game went along, and understandably so – the cold and rain began to affect people midway through the 3rd quarter. That loss of energy, coupled with the silent PA system and no Randy Wright “THIRRRRRRRRRRRDDD DOWN AND _____ “or “FIRST DOWN, M-I-Z!!” almost created a sense of foreboding collapse, even with a seeming impregnable 12-0 lead late in the 3rd quarter.
So I enjoyed the 2nd half in the warmth and dryness of the press box with my good friend Will Maetzold – whose trusty old camera succumbed to the elements, and he was forced to sit out the 2nd half. We viewed the collapse. That’s all I’ll say about that – but perhaps the most irritating part of it all was seeing the Nebraska fans going crazy from high above. I understand they travel well, but good lord, they made a lot of noise and hearing “There is No Place like Nebraska” blaring from the Marching Huskers was very annoying.
After the game ended, we went down to the media room to wait for Pinkel and co. His presser was uneventful – he didn’t say anything that surprised me or anyone else. We then talked to Andrew Gachkar (quite honest and a good interview), Sean Weatherspoon (as always a good interview), Jaron Baston, and Blaine Gabbert (after 45 minutes waiting for him). Gabbert was in a terrible mood (understandably so) but he was uncharacteristically short and terse in his answers. He’s usually pretty approachable and courteous, but on that night with the pain he endured physically and emotionally throwing 2 INTs, I can understand.
After taking off, I put together a PKG on Sunday for the sports show about Nebraska’s resurgent 4th quarter. Watching them put up 27 points seemed like I was watching a sleeping giant of a program emerge from its hibernation to swat and destroy a pest – in this case, Missouri. I may not have pleased some diehard Missouri fans, but that’s what it seemed to me. I wanted to put some of my personality and commentary into the story, and the story hit me while sitting in the press box watching them come back.
Well, I’m now a sports reporter/producer at KOMU and despite it being MUCH less stressful than news, I am still at the station almost every day. I work live truck for the Monday/Wednesday morning show, and for the 5/6 on Tuesdays. It’s been a lot less stressful this semester working live truck, too. The early morning hours are tough, but it’s an easy show to work because with so many hits, it’s easy to rearrange things if we have trouble with the truck. It’s also a solid way to pick up hours, even if it does come at a time I should be sleeping. For the most part, I’ve had good reporters too, so it’s been fun.
I experienced probably the wildest story I’ve probably ever been a part of on Wednesday morning. I woke up somewhat early at 2:15am (usually wake at 2:30 to get to the station at 3am) and Matt Jeffries, the morning student producer, called me to tell me to come in “early” because of a breaking news situation in Columbia. Up off Stadium Blvd, the Columbia Police Department were staking out a couple of people holed up in an apartment. These people apparently SHOT AT A COP CAR, then peeled out in their high-performance Dodge Stratus, crashing through their apartment complex’s gate and hiding in their apartment. The suspects refused to come out of the apartment, so the cops called in some serious reinforcement – State troopers, SWAT TEAM (!!), and a few other imposing vehicles to handle the threat of these 3 whacked out dudes. So I showed up with the truck and Chance Seales was already there. He shot some video already, and I fed it back through the truck, which I thought was fun. We basically set up our shot just alongside the driveway into and out of the complex, so we could see cop cars coming in and out of the area. We had plenty of nats too, with “flashbangs” aka stun grenades going off (which we thought was gunfire because it was so loud). Chance did a great job with his hits, and I was pleased with my camera work. Eventually the cops got the dudes to come out of the apartment by blowing down its windows. This was a really awesome live shot experience all-around, so I’m glad it went so well. On a side note, KMIZ showed up half an hour after we did, and their reporter was far too chummy with Jessie Haden, CPD’s “Public Information Officer”. I would expect nothing less from them. Here’s the link to our story.
Working in sports has been awesome. I’ve shot every Mizzou football game so far (minus Nevada, since that was on the road) and I’ve done FNF every Friday night. I FINALLY broke my Gold Star duck with a win last weekend for my Boonville/Hannibal highlight. Jim Riek totally got me by surprise, and I went nuts when he said we got the Gold. I had a lot of help from the guy who went with me, Caleb Barron – he deserves a lot of credit. I’m psyched to shoot Jefferson City’s homecoming game tonight. Another great part of this game is the chance to visit Kate & Ally’s Pizza in Jeff. City - probably the best pizza you can get in Mid-Missouri! I’ve also been mildly surprised at how easy producing sports has been. Yeah, it can be a little “crazy” but I’m confident in my abilities, so I don’t stress out about getting video transferred, edited, or graphics created. Of course, Jim’s sports class is awesome too, so overall it’s been a pretty good semester so far! Hope it stays as good! Here’s the link to my Gold Star video (it’s the first one in the vid.)
Let me preface this post by mentioning I have never singled anyone out for criticism via the internets or complained about anyone at KOMU. To do so would be unprofessional, rude, and immature. But my experience today left me so irked I have to put it in writing to gather others’ thoughts on it.
I picked up Matt Tarnawa’s 5/6/10 Live truck shift as I figured I could use some extra money, and I had nothing going on tonight. I arrived at the station and was told immediately we would be going live from Stadium Blvd. on TOP OF THE LIVE TRUCK to demonstrate the traffic for a story about possible expansion of the road. I thought it sounded like a cool idea and I was certain we could make it work visually. I went out to Stadium, parked in the lot next to the McDonalds, and began to set up. After tossing a few things on top of the truck, I realized we would have very little space to safely work with. I tried to set up the tripod, but that left roughly a FOOT for me to move from the front of the truck (closest to the mast) to the back of the truck, with the larger platform area where I intended on having the reporter stand. I took the tripod down and figured with the space we had, the safest thing to do would be to shoot off the shoulder.
Now, I was fully aware whenever I shoot off the shoulder, especially in hot weather like it was today, I get Parkinson’s-like symptoms and don’t hold the camera too steady. But that seemed like a fair trade-off. (While some might disagree) I’m not an idiot, and given the responsibility of getting the job done SAFELY, I would much rather have a semi-shaky shot for the 15-20 seconds before/after the PKG or Vo/sot than:
1) fall off the top of the truck because I lose my balance attempting to connect/disconnect/move cables because the tripod is in the way 2) see my reporter fall off the truck because she doesn’t have enough room to move around. 3) Lean back on the mast and cause it to drop down, losing the shot. 4) Assume other risks for the sake of A SMOOTH/SEXY live shot.
I’m sorry, but I’m not paid enough or insured enough to risk my health and safety (and that of the reporter) over something I consider quite silly.
Here’s a picture I snapped with my Blackberry prior to the hits. You can see I have the camera set down on top of the A/C unit. Behind the A/C, and in front of the mast is roughly 1.5-2 feet of space. IN NO WAY is that enough room for a tripod. Now, look to the edges, where the width of platform is about a foot. To have the tripod on the truck would require me to constantly maneuver around the top of the truck while walking on that foot-wide platform. Sound silly? You can see where I’m coming from now.
Now, with that written, the director of the 5 and 6 wanted me to call her after the 5 to discuss this. She INSISTED I use the tripod, saying (in a very condescending/rude/demeaning tone) “OH NO, DON’T SAY YOU DON’T HAVE ENOUGH SPACE, I’VE DONE IT BEFORE” to which I stated I did not feel comfortable using the tripod because I didn’t have enough room. To be fair, she said the shot needed more light, and I completely agreed after seeing how it looked, so I changed a few things for the 6 hit. I did not use the tripod for the 6 and I feel it came out a little better than the 5 knowing I really had to go steady.
I really have a problem with this kind of attitude from the director. I COMPLETELY understand the need for good-quality shots, don’t get me wrong. And there’s something to be said for suggesting I use the tripod, but then understanding my decision to go with what I considered the safest shot. But by assuming we’re invincible, capable of doing anything in small spaces, and otherwise demanding we take on more risks than normal is what leads to accidents – often injurious or fatal. If it makes me look bad for choosing the safe route, so be it. I’m sorry the shot was “too shaky”, but I’d rather that be the case than anyone even come close to getting hurt. If my KOMU “reputation” is harmed for it, so be it. I’ll take my health and safety 1st over putting myself into a dangerous situation.
As I blogged a few days ago, I’m done with B3 reporting shifts. It’s very relieving to not have to constantly be on the lookout for news stories. However, I began working on my HFR yesterday, and it was a mixed experience. The “Cash for Clunkers” program seems to have both strong proponents and opponents in Mid-Missouri. I stopped at 8 dealerships yesterday to try and talk to them about the program. The program has been delayed a few weeks until the official rulemaking process can be completed by the federal government – to me, that is the story because, as I understand it, people seem willing to trade in their inefficient cars for cars getting better gas mileage, especially with a $4,500 credit essentially subsidizing the use of gas-sipping cars. So my mission was to find out what dealers thought of the delay, and whether customers have been coming in hoping to take advantage of the program.
My first stop was Albert Honda. I’ve met Eric Cronacher, the sales manager, before for a B2 story. The receptionist told me he’d be the man to talk to, and that Wednesday was his off day. Not a problem for me – I’ve dealt with him before and I know he’s pretty accessible. When I called back today, he was “out to lunch” and the receptionist said she’d have him call me back. I’ll keep trying – can’t hurt to have multiple sources because it adds variety and depth to this story.
I went down Providence Rd. to Perry Nissan. The salesman I met in the showroom said the sales manager is the guy to talk to, as is usually the case in most car dealerships. He gave me his card and I called today, he seemed helpful and willing to go on-camera when I get back to Columbia on July 17.
I headed over to the Saturn dealership, where the sales manager told me she didn’t want to go on-camera about it. Meanwhile she had no idea whether Mid-Mo has had any advertising about it. Next door, Dodge City/Hyundai told me a similar thing. They said their president is the only person who can talk on-camera, so I left.
I cruised over to Bob McCosh (formerly known as Perry) Chevrolet, where upon approaching the doorway, Brian Bailey, Angie’s husband, opened the door. I did not know who he was, but upon explaining why I was there, he said, “Oh, Angie Bailey, she’s my wife. I’m Brian Bailey.” So he told me to leave my business card at the receptionist’s desk and he “would take care of me”. Not sure what that means, but I asked Angie about it later at the station and she said she’d “remind” him to get back in touch with me.
Here I took a little detour and stopped at a little shop on the Business Loop that piqued my attention. I can’t remember the name of it, but this little machine shop that looks like it’s 50 years old was open for business. I stopped inside and told the lady inside what I was doing, and asked how business was going. She said the shop is run by her husband and that they’ve been incredibly busy – she said she had not seen any slowdown in business at all. I met the man, Elson, and he said he’d be up for a story on their little shop. As I suspected, the shop has been there for nearly 40 years and apparently “everybody knows Elson”. I’d love to do a story on their shop and how it’s staying strong even in a recession, and as Elson gets older and he admits he doesn’t work as many hours as he used to.
A thought also hit me while driving down the Business Loop to stop into another machine shop to try and find a junkyard in Mid-Missouri, since, according to the plans so far, when “clunkers” are traded in, they essentially have to be destroyed/scrapped by a junkyard. A welding material shop told me of 2 junkyards in Mid-Mo, which is definitely enough to work with. Later, I Googled a few more and got some numbers to call. I really like this element of the story because it goes a little further beyond the car dealership hype/spin. I’d like to possibly do this in 2 or 3 parts – with the “we’ve been waiting for these regulations, and they’re hurting us” schpiel before the rules come down on July 23, the junkyard bit as the 2nd piece, and the 3rd when the actual rules are implemented.
I continued west on the Business Loop and stopped at University Chrysler/Subaru. I received perhaps the rudest reception I’ve ever gotten as a reporter with KOMU upon going into their showroom. I go in, and introduce myself to the geezers behind the counter and explain what I’m doing there. I was interrupted by the head honcho in a very harsh/rude tone,“I’m not gonna comment on that, we don’t know anything more than what you do, and when you hear something you let me know” but I continued, explaining how I thought the story was just that – dealerships are left with little information on something that could be helpful to customers. So, this gentleman, whose name I did not get, proceeds to say, “Hold on a sec son, let me find you something here.” He typed in a few words on his keyboard, clicked a few buttons, and I heard their printer hum and spit out a piece of paper. He picked it up, and as he did, I noticed the other men in the room began to smirk menacingly as if they appreciated his style of embarrassing me. He handed me a sheet of paper with a “Thank you for your comment” form letter from the White House. He said something to the effect of, “I don’t mean to be facetious, but you’re better off asking this guy than me.” For some reason, I found this very irritating and somewhat offensive, as his salesmen began to chuckle behind him, but I tried to remain professional – something evidently this man could not do (In BM’s personal opinion, one of the reasons why Chrysler/Dodge is in dire straits – bad dealerships, like this one, and numerous my family has dealt with in New Jersey). I asked him if he would be willing to mention his comment/advice letter to the White House on-camera, and he declined, giving a mini-rant on “the media”, and instead referring me to the Missouri Auto Dealers Association. So I left, annoyed, with nothing from there.
My next stop was Machens Toyota. Thankfully, the sales manager there, Dan Kellar, was willing to talk on-camera about the process so far, and he gave me some really interesting bites. In stark contrast to the gentlemen at University Chrysler/Subaru, he was very professional and approachable, and actually seemed to understand that THE MEDIA IS YOUR FRIEND WHEN YOU ARE ACCOMMODATING AND HONEST! I shot some video around the dealership of fuel-sipping cars, and headed down the street to Machens Ford/Lincoln/Mercury.
While not as approachable as Dan Kellar, (and asking “Have you ever seen the movie ‘Stalin’?”) the man in charge at Machens F/L/M offered to give me several internal documents and emails showing the process and approach Ford Motor Company and Toyota have been taking with regard to the Cash for Clunkers. I felt this was an outstanding find that, at the very least, would give me a good Web Extra for this story. The president of Machens, Gary Drewing, (apparently the only guy who can go on-camera there) told me to call him in the morning. While I didn’t call him this morning, I left a message with him this afternoon. Hopefully he gets back to me. If not, I know I have time to try and arrange an interview.
After these stops, I headed over to Creasy Springs Rd., where apparently there is a junkyard, according to one of the guys in the welding shop. I drove about 3-4 miles on it and didn’t find it, so I turned around and headed back to KOMU. I’m pretty happy with what I have so far, and if I can get a few more interviews at some dealerships and visit a junkyard, I’ll be good to go. I think the only thing missing is finding someone who wants to buy a car now and is left waiting until the official process comes down from the gov’t.
As is probably apparent from my approach to this story, I really enjoy reporting on the auto industry. Yes, it might be a pain in the rear to deal with the BS at dealerships, but I’m a car geek. I enjoy going into the showrooms and checking out the cars, and comparing/contrasting them.
As I blogged a few days ago, I’m done with B3 reporting shifts. It’s very relieving to not have to constantly be on the lookout for news stories. However, I began working on my HFR yesterday, and it was a mixed experience. The “Cash for Clunkers” program seems to have both strong proponents and opponents in Mid-Missouri. I stopped at 8 dealerships yesterday to try and talk to them about the program. The program has been delayed a few weeks until the official rulemaking process can be completed by the federal government – to me, that is the story because, as I understand it, people seem willing to trade in their inefficient cars for cars getting better gas mileage, especially with a $4,500 credit essentially subsidizing the use of gas-sipping cars. So my mission was to find out what dealers thought of the delay, and whether customers have been coming in hoping to take advantage of the program.
My first stop was Albert Honda. I’ve met Eric Cronacher, the sales manager, before for a B2 story. The receptionist told me he’d be the man to talk to, and that Wednesday was his off day. Not a problem for me – I’ve dealt with him before and I know he’s pretty accessible. When I called back today, he was “out to lunch” and the receptionist said she’d have him call me back. I’ll keep trying – can’t hurt to have multiple sources because it adds variety and depth to this story.
I went down Providence Rd. to Perry Nissan. The salesman I met in the showroom said the sales manager is the guy to talk to, as is usually the case in most car dealerships. He gave me his card and I called today, he seemed helpful and willing to go on-camera when I get back to Columbia on July 17.
I headed over to the Saturn dealership, where the sales manager told me she didn’t want to go on-camera about it. Meanwhile she had no idea whether Mid-Mo has had any advertising about it. Next door, Dodge City/Hyundai told me a similar thing. They said their president is the only person who can talk on-camera, so I left.
I cruised over to Bob McCosh (formerly known as Perry) Chevrolet, where upon approaching the doorway, Brian Bailey, Angie’s husband, opened the door. I did not know who he was, but upon explaining why I was there, he said, “Oh, Angie Bailey, she’s my wife. I’m Brian Bailey.” So he told me to leave my business card at the receptionist’s desk and he “would take care of me”. Not sure what that means, but I asked Angie about it later at the station and she said she’d “remind” him to get back in touch with me.
Here I took a little detour and stopped at a little shop on the Business Loop that piqued my attention. I can’t remember the name of it, but this little machine shop that looks like it’s 50 years old was open for business. I stopped inside and told the lady inside what I was doing, and asked how business was going. She said the shop is run by her husband and that they’ve been incredibly busy – she said she had not seen any slowdown in business at all. I met the man, Elson, and he said he’d be up for a story on their little shop. As I suspected, the shop has been there for nearly 40 years and apparently “everybody knows Elson”. I’d love to do a story on their shop and how it’s staying strong even in a recession, and as Elson gets older and he admits he doesn’t work as many hours as he used to.
A thought also hit me while driving down the Business Loop to stop into another machine shop to try and find a junkyard in Mid-Missouri, since, according to the plans so far, when “clunkers” are traded in, they essentially have to be destroyed/scrapped by a junkyard. A welding material shop told me of 2 junkyards in Mid-Mo, which is definitely enough to work with. Later, I Googled a few more and got some numbers to call. I really like this element of the story because it goes a little further beyond the car dealership hype/spin. I’d like to possibly do this in 2 or 3 parts – with the “we’ve been waiting for these regulations, and they’re hurting us” schpiel before the rules come down on July 23, the junkyard bit as the 2nd piece, and the 3rd when the actual rules are implemented.
I continued west on the Business Loop and stopped at University Chrysler/Subaru. I received perhaps the rudest reception I’ve ever gotten as a reporter with KOMU upon going into their showroom. I go in, and introduce myself to the geezers behind the counter and explain what I’m doing there. I was interrupted by the head honcho in a very harsh/rude tone,“I’m not gonna comment on that, we don’t know anything more than what you do, and when you hear something you let me know” but I continued, explaining how I thought the story was just that – dealerships are left with little information on something that could be helpful to customers. So, this gentleman, whose name I did not get, proceeds to say, “Hold on a sec son, let me find you something here.” He typed in a few words on his keyboard, clicked a few buttons, and I heard their printer hum and spit out a piece of paper. He picked it up, and as he did, I noticed the other men in the room began to smirk menacingly as if they appreciated his style of embarrassing me. He handed me a sheet of paper with a “Thank you for your comment” form letter from the White House. He said something to the effect of, “I don’t mean to be facetious, but you’re better off asking this guy than me.” For some reason, I found this very irritating and somewhat offensive, as his salesmen began to chuckle behind him, but I tried to remain professional – something evidently this man could not do (In BM’s personal opinion, one of the reasons why Chrysler/Dodge is in dire straits – bad dealerships, like this one, and numerous my family has dealt with in New Jersey). I asked him if he would be willing to mention his comment/advice letter to the White House on-camera, and he declined, giving a mini-rant on “the media”, and instead referring me to the Missouri Auto Dealers Association. So I left, annoyed, with nothing from there.
My next stop was Machens Toyota. Thankfully, the sales manager there, Dan Kellar, was willing to talk on-camera about the process so far, and he gave me some really interesting bites. In stark contrast to the gentlemen at University Chrysler/Subaru, he was very professional and approachable, and actually seemed to understand that THE MEDIA IS YOUR FRIEND WHEN YOU ARE ACCOMMODATING AND HONEST! I shot some video around the dealership of fuel-sipping cars, and headed down the street to Machens Ford/Lincoln/Mercury.
While not as approachable as Dan Kellar, (and asking “Have you ever seen the movie ‘Stalin’?”) the man in charge at Machens F/L/M offered to give me several internal documents and emails showing the process and approach Ford Motor Company and Toyota have been taking with regard to the Cash for Clunkers. I felt this was an outstanding find that, at the very least, would give me a good Web Extra for this story. The president of Machens, Gary Drewing, (apparently the only guy who can go on-camera there) told me to call him in the morning. While I didn’t call him this morning, I left a message with him this afternoon. Hopefully he gets back to me. If not, I know I have time to try and arrange an interview.
After these stops, I headed over to Creasy Springs Rd., where apparently there is a junkyard, according to one of the guys in the welding shop. I drove about 3-4 miles on it and didn’t find it, so I turned around and headed back to KOMU. I’m pretty happy with what I have so far, and if I can get a few more interviews at some dealerships and visit a junkyard, I’ll be good to go. I think the only thing missing is finding someone who wants to buy a car now and is left waiting until the official process comes down from the gov’t.
As is probably apparent from my approach to this story, I really enjoy reporting on the auto industry. Yes, it might be a pain in the rear to deal with the BS at dealerships, but I’m a car geek. I enjoy going into the showrooms and checking out the cars, and comparing/contrasting them.
Well, B3 is technically over, but not literally. I still have to do my HFR and the last “interview” paper. I’m at a bit of a loss over my HFR – no one has called me back or returned my emails, and I’m getting annoyed because time is ticking by. I want to get most of it done by the time I leave for NJ on Thursday afternoon. I left a message with a man who owns a truck running on biodiesel, and emailed Mike Kehoe, who mentioned the “Cash for Clunkers” program when I interviewed him a few weeks ago. I think tomorrow (Wednesday) I’m going to start calling other people about it since clearly these sources are not really cooperating. As for the paper, I’ve emailed 5 reporters in other markets about interviewing them, and no one has emailed me back yet. Granted, I sent 2 tonight and 3 about a week ago, but I’m out on a limb here waiting for people to get back to me. So it goes in Journalism. I’m also out on a limb financially waiting for KOMU to pay me back for all that gas money I’ve put into the Scions!!!
