The Pac-12's nice new logo

Of all the the new-look leagues entering the 2011 season, I’m most intrigued by the Pac-12. While Utah and Colorado might not do much in terms of added competition for this season, I think the league’s addition of a championship game and divisional play will keep people interested in the league throughout the year, instead of having to follow the round-robin style the Pac-10 used in the past. I think it became tough for fans in central and eastern time zones to follow the teams on the west coast when it didn’t seem like the Pac-12′s regular season was very interesting. The addition of a championship game, even though it’s the “best team’s” campus, should help bring additional exposure and interest for the league.

North Division:

1) Stanford 10-2 (8-1) – I have Stanford dropping their road game at Oregon State and home against Notre Dame. QB Andrew Luck will easily be a beast this year but with a new head coach and changed coordinator roles I’m uncertain about how likely they are to repeat last season’s success. I think they’re the best shot to win the Pac-12, especially since they face division “rival” Oregon in Stanford, but the aforementioned losses will keep them out of the BCS title chase.I would imagine the Cardinal will head to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl to play Wisconsin.

2) Oregon State 9-3 (7-2) – I really like this Oregon State team. I got to see them play last year against TCU and was really impressed with how well they fought against one of the nation’s best teams in the season opener. The Beavers have eight returning starters on offense but need to find a way to replace DT Stephen Paea’s terrifying presence on the defensive line. Regardless, I think OSU should impress this year and overachieve, with conference losses to Arizona State, UCLA, and Stanford. They head to Madison, Wisconsin to play the Badgers in week two, which by all accounts should be a loss. Either way, very nice season, which could end with either the Pac-12′s second bowl slot to the Alamo Bowl or third slot to the Holiday Bowl, both against Big 12 teams.

3) Washington 8-4 (6-3) – The Huskies return 15 combined starters from last year’s Holiday Bowl champion team, and even with the loss of Jake Locker at QB, I think their offense should find a way to be explosive. I loved what  RB Chris Polk and WR Jermaine Kearse did last season – combining for 21 touchdowns and more than 1400 yards, so slotting in a new QB should be easy for coach Steve Sarkisian. Washington should win every home game at Husky Stadium but will run into trouble on the road – @ Nebraska, @ Stanford, @ USC, and @ Oregon State will be losses for UW. Regardless, another very solid season for the Huskies. I think they’ll go to El Paso for the Sun Bowl and face an ACC team.

4) Oregon 8-4 (6-3) – Shocking, having the defending Pac-10 champions in fourth place of their division? Sorry, but I have a feeling there will be some major off-field issues headed for Oregon in the coming months. I really don’t care that they’ve got oodles of award winners on the field, the Willie Lyles situation is going to harm Oregon now or in November, hence why I see them finishing 8-4. The Ducks will be 7-1 by week nine, but face a mini-murderers row in November – @ Washington, @ Stanford (ok, not the toughest place to play, but still…), then home vs USC and Oregon State. UO should finish 8-4 and be bowl eligible, but I don’t know if there’ll be postseason sanctions or not depending on how heavy the NCAA comes down on them. If Oregon stays postseason eligible, I see them headed to the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl to face a Mountain West team.

5) California 6-6 (4-5) – This seems like a very boring team capable of making the postseason. Jeff Tedford has been around forever and seems to always bring in good talent but underachieve in the regular season. They draw a pretty brutal schedule – five conference road games, plus a “non-conference/conference” game at Colorado in week two…and of those five true conference road games, I’d imagine four of them would be against ranked opponents. Either way, they’ll sneak their way to a bowl game.I see the Bears headed to the New Mexico bowl with the Pac-12′s last bowl slot, and play a WAC team.

6) Washington State 3-9 (1-8) – The Cougs actually could be decent this year in comparison to the past three seasons under Paul Wulff with 15 returning starters. Wazzu has three seniors on the offensive line and solid experience at QB with Jeff Tuel, so they should manage to score a bit, but their defense was atrocious last season – giving up 35 points in eight games. Another tough year for Wazzu in 2011.

South Division:

1) Arizona State 9-3 (8-1) – This ASU team could be extremely good in 2011. Their entire offensive line is back, along with almost all their big skill players. QB Brock Osweiler played late in 2010 after Steven Threet was injured, and seemed to impress. I recall during their last game of 2010 against Arizona he looked shaky early on, but quickly got into the zone. He finished the year with almost 800 yards passing and 5 TDs/no interceptions. ASU plays a pretty tough non-conference schedule with bouts at Illinois and home vs Missouri – both of which I think the Sun Devils will lose. If the semi-gangster Dennis Erickson can get a win in one or both of those games, they could be looking at an outside shot at a BCS bowl come the end of the season – and easily win the Pac-12 south title. Their toughest conference game is Oct. 15 at Oregon, but the rest of the way they draw all the tough teams in Tempe.I have them slated for the Alamo Bowl based on selection spot, but if the Alamo Bowl selects Missouri as their Big 12 team before ASU, they may end up in San Diego at the Holiday Bowl instead and see Oregon State go to San Antonio since bowl organizers “don’t like to see teams face each other again”.

2) UCLA 8-4 (6-3) – This will be a strange season for the Bruins – they face Houston and Texas in non-conference bouts, then travel north in consecutive weeks to Oregon State and Stanford. I think UCLA won’t be able to keep up with Houston’s offensive attack, so I have them losing that one, but they should be able to beat Texas with the same formula they used last year – run the ball! I love UCLA’s running tandem of Jonathan Franklin and Derrick Coleman, while QB Kevin Prince is entering his third season. With eight returning starters on defense, the Bruins should manage to finish above .500 in the Pac 12. I see the Bruins heading to the “Fight Hunger” bowl in San Francisco.

3) USC 5-7 (3-6) – I don’t see why people have the Trojans up so high this year. There’s literally nothing for them to play for this year but NFL draft prospects since they can’t go to a bowl game and can’t play for the Pac-12 championship. Hence, I see them going 5-7 in conference with a few decent wins but a few shocking losses – especially to Colorado after a let-down loss at Stanford on Oct. 29.

4) Arizona 5-7 (3-6) – I hate to do this to Mike Stoops because he seems like a good guy, but it looks like with five new offensive linemen their offense will struggle despite Nick Foles entering his third year at Arizona. Defensively, they’ve got too many question marks having to replace 17.5 sacks from 2010. If something can go right and Arizona catches a break, they’ll easily make a bowl game, but I don’t see it happening.

5) Colorado 4-8 (2-6) – I think a lot of people were bummed to see Colorado leave the Big 12 – including some boosters and alumni I spoke with in Kansas City at the Big 12 Basketball Championship this year – but ultimately it really is a nice fit for CU to have access to their recruiting/alumni base in California and other western vestiges. CU looked a lot better last year, dropping three Big 12 games by a combined margin of just 16 points. QB Tyler Hansen and RB Rodney Stewart made a very effective tandem last year, while almost all the other key players from 2010 are back too, minus 1st-round offensive line draft pick Nate Solder. Their defense was atrocious last year and I don’t see it being much better this year. CU will have a few nice wins, in particular, USC in Boulder, but that’ll be it.

6) Utah 2-10 (1-8) – The Utes lose their top two rushers from 2010 along with most of their skill position players, so I’m not convinced their offense, which struggled at times last year, can compete in the Pac 12. Utah has a pretty brutal schedule with games at BYU, USC, and Pittsburgh, and I just don’t see them being overly competitive this year. They’ll need a season to adjust to the Pac 12, but given Kyle Wittingham’s success in the past, they should be really good in 2012.

Here’s the spreadsheet standings:

West Virginia and South Florida appear to be the favorites heading into the season. I prefer South Florida in that battle because I still think WVA will need more than Dana Holgerson’s offensive genius to win the conference. USF seems way more balanced and Skip Holtz is more of an all-around, CEO coach compared to Holgerson’s offense-only focus. He’s essentially a mini Mike Leach whose offensive prowess masks inexperience running a defense or special teams as head coach. There’s nothing preventing them from success – the Big East is such a winnable conference, a high-powered offense may be the only thing they need. I still prefer USF.

1) South Florida 11-1 (7-0) – I see this as the year USF breaks through to a BCS bowl and a Big East Championship. They’ll drop their first game of the year at Notre Dame, but win out. Conference challenges include a trip to New Brunswick and Pitt, which I have them winning…but if USF’s past road luck is any indication, they could be in for a fright in those games. QB BJ Daniels put up pretty crappy numbers last year (11 td, 13 int, 1685 yds) but his supporting cast should be really good. Interesting sidenote – former Colorado Buffalo Darrell Scott is “projected” (Phil Steele, at least) to be the starting running back after sitting out the 2010 season. On defense, I love their speed. Despite USF’s terrible “Bulls” logo,  (since when were there Bulls in South Florida?) I see them winning the conference this year and earning the school’s first BCS berth.

2) West Virginia 9-3 (6-1) – There’s no question in my mind Dana Holgersen is an offensive genius arguably in the same class as Mike Leach. But as a head coach? I have no idea – and I’m concerned about how crappy defensive recruiting under Bill Stewart will play out this year, even with veteran defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel at the helm. Offensively, Holgersen inherits a great offense led by QB Geno Smith, and despite former coach Bill Stewart’s shortcomings on the field, the guy could recruit offensive guys. WVU plays a very tough non-conference schedule with bouts against Maryland and LSU highlighting their slate. I don’t see WVU topping them because both teams are more balanced all-around. Overall, WVU will win all but one of their conference games, and finish with a 9-3 record, earning a bid to the Bowl Formerly Known as the Meineke Car Care Bowl, the Belk Bowl.

3) Pittsburgh  8-4 (5-2) – I don’t like to personally attack people, but Steve Pederson is a fool – firing one of your school’s most famous alumni, not doing due-dilligence on his replacement (Mike Haywood), then having to go to the bottom of the barrel for the third-string coach in Todd Graham? Anyway, Pitt brings back a ton of talent this year, especially with eight starters on defense returning, but I’m concerned about the Panthers losing defensive coordinator Phil Bennett to Baylor. The Panthers play a great non-conference schedule with battles against Iowa, Notre Dame, and Utah, but I think they’ll struggle in some games. I see them losing to Iowa, ND, USF, and WVU, but enjoying a pretty successful season overall. I have the Panthers headed to the Champ Sports Bowl.

4) Rutgers 9-3 (4-3) – The Scarlet Knights play a very managable non-conference schedule with games against Ohio, N.C. Central, North Carolina, Navy, and Army. I think RU can easily win all five of those games, then pick up four more wins in conference. I don’t think they have the firepower on offense or defense to beat USF, Pitt, or WVU, but they should be able to handle everyone else. Nine starters from last year’s offense return, along with utilityman Mohamed Sanu, so I like their chances to improve. Last year’s offensive line had two freshmen on it, and overall was horrific – allowing 61 sacks. They have five starters returning on defense, and just one in the defensive backfield, but I’m confident (sorry, Rutgers fan here) Greg Schiano can get improvement out of a unit that really struggled after Eric LeGrand’s injury last year. Regardless, I see the Scarlet Knights headed back to a bowl game – in particular, the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.

5) Cincinnati 7-5 (3-4) – The Bearcats play a great non-conference schedule with bouts against Tennessee, North Carolina State, and Miami OH, but I don’t see them being able to top the Vols at Neyland Stadium. I love Cincy’s QB, Zach Collaros, but his supporting cast isn’t overwhelmingly strong. UC DOES have 10 starters coming back on defense, so I think that’ll keep them in a lot of games. With the Big East’s sixth and final bowl slot, I see the Bearcats headed to the awesome Beef O’Brady’s Bowl despite finishing ahead of Louisville, since the Cardinals went there last year and generally travel very well compared to UC.

6) Louisville 7-5 (2-5) – I think the Cardinals will struggle in Big East play, but find a way to win games in the non-conference slate and ensure a trip to its second straight bowl game. UL coach Charlie Strong has a really good freshman class in place, and to me at least, he’s proven he’s a pretty darn good coach. I see UL earning a bid to the BBVA Compass Bowl despite a 2-5 conference record.

7) Connecticut 5-7 (1-6) – No way the Huskies can replace Jordan Todman and Zach Frazier’s production and moxie overnight. UConn misses a bowl game for the first time in four seasons.

Syracuse 2-10 (0-7) – For some reason, Phil Steele has the Orange last in the Big East. I’m fine with that, despite being impressed by QB Ryan Nassib in the Pinstripe Bowl last year. Steele also has four of the Orange’s five offensive linemen back, so with the numbers Nassib put up last year, it’s entirely possible SU pulls a few upsets and ends up with a record around .500. My friends will tell you it’s no secret I dislike Syracuse (as a university), but in all honesty, I loved their speed and tenacity last year in the one time I really got to watch them – the Pinstripe Bowl. But again, I’m fine with it if they finish last.

So that’s the Big East. No real national championship contender, but a pretty solid 1-3 battle for the regular season championship between WVU, Pitt, and South Florida.

It’ll be a case of the more recent usual suspects this year in the SEC – South Carolina will once again be tops in the East, while the Fightin’ LSU Tigers will win the West and the Conference championship game. With an undefeated record, I have LSU headed to the BCS National Championship game to take on Oklahoma.

Les Miles' LSU Tigers may be the BCS favorite in the SEC

1. LSU 12-0 (8-0) – I was blown away by how good LSU looked in the Cotton Bowl last year. Give Jordan Jefferson another year in that offense and it could be completely explosive. New offensive coordinator Steve Kragthorpe is hated by some Louisville fans I know, but he’ll have a lot to work with. I like their defense and I think Les Miles is due for another trip to the BCS National Championship Game.
2. Alabama 10-2 (7-1) – The Tide brings back almost their entire defense from last year, which will be terrifying for opposing offenses. However, Alabama’s offense won’t scare anyone because they have to break in a new QB – even with a ton of talent at RB, WR, and offensive line. I just don’t see the Tide winning at Penn State or at home against LSU. They’ll earn a bid to the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic and play Texas A&M (SEC #3) since they went to the Capital One Bowl (SEC #2) last year.
3. Arkansas 9-3 (6-2) – Love the Hogs’ Knile Davis, Ronnie Wingo, and Greg Childs on offense, but I’m concerned about having to break in three new offensive line starters as well as a new QB. The Hogs’ defense could be extremely good with seven returning starters, including leading tackler Jerry Franklin, but I don’t think Arkansas can win at LSU or Alabama. I have them finishing with three wins as I think they’re due to lose to Texas A&M in the “Southwest Classic” in October. A trip to the Chick Fil A Bowl appears to be the Hogs’ postseason destination.
4. Ole Miss 6-6 (3-5) – This is a very funny team. From my advanced research (…Phil Steele Magazine…) it appears their defense is made up of seniors, redshirt freshmen, and junior college transfers. Offensively, they have 9 returners, including leading rusher Brandon Bolden, and the entire offensive line. I think the Rebels will finagle their way to six wins and a bowl berth – road wins at Mississippi State and Auburn will highlight the year for Ole Miss. I see them headed to the BBVA Compass Bowl.
5. Mississippi State 7-5 (3-5) – The Bulldogs have nine returning starters on offense and seven on defense, so experience isn’t a problem with this team. I just think they’ll lack the edge they played with all of last season – close wins over Florida and Georgia and its only West Division win coming against Ole Miss just makes me think MSU will regress this year, but still pull off a bowl game. I see them headed to the Liberty Bowl.
6. Auburn – 3-9 (0-8) – A shocking lack of talent and experience will hamper this year’s Tiger team at almost every position after seeing everyone graduate or leave for the NFL after the BCS National Championship last year. I love RB Michael Dyer but his supporting cast will probably be very weak this year.  Defensively, AU returns just one of its top seven tacklers from last year. Rebuilding season for Auburn.

East

1. South Carolina 11-2 (7-1) – The Gamecocks have a buttload of pure talent and experience coming back, and with potentially Steve Spurrier’s most experienced team coming back in Columbia, they should have no problem winning the East. I see them dropping the SEC Championship game to LSU, but they’ll earn a trip to the Capital One Bowl and face a Big Ten team.
2. Georgia 10-2 (7-1) – I see them going 0-2 to open the year with losses to Boise State in Atlanta and at home against South Carolina, but winning out the rest of the season. I’m not sold on their defense, but I know there’s talent there on offense. BUT, win both, or one of those games, and their season is completely different. Also, if QB Aaron Murray is as good as he was his freshman year, they could easily top the Fightin’ Spurriers in week two. Assuming that plays out, I see them headed to the Outback Bowl.
3. Tennessee 6-6 (3-5) – I love Derek Dooley, and despite not having the sexiest team on paper, I think they’ll find their way to a bowl game again this year. A win against hated rival Florida may highlight the year for UT, as I see them headed to the Gator Bowl.
4. Florida 6-6 (3-5) – Will Muschamp is in for a big surprise as a head coach – it’s hard. The Gators have just one returning offensive lineman, and I just see them struggling to score once again this year – even with Charlie Weis as their offensive coordinator (match made in hell?).
   

   Big Weis will be calling the plays on offense in Gainesville

   UF will earn a bid to the Music City Bowl.

5. Kentucky 4-8 (1-7) – Rebuilding year, especially on offense. Their defense might be pretty good, but they’ll have no way of getting into the endzone.
6. Vanderbilt – 1-11 (0-8) – On your third head coach in as many seasons? Good luck getting more than one win, especially when your FBS non-conference slate is UConn, Wake Forest, and Army.

Florida State appears to be the runaway favorite in the ACC this year, but I like Virginia Tech too. Maryland returns a ton of talent and could be a dark horse candidate to knock off FSU in the Atlantic division.

Chief Osceola should be pleased by this season's result for Florida State

Atlantic Division:

1. Florida State 12-1 (8-0) – The Seminoles return almost all their big time playmakers from last year’s division and bowl champion team and add a few highly touted recruits. I have FSU dropping their showdown with Oklahoma in week two, but if they knock off the Sooners, Florida State becomes a real national championship contender. I have FSU winning the ACC Championship game and earning the conference’s automatic bid to the Orange Bowl.
2. Maryland 10-2 (7-1) – Don’t sleep on the Terps. I watched several of their games last year and was really impressed by their kill position guys. Sophomore QB Danny O’Brien earned ACC Rookie of the Year and should have a strong supporting cast around him. I have MD losing to Notre Dame at FedEx Field in November, and dropping an Oct. 22 showdown at FSU. Maryland’s first two games will be key – home versus both Miami FL and West Virginia. I see the Terps heading to the Chick Fil A Bowl in Atlanta against an SEC opponent.
3. Clemson 7-5 (4-4) – I’ve always felt Clemson gets overrated way too easily, and that may be the case this year. I do like their returning running backs and receivers and have some “highly touted” recruits across the board, but they’re unproven at QB. They have to replace three of their top four tacklers from last year along with the pass rush ofDa’Quan Bowers. Clemson has to show me they’re better than 7 wins and a .500 conference record, at this point, because they aren’t very impressive on paper. I have them headed to the Sun Bowl to play a Pac-12 opponent.
4. Wake Forest 7-5 (3-5) – The Deacons return 17 starters overall from a team that went 3-9 last year playing an extremely tough schedule (@ Stanford, @ FSU, @ VaTech). I like Wake to go 4-0 in their non-conference slate and eke out three conference wins against Duke, North Carolina, and NC State. Coach Jim Grobe has taken a school with a tiny enrollment and small fanbase to four bowls and I expect them to add a fifth this year with a trip to Shreveport for the Independence Bowl.
5. Boston College 4-8 (3-5) – The Eagles have a brutal schedule this year  with trips to Orlando, South Bend, Blacksburg, Miami, and Clemson, but could easily make a bowl if they knock off Northwestern in week one and avoid a letdown the following week at Central Florida. They have two excellent position sets – linebacker and running back – and if BC gets more production out of other units or knock off Florida State on Nov. 12, they could reach the six win plateau.
6. North Carolina State 5-7 (2-6) – NCSU has an bizarre non-conference schedule with two FCS teams on its schedule – South Alabama and Liberty – then a trip to Cincinnati on a Thursday night, and a home game with Central Michigan. Last year, QB Russell Wilson comprised most of the Wolfpack’s offense, and I’m not blown away by anyone remaining on their roster.

Coastal Division

1. Virginia Tech 11-2 (7-1) – VaTech has a really easy schedule this year with their toughest trip on November 10 vs Georgia Tech. I call for them to drop a tough Thursday night showdown to the Yellow Jackets, but win the rest of their games and win the Coastal division. The Hokies always find a way to break in various QBs and that’ll be the case this year with the loss of QB TyRod Taylor to graduation. VaTech should earn a bid to the Champ Sports Bowl to face a Big East team after a loss in the ACC Championship game to Florida State. While the Chick Fil A Bowl is the ACC #2, Virginia Tech has played in that stadium three times in the last five seasons, so I’d imagine bowl organizers would potentially take Maryland over VaTech.
2. Miami FL 8-4 (5-3) – The Hurricanes open with a tough road test at Maryland, then get Ohio State, Kansas State, and Bethune-Cookman at home. If the good Jacory Harris comes to play this year, the ‘Canes will have no problem finishing second in the division with an easy home slate. The road tests are tough – the aforementioned opener at Maryland and trips to Virginia Tech, Florida State, and South Florida, but this should be a successful season in new coach Al Golden’s first year in Coral Gables.
3. Georgia Tech 7-5 (4-4) – No more Joshua Nesbitt at QB, but I doubt it’ll be too hard to replace him as most of 2010′s Paul Johnson triple-option offense is back for 2011. A big upset over Virginia Tech on November 10th will be the highlight of the season as GT will need to go 4-0 in its non-conference slate to get to a bowl. I have the Yellow Jackets headed to the Music City Bowl to face an SEC team.
4. North Carolina 4-8 (3-5) – The Tar Heels have a tough non-conference slate with matchups against East Carolina, Rutgers, and Louisville. I expect UNC to return to its days of bad football. No bowl.
5. Duke 4-8 (2-6) – The Blue Devils could be a solid team this year but tough non-conference games against Stanford and FIU will keep them out of a bowl game. Coach David Cutcliffe has always been a pretty decent coach and it’s year four of his term at Duke, so it’s entirely possible the Blue Devils pull off a few upsets.
6. Virginia 4-8 (1-7) – The Cavs return 18 starters this year from a team that went 4-8 last year, but it looks like depth beyond their starters will be an issue. Like Duke, this team could finish with a much better record if they pull off a few upsets – and could play spoiler or BCS Buster in the final two weeks as they face Florida State and Virginia Tech to close out the regular season.

The 2011 edition of the Big Ten strikes me as a league with a lot of surprises and parity. Outside of Indiana and Minnesota, everyone should have a shot of making a bowl game. Ohio State’s fall from grace will continue, while their hated rivals Michigan will have a surprisingly excellent season. My champions of each “B1G” division: Leaders – Wisconsin, Legends – Michigan.

Leaders Division:

1. Wisconsin 12-1 (7-1) – The Badgers’ won’t win their division because of Russell Wilson – instead, its their excellent defense and running game that will put a chokehold on opposing teams. Their one loss will come at a raucous Spartan Stadium in week 7. I have the Badgers headed to the Rose Bowl as Big Ten Champions if their BCS rating isn’t high enough to put them in the BCS National Championship game. And of course, now the Big Ten gets to enjoy having a conference championship game, and in its inaugural edition, I have Wiscy beating Michigan.
2. Penn State 11-1 (7-1) – No one is talking about the Nittany Lions’ defense, but I think it’ll be fantastic. Last year’s 17 sacks were the fewest by a Penn State team since 2004 when the Lions went 4-7. The next year…Penn State went 11-1 and played in and won the Orange Bowl. Their D will propel them to wins over Alabama and Nebraska at home, but not enough to knock off Wisconsin in Madison – the final game of their Big Ten season. PSU will head to the Capital One Bowl unless a BCS bowl decides to take them as an at-large, which could be very possible if PSU’s one loss comes to Wisconsin in the final week and the Lions don’t end up playing in the Big Ten Championship game a la Kansas 2007.
3. Purdue 7-5 (4-4) – The Boilermakers’ tough road schedule – @ Ohio State, @ Penn State, @ Wisconsin – prevents them from getting more wins, but in Danny Hope’s third year in West Lafayette, I see the Boilers headed back to a bowl game. PU had so many injuries last year, their depth should be much improved for 2011 and with a healthy Ralph Bolden, Purdue should be solid this year and earn a bid to the Insight Bowl to face Kansas State in a rematch of the Boilermakers’ enormous upset in the 1998 Alamo Bowl.
   

   Ron Zook will once again waterski through a season with the Illini

4. Illinois 7-5 (3-5) – The Fighting Ron Zooks will once again rely on a dynamic running game and with QB Nathan Scheelhaase in his second year, I like their chances to go back to a second-straight bowl game. Illinois’ schedule is WAY easier this year too – their first six games are either in Champaign or within a few hours’ drive to Indiana, and with no silly late-season non-conference road games, the Illini’s path to the six win plateau should be reasonable. They’ll hit a mid-season swoon with consecutive losses to OSU, Purdue, Penn State, Michigan, and Wisconsin, but should finish with a win at Minnesota. I have Illinois headed to Dallas for the TicketCity Bowl with the Big Ten’s seventh slot – they would go higher but bowls don’t like to pick teams in back to back years unless their fans travel well, so a game in the historic Cotton Bowl Stadium looks to be their fate.
5. Ohio State 6-6 (3-5) – I project the Buckeyes will actually finish third in the Leaders Division thanks to wins over Illinois, Purdue, and Indiana, but I have a feeling August’s sure-to-come NCAA sanctions will have them banned from postseason eligibility for a year or two, so for purposes of this post I’m putting them 5th and below Illinois and Purdue, both bowl eligible teams. I think the departures of Jim Tressel, Terrelle Pryor, and co. along with the negativity surrounding the program right now made this team an absolute mess. I feel bad for the guys (and gal on the SID staff, namely Shelly Poe) who played by the rules at OSU and will now suffer because of Tressel’s indiscretions. The guys on the team now will play hard and with more dedication/class than Mr. Pryor’s crew, but their depth has clearly taken a hit, hence I have the Buckeyes at 6-6.
6. Indiana 2-10 (0-8) – Sadly, new head coach Kevin Wilson inherits little talent or depth in Bloomington and this will be a very tough year for the Hoosiers. But give him time, and he’ll begin to pull recruits from areas he used to cover at Oklahoma.

Legends Division:

1. Michigan  11-2 (8-0) – Call me crazy, but I have a feeling Michigan will be insanely good this year. Everyone saw how good QB Denard Robinson was last year. With one more year of experience under his and the rest of the team’s belts and new coach Brady Hoke in Ann Arbor, I like the Wolverines to win the Legends division. Hoke did a pretty amazing job at San Diego State and, to me at least, has proven he can win. The knock on Rich Rod seemed to be that he had a ton of talent, but couldn’t do anything with it. Well, Hoke did a lot with not-so-good talent in San Diego, and I expect an immediate improvement, as wild as that may sound. I have UM losing to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game, but earning a BCS berth assuming the Wolverines don’t get “2007 Missouri Syndrome” where they are highly ranked, lose the conference championship game, and miss out on a BCS Bowl.
2. Michigan State 10-2 (6-2) – The Spartans return a ton of talent and Mark Dantonio is a helluva coach. They’ll win some big games – Wisconsin at home, Notre Dame at home – but drop a few they could win, namely to Nebraska and intrastate rival Michigan. Because of the Spartans’ recent bowl trips to Orlando and the Capital One Bowl, I have MSU dropping to the Gator Bowl, the Big Ten’s fourth bowl slot.
3. Nebraska 8-4 (5-3) – There’s no doubt to me the transition to the Big Ten for NU will result in some good wins, but also some losses Husker fans do not expect. Clearly Nebraska’s defense will be productive – Lavonte David earned Big 12 Defensive Newcomer of the Year honors last year, while Jared Crick was a devastating force on the defensive line. I just feel the Huskers’ offense will sputter at crucial times like it did last year. Sure, Taylor Martinez is a great talent at QB, but showed last year he can get rattled and lose all ability to throw the ball. I’m also concerned about the Huskers breaking in three new offensive linemen. Nebraska will lose a shocker at Wyoming (Dave Christensen, former Missouri offensive coordinator, has the Huskers’ number), while traveling to Wisconsin, Penn State, and Michigan will result in Ls as well. I do think NU will knock off Ohio State in its Big Ten home opener in Lincoln. I have Nebraska headed to the Outback Bowl with the Big Ten’s third slot selection, ahead of Michigan State. The draw of an SEC opponent against Nebraska and its rabid, always road-tripping fanbase prompts the leap above MSU.
4. Iowa 6-6 (3-5) – Seems like every year people think Iowa will go through a rebuilding season, but to me, that WILL be the case this year. Iowa has to break in several new offensive and defensive starters at key positions, but I fully expect them to wrangle their way to six wins and a bowl berth. A shocking loss to Iowa State in week two will set the tone for the season, as Iowa will win just one game on the road, at Minnesota on Oct. 29. Iowa will head to the Bowl Formerly Known as the GalleryFurniture.com Bowl, now the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, and face Oklahoma State.
5. Northwestern 6-6 (2-6) – A very winnable non-conference schedule for the Wildcats should mean the school’s eighth bowl game in the last nine years provided they knock off their easiest Big Ten opponents, Minnesota and Indiana. But, if QB Dan Persa rebounds from an achillies rupture better than he played last year, he’ll put Northwestern in a position to reach eight or nine wins. Clearly Pat Fitzgerald knows what he’s doing in Evanston, but their defense must improve from last year if they want to win more than six games. I have Northwestern headed to the Little Caesers Bowl in Detroit to face a MAC opponent.
6. Minnesota 3-9 (0-8) – New coach Jerry Kill was a great hire for the Gophers but he needs a season or two to rebuild. An easy non-conference slate should see them earn wins against Miami OH, New Mexico State, and North Dakota State, but drop all their Big Ten games. If the Gophers pull off a surprising win at Southern Cal in week one, Minnesota could have a better season.

So there you have it. A shocking pick of Michigan to play in the first Big Ten Championship game, and the Badgers to head to Pasadena.

As you will see in the attached image,  I have Oklahoma winning the Big 12 and securing an undefeated season. I’m completely sold on this team having seen them play numerous times last year. Most of the Sooners’ offense is back for 2011, and a very stout defense will often dominate. OU’s home schedule is very favorable this year as they draw Missouri and Texas A&M in Norman and assuming the Sooners knock off Florida State in week 2 in Tallahassee, they should be in a good position to play in the BCS National Championship game.

Texas A&M is my #2 team in the Big 12 with a 10-2 (7-2) record.. The Aggies have a ton of ability on both sides of the ball and have proven they can win big games. I think they’ll be ranked in the top 15 for most of the season as well, but having to go on the road to Norman and Manhattan in back to back weeks will be an extremely tough test. I think they’ll have a close, emotional loss to OU, then drop a game to sneaky Kansas State. Overall, A&M should finish 7-2 in the Big 12 and enjoy a second-straight bid to the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic. Yes, bowls don’t always pick teams in back-to-back years, but the Cotton Bowl is almost unanimously known as one of, if not the best non-BCS bowl to go to in terms of hospitality, exposure, and overall experience. And yes, the Aggies will have played at “Cowboys Stagjum” twice in the past two seasons, but that doesn’t stop legions of their fans gobbling up tickets. And as you’ll see in a later post, they’ll love a chance to play the SEC opponent in that game.

Missouri is my #3 team for 2011, going 10-2 (7-2). Despite losing Blaine Gabbert and Aldon Smith, the Tigers return 15 starters, most of whom were big contributors. If highly-touted  junior college transfer Sheldon Richardson makes an immediate impact on the defensive line, MU will be fearsome on D once again. I was impressed by James Franklin last year in his limited duties spelling out Gabbert at QB, so I’m confident he can come in and start without a problem.  I have the Tigers knocking off Arizona State in Tempe and Texas at home as the squad’s marquee wins, while losses to Texas A&M and Oklahoma on the road secure the #3 spot in the Big 12, a berth to the Valero Alamo Bowl, and another season ranked in the top-25.

I have Kansas State as my #4 team at 8-4 (6-3) in the Big 12. I know this might come as a surprise to put them ahead of Oklahoma State and Texas, but I’m not sold on either of those two. I’ll take a Bill Snyder-led team in its third year under his leadership to impress all-around. No one really knows what to expect at QB, but all indications point to the more mobile Collin Klein to start. But, Snyder may also pick junior college transfer Justin Tuggle (seemingly similar to Michael Bishop and Ell Roberson) to start as well if he impresses during the summer. Running back Bryce Brown, a transfer from Tennessee, looked good in K-State’s spring game and he should be KSU’s big horse to run the ball with. After 2010′s terrible defensive performances, I think the Wildcats added depth and a big-time playmaker at linebacker with Miami (FL) transfer Arthur Brown, Bryce’s brother. I expect KSU to lose its bouts at Miami (FL), home versus Missouri and Oklahoma, and at Oklahoma State, but easily earn another bowl bid, especially with upsets of Texas and Texas A&M. I have KSU slotted to the Insight Bowl.

Texas Tech is my #5 team at 8-4 (5-4) in the Big 12. I like what Tommy Tuberville is doing in Lubbock but I think he needs one more season of big recruiting classes to make an impact and have a shot at contending for the Big 12 title. The Red Raiders have to break in a new QB, junior Seth Doege, after Taylor Potts and Steven Sheffield graduated last year, but shouldn’t have trouble putting up points with a typically-strong skill position lineup. Tech has an excellent defensive backfield returning in Tre’ Porter and Cody Davis, but they need last year’s JuCo transfer Scott Smith to step up and replace All-Big 12 lineman Colby Whitlock on the D-line if Tech wants to improve on 8 wins. I have the Red Raiders headed to San Diego to play in the Holiday Bowl.

Oklahoma State is my #6 team at a disappointing 6-6 (3-6) in 2011. Something does not seem right to me about the Cowboys this year, and I think the departure of offensive coordinator Dana Holgerson to West Virginia will be a bigger loss than people realized. Yes, the Cowboys should put up plenty of points this year with Brandon Weeden, Justin Blackmon, and Joe Randle back (along with their entire offensive line), but I’m concerned about the losses of Orie Lemon and Ugo Chinasa on defense. By that same token, many people picked the Cowboys to finish last in the Big 12 South division in 2010 and were proven wrong, so we could be in for a fun season again – especially if the Pokes’ cornerbacks are as strong as they were last year. Shaun Lewis, Brodrick Brown, Justin Gilbert, and Markelle Martin all had huge moments and they’ll be relied on again this year to anchor the defense. I have the Cowboys dropping a Friday night game to Iowa State in Ames and a tough contest with Texas in Austin, but should OSU win those games, they’ll be in for a much better season. I have the Cowboys slated into the Bowl Formerly Known as the Texas Bowl – the Mieneke Car Care Bowl of Texas.

Finishing a surprising 7th in my predictions is Iowa State at 6-6 (3-6). I think the Cyclones’ defense will be extremely good this year and really clamp down well on certain teams, but they’ll struggle to find a way to score on offense since they must replace RB Alexander Robinson and QB Austen Arnaud. ISU will beat Iowa at Jack Trice Stadium this year (mark it down) and also knock off UConn in Hartford, giving the Cyclones a boost heading into conference season. Home wins against Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma State will clinch ISU’s second bowl bid in three years. I have the Cyclones headed to the Bronx to play in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Baylor is my #8 team in the Big 12, finishing 5-7 (3-6). The Bears’ buzzsaw opener against TCU is the only thing preventing them from heading to a bowl game – should BU top the Frogs, they should manage to seal a few wins in conference and the rest of their non-conference slate and get to the 6-win plateau. I love Robert Griffin III and the rest of BU’s offense – so much speed and ability, while on defense they bring much of the same despite losing 1st-round NFL pick Phil Taylor. New defensive coordinator Phil Bennett comes to Waco from Pittsburgh, where he led the Panthers to several excellent defensive seasons, so if the Bears can get back to a bowl, it’ll come from their improvement on defense. Winnable games that I have penciled as losses include @ KSU and a trip to Arlington to play Texas Tech at Cowboys Stadium.

Texas may see another difficult year in 2011 if my prediction of a 5-7 (3-6) and #9 overall finish comes true. It seems like every year the Longhorns have top-5 recruiting classes filled with studs at every position, but it doesn’t mean that translates to winning games. I think with an almost-entirely new coaching staff, UT will improve as the season goes on but struggle initially. I’m not sold on Garrett Gilbert or Case McCoy at QB and they’ll be playing behind an offensive line with three new starters  while the two that return anchored one of the worst offensive lines in Texas history, so it may be a bloodbath at first as the ‘Horns break in their new offense. If freshman running back Malcom Brown is what he’s made out to be, he could be a complete beast. UT has some nice players on defense – Emmanuel Acho, Jackson Jeffcoat, Kheeston Randall (to name a few) and they’ll need them to play to their potential this season if the Longhorns want to get back to a bowl.

Kansas is my #10 team in the Big 12 as I expect the Jayhawks to finish 2-10 (0-9). This will be a particulary difficult year for KU, but their defense could impress. I like Toben Opurum at defensive end and Huldon Tharp at linebacker. Tharp, who earned Freshman All-America honors in 2009, missed all of last season with an injury, so if he comes back at full strength this year, he could put together a really nice season.

• The weather. Yes, the temperature is usually higher than 90 degrees every day from May to October, but it’s predictable. You get into a rhythm – you just know every day it’s going to be hot and humid, and you try to minimize exposure to the heat by rushing from your air-conditioned apartment to your air-conditioned car to your air-conditioned office and back again in the afternoon. If you’re daring enough to spend time outside, or (gasp) exercise outside, you drink a ton of water and deal with it. It’s usually more refreshing to then come back into your air-conditioned box. The winter had a few chilly days, but overall wasn’t too bad. I enjoyed DFW’s reaction (or lack thereof) to several inches of snow and ice the week of the Super Bowl in February. By all accounts, it was a complete disaster. Roads weren’t plowed or salted, sidewalks had inches of ice on them, and Cowboys “Stagium” had ice fall off the roof and injure workers. But, hey, we had a few days off from work, so it was all good!
• Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket: I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this before living in DFW. This station is gold. The morning and afternoon drive time shows are fantastic. Between Gordon Keith’s famous impersonations, which range from Jerry Jones to Nolan Ryan and Billy Tubbs, to Mike Rhyner’s thick Texas drawl discussing the Texas Rangers or Dallas Mavericks, it’s incredibly entertaining and worthwhile sports radio. Beats the heck out of WFAN or any other ESPN radio affiliate I’ve ever listened to. If I don’t stay in DFW, I’ll make every effort to listen online or to podcasts because the stuff they talk about is awesome.
• Shiner Beer and Blue Bell Ice Cream:  Terrific Texas-native products. Tasty beer, tasty ice cream.
• Central Market: Wholefoods on steroids. From the free samples to world-class selection, this place rocks. Plus, the little restaurant areas inside each store sell some really unique and delicious meals.
• Learning about the Texas-based Big 12 schools. Definitely picked up an appreciation for all of them.
• Jim Knox: His antics during Rangers games and Big 12 football games are ridiculous, but hilarious. Seeing it on a fairly-regular basis is great.
• DFW Jets Fans – highly amusing group of people, ton of fun to watch the Jets games with this past year.
• Living within 15 minutes of two major airports – I’m almost equidistant to DFW and Dallas-Love Field. Both have their advantages and drawbacks, but regardless, if you need to leave DFW, it is easy. So nice to have that convenience after having to spend the last 4 years driving 2+ hours to get to a major airport.

I’m sure I’ll think of some more as I go to sleep tonight, but regardless, these are the first things that come to mind.

So upon hearing of the tornado(s) that hit Joplin last week, my first thought of was Brandon and whether he was OK, but I knew since he worked in Pittsburg KS, he may not have been home at the time. I had been following the Weather Channel all day because of thunderstorms in DFW, so I witnessed TWC’s reporter lose his composure during a live shot because of how bad the damage was, and subsequent live hits showing the devastation. I saw several friends on social media sites post messages to Brandon hoping he was OK. On Monday, he posted something to the effect of “I’m fine, apartment is gone”, and later in the week posted pictures of the rubble where his apartment was. He eventually posted this picture of an old #21 Mizzou baseball jersey he owned and recovered in rubble about 100 yards from where his apartment had been.

As Mizzou Athletics’ “One Mizzou” campaign began to help the Joplin area recover, the MU baseball team decided to obtain the jersey and bring it to Oklahoma City for the Big 12 championship. The team hung the jersey in their dugout for the Saturday/Sunday games, in which MU advanced to the championship final game and was within one strike of a miracle upset over heavily-favored Texas A&M, which would have sent the Tigers to the NCAA tournament despite a losing overall record. Beforehand, though, we decided to do a story on the jersey, which, in its second game of the day on Saturday, saw its counterpart, Kelly Fick (also wearing #21) hurl 7 shutout innings against the Big 12 powerhouse Texas Longhorns and advance to the championship final game. Thanks to some extra info from Brandon, I put together this story about the jersey and what its journey to Oklahoma City meant to the upstart Tigers. KOMU also had a story on the jersey for the Sunday sports show, but I haven’t seen it since it’s essentially the same plot as what I did. I tried to make mine more of an overview for the Big 12′s audience that may not know as much about MU’s efforts to help Joplin, as compared to something KOMU would do in a more humanistic/focused story. I am happy my friend is OK, but the images of the storm’s destruction are stomach-churning. While I have no money to contribute to any sort of cause (I’m essentially broke) I’ll do anything to help that area recover. I have plenty of books, clothes, and miscellaneous, unnecessary items people could use. When I move out of Dallas, I know for sure I’ll have items to donate. The least I can do…

From Tech Crunch’s article by Sarah Lacy:

“Instead, for Thiel, the bubble that has taken the place of housing is the higher education bubble. “A true bubble is when something is overvalued and intensely believed,” he says. “Education may be the only thing people still believe in in the United States. To question education is really dangerous. It is the absolute taboo. It’s like telling the world there’s no Santa Claus.”

I love being in school, and being a student. I’m a knowledge sponge in topics that interest me. I respect teachers and professors. But the way our education system creates a nasty cycle of coziness disturbs me – from the tuition, books, technology/software, and expenses we all pay for that come out of student loans and go right back to big corporations with no regard for their customers.

Yet, I feel a calling to return to the East Coast where most of my family is. It’s hard to put a price tag on seeing loved ones often, and I know I’ve missed out on a lot of birthdays, holidays, family gatherings, etc. in my years away from home. So that’s what is on my mind as I begin to look for a “real” job…

1990: Colorado (AP/USAT-CNN), Georgia Tech (UPI),
1991: Miami (AP), Washington (UPI, USAT-CNN)
[Beginning of "Bowl Coalition"]
1992: Alabama (AP, UPI, USAT-CNN)
1993: Florida State (AP, UPI, USAT-CNN)
1994: Nebraska, Penn State
[Beginning of "Bowl Alliance"]
1995: Nebraska (consensus)
1996: Florida (consensus)
1997: Nebraska (USAT-ESPN), Michigan (AP)

The 1997 “championship” is most bizarre, because both teams from power conferences went undefeated. 1995 and 1996 appear somewhat normal. 1994 though, again, is where problems come up. Both Nebraska and Penn State went undefeated, won their bowl games, and finished #1 in various polls, claiming national championships because they didn’t face off head-to-head. What to do?

So the BCS was an idea that “smart” people came up with to determine a “true” national champion. In context and in the time of its creation, it seems like a good idea - create a formula that manages to match the “true” #1 team against the “true” #2 team and determine the national champion that way. In the mid-1990s, we didn’t have Boise State competing on a national level and winning the big bowl games – i.e. the Fiesta. We didn’t see TCU competing every year in the top 25 of the rankings. So of course the system was created to benefit the well-known conferences – Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10, SEC, Big East, ACC, and Notre Dame (based simply on their history of winning) because a. no one cared about the small conferences or schools, and b. no one got to see them play when power-conference games took the few existing TV broadcast windows. Simply out of sight, out of mind. Just think about it – we didn’t have the creativity or leverage of existing networks to schedule games on weeknights, and we didn’t have the technology or viewer appetite to show 50 different games on Saturdays. Just this 2010 season it seems we’ve seen Boise State on ESPN for every game they’ve played. And justifiably so, given the track record they’ve developed over the past five years – winning two BCS bowl games, finishing in the top 25 every year, yada yada. The latest true tweaks to the BCS came after the 2004 season when Auburn, USC, and Utah all finished undefeated – so who the hell finishes #1? The BCS folks changed the formula to take out the AP Poll, and then decided to allow:

“The champion of Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, or the Western Athletic Conference will earn an automatic berth in a BCS bowl game if either:

A. Such team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS Standings, or,
B. Such team is ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS Standings and its ranking in the final BCS Standings is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls.”

While this allows teams like Boise State and TCU access to the party, it obviously doesn’t guarantee playing for the national championship nor does it reward them for finishing with undefeated records. Sure, this is something that should be looked into in the future. As I wrote above, I like the current format because you’re rewarded for playing your regular season. The NFL is a joke to me because games in September truly mean nothing. But, there’s been a system established over 40 years that says IF YOU MAKE THE PLAYOFFS AND WIN YOU WILL PLAY FOR THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP. College football’s system has been WIN YOUR GAMES IN THE REGULAR SEASON AND YOU MIGHT GO TO A BOWL GAME WHERE YOU’RE VOTED NATIONAL CHAMPION AFTERWARDS — hence the BCS’s attempts to match the #1 and #2 teams, regardless of whether they’re “truly” the #1 or #2 teams in the country. One problem taken care of, another created.

I just can’t understand the screaming for a 16-team playoff when college football has ALWAYS been about the regular season and the bowl system. It feels so cheap and whorish to simply create a playoff and go for the NFL mode where a team can essentially skip two months of the season and make the postseason. Sure, college teams take a month off with non-conference games, but that is easily fixed with more progressive scheduling (i.e. playing conference games earlier), and the fact there’s no NFL-style preseason to get tuned up. The “plus-one model” would have been the best way to go to solve the access problem for the Boises and TCUs of the world – get to the top 4 nationally, and you should deserve a shot to play for the national championship, especially if a #3 or #4 ranked team is undefeated. But, the powers that be killed it (for many reasons, namely money) before it got out of committee behind closed doors at the conference/BCS commissioners level.

I think the current model will eventually be tweaked, and it’s just a matter of time — the chips are already in place, the TCUs and Boises have proved they can compete with the big dogs — but until then, enjoy the fact that every Saturday from September til the first weekend in December is worth watching.

Anyway, just my thoughts. I get annoyed when the quick solution to college football’s problems is “just have a playoff!” And especially the laziness from journalists that fail to take into account the context in which the BCS exists.

Afterwards, I rode with the guys back to the airport and planned on keeping the camera rolling like I did on the way to the hotel. But my zooming in on coach Pinkel apparently annoyed him, and, in his most Americuh twang and death-stare, growled at me, “I need that off.” I chuckled and complied – we had agreed beforehand it would be OK with me to turn it off if requested. I completely understood wanting the camera off – he’d been in interviews for 5 hours straight and wanted to talk freely for once with his guys…which he did, and I enjoyed listening to it as he had some interesting things to say. Just one of those things…it was cooler with the camera off anyway because I got to hear stuff I wouldn’t have had it been on. I bade them farewell at the airport and shot some video of them getting into the plane, then taxiing away.

I talked to a few guys from Colorado, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma to see if their experiences were similar. And, for the most part, they were. Nate Solder from Colorado and Steven Sheffield from Texas Tech were really cool guys, as was Travis Lewis from Oklahoma. All 3 appear in my pkg.

I’ll try to get back to blogging more often now that I have a pretty regular work schedule!

But I pulled it together and managed to hit the road bright and early on Monday morning. I was essentially on I-70 the entire day. I stopped for lunch and gas in Salina, KS – a surprisingly very nice town. I did not expect it, but apparently there’s a thriving arts and tourism community there. I couldn’t figure out what else was a big economic engine in the area – shipping? Air/rail freight? I vaguely recall hearing Salina is a big stop-off for that stuff, but whatever. Roughly a 45 minutes to an hour from Manhattan, and longer from Wichita, I couldn’t figure it out. But I digress.

I continued west on I-70 through famed western Kansas, which is, indeed, flat and boring. Eastern and Central Kansas are mildly interesting since there’s stuff to look at, for the most part i.e. Lawrence, Topeka, enormous wind farms, the Flint Hills, etc. But as you get further and further from KC, everything becomes far more spread out. It stays that way almost the whole way through eastern Colorado and up to Denver. I stayed overnight in Denver, and absolutely loved it. It seemed like a beautiful, well-designed, well-integrated (compared to St. Louis or Kansas City) city with tons of stuff to do outdoors and around town. I stayed close to Invesco Field and downtown, so it was easy to get cool views of the city at night. In the morning, I hit the road and headed west again into the mountains on I-70. This was an absolutely incredible ride – I’d never seen the Rocky Mountains before, and to experience them in their full glory was amazing. Ascending and descending the various mountain passes was literally quite breathtaking. Upon reaching the summit of the Eisenhower Tunnel, you really begin to feel the elevation. I definitely got a headache and felt the altitude…but it could have been from all the coffee I’d been guzzling along the way. After that, you slowly descend from the Rockies and cut through some incredible scenery – in particular, the Glenwood Canyon, which is perhaps one of the coolest, most spectacular stretches I’ve ever driven. Check it out here -

After that, you slowly get out of the Rockies into Utah, but it stays just as majestic. The weather was annoying – spitting rain and somewhat chilly – so it was irritating to have to use my wipers. It’s between Green River, Utah, and Salina, Utah, where you see an ominous “No Services Next 110 Miles” – which makes the drive seem even more adventurous and exciting. The road snakes and cuts through numerous passes, eventually taking you to The Fishlake National Forest -  pretty wild to pass through because there was still snow on the ground along the mountains. As you continue through and along the mountains, you pass through miles and miles of ranching and seemingly-old-country-western land. I stopped in  Cedar City, Utah, for gas and an adapter to charge my camera so I could continue to take pictures of the ride. After Cedar City, you start to enter the outskirts of the desert. The mountains become more barren, and the vegetation becomes less lush. By the time you reach St. George, Utah, you’re in the desert. St. George, a growing town home to Southern Utah University and what appears to be plenty of retirement-home driven sprawl. You then enter the northwest corner of Arizona and the Virgin River Canyon, another insanely majestic swath of road. Instead of the gray and green colors everywhere in the Glenwood Canyon, the Virgin River Canyon is red, orange, and Mars-like. You exit the canyon into a desert valley. It was here that a tumbleweed flew across the road in front of me! From there it was about a little over an hour to Las Vegas, which looms on the horizon as it does in most movies or TV shows that depict it from afar. My first time ever in the Las Vegas area, I was weirded out by the notion of living in the desert. Bizarre. I checked into my hotel in Henderson (20 minutes from downtown) and chilled.

The next day, I got up early and went down to visit the Hoover Dam. That was wild. The drive down into the canyon is amazing. I really enjoyed the trip there and took a bunch of pictures. After that, I drove back to Vegas and visited the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop – famous for the “Pawn Stars” TV show of which I enjoy. Unfortunately, the guys from the show weren’t in the shop that day, but I did see a ton of the goodies they buy/sell on the show inside the shop. It’s definitely worth going there to check out all the cool antiques and rare items they have – all of which the shop prides on being authentic. From there, I drove down “The Strip” and saw all of Vegas in its pathetic glory. What a dump. I checked out 2 casinos, and made futures college football bets for fun in Caesers – $5 on Mizzou to win the national championship at 150/1 odds – so if somehow they do win, I’ll be up about $700 I also figured I’d throw down $5 for Boise State and Ohio State to win it all, at 12/1 and 8/1 each. After that, I headed back to Henderson, worked out in its majestic fitness center, and ventured out again to get In & Out Burger for dinner – totally worth it and legit as people claim it to be.

The next morning I departed the hotel headed for Palm Springs/Indio. I drove south via US-95 to US-62 through the heart of the Mojave Desert. More than half the drive was 1 lane in each direction with about 30 miles between tiny desert hamlets – pretty wild. Thankfully the Acura was running very well, so I didn’t have any problems. I had the Phillies/Cubs game on my XM Radio to keep me company! Eventually, I arrived in Indio and met the Zeiles – awesome people, unpacked, and headed out to Palm Springs, and here I am about 2 and a half weeks later.

After a 1,800 mile trip from Columbia, MO, to Palm Springs/Indio, CA, I’ve been hard at work for the Palm Springs Power. It hasn’t been what I expected, but I’m not too concerned about that. I’m just glad the season has started.

So the days of loading up a Word document through a noisy floppy disk are over. Shoot. I remember how fun it was to have your own floppy disk in 3rd grade so you could save your progress in the extremely cheesy typing program whose name eludes me since it’s been about 13 years since I used it. But basically it involved you “learning” how to properly type on a computer keyboard through virtual games hosted by some sort of stupid ghost with a high-pitched voice.

But anyway…kind of got me thinking about how portable information has become since we were kids. Instead of hauling around a floppy disk that could only hold about a hundred files (at most!) we’re using flash drives, junk drives, and, if you’re on-par with the current zenith of technology, Google Docs and other online, real-time collaboration tools. Obviously it makes journalism much more portable in written stories and still photography. For me as a sports broadcaster though, we’re still sort of locked into a linear model, especially at a place like KOMU, where unless you’ve brought a “mobile edit bay” you have to return to the station to cut video and get a story in. There’s gotta be a medium somehow that allows us to keep the high-quality video and audio we use on-air while cutting down on the time we waste in travel, converting, and importing video.

Plus, this is the time of year with fantasy baseball at full swing. One of the leagues I’m in with guys from high school is VERY competitive, fun, and entertaining. I spend tons of time discussing matchups, stats, and funny events online with guys in the league. We only pay $20 per person to the league to pay for a trophy and provide a small prize for the eventual champion. Charting guys on our teams becomes a daily activity and helps make potentially mundane games more interesting.

If the Mets stay in contention, this will be even more fun in the fall, when college football gets started too.

Eventually I made my way up to the control room to hang out and get ready to PA the game. I met Mike McCartney, the PA voice of the Royals and voiceover artist who voices most of the Royals radio and TV commercials. I have to say, he’s the man. I talked to him for a good 15-20 minutes about doing the PA at Kauffman, and just the overall experience of working there, and it was really cool. He eventually left and went down to the stands to watch the game with his son as I did the PA for the whole game. Calling the game was tremendous because it seemed the acoustics are much better at Kauffman – or at least I liked the headset microphone because of its fixed distance to pick up my voice. I didn’t have to lean one way or the other to get emphasis on a particular syllable like I usually have to at Taylor Stadium or even at Busch. It felt a lot like doing a high school basketball game in how my voice reverberated and echoed. I particularly liked being able to hear myself in the headset – that really was cool because I could hear how much of a particular word I was actually saying, and if the pitch changes in my voice made much of a difference in how it sounded.

While Mizzou ended up losing 1-0 in a great pitchers’ duel, it was awesome to PA. The people working behind the scenes were way more laid back and cool to work with than the folks at Busch, and they gave me a lot more to read, i.e. the hot dog race, conference standings, and top-25 standings in addition to just lineups and such. Of course it was awesome to meet Mike McCartney too! Pictures below…

On a side note, I was mildly amused by how many more people in the crowd and in the race were wearing Illini stuff than Mizzou stuff. I don’t know what to make of it – perhaps people who cheer for Illinois are healthier than Mizzou? – but regardless I kept thinking of this (skip to about 4:10 for what I really mean). Then, when going past Busch Stadium, I put this on repeat on my iPod for kicks & giggles…

Earlier in the week I went to Busch Stadium to do the PA for the Mizzou/Illinois baseball game. Like last year, it was a blast – except I think the game was far better this year than last year. Last year’s blowout 19-6 win over SLU was a joke – boring, sloppy game, poorly pitched, poorly defended by both teams. This year, Mizzou overcame 4 errors to beat the Illini and while the stat sheet shows 4 errors for Missouri and 1 for Illinois, it seemed the Illini shortstop Josh Parr gave Missouri a chance to win by bobbling numerous balls at short and letting Mizzou get several infield singles, which either led to runs or continued Tiger rallies. I was blown away by how good Eric Garcia played at 2b – while he left with 2 errors, he made 2 tremendous stops late in the game on sharp grounders hit up the middle – and quickly stepped up to throw to 1st in time to retire the Illini batter. Overall, the game entertained the fans – several lead changes, a couple of rallies for each team, and the teams using wood bats really made for a fun game. As was the case last year, we did essentially just lineups, batters, pitching/defensive changes, and 7th inning stretch intro. But, the Cardinals people did ask me to do a read for a U.S. Cellular promotion, which was cool. If I can parlay this into another big gig, that’d be awesome (cough cough Mizzou football/basketball) but I’m not getting my hopes up at all – especially with May 20th-July 31st blocked off for living in Palm Springs.

On the PA announcing side, it’s gone pretty well. The athletics department asked me to PA the games at Busch Stadium against Illinois  in St. Louis and Kauffman Stadium against Kansas, so I’m pumped for the chance! I PA’d at Busch last year when Missouri played St. Louis University, and it was pretty wild. The sound system was incredibly powerful, which wasn’t too much of a surprise – what did surprise me was how strong the echo was throughout the stadium. It really emphasized to me how enormous a building it is compared to Taylor Stadium. Hopefully, the crowd will be better this year than it was last year, when it only drew about 1,500 people. I’m not sure how well Illinois baseball fans travel, but it’ll be fun regardless – and hopefully a better game than last year’s blowout win over SLU. As for Kauffman, that’s gonna be awesome – especially for an “exhibition” Border War baseball game. I’ll do my best to document it and get as many pictures and videos as possible!

My lowly Mets get started today too against the Florida Marlins – all I can hope for this season is a .500 finish. They’re going to stink this year!

On paper, it sounds like a great idea. It’d be huge for Mid-Missouri to get a major global connection through the world’s biggest and most powerful internet behemoth. Plus, it would be outstanding to upgrade the city’s feeble internet capability to a speed never yet seen in America, let alone Missouri. The connection would allow MU to bring tons of high-caliber students, professors, and investment thanks to the obvious attractiveness of gigabyte-per-second speed. Mid-Missouri could certainly benefit from the connection bringing lots of jobs – from cushy high-paying engineering jobs to internet hosting, construction jobs for all the infrastructure, and tons of further development. It really does sound like a great deal – and certainly Columbia fits the bill for what Google is looking for.

But I think we need to step back and take a look at what Google is going to require to come to Columbia. Nate Anderson of Ars Technica does a good job explaining the background to Google’s search for a city. Essentially, Google appears to not be asking for much in return for this. But let’s be honest – once they choose a city, the public hoopla will be so big, a city will HAVE to pay whatever Google’s price is to have them come in. Their own site for FAQs says “The final price has not yet been determined, but we intend to offer service at a competitive price.” In California, Verizon installed FiOS, a comparable internet service for roughly $682 million.That’s an enormous chunk of change that towers over Columbia’s yearly budget (usually in the range of $70-80 million).

So how much would Google want from the city of Columbia to potentially install all this? Or would they just do it gratis, and expect a major share of the subsequent financial avalanche of investment? Or is it just like buying internet service where you choose what you want? What information does Google want in return? Their mission, after all, is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” (more here). It might be kind of cool to be able to pull up various governmental statistics in moments, but what about tax documents, medical records, addresses and phone numbers, and just about any other information considered “personal” and “private”? All of these questions seem very muddled in the hype over “Saint Google”.

I’m very skeptical of all of this. Yes, as I wrote above, it sounds wonderful. But it sort of reminds me of what my Indigenous People and Natural Resources class has been discussing for the past few weeks – how major corporations infiltrate local communities in 3rd world/undeveloped countries and exploit them and their land for cheap/easy industrial development – otherwise known as neocolonialism. Pardon my snarkiness, but Columbia’s Google Fiber cheerleaders over at comofiber.net remind me of some sort of Ecuadorian tribe emerging from the jungle cheering the arrival of missionaries promising to improve their lives – and 3 months later, they’re uprooted and moved to a reservation while the company comes in and takes their land/resources. Obviously, that won’t happen in reality should Google come here, but we really need to consider what Google is asking for should they come here. And, we shouldn’t be afraid to question the company. We can’t treat them like some sort of emperor swooping in to his colony with unlimited power – let’s get a good deal for Columbia that gives us the best of what Google can offer while not totally submitting to their will.

Tracking my visitors is one of the more interesting things about running brianmortensen.com. I know most of the “service providers” based on who is visiting – i.e., the most visits is from “Centurytel internet holdings inc” – my apartment, so that’s me logging on there to change things, while the 3 visits from “Verizon Internet Services Inc” is most likely my family on their Verizon Fios in NJ. I’ve gotten some assorted, random visitors from people I don’t know – for instance, “Headquarters usaisc” appears to be some sort of government intelligence service who stopped by for 19 seconds, while a user named “Microsoft Corp” stopped by and briefly checked out the site . Clearly, my website has oodles of secret information on it worth monitoring…But anyway, it’s indeed fun to see who’s been on it. Even my grandparents have seen it – “Cox Communications” is their internet provider in Virginia.

Anyway…Back to the komusports.blogspot.com – I can’t wait to upgrade its appearance. It definitely looks a bit bare with too much white on it. I’d love to get some columns on the side with various info boxes, pictures, links, etc. Jen says we’ll get to work with when KOMU unveils their new website layout – so I can’t wait for that!!

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.
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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.

“REHEARSE OPEN / REHEARSE CLOSE / REHEARSE ALL PROMOS / TAPE OPEN OR GO LIVE / BROADCAST THE GAME / WEAVE NOT ONLY GAME STORIES BUT GLOBAL ELEMENTS AS WELL”

This sounds like a very simple way of saying it’s incredibly hectic – the guys at CBS, ESPN, ABC, etc. who produce are very experienced and definitely know what they’re doing. This sounds like a really cool job in the sense it sounds like riding a bike – once you get the hang of producing a game broadcast on the fly like that, it probably comes naturally. Everything else in the buildup – from calling coaches, communicating with the broadcasters, watching tape – sounds really straightforward, interesting, and fun. I’d really love to learn more about this type of work!

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!

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!

He’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime type of coach who you’ll reminisce about 5-10 years from now when Texas Tech is relegated to obscurity and say “THAT was fun” – much in the same way longtime college football fans now reminisce of Bear Bryant, Jimmy Johnson, and Lou Holtz.

So it’s with this I wonder whether ESPN has been fair in its coverage of the whole ordeal. I haven’t sat through any of their production meetings, chatted with Craig James or his family, or tried to contact Mike Leach myself, but from the limited viewing I’ve had on TV and online I’m a bit perturbed by James’ access. I think Rece Davis has done a good job trying to balance both sides during cut-ins and studio updates from bowl games. But, it seems for every counterargument Leach or his supporters float out there, James (or his supporters – including Texas Tech and the team’s physician and trainer) seemingly has a quick response on camera or in a written statement – including Saturday’s swiftly-released affidavits condemning Adam James’ confinement. I don’t think this would be the case with most other parents of D-1 athletes – parents with no immediate access (no cell phone number of the executive producers) to “The Worldwide Leader” and its millions of ready eyeballs – While ESPN tried to lessen the appearance of bias by taking Craig James off of calling the Alamo Bowl, he’s still had the ability to speak out on the matter – both publicly and certainly privately within the annals of ESPN.

My colleague mentioned that Davis’ “exclusive” interview with Leach ran roughly 38 minutes, but where is the rest of it? About 8 minutes and 30 seconds of its scintillating material is online, and the H&R Block Halftime Show ran bits and pieces of it. Maybe I haven’t been paying enough attention – but where is the rest of it? Is ESPN planning on running more in an Outside the Lines story? I would hope ESPN has tried to keep the time devoted to James and Leach somewhat equal, but I just haven’t watched enough to really say one way or the other.

So while ESPN has every right and ability to report on this story, I do think there is an appearance of minor bias through James’ influence and position. I do not think it has been an intentional bias – if anything, Leach has always seemed amiable, friendly, and open with the media – but an unfortunate, everyday type of bias that comes from working around public figures involved in a very public dispute.

Update: As I finished writing this, I found this months-old video of Leach cursing out Adam James for an apparent poor attitude in practice.

I ate lunch at the majestic Budweiser Lounge while being tempted by the fine alcoholic products available at 12:15 on a weekday. I didn’t have any, but any later in the day I may have considered some. This, and going through security remained uneventful. Upon sitting at my gate for a while, a Continental employee got on the PA and told travelers the “aircraft’s lavatory light is not working, and the pilot doesn’t want to take off without that because it’s a 2 hour and 15 minute flight, so we’ll try to get it fixed, worst case scenario we’ll either fly with no lavatory service, or change aircraft.” I’ve never heard of that happening before – the lavatory light not working – and the fix seemed incredibly simple (change the bulb??) but what do I know, I’m not an airline mechanic. So they had us move to the gate next to ours, the plane to Houston, while the Houston passengers moved to our plane.

So all that goes on, and I get on the plane content to sleep again. We took off and enjoyed a relatively uneventful flight until about halfway through when the small child in front of me began 1) singing constantly 2) telling its Daddy to “DADDY LOOK THE WINDOW WON’T CLOSE”. This eventually devolved into the child singing one line from “Joy to the World” on repeat until the door opened in Newark. Of course, the parents didn’t do anything and seemed to think their child was just bringing JOY TO EVERYONE!!

Hardly – they would have been more joyful if the kid had just shut up! UGH!!!

From what I gather, there’s at least $20 million owed to Weis, and it’d require at least $5 million per year to hire a new coach. I have no idea if donors and boosters are willing to cough up such an outrageous amount of money to fire a successful coach. If they do, it could be the most disgusting display I’ve seen in a long time. In economic times like this, it’s simply a display of arrogance and unreasonable expectations, especially in a sport where athletes are unpaid. I have no respect for attitudes like this.

1) Randy Wright, Missouri: Of course he’s a huge homer and I’m totally biased towards him but he does an excellent job both feeding off the crowd and getting people fired up at football or basketball games. He rarely makes mistakes with players’ names/numbers and usually has pretty good phrasing for plays. I’ll give him and the Mizzou marketing people credit for coming up with the “First down, M-I-Z” – you can hear him around :15 in this:
2) Name unknown, Oklahoma State: This guy has an AWESOME voice. He uses a few quirks in his announcing – i.e. instead of the overused, cliche “That’s good for a [insert team name and wait for crowd to yell 1st down]” he says “Oklahoma State 1st down and ten”. He also doesn’t use the opposing team’s name – simply saying, for instance, on defense “3rd down and 3…for the visitor.” Definitely a fan. You can kind of hear him in this
3) Name unknown, Kansas: The state of Kansas is pretty good for PA guys. Like OSU, this guy has an great voice. I haven’t been to a game in Lawrence but having heard him in the background on TV and the radio, he doesn’t get too fired up and lets his inflection carry the enthusiasm, instead of yelling or sounding crazy. It sounds like he avoids cliches and sticks to the basics, and, gets them right. I’m guessing he’s an old-school guy and he does a good job.
4) Name unknown, Kansas State: Also has a great voice, but uses too many cliches/overused phrases to try and fire up the crowd i.e. “That’s another WILDCAT [pause while waiting for crowd to yell "First Down"]” I also noticed several crucial errors in identifying opposing players – for instance, identifying Aldon Smith as someone else, or completely missing Sean Weatherspoon for someone else. Not sure if you can hear him in this, but it’s worth a try.
Schools I have not heard: Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, Nebraska, Colorado. For the sake of this article, we’ll assume they fill slots 5-11 as I leave the schools below out for a reason.
11) Name unknown, Oklahoma: Not a very good voice, occasionally to the point of irritation for listeners and fans. His voice was monotone and lacking depth. He had decent form and phrasing, but I do recall him saying Chase “Daniels” instead of Daniel, a crucial mistake for any announcer’s credibility. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but he sounded like a less enthusiastic Alex Anthony (New York Mets’ PA announcer)
12) Name unknown, Iowa State: Probably the worst PA guy I’ve heard call a football game at any level. While it could be a symptom of a bad sound system, the guy sounded like he was literally screaming into the microphone. To make matters worse, he used every cliche in the book – from “THAT’S ANOTHER CYCLONNNNNNNNNNNNEEEE FIRST DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!” again, literally SCREAMING into the microphone, while on defensive 3rd downs, shouting “IT’S 3RD DOWN AND ___ MAKE SOME NOISE!!!!!!” Overall, very irritating – and it’s unforgivable to announce like that if you don’t have the voice for it. You can kind of get a sense of this guy from this:

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.

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.

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.)

So, I continued eastward on I-70 into Ohio. I stopped outside Dayton for a fine, filling lunch of a spaghetti 5-way from Skyline Chili. Having stopped there before, the timing almost always works as it’s a good spot to take a break for lunch. I got back on the road, and stayed on I-70 through Columbus. It’s a beautiful city and I enjoyed Columbus’ FM transmitter for ESPN radio, 97.1. This time, of course, they were streaming Van Pelt and Tirico, a quality show, so I enjoyed it until I lost the signal about 50 miles east of Columbus.

My destination for day 1 was Pittsburgh, so Google Maps had me getting off I-70 to go north on I-77 for about a mile before heading east on US-22, a 2-lane road twisting its way through northeast Ohio. This part of the trip was a lot of fun because the road was hilly, full of fun curves, and very scenic. I was on it for about 3 hours and even got stuck behind an 18-wheeler unable to traverse a steep hill. Much like Indianapolis, Pittsburgh snuck up on me quickly – despite having to stop in West Virginia for a desperately-needed bathroom break. I hit major traffic in Pittsburgh at the junction of 22 and 60, which was narrowed down to 1 lane in each direction during rush hour. It was quite silly but it ended up not hurting me. I checked into my hotel by the airport, the Hampton Inn, got changed, and headed out to my next destination – PNC Park in downtown Pittsburgh. Again, I hit traffic on 279 as people didn’t seem able to merge into 2 lanes to go through the tunnel. But whatever. Pittsburgh seemed beautiful and it has a really amazing skyline – very underrated. I loved all the bridges, and how the rivers’ confluence is right in the middle of a steep valley. I parked a block away from the park for $10 and headed inside. I was greatly impressed by the park. The skyline is far better in person than on TV. The crowd also seemed really into it for a game between 2 terrible teams. I enjoyed all the nostalgic/historic items throughout the park – something Citifield desperately needs. On a side note – the PA announcer was really bad. Weak voice, little enthusiasm. The Pirates ended up winning 5-4.

I returned to the hotel and passed out, exhausted after the extremely long day. I awoke the next day, enjoyed my free breakfast, and put together my itinerary for the day. Curious to see how long the trip would take, I Google-Mapped the trip and saw it would have taken me just 20 miles or so south of State College. Since I’d never been to Penn State before, I figured I had to take the opportunity and check it out. So, I hit the road. Like the day before, I was on US-22 for a long time. Much of it was under construction, which slowed me down, but I didn’t mind since my gas mileage ended up being fantastic. About 2.5-3 hours later, I got to State College. The campus was outstanding – very much like Mizzou but a lot bigger. It also seemed more spread out than Mizzou. But overall it seemed really nice. I got a “Peachy Paterno” from the Creamery, the famous ice-cream place on campus, then walked over to Beaver Stadium. It’s enormous. It reminded me of an NFL stadium and rightly so – friggin 100,000+ people on Gameday is obscene. I checked out the Penn State Athletics Hall of Fame and then got a tour of the stadium, where we got to see the inside and sit down in the club seats. Very cool all-around, but it was really hard for me to fathom watching a football game in such a huge building. Faurot Field and everywhere else I’ve been do not seem nearly as big. Actually, Memorial Stadium in Oklahoma might be the only one I’ve been to nearly as big. Oh well. So I got back on the road and followed US-322 through the mountains to Harrisburg, where I got on I-81/78 and followed that pretty much all the way home. Since the Mets were playing at 7, I had expected to pick up some afternoon WFAN talk or at least the Mets pregame show, but to my surprise I couldn’t get a strong signal until about 10-15 miles into NJ. I enjoyed 78′s 3 lanes of majestic, well-paved blacktop all the way to exit 48, the first of my 2 exits. Now I’m home and I’ve been having fun!

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.

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.

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.

–

Since I was in Hawaii for what would have been my Monday dayside shift, I came in to cover Brandon Spiegel’s Thursday nightside. Unfortunately, all the stories I had were total flops, and otherwise the day was completely dead, so I left with nothing to show for the day. It wasn’t too big of a deal to me because I had agreed to work on the 4th of July, Saturday, and had a story lined up in Sedalia about the town’s revived parade. So, I came in early and hit the road to Sedalia. I had heard about this from a woman I met there when I was there for the stolen donation jar story. She gave me the name and number of a guy who had supposedly revived the Sedalia 4th of July parade when for years the town did not have one, for unknown reasons. So, I went to Sedalia and got the obligatory parade video, trying to move around as much as possible without getting the camera too wet from a surprise rainstorm. There was some cool stuff – like motorcycles, classic cars, and war veterans. Then, I interviewed the 2 guys who had a big part in the parade’s return, and got their story. It seemed pretty interesting, and a good “return to tradition” type of story. I shot my standup in the park where free BBQ and community games were going on. It definitely seemed like a legit 4th of July event – people came with their kids, parents, aunts/uncles, etc. to fish, play volleyball, etc. It was pretty cool to see several different generations of people on display. I also interviewed a woman unrelated to the organizers for a good “resident” soundbite. Overall I was very happy with the video I had, and I felt I’d have plenty of information to write whatever I needed. When I got back to the station, I went on-set for the 6, and cut a vo/sot for the 10. Definitely enjoyed this story and I felt it was a success! The on-set came in the C block of the 6, and I’m not sure when the vo/sot aired.

So, done with b3 reporting shifts! Now, I have to do my HFR and a paper with an interview of someone from a different ethnicity in a different TV market.

Woke up at 1:30am. Left for MCI (Kansas City) at about 2. Arrived there 4:30am. Upon parking and waiting for the shuttle bus, I encountered some of the dumbest travelers I’ve ever seen. They had been standing waiting for the shuttle bus for “half an hour” and had no idea the shuttle didn’t run between midnight and 5am unless it was called for on the little hotline phone inside the bus shelter. Then, when the bus showed up and we boarded, they proceeded to have an extremely asinine conversation in a far too-energetic manner for 4:30am. Basically, all rules of travel etiquette appeared to not exist in their minds – loud conversation, getting in people’s way, and displaying an overall cluelessness in an extremely easy airport to navigate.

The flight was uneventful until the descent into Phoenix, when I got to see the amazing topography surrounding Phoenix. I was shocked at all those little pimply mountains coming up from the ground with houses surrounding them. And, the basic notion of Phoenix being in a massive desert valley with huge mountains around it just seems bizarre having been in the Midwest for what feels like forever. I’m also weirded out by all the West Coast people in here. They call this place “America’s Friendliest Airport”…which is a little creepy but hey, whatever. As long as I arrive in Hawaii in one piece…

Anyway, Monday’s shift saw me come in with a couple of tough ideas. I had hoped to work on a story I saw in the Jefferson City News-Tribune about low water levels in Taos. But, everyone I called either knew nothing about what I was talking about, or didn’t call me back or answer their messages. With a backup story of the Jefferson City Salvation Army receiving a meat grinder from Safari Club, I figured that’d be the best way to go to make sure I had something for the day. It definitely was not an ideal story but I did the best I could to shoot enough video for a package and have enough of a human-interest angle to make it interesting. Hence, why I shot off the shoulder a lot to show New Jersey-native Gene Rurka demonstrating how the meat grinder would work, and then later to ask one of the kitchen workers how the grinder would help. Everyone I spoke with gave me some good bites, but it wasn’t overly riveting video. Once we spoke with the people we wanted, and I shot a standup, with help from KOMU’s high school intern Coleman, we went to try and get video of meat in Jefferson City. We tried the Schnucks on Missouri Blvd but the manager didn’t want us filming inside without him there – he was apparently in a meeting, and couldn’t come out of it. So we went across the street to a butcher, and he refused to allow us to bring the camera inside. He said he had a bad experience with “you news people” before and that it was “a personal principle” that he would no longer talk with reporters. He didn’t say what station it was, but he mentioned his adversity to the press formed when he was interviewed for a Mad Cow disease story and he felt misquoted about the disease or its impact on him. I was disappointed because I wanted to just get a few shots of raw meat or something that could go inside the grinder, but this butcher’s vague media horror story left me annoyed. I tried to assure him we didn’t even want to talk to him on camera, but that still didn’t assuage him. So, we left the butcher’s shop and went back to KOMU. I had a vo/sot for the 5 and a package for the 6 – thankfully the producers killed the idea of another vo/sot for the 10 as they felt “ground out” about the story.

After the newscasts, Kent made a great point about my story, saying the Salvation Army and Safari Club “owe [Brian] a lot of money for all the publicity you gave them.” I totally agree – that was definitely the downside to this reporting shift. I’m NOT a fan of staged photo-op events like the meat grinder thing. And the way the representatives of each group behaved toward the camera really indicated to me a desire for us to give them good publicity – one man sycophantically thanked us repeatedly for no reason at all – signifying a “Hey, we love photo ops and we’re going to be nice to you so you make us look good!” sort of mentality. Anyway, I’m glad I was able to make it work despite the story’s overall flaws.

–
I pick up writing from 25,000+ feet above the Arizona desert. It’s incredible. I’ve tried to take as many pictures as possible with my crappy point-and-shoot camera. I can’t begin to describe how cool/weird it all looks. I’ve never been through here, and we have a terrific day for sightseeing while flying – Clear skies, very few clouds, and a window seat looking south. I keep thinking as we fly over these endless mountains and valleys, “HOLY SHIT THAT’S AREA 51!” or “Goddamn, that’s where they blew up a few nukes”. I’ve also been wondering where Yucca Mountain is. Many of these mountains and such appear to have dirt roads traversing them. I keep getting images of the scene from “Grapes of Wrath” when the family is driving across the desert just trying to survive. Makes me realize how cool/advanced we are as a society to be just cruising along at 35,000 feet above the scorching desert. **Post-writing Addition – I spoke with my Mom once I landed in Hawaii, and she said the area around Phoenix is like the moon, but red – and I completely agree. It does appear similar!**

Anyway, enough of that. About my shift from Wednesday – I arrived with a couple of decent story ideas I hoped would work out. I pitched them all – Jen seemed to like them – but she told me about “this Gasconade County thing” that needed to be covered. After a very basic rundown of the story, she told me to call Nick Berardini to get the gist of it. So, I spoke with him about it, got the lowdown, and got a few names of people I should talk to about the story. Basically, these 2 county commissioners added $10,000 each to their salaries in 1999 and 2000, and got away with it. Several concerned citizens of the county found out about the extra money from a state audit in 2002 that said the extra pay was illegal. Another audit in 2006 said the same thing. So, these citizens sued in 2007 to try and recover the money. In 2008, in a Franklin County court (a Gasconade judge hearing the case in Franklin) the judge ruled the commissioners must pay back the extra money plus interest – also noting the commissioners’ clear guilt based on the evidence at trial. The commissioners appealed the ruling to the Missouri Court of Appeals (Eastern District) on the basis that Missouri’s 5-year statute of limitations outlaws the original ruling forcing them to pay back the money. The judge agreed, and overturned the first decision – meaning the commissioners were off the hook simply because, “You didn’t catch us in time” as one source told me.

It took me a while to fully grasp the details of the case, but it sounded very interesting from the getgo. As I drove out to Hermann, I called several people who told me more about the situation and who would be good to speak with on-camera. I arrived in Hermann and made my way to the Glenn Oaks Winery, home of Glenn Warnebold. Warnebold was originally on the side of the citizens, but changed his position after a period of time in which he “realized the facts of the case”, and began to support the commissioners. Nick told me not to talk to the commissioners, so I didn’t bother trying to contact them. I think in retrospect it would have been good to get their side of the story straight from them, but I was happy with how the story came out regardless. So, I enjoyed a quick tour of the winery and then hit the road. I shot a little bit of video in downtown Hermann, then went back to Columbia. One of the men I spoke with on the way to Hermann was Mike Jacquin, who has been heavily involved with the case on the side of the citizens. While he is a Gasconade County resident, he was in Columbia at Boone Hospital helping his brother with a surgery. We met outside the hospital and I just interviewed him there. I loved how my story had such polar opposite viewpoints – the “let’s play nice” view of Warnebold and the “Hell no, we won’t” of Jacquin.

When I got back to the station I had to take about half an hour to figure out how I could write the story in a way that was not too confusing or too full of legal jargon. I didn’t have much video to use, so we grabbed some of Nick’s file video from last year, which worked out well because he had footage of the commissioners. Kent was able to help me really boil down the issues to something people could understand. I went on-set for the 6 in the A block, which was fun, and then had a vo/sot for the 10.

I really enjoyed the story because it had so much controversy in it. It is just juicy-full of good stuff, and it’s still not over yet. I also thought the 2 men I spoke with, even with completely opposing viewpoints, were hilarious. They both said stuff I could not help but laugh at. I also enjoyed the legal exchanges involved in this story. Whether that’s an indication I should be a lawyer…I don’t know…But I had a good time reporting this story and I’d love to stay on it. Jacquin told me he would stay in touch with me and keep me posted on what happens.

Woke up at 1:30am. Left for MCI (Kansas City) at about 2. Arrived there 4:30am. Upon parking and waiting for the shuttle bus, I encountered some of the dumbest travelers I’ve ever seen. They had been standing waiting for the shuttle bus for “half an hour” and had no idea the shuttle didn’t run between midnight and 5am unless it was called for on the little hotline phone inside the bus shelter. Then, when the bus showed up and we boarded, they proceeded to have an extremely asinine conversation in a far too energetic manner for 4:30am. Basically, all rules of travel etiquette appeared to not exist in their minds – loud conversation, getting in people’s way, and displaying an overall cluelessness in an extremely easy airport to navigate.

The flight was uneventful until the descent into Phoenix, when I got to see the amazing topography surrounding Phoenix. I was shocked at all those little pimply mountains coming up from the ground with houses surrounding them. And, the basic notion of Phoenix being in a massive valley with huge mountains around it just seems bizarre having been in the Midwest for what feels like forever. I’m also weirded out by all the West Coast people in here. They call this place “America’s Friendliest Airport”…which is a little creepy but hey, whatever. As long as I arrive in Hawaii in one piece…

Anyway, Monday’s shift saw me come in with a couple of tough ideas. I had hoped to work on a story I saw in the Jefferson City News-Tribune about low water levels in Taos. But, everyone I called either knew nothing about what I was talking about, or didn’t

(Tangent warning): Wednesday was an absurdly busy day for reporters – it seemed packed with B2 people, VO patrollers, and such, so all of the KOMU Scions were taken by the time I was ready to leave. I got the idea to wrangle up the KOMU Ford Escape, and I managed to get the keys to it from Stacey, so I was excited to finally take it out for a spin. It’s like the forbidden fruit of KOMU cars – everyone seems to want to take it for a story, but it’s kept in the bullpen for use ONLY when necessary. Wednesday was my day, thankfully.

My thoughts on its driving performance: I liked sitting higher up than in the Scions. Definitely a little easier to see everything ahead and in general it had less blind spots than the stupid XBs. I think the fact it’s a Ford helps our street cred when I drive into little towns I’m prone to cover stories in – honestly, I think people look at the Scions and say “What the hell is that?” They’re way too edgy, “cool”, and attention-seeking for my taste. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have station vehicles we can use, but if I had a choice I’d take the Escape. It felt a little more masculine and macho than the Scion.

Anyway, back to its performance. It reminded me a lot of my old Ford Focus…it had a very heavy gas pedal and a similar 4-cylinder engine. It was somewhat underpowered because anytime I wanted to pass or accelerate on i-70 it would downshift and strain to speed up. I’m not sure about its gas mileage but fueleconomy.gov says it’s worse than the Scions, which is disappointing. Makes sense though because it was made in 2006, just before Ford started getting its act together about gas mileage. I liked the back window that opens up, so I don’t have to swing open the entire back door to get gear out. Otherwise, it was a fun experience to take a different car, hopefully I can do it again sometime.

Anyway, back to the reporting shift. I arrived in Fayette and stopped at the pool first. I got lucky and found Jake Hendrix, the maintenance guy I spoke with on-camera, and he let me into the facility. I shot some video of the inside, where things would need work, and on the upper level, where the actual pool is. Then, I went to Fayette City hall to talk with the City Administrator. She was helpful and I managed to get some good soundbites. After that, I went back to the pool, since I was told lifeguards would be there. I spoke with the main lifeguard there, and shot a little more video around the pool. Then, I tried to shoot a standup showing the plaque dedicating the pool to WW1 veterans. I did it and I was happy with it, but it had to be 100 degrees inside the little room with the plaque. I was sweating buckets and even with my best attempts to wipe it off with a lone towel I found on the floor, I still looked funny. After I snagged some lunch at “240 Culinary” in Fayette (very good – I highly recommend it!) I headed back to Columbia.

I had a vo/sot for the 5, a package for the 6, and a vo/sot for the 10. I experienced no problems whatsoever once I got back to the station. I even stuck around for a little while after I was finished to experience some of the severe weather craziness at the station – always a good time to hear angry callers upset about not being able to watch “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here!” It also felt safer to be at the station, surrounded by weather info, than in my apartment, on the top floor of its building. This was also the night the woman died in Finger Lakes Park from being struck by lightning, so the skies were pretty insane-looking.

I hit the road over to Mike Kehoe’s Ford dealership in Jefferson City since much of the meeting dealt with Ford’s interaction with state and local governments. I figured it would be good to get someone from the dealership to talk to, and get some of their cars on camera. I shot some video of the cars currently made in Ford’s Kansas City plant, and then some video of the ones made outside of Missouri – i.e. the small, fuel efficient cars that could be made in MO if “plant retooling” occurs with help from the state. I shot a standup in front of those – the Focuses and Fusions – and later spoke with Mike Kehoe himself on camera about the Task Force ideas. He was surprisingly friendly to me and understandably so since he is a relatively public figure in Jefferson City and in transportation politics of Missouri. I figured I had enough to make a good package – for me, this topic was really interesting, so even if it wasn’t humanized as much as it could have been (i.e. by finding a Mid-Mo parts supplier who might be affected by some of the Task Force’s ideas) I was still happy with what I had. It felt much more NEWS and TODAY than some of the stories I’ve done, so I didn’t mind the lack of humanization in the story. Throw in the economic impact, and I think it sort of makes up for the abundance of talking heads in the story.

I enjoyed a pretty easy Monday, preparing just a package for the 6 and a vo/sot/vo for the 10. Both aired in the A blocks.
—–
Interesting sidenote to my experience at the Kehoe dealership… When I first got there, it was raining very heavily. So, I did my best to finagle a plastic bag and umbrella out of the showroom so I could shoot some video outside without destroying the camera. As I was walking around, an old Pontiac coupe drove into the parking lot with some guy in the passenger seat and a woman driving. The man waved at me as they went past, and me being the “polite TV man” I waved back. I saw the man get out of the car and it was obvious he had some disability as he was using a walker to get around, yet didn’t appear too old.

By this time, the rain was torrential and I stood underneath the back door of the KOMU Scion to stay under cover. The woman who drove him walked him up to the door into the dealership holding an umbrella over his head while she got soaked. I was very confused. The rain subsided a bit and I went inside. I overheard conversation between a saleswoman and the man, apparently he wanted to test drive a Lincoln Town Car. I didn’t think much of it and kept doing my thing – shooting video and being a good reporter. I went back outside as the weather cleared up suddenly, and shot a standup. I saw the man get into the Town Car with his woman, and I saw them drive off, again, didn’t think much of it.

I shot my standup, and when I went back inside the dealership, I heard one of the managers answer his phone inside his office, listen for a moment, shout a few commands and say “I’LL BE RIGHT OVER”, and hang up. He came out of his office, visibly angry, looking for the saleswoman who let the semi-disabled man man test drive a $46,000+ car. He said quite loudly, “That man you let out in the Lincoln? Just got broadsided by the Papa Johns!” The rest of what they said was inconsequential, but I was just surprised that stuff like that actually happens – someone going out for a test drive in an expensive luxury vehicle and getting into an accident. I don’t mean to be politically incorrect, but the way the man behaved walking into the dealership (by that I mean his body language, conversation, physical appearance, etc) he did NOT seem fit to drive. On the other hand, he had a valid drivers’ license and insurance, so he was perfectly within his rights to take the car out for a drive. I guess it goes as one salesman said to me yesterday after the incident, “It’s tough, but we gotta let em drive.” And I’d imagine dealerships have a ton of insurance for this very purpose. Plus, I believe your insurance is liable if the accident is your fault when using a car like that.

So, when we got to the house, police tape surrounded it while a “mobile investigations unit” was set up outside the home. Several sheriff’s department vehicles and Cole Camp Police cars were outside too. As we approached, an officer came up to us to get our names and who we were with. I guess they were keeping tabs on everyone who came – I don’t know if that’s standard procedure or not, but I found that interesting. He told us we could not go beyond the police tape, and understandably so. The house’s location and surroundings were really good for video. It had some flowers out front with an American flag on it, with a church and playground across the street – providing an interesting visual paradox with the crime scene yellow tape. The officer on the scene would not comment on anything (as all other officials would do during our shift) so we really had no official source. We shot some video and left, and as we drove down the street we saw an old lady walking out to get her mail. We stopped and began talking to her – she was happy to talk to us on-camera, and she gave us some good bites. We then went to get some gas for the car, and while I gassed up I spoke with the station’s owner. He said Donnie Luetjen would come into the gas station nearly every day to get gas. Next door, at the Dairy Hut, we found several interesting characters who all knew the family. One man we found was good friends with Donnie Luetjen. All the people we spoke with had their suspicions on the details of the crime – i.e. the perpetrator, but naturally we didn’t want to “go there” on-camera and such. I shot a standup in the downtown area to try and show the quaint nature of Cole Camp. Otherwise there wasn’t much to it. I didn’t have much to show. Then we hit the road back.

We did an A-block vo/sot/vo for the 5, then an on-set A-block package for the 6. Then, a vo/sot/vo for the 10 with an update saying there would be a news conference at 10am Thursday for officials to give more details. I had a lot of help from my shadow, KOMU alum Holly (not Edgell…not sure what her last name is) whose experience at KFVS in Cape Girardeau was really helpful for my writing. She was also helped me out a lot with synthesizing the information and making our trip into a good package. Overall, while it was a sad/disturbing story, I thought I did a pretty good job. I also did a much better job of time management, making sure I was back to the station by about 1:50pm, so I wasn’t pressed for time. I thought my on-set went very well – no complaints about it, and the mic worked this time, so it felt like a rousing success. But, apparently I have no idea how to put on makeup. I need help with that. I’d love to get one of those professional makeup stylists to do my makeup before a show to save me the trouble…oh well…Not something I take too seriously, I guess, haha.

I spoke with Stacey while driving back and he said he found an AP release on the “economic stress index”, a measure of economic output in every county in the U.S. When I got back to the station I began to prowl around iNews for a link to the graphic/interactive map, but I couldn’t find it. So, I spent about 45 minutes calling several AP numbers to figure it out, and finally a customer service rep emailed me the link – but by that point, we received a fax in the newsroom about a press conference at University Hospital with very vague wording – to the point that Randy thought something serious was going on, and to an extent, he was right. With a feeling it could be Swine Flu/H1N1, we (I had a shadow with me all day) immediately went up to the Hospital. We hung out in the conference room for a little while (as once again KMIZ showed up last) and every MU J-School affiliate was well represented. KBIA, KOMU, and the Missourian all were there about a half hour before the presser began! It began and we were given folders with the official writeup of what had happened – a hospital worker contracted “active” tuberculosis and had apparently been in contact with patients and other employees while carrying the disease. I immediately Tweeted the news to KOMU and sent a similar text to Meredith Miller – the only producer I had in my phone. She sent me back a few questions she wanted to know as a producer, which was excellent. I liked being on the same page at the same time we were in the presser. The other journalists in the room were on the same page, as they asked very similar questions to what Meredith wanted to know. There was basically no video at all to get besides the geezers talking in the press conference, so we booked it back to KOMU as the presser ended.

Once we got back, it was really easy to write a reader/gfx for the 5, a vo/sot/gfx for the 6, and a vo/sot for the 10. I had a lot of help from the producers, so it went well. Overall it was a crazy shift but it ended up going well, and I’m happy I had a lot of help to make it work. All 3 aired in the A blocks.

I can see the argument both ways. With our training, I feel we’re pretty apt to not let our personalities overshadow a story. The challenge comes for inexperienced live reporters who get nervous and stick strictly to a script, or get nervous from “YOU’RE ON LIVE TV. GO!!!” For me, that nervousness doesn’t happen. Yes, the adrenalin kicks in, but I love that.

I attribute the fun of it to a line I heard several years ago (circa 2005) from Mike Quick, the high school sports producer, reporter, and anchor from MSG Network in New York. He taught the “advanced” section of the “Bruce Beck and Ian Eagle Sports Broadcasting Camp” in NJ. To this day, there are VERY few people who scare the living bejeezus out of me, and he is one of them. He’s probably 6’5″, 250 pounds, and as intense as Tom Coughlin. Anyway, we were doing on-camera exercises as a group. One person messed up, and Quick had him do it again. His advice? He spoke slowly, staring each one of us in the eye: “Calm down. It’s just TV. You’re not saving anybody’s life here. You’re not a surgeon, a doctor, a soldier, or a cop. It’s JUST TV.”

And that’s how I look at it. Live shots help me, as a reporter, keep perspective on our jobs.

I had no idea when I got back to the station that I was supposed to do an on-set. It didn’t go well because my mic was not cued in the booth. It cut into time I would have liked to use to write/cut/voice my package. But altogether I was happy with my shift. The 5 and 6 story aired in the A block, while the 10 vo/sot aired in the B block.

I must have made about 25 phone calls while on the way to Kirksville. I was surprised to lose cell phone service several times on 63 between Columbia and the Sturgeon exit – to the point I lost a call – but I was able to gather a lot of information about the best place to go for the story. While at the station, one source I spoke with mentioned the company selling the building, Hollister, was very weird about media coverage. He said the plant manager skipped town once it was announced Wi-Fi Sensors would buy the building, and they’ve been “unavailable” for comment all weekend. So my plan was to go to the Missouri Career Center and see if people were applying for the jobs to try and humanize the story that way. Since the Hollister building is on 63 right as you come into Kirksville, I got a wide shot and some sign shots from the outer edge of its property. We (I had a shadow with me) drove into their parking lot and I went inside to try and find someone to talk to, but no one from either Wi-Fi or Hollister answered my calls.

So, we hit the road to the Career Center on Normal St. When we arrived, I was shocked to see how many people were inside waiting to fill out applications. But, Wi-Fi had not given the Career Center applications, so all it could do is have interested people leave their names and contact information, and they’d be contacted once the applications came in. So we walked in and pretty much found a CCC immediately – a guy who was looking for a new job and who claimed to be very passionate about electronics. He mentioned that he had taken apart an iPod, a TV, computers, and several other things, so I pretty much knew he’d make for a great CCC and humanizer. I also interviewed several other people – the supervisor of the Career Center, who talked about how busy the day was, and 2 older women who wanted to apply. The 2 women didn’t say anything very poignant or interesting – I’m guessing they were nervous about the camera because they gave very short answers even though I really tried to ask easy, open-ended questions. Eventually we left the Career Center and headed back towards Columbia. I shot a standup on the sidewalk across from the Hollister building because I didn’t want to be on their property without permission. I didn’t want to get in trouble for trespassing when it was obvious the company, for whatever reason, didn’t want attention or coverage. And since I had already gotten a few shots from its property, I didn’t want to risk any more.

After that, we headed back to Columbia. Everything was pretty routine once back at the station. I was the “new at 6″ and just had to do a package for it, and a vo/sot for the 10. I was very happy with how the shift went. For a story that was somewhat odd in that I had no one from the companies involved on camera, I was able to humanize it enough to make it a lot more interesting than it would have been if I had some talking head from Wi-Fi or Hollister. Both aired in the A block.

I went out to shoot some video and interview people there. I found several people who could speak on camera and they said some good stuff – worthy of making a package out of it. Upon returning to KOMU, the producers and I discussed going live at 5 and 6 – which sounded cool to me, so I was all for it. I cut a SOT for the 5 and 6, scripted a reader, and headed up to Memorial Stadium for the live shot. Since I’d already done a live shot before (speeding ticket story), it didn’t feel too wild or crazy. I think my 6 shot went better than the 5 because I had it planned out better. Instead of grabbing something next to me to show on-camera, I simply held what I considered a good pair of shoes and showed how much they were for sale when the shot came to me. I was glad that we had SOMETHING to show – so our live shot was not worthless. I’d say I learned on-the-fly that keeping it simple for a live shot, and being able to show SOMETHING, are really important to a successful shot.

Upon getting back to the station I cut a package, which was pretty easy. It was shorter than the 1:10 I was given (about :53), but I think it’s always easier for the anchors and producers to finish light than finish heavy. Plus, sports or weather always want extra time, so for a pretty weak story I was happy to have squeezed this much out of it. It felt very applicable to how Jack Nicholson quotes John Lennon in The Departed, “I’m an artist [or journalist, in my case]. You give me a f!@#$%^ tuba [pronounced 'toober'], I’ll getcha somethin’ out of it.”

The 5 and 6 versions aired in the A block, with a live headline for each at the beginning of the show. The package for the 10 was in the B block.

I really need to find some good story ideas for next week.

As I wrote above I found it to be an emotionally trying shift. I felt fine all the way up until when I sat down and began to write my web story when I was able to reflect on the day. Since it was Memorial Day, and we aired an incredibly moving Honor Flight story, the magnitude of what I covered started to hit home. I found the notion that hundreds of motorcyclists were riding across the country in convoy to transport 3 honored, but forgotten soldiers’ cremains to be really touching. Combine that with the Honor Flight story, and the faucets began running, so to speak, in my eyes. I found this link on the “Missing in America Project” blog, and I really lost it. So many people have died serving their country yet no one knows their stories, their families, their sacrifices and heroism, and it’s my role as a journalist to seek out those people. That’s what was tough for me – the incredible, sometimes unfulfillable burden we have to convey this realm to people. I felt my story, and the Honor Flight story, were a valiant attempt at seeking that grain of truth. It took me a few hours and a long phone conversation with my Mom to really accept and acknowledge this.

All 3 stories aired in the A blocks of the 5 (A-10), 6 (A-10), and 10 (A-18). http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/79fcf367-80ce-0971-0125-0bcc01ff7598

I’d say in the last 24 hours I’ve overhauled my internet accessibility:

I’m creating a Flickr account now – should I upgrade to the bigger account? I have a lot more pictures I’d like to put online. I like how the pictures seem to be optimized. The quality is a lot better than Facebook’s picture area.

I updated my KOMU Social Networking page. I’d like to see that area grow – it’d be nice to get more viewers on there and interact with them more.

I’ve added a Twitter feed to this page, as well as KOMU headlines.

A week ago I acquired a Blackberry. Since then, I’ve added the Facebook app and synced it with my contacts, so those with Facebook have their profile pictures show up on their contact page. I’ve also synced the Blackberry with Blogger and Twitter, so I can update stuff from the road. Long overdue, I guess.

So after lunch I returned to the Capitol and promptly met up with Brooks. We waited around in his office while other B2ers slowly filtered in. Once everyone had arrived, we were off to return a legislative journal that Brooks “borrowed” from the Senate Secretary. Brooks told us that his little newsroom operation was the only oen of its kind in a state capitol – something I definitely believe. I haven’t spent much time in other Capitols but I know for certain that Trenton, New Jersey and Albany, New York are MUCH less accessible to the media. Brooks also showed us MDN – Missouri Digital News – and all its amazing information. It seems like an incredibly valuable resource for political reporters.

After looking at the newsroom and getting the others acquainted with the building, we went to the Senate debate chamber. I had no idea we could not shoot video in the Senate without prior approval – in which we must register with the Senate Majority Leader, in this case, now Kevin Engler. Brooks explicitly said that men must wear a coat and tie while in the Senate chambers – another good dress code issue to know. He made the point that there is always a Christian pre-debate prayer that everyone must participate in, regardless of their religion. Another important rule I did not know was that legislators cannot refer to each other by name – instead, they must say “the gentleman from the 18th district” and such when trying to single one out.

After stopping to chat in the Senate room, we moved on to see the House chambers – an area I’ve been before both for KOMU and for a Political Science class. Brooks reemphasized that reporters must shoot video from the side galleries. Reporters also cannot enter the debate floor.

We then looked at the Senate lounge – the room with the awesome mural, before going downstairs to the committee meeting rooms. Brooks had us find the XLR connections in the rooms so that we know where to set up audio cables if we have to cover a meeting in one of those rooms. Since we were on the ground level, we proceeded out through the garage (where Brooks would later tell us he learned of the late Governor Mel Carnahan’s death) and found the parking spot for KOMU – a spot I have been to!

I chatted with Brooks after the tour “ended” just out of curiosity about dealing with Missouri politics – he had previously mentioned that former Govs. Holden and Blunt were terrible at dealing with the media, so I was curious why/how those administrations were not open with the media, and what he thinks of Governor Nixon’s accessibility now.

I stumbled onto an interesting NPR StoryCorps story about a school bombing in Michigan in 1927. A man angry about property taxes being used for public schools decided to plant dynamite in the basement of the town’s school – killing 38 students, 45 people in total. The man was the caretaker of the school building and had access to many of the underground areas. The StoryCorps piece features two of the bombing’s survivors. You can tell by their voices they’re VERY old but the memory of the bombing remains fresh to these two men. I’ve always liked the StoryCorps pieces because they let the interview subjects express a lot of emotion. They’re incredibly powerful at letting people tell stories without much interference from an anchor or reporter.

I also like that these stories generally tend to coincide with a bigger issue; in this case, the tenth anniversary of the Columbine shootings, so it’s fascinating to find out that violence at schools is not a recent phenomenon.

As far as newsgathering process goes, I haven’t had any shifts since Spring Break. I need to sign up for one more (easy to fit in the schedule!) so I’m not worried about coming up with some good story ideas in the meantime. Plenty has been going on, too, with state lawmakers in action in Jefferson City, spring weather, and upcoming high school spring sport championships.

I caught a great story on Nightly News about “bird strike” data and airplanes. Here’s the link:

I thought this was a great example of “computer-assisted” reporting (it seems all reporting we do now is computer-assisted) but computer-assisted in how the data was used. I’m in David Herzog’s computer-assisted reporting class, and this story really reminded me of some of the assignments we’ve done in that class. I enjoyed how the reporter compared the massive spike in bird strikes from 1990 to 2007; clearly this is not an easy category to find data on, especially as we’ve seen in his class, it’s difficult to pinpoint certain things when there is no uniform standard for that data. Since the system in place is a “voluntary” reporting of bird strikes, descriptions of a bird strike can vary. One could say “hit birds in path” or “struck flock” and, for the most part, they mean the same thing to the general public. I also get the sense it would be pretty difficult to find data on the bird strikes, as I would imagine the FAA might try and claim their privacy for national security reasons. In addition, to have found 166 emergency landings because of bird strikes is a nice job of reporting, too. I think Tom Costello’s note in his standup that “only 20% of bird strikes are ever reported” is very interesting, because he highlights my point above – that even if the bird strikes are voluntarily reported, they can vary in description. And, it makes us question how common these bird strikes really are. Is the “mechanical problem” delaying my flight caused by a goose in the engine? Too many feathers in the flaps? Wonderful to consider, especially when my parents are flying out here this week.

My next story, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/25/60minutes/main4891800.shtml, details the observations of Frank Devine, who produced the interviews with Barack Obama on 60 Minutes. I thought this article was very interesting because we never really hear about the producer’s role in high-profile interviews like that. We also learn that this producer, an experienced vet of the field, had met with Obama before and kept a good rappoire with his communications staff. I liked that he was able to stay above the drama of an interview and remain objective in trying to fulfill his role as a media watchdog. He understands that President Obama is not immune to criticism or tough questions. I liked how he characterized the president as “He still has a way of engaging you while simultaneously observing the scene as if from afar. It’s a kind of detachment that is common among writers.” I’ve never read that before about Obama, and it makes perfect sense. I think that sort of perspective – being in the moment but remembering the bigger picture about an interview subject – is what gives Devine a good reputation in the field.

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Newsgathering/Reflection

As I dry up the tears I left in last week’s blog post (just kidding) I feel the remainder of the week went very well. Thursday, I arrived at KOMU with the plan to do a story on rising (again, unfortunately) gas prices. But, Lauren Whitney was Assignment Chair for the morning shift and she had a press release from the Governor’s office regarding a bill signing. It seemed more pressing and doable than my vague gas prices story idea. Me being a political geek, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to be in the same room as Jay Nixon. I headed down to Jefferson City, managed to find the KOMU parking spot outside the Capitol, and lugged the equipment into the luxurious Governor’s office on the 2nd floor. I got there with plenty of time to set up the gear. It was a pretty standard political event – staged speeches, a reaction speech from the opposing party sponsor, and a brief Q&A from the present media. I didn’t ask any questions because I had no need to, but some of the beat reporters were grilling Nixon on the “Militia report”. It was very interesting give-and-take, as Nixon would respond with a generic, political “This was not my doing, this was the previous administration’s, and I support all law-enforcement methods provided they are legal” while facing some tough questions, not the least of which came from the J-School’s Phil Brooks. Brooks essentially got him to admit that he condoned the report in body language and non-verbal communication, but on the record, “against” the militia report.

As the press conference ended, I followed some of the beat writers outside of the governor’s office where they were interviewing a state Senator. After they were done, I figured he might be useful to the story for a soundbite (as he was from the Republican party but still supported the bill). I asked him 2 questions but didn’t use them since the lighting in the hallway was bad, and I didn’t really frame him on-camera very well.

I then wandered the halls of the Capitol for a little while, trying to figure out where to go from there with the story. I found my way into the House chamber, where session was just beginning. It turned out that the Kirksville state championship wrestling team was going to be honored for their victory, so in case I needed another story, I interviewed the 2 state champions and shot some b-roll of them being honored on the floor of the House. I never ended up getting to use it, but I’m glad I had a backup in case my bill-signing story went to the crapper. I decided to take a break for lunch, so in the downtime I had while standing on line at seemingly the only decent lunch place close to the Capitol, I spoke with the dayside producer, and she told me to try and get some reaction from anyone. I told her it would be difficult because the law was a unanimously passed, bipartisan bill, so it’d be very difficult to find someone against the law. She advised that the state treasurer would be a good place to look, so I went back to the Capitol and went to Clint Zweifel’s office. Taking a total shot-in-the-dark, I asked the secretary if he would be available for an interview during the afternoon.

I went back to the car and shot a standup outside of the Capitol. It was a pretty worthless standup – I’m not showing the viewer anything besides my squinting face. By the time I was finished, I miraculously got a call-back from the Treasurer’s office telling me he could meet me in 20 minutes. I told them that would be perfect, and went up to his office. His media relations organizer was very helpful and had me into his office within minutes. Zweifel was very cool, calm, collected and seemed at ease in describing the new law’s affect on the state treasury. I did my best to make small talk with him off-camera to try and loosen him up, but he seemed very well-oiled at speaking in soundbites. Obviously, that makes our job a little easier, but at the same time, they’re not authentic answers. Overall he was very accessible and helpful to putting together the story.

It really helped to have his soundbites for the VOSots and package. I had very little in the way of storytelling video (aka almost nothing!), so to have numerous bites from various officials was good for the reality of finishing the story. I liked what I was able to do for the story, I think it would have been incredibly difficult to do more with it on such short time. I also enjoyed the Jefferson City experience – being in the same room as Gov. Nixon was fun, and seeing him go back and forth with reporters was very interesting too.
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I had another dayside reporting shift for the next day, Friday. I arrived with the same story idea from the previous day, rising gas prices. But, as with the previous day, I was handed a press release and told to go to that story. This time, it was a factory adding (!) jobs in Glasgow, MO. I was immediately up for it, as I love any story outside of Columbia. The only [slight] problem was that the event was scheduled for later in the day when we had to have it in for the 6pm newscast. So, I called the people in charge and asked if they would be OK with having me come earlier in the day to interview them and shoot some video – they were fine with it.

I got to Glasgow and discovered that it’s a town in transition. In a town of roughly 1,500 people, its lost jobs from the weak economy while its bridge crossing the Missouri river, a thoroughfare to other towns, has been demolished and a new one is slowly built in its place. Meanwhile, the little downtown has a major railroad spur going through it and the buildings are all full of unique, bizarre little shops and restaurants. I would later dine at one of these fine establishments.

So for the story, I found it to be very interesting. The previous ownership of the factory had apparently laid everyone off, so in swept a new owner determined to keep the factory alive and active in the community. The plant once employed 350 people, but at its initial closing, it had less than 40 people at work. It re-opened with about 15 workers, then grew to its current size of about 50 workers. So, to be in good condition in tough economic times was very interesting. I interviewed the new owner, and several employees, and they had some candid remarks about what it was like to have their jobs axed in a small town heavily reliant on industry.

I got some good video too of the people at work sewing sleeping bags and blankets. It was very easy to shoot in sequences, since the workers were doing the same thing all day. It reminded me almost EXACTLY of the corn-cob pipe video we worked with in B1! Except of course, this in high-definition!

It was very easy to make a package out of it, and to have a VoSOT for the 10. Anyway, I’ve written too much and have to get off my computer.

As for my KOMU shifts, I started the week on Monday with a VO Patrol. I had a few story ideas, but upon getting to KOMU I realized they had already been covered. After the story meeting, I found a story about the Missouri River Regional Library receiving a grant to update its website. I arranged an interview with the library’s manager, and it seemed fairly straightforward. After I got off the phone, Randy Reeves came up to me with a press release about a “DECA” conference in Lake Ozark – basically, a big gathering of high school students with an interest in marketing and business. It sounded good to me – I didn’t have anything else to do that day, and I was 100% up for a drive to the Lake. Randy also mentioned that the newscasts would be very light, so the more I can get, the better. I figured it would be an interesting story to at least talk to students and see how they feel about their efforts as the economy sags. I figured it would be a better story than the library grant, so I called the manager back and apologized, saying that something had come up and we had to try for another day. So, I gathered the gear and hit the road. As with most trips to the Lake, it was a nice drive but I was bummed that I lost reception on 1580 (ESPN Radio)!

The trip took me down US-54 into the Lake region. I drove across the Bagnell Dam, which I’ve never seen before, so it was pretty cool. The whole drive was pretty spectacular as well with elevation changes, curves, plenty of foliage, etc. I’d never really been into the heart of the Lake’s tourist areas, so this was a good opportunity to check it out. The main drag on Business loop 54 through Lake Ozark reminded me a lot of a combination of the Jersey Shore and Laconia, New Hampshire. Plenty of kitsch and riff-raff but most likely a lot of fun for everyone. I’ll have to get down there this summer to experience it in its full glory. But I digress.

I arrived at the Lodge at Four Seasons, and found my way inside. The media contact, Chris Young, was a recent Mizzou grad and he showed me around – overall he was very helpful. Here’s what was going on: students would be given a scenario and X amount of time to come up with a proposal or presentation on what they would do, then present it to various professionals from the business world. Their proposals would be judged, with the best groups or individual presentations earning a trip to the National conference in California. Entering the hotel, I was shocked at how many high schoolers were there. Kids from every corner of the state were dressed up in “professional” attire. Chris Young took me to a room where students would be presenting, so I set up in there and shot some video of different groups presenting their proposals. I thought my video was pretty good – it could have used some extra light, but I really liked my cutaways and sequences. It wasn’t the most visually-appealing story to tell, but I was able to get plenty of people in it – not BOPSA, but close ups and angles that I thought were good for showing the kids’ enthusiasm and efforts.

I interviewed several students from all over the viewing area. I met two young men from Hickman who had some interesting stuff to say – my one problem was that the lighting was not good. Their faces have a bit of shadow on them. I also didn’t frame one of them very well – part of his head got cut off on the aired story. It looked OK in Avid and on the camera, I’ll just have to remember to be more careful next time with the framing bars so that people with non-HD TVs can see it. I interviewed a few other students, and only used one more – a young woman from Tipton High, and she actually had a good bite. Two students from the KC Area had some filler comments, but I figured they wouldn’t be as good since they were not from the viewing area. Altogether I was pleased with this story. Holly Edgell said she liked how I mixed up my shots and sequences. My writing was decent but Kent Collins suggested making my lead more interesting for one version. It was something to the effect of “Your intro line just says ‘conference’ and boring stuff. Make it more interesting.” I definitely agree with him – in retrospect I would have changed that. I also learned that “Lake of the Ozarks” is not a town or city, so my locator at the beginning was wrong for the 5 and 6. Stacey Woelfel and I changed it to “Lake Ozark” instead for the 10. To be fair, the Tiger Chairs did not catch it for the 5 and 6, so I feel like it’s an innocent mistake, but I should have known better. So, I felt good about that shift and hope I can enjoy future shifts as much as I did on Monday. I was basically at KOMU from 7:45am to at least 7:00pm – no problem at all, I enjoyed it. Here’s the link.

Tuesday’s VO patrol was a completely different story.

As I mentioned above, I have been suffering from a TERRIBLE sinus infection that leaves me severely congested, coughing, and in general very tired. I’ve been suffering from it for over two weeks, just trying to soldier through it, and it had improved somewhat, but not nearly to the point where I can be 100% active. I finally got so fed up with it on Tuesday morning that I made a doctor’s appointment for the afternoon, so I didn’t have much time to put in at KOMU like I did on Monday.

So, I went out to shoot some video for the red light camera contract approval in Columbia. What I didn’t know was that those cool little cameras on top of various intersections in Columbia don’t actually record red light runners – they just “monitor” traffic. So, essentially I had barely any good video to use for the VO because most of my video was of traffic cameras in Columbia. I managed to overcome that with some crappy sign shots – Providence, Business Loop 70, Rangeline, etc. and several generic shots of traffic lights. No sources called me back for this story, and in the limited time I had before my doctor’s appointment, I couldn’t wait around for someone to get back to me, so I went without a SOT for the 5, 6, and 10. I also noticed I had several typos in the script – “the average fine is could cost close to one hundred and twenty two dollars.” Obviously, the “is could” is not good. Maybe I’m being hard on myself, but I’m honestly embarrassed by my work on Tuesday. I just hope I can get back in there and do a better job tomorrow when I GA report.

I also purchased items for the “reporter’s briefcase”. I enjoyed an exhilarating 2+ hours at Target on Saturday, roaming the aisles to find various items. I then bought a leather briefcase on Craigslist from a woman in North Columbia. Part of this shopping spree included buying a few additions to the work/journalist wardrobe. I found a few great deals at Dillards, so I’m happy with the new threads. It’s VERY rare for me to spend money on myself like that (even $50 total at one store) so to be honest, I’m happy I got it over with.

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For my journalism reflection for this week, I really enjoyed the 60 Minutes interview with Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chief. Apparently it’s the first interview of any kind with said Chief, so it was impressive for Scott Pelley to get Bernanke on camera.

I thought producers Henry Schuster and Rebecca Peterson did a great job of getting video for almost everything they referenced – be it Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Bear Stearns, etc. We also saw some really cool shots of the Federal Reserve’s interior, especially the machines making cash. It really looked like the most basic form of shooting in sequences and editing in the camera, but to the viewer in me, it seemed really awesome. The photog did a great job of shooting Pelley and Bernanke while walking around the Reserve – giving the two plenty of depth, showing us all the ornate artwork and masonry. I was a little surprised at how dark the interview seemed – the light was a bit odd. It could have been my TV, but the background behind Bernanke was totally red and Scott Pelley seemed out of focus on the reversal questions.

One of my favorite aspects of this story was how Bernanke is portrayed as more than just an Ivy League scholar economist. We see his hometown and his VERY humble roots in Dillon, SC. I think he has a lot more in common with the “Everyday” American than what people expect. I think one of Pelley’s objectives in this story was to find out more about Bernanke and show his personal side so we can understand the difficulties his job entails. I was really impressed with this side of the story and I think Pelley did a good job of telling it.



We also saw Pelley preface his questions with phrases like “I know there are thousands of Americans thinking ____”, “Everyone wants me to ask this”, and “for most people”. I was intrigued by how he tried to put himself in a viewer’s place and really ask some tough questions – whether he was successful in getting some modicum of truth out of it, I don’t know – but I really liked his approach.

Anyway, I stumbled onto a good CBS Evening News story about the stimulus package’s job creation. It’s very fluffy but I enjoyed it:
Watch CBS Videos Online

I think in covering the stimulus stuff we, the media, have gotten too caught up in the political wrangling and fail to see who it will benefit – in this case, people like Philadelphia’s George DiBruno. Jeff Glor and Ben Tracy did a good job of finding hourly wages for blue-collar workers, i.e. $21.50 an hour for electricians. I think it was also good to see the “working man” view of this issue – instead of just corporate spokesmen and bullshit-spewing economists. Yeah, I admit, this story could be construed as a PR piece for President Obama – but as the “brilliant” Wayne Freedman would say, this story sought to tell “what is” instead of what we expected – we could have expected to hear from a Republican opposed to the stimulus plan, or someone else against it, but from Glor’s reporting it appears he did not find anyone of that opinion. It helps that Philadelphia is a liberal city, but regardless, he went into a situation and told the story from their perspective.

I have no idea what I am supposed to do for a story idea for next week. Newsgathering? I used a story idea I pitched several weeks ago for this most recent package. As I wrote previously, I’d been brewing it for several weeks. Assuming my corrections to the most recent package are enough to clear me to KOMU, then what? The syllabus says we have to do packages – I’m really confused and feeling like an idiot.

Greeley mentioned this week that it’s vital to have a “plan B” – and for me, this week was a great time to put it to use. There’s an older woman (Nancy) in my Cross Cultural Psychology class who seems to just have an incredible burden and an amazing all-around story. I spoke with her and found out she has lupus (and needs a motorized wheelchair to get around), takes 20 hours of classes at MU, cares for her two high-functioning autistic children, and has had to deal with an incredible amount of stress in the past few months. Her husband got sick and had to be placed on long-term disability from his job, and her 18-year old daughter just found out she is pregnant. Sound crazy? That’s not all. Because of legal technicalities surrounding her husband’s long-term disability payments, the insurance company has taken steps to try and recollect the payments at an incredibly inopportune time.

Phew. All that aside. So now, as I mentioned above, Nancy’s son is considered highly-functioning autistic. He’s 16 and Nancy tells me he works about 20 hours a week at Gerbes. Sound good? Yep – sure, what high schooler wouldn’t want spending money? Well, it turns out that because of the family’s dire financial straits, he has taken it upon himself to use his paycheck to help pay for groceries and other household items. Nancy said it best herself, “You just can’t make this stuff up, I can’t believe this is actually going on.” So, my plan for tomorrow (Saturday) is to try and meet up with Nancy and her son – she tells me he is scheduled to work at Gerbes during the day, so I’d like to get some video of him at work, then interview him and his parents at home.

My first thought this morning upon arriving to the commuter parking lot at the Hearnes Center was, “What the hell is going on!?” There were quite a few buses already in the lot, and it seemed like the entire parking lot was full – the Missouri State High School Wrestling tournament is at Mizzou Arena for the next few days. So with my plans to interview Nancy’s son in limbo, I figured I’d swing by the Arena when I had the camera today to find a story. So after picking up the camera, I fought Columbia’s stop & go traffic down to Mizzou Arena and managed to sweet-talk my way into the lot behind the Arena where all the buses park. I figured there’d be a gold mine of stories waiting to be told by some of the bus drivers – especially since many come from all around the state for this.

Now, I know what you’re going to ask – what’s the local angle? Well, the CCC I found isn’t a Mid-Missouri resident, but the story he told me sounded like something many people can identify with – and his presence at Mizzou Arena was much more than just a job.

I struck up a conversation with a gentleman by the name of Anthony (whose last name slips my mind – he gave it to me on the tape but I haven’t reviewed it yet). A bus driver for two years, Anthony drives for the Kansas City Center School District. Long story short, he retired from his old full-time job several years ago, but as cost of living expenses kept rising (i.e. gas, food), Anthony says he had to take the bus driving job to help pay for the future cost of his daughter’s college education. While saying he is a “Jayhawk fan”, he says he is immensely proud of the fact that his daughter will be attending Mizzou in the fall. He spoke passionately about how much it meant to him that his daughter has a chance to get a college education. He says he feels, as an African-American, that society has made vast strides in furthering racial equality; but at the same time felt that it is up to our (and his daughter’s) generation to truly cement the gains made in his lifetime.

It was an incredibly moving conversation. I felt like he had a lot of emotion and approached life with a lot of zeal. I followed Anthony and another bus driver into the Arena, and I got some video of Anthony watching the wrestling matches. He said he’d be here all weekend, so I’d like to try and track him down again and try to get a picture of his daughter than I can use for the story. I also got some video of him cleaning out the bus – sweeping, talking on his cell phone, etc., so I feel I’m turning an “event” story into a more full feature on the little people behind the big high school tournament show.

Phew. Quite a week, and yet all this work to do!

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As for a journalistic reflection, my Mom told me about a fantastic hour-long story on 20/20 about poverty-stricken areas of Appalachia. Diane Sawyer reported on four teenagers all trying to find a way out of their situations. I thought the stories themselves were tremendous – each kid had been through some amazing experiences – both difficult and uplifting at the same time. All four had dealt with horrible family conditions – one young man has to live in his truck because his parents are alcoholics and deal drugs, and his dream is to get out of there, get to college any way he can – which for him means playing football. Another man gets a job in a coal mine at the age of 17 – paying $65,000 a year, a fantastic sum for someone without a college diploma. There are two girls who both live in drug-infested houses. Basically, the hour-long show followed the four for about two years.

This is the story: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=6865077&page=1

I felt it was an amazing job of getting the real authentic scenario for each individual. We are taken inside each person’s home and spoken to like a trusted friend. The adults even show us their drug staches. Sawyer travels miles underground into the mine where one of the teenagers works. We’re shown the horrible health and dental conditions that many children have in the region. My only complaint about this story was that at some very select moments, it seemed like Sawyer inserted herself into the story.

Anywho, I’m covering the “Erase Hate 5k” tomorrow for my second package. It should be a relatively easy package with plenty of action video and a good variety of voices to use. As far as newsgathering goes, I got an email about it with a PDF file with all the details. I’m on the LGBT listerv in addition to having a class where the professor sends out any multi-cultural events going on in Columbia.

The proceeds of the race go to benefit “The Center” project, which is an LGBT community center. The Center going to be in downtown Columbia. It’s significant because it’s the first of its kind in Mid-Missouri, and even more interesting because it’s not affiliated with any of the higher-education institutions in the area. It’ll be financed purely on donations and fundraising projects, so it’s quite ambitious. I have no vested interest in this because I don’t plan on ever going to The Center. It’s also an interesting take on the event to proclaim it a memorial for Lawrence King, a 15-year old victim of a hate crime in California. Since his death, there has been (at least from what I’ve read/watched) a large outcry for more anti-bullying and hate crimes protection laws. Missouri does not have laws to protect students in a situation like this.

The 5k starts at 11am at Stephens Lake Park, and later in the day is the Polar Bear Plunge at the very same location, so it’ll be fun to see if there are any early-arrivers for the Plunge. I wonder if anyone practices their “plunge” too into the lake?

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4752321n

NPR is generally absurdly good when it comes to covering economic and political issues, and this week was no exception with the “stimulus” package in the Senate, and worsening employment numbers throughout the world. I caught a lot of All Things Considered this week, and one story that stood out to me was Nancy Mullane’s story on California’s job-placement offices suddenly being swamped with people desperate for work. Here’s the link to it –

It really struck me as a story with great sound and a lot of very interesting characters. It was timely with 200,000 state employees being “furloughed” from work due to a complete lack of cash within California’s coffers. As I re-listen to this story, her use of background sound is incredibly effective. She introduces the scene with a security guard fumbling with a lock to open the doors of the Downtown Employment Development Department. We also hear workers at the center trying to keep the job-seekers calm – we overhear a man frustratedly say “I’ve been coming here for 4 days!” to which someone responds “I’ll treat you with respect but all these need to be stapled together.” The whole story was very interesting because Mullane gets great quotes out of people, especially those recently laid-off. One woman mentions that she came to the employment office because they have direct lines to unemployment insurance processing companies; when she tried several times from home BEFORE the lines opened at 8AM, the representatives were already too busy to take her call.

She includes some intriguing details, like how some people’s eyes are “sore and red” as if they had been crying. Her final soundbite is with a woman who says “It’s hard to be positive but sometimes that’s all you have.” I felt like this story was incredibly poignant and reflected much of the frustration of people trying to deal with bureaucracy – a pain in the neck for sure, but a necessary move to begin receiving unemployment checks. The story is effective because for all the political rhetoric and garbage being thrown around about “government stimulus”, we can get down to the bottom of what it’s like for “normal” people to suddenly be unemployed – for example, the 32-year old working in formerly a “hot” field, internet marketing, somehow laid off. That was my goal in my American Auto Dealers of Mid Missouri story, and I feel I fell well short of it.

Oh, and the title to this entry stems a combination of Bruce Springsteen’s fantastic new album, “Working on a Dream” and our fine Mid-Missouri weather treating us to three 60+degree days in a row in February!
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My first B2 package has been incredibly difficult to tell visually. I feel I found an intriguing CCC and plenty of facts to wrap around his story, but Mid-Missouri’s auto dealership struggles directly affected me too. Besides John Rettis and the sales manager of Albert Honda, no dealers were willing to talk about either their struggles or the “American Auto Dealers of Mid Missouri” commercial; especially not to a student doing a story for class. I feel sometimes I am so wrapped up in finding a GREAT story outside of Columbia that I miss easy/worthwhile stories happening right around me. For instance, my story proposal about the highway intersection in Marshall – I love the notion of getting outside of Columbia, and usually it’s a worthy pursuit. But it would involve a massive amount of time, travel, and research to fully tell the story. I think that same problem befell me on this story. I would need to take several trips to Fulton or elsewhere, after signing out equipment (an enormous pain in the rear) to get more interesting video. My ideal situation with this story would have involved shadowing John Rettis on a normal business day (not a Saturday, when I interviewed him) to follow his interactions with customers, employees, and his family. His wife called his cell phone as I was finishing up at the dealership, and he agreed to give her a ride home from where ever she was – that led me to believe Rettis definitely is just a normal family man trying to ride out the economic storm. I had wanted to tell that aspect in the story, but I don’t think I succeeded on it. I feel I definitely put in my best effort on this, and I’m very happy with my stand-up, but I’m dissapointed in the final product.

I experienced a day’s work with the “big dogs” on Wednesday. The first major part of their job involves participating in the story meeting for the nightside reporters with Stacey Woelfel, KOMU’s news director (or his designee). From there, the producers figure out where the assigned stories will be placed in the newscasts (for the 5, 6, and 10). Their job also means they format how one’s story will appear – for instance, whether a reporter will do a live shot or weather wall. Perhaps the most important aspect however comes from their determination of how long a story will run.

This idea that producers control the time of stories is one of the biggest things that Russell has learned since she arrived to KOMU. She says, “If you’re a reporter, you can’t just have extra time, it has to be talked about.” She also said that while seemingly scary and threatening, the staff at KOMU are all incredibly helpful and easy to ask questions of. Russell added that time management is also a huge lesson she’s learned since joining the producing ranks.

Reporters understand most of their assignment details after the initial story meeting, but one important morsel of information displayed by the producers in INews is whether a reporter will move to the weather wall or be assigned a live shot. This means that, in some cases, a reporter will basically do two standups; one in-studio at the weather wall, the other out in the field. Both of which are included in the story.

Producers can be most helped by reporters when they call in with story updates. Russell says that regular updates from reporters help producers time their shows. For example, if a story is very difficult and a reporter is unable to get people to talk on-camera, their assigned time of a story may be reduced since it has less-solid video. On the flip side, if a reporter finds fantastic sources and records great video, then they may merit a longer report.

Russell says the most common mistakes made by reporters has been with scripting in INews. She says some reporters struggle with the formatting involved for live shots, weather wall appearances, and locators. She said there’s no excuse for reporters to make mistakes like that – she demonstrated that many tips and suggestions for formatting are already in INews “help” files.

The hardest part of producing, according to Russell, is that the entire job of creating a newscast can be overwhelming. She said it’s also difficult to accomodate everything that reporters want, or to deal with on-the-fly changes that can come up as late as midway through a newscast.

The biggest difference between a reporter and producer, says Russell, is that reporters enjoy physically leaving the station, talking to sources, and doing something new every day while storytelling. Producers, she says, must enjoy being in charge and looking at the big picture.

What’s the purpose of referring to yourself as @___?

I might be stuck in 2004 when the mainstream Verizon cell phone didn’t have all these newfangled goodies like nationwide internet access, touch screens, and applications. I refuse to get a Blackberry and I regret the 2 weeks I spent with an Iphone over the summer of 08. To me, there’s a distinct personal line that comes with a cell phone, and I don’t enjoy sharing my every move with other people. Maybe I’ll be forced to get a Twitter account – I won’t welcome it, I won’t enjoy it, and I certainly don’t look forward to it. But at the end of the day, it’s part of the “new media” and I accept that some find it useful.

Setting up a live shot doesn’t seem to be very difficult; just somewhat time consuming and very step-intensive. In other words, miss a connection or plugging in a particular cable, and an entire newscast (or at the very least, a particular live shot) can be ruined. Seever and I arrived about an hour and a half before the 5pm show to the scene of the live shot, set to be the intersection of Providence Rd. and Stadium Blvd. – all 7 or 8 lanes of its beauty.

Before leaving KOMU, Seever made sure that we had extra batteries for the camera in case the truck’s generator failed. We ensured that there was a tripod in the back of the truck and a tool kit with all mic extensions and wires. Upon arriving at Providence & Stadium, our first task was to raise the mast of the live truck – the DirecTV-sized dish capable of sending microwave signals to KOMU’s studio in an instant. Seever noted that it is important to make sure the mast is raised to its maximum height of roughly 7 sets, and directed my attention to the large “DO NOT PARK UNDER A POWER LINE – YOU CAN BE KILLED!” warnings. Trees are also a risky nearby object – avoid them. From there, we can start the generator and begin setting up the camera, tripod, and mic/IFB for the reporter. As the weather was the focus of our story, we made sure that the tripod and extra light kits we brought were safely secured to the ground with sand bags from the back of the truck.

While I’d love to continue on in-depth, it’s 11:44pm and I have an 8:00am class – I’ll keep it brief for the sake of staying awake through Broadcast 2 Lab at 1pm.

Seever pointed out that an IFB is an “interruptible feedback” device. It allows the reporter to talk to producers and the control room, and also to stay on-pace with the newscast’s upcoming cues. He advised that reporters MUST bring their scripts, weather gear, and, when necessary, a separate IFB as sometimes reporters find it icky to share an IFB among many people. Seever said that reporters can best help live truck operators by showing up on time – at least 15 minutes prior to a show starting. He also said that specific directions on where to bring the truck are important – in other words, not just “downtown Columbia” or “along Highway 63″ – he said directions like “8th and Cherry” or “Northbound 63 and Broadway” are vital to proper setup. Lastly, he said the most common problem facing live reporters include: overt nervousness and looking at scripts (one should know their topic well enough to not memorize a set script) and being unfamiliar with IFB sounds (as one can hear producers, anchors, and themselves speaking on delay) and becoming confused.

Upon arriving to KOMU, I was told that no trained person would be working the shift that night. Jennifer Niederjohn, the supervising producer, taught the Recuts and teleprompter duties to two trainees as I observed and asked questions. In general, the job seems quite simple but very detail-oriented. During my shadow shift, Jen emphasized the necessity for production assistants to communicate with other people in the newsroom; especially the main producer.

The recuts area seems quite overwhelming on first glance, but after a few minutes of being shown the set-up, it’s relatively easy to grasp. The overall job of the production assistant is to take video from the NBC Newschannel server and import it to the KOMU system for use in the newscast. Some shows may require you to create teases for upcoming stories from video on the local system – this scenario seems easier than a national story because you don’t have to download the video, instead one just creates a sequence into the existing slot on INews. Niederjohn said teases are usually about 20 seconds long, while national stories require about 45 seconds of video. The production assistant will find out what video specifically needed for a show by talking to the producer, who should specify what shots they want. In addition, most requests are assigned on the INews rundown for the show. Niederjohn said it’s important to reference video and avoid showing things that have nothing to do with words being read. She also said that graphics from national stories cannot be used unless there is no other video available from Newschannel.

Once this video is found, the production assistant must enter the NRCS server. NRCS is basically how the station gets video onto its server for use elsewhere in the station – and how specific sequences stay within the rundown for use on air. Once entering the NRCS, you drag the specific sequence into the bin you’re working on, and then capture the video using “QuickDub” or a playlist on Newschannel. The PA must ensure that the downlinked video is properly routed, so checking the large switchboard in the middle of the recuts area is important to make sure that video will be captured.

Niederjohn said the hardest part of the job for most production assistants is being able to get all video done on time for a particular newscast. Of all the nightly shows, she said the 5pm is the busiest, while the 6 and 10 are less recut-heavy. The difficulty in finishing comes from the amount of time necessary to properly edit the video – including resizing and adding curtains to make national video (which comes in 4/3 format, not high-defintion standard 16/9) suitable for KOMU broadcast. She said if a production assistant is pressed for time and overwhelmed with the amount of work necessary, the PA must ask for help from just about anyone bar reporters. She said most of the time any of the producers in the newsroom can help answer questions provided they’re not loaded with duties at the time.

Niederjohn said the computer system is reliable, but if it were ever to fail, she suggested rebooting or restarting the computer and moving to another work station. If the problem exists at another work station, then she recommended telling a supervisor about the issue so it can be investigated.

As a supervising producer, Niederjohn had a unique perspective as a staff member on the best way for PAs to get along with reporters and producers. She said simply that respect for each other and communication are the biggest issues among coworkers. In addition, she said that one should “Always ask, don’t assume” if in doubt.

After finishing the recuts for the 10PM show, we went into the control room to operate the teleprompter for the newscast. This seemed very simple but crucial to the overall broadcast – I feel the prompter is an enormous crutch in broadcasting, and it makes Jim Riek and Angie Bailey’s jobs incredibly more straightforward.

During my shadow shift I saw the necessity for steady production assistants. Niederjohn told us that PAs’ work is essential and provides a backbone for a smooth show.