A Hostage, Swaps & Jay's Burger Shack
With my three days of sports behind me, Thursday dawned a real news day. To set this up, I need to take you back to Wednesday night. I walked out of Channel 19 at around 10:45. I then had a 25 min. drive home. I went to sleep at 12:30, only to be awakened periodically by heavy rain beating on the roof. Finally I woke at 3, not to go back to sleep until 4:30. Then the alarm at 6:30. I love these kind of no sleep days. But this isn't my complain page.
Anyway, as I was driving into work, our assignment manger Errol Davis called me. Cherokee County deputies were looking for a man who had taken a bail-bondsmen hostage overnight. We don't normally cover Cherokee County on a regular basis. It's not in the Huntsville DMA(designated market area.) In fact, I'm not sure who's DMA it's in. However, this was a story of a bit more unusual character.
I drove on to our office in Albertville. My photographer, Brad Hood, was already there. So we made the rainy trip to the middle of the Taft community, which believe it or not, isn't in the middle of nowhere. I'm told it's just on the outer edges of nowhere. The Cherokee County Sheriff's Department had set up a command post at a church. When we rolled up, NBC 13 out of Birmingham was there. Darrell Norman, a reporter for the Gadsden Times, who's a fellow New York Times employee, was also there. Shortly there after, every other station in Birmingham rolled up.
This is one of those stories that's the meaning of the phrase "hurry up and wait." We listened to the scanner and when police thought they had something, we all followed. Finally around 11am, word came that the hostage had been found down the road. Brad jumped in our Jeep to head there. I had a slight problem. I had let the reporter from Channel 13 borrow my cell phone so she could do a live report on their 11am news. (Pay attention, because this becomes very important later on.) I couldn't leave the church or I might never see my phone again. So Brad went without me. Time went by and our Satellite Truck operator Brian Covington showed up for us to do our noon live shot.
It was 15 minutes till 12. He hadn't booked any satellite time and the truck wasn't set up. So I grabbed the camera and tripod and got that all together. Then I ran the camplex cable from the truck to the camera. All this time, Brian is getting the dish up, time bought and satellite tuned in. We got it set up with just seconds to go before I was live in our pre-show for the noon.
Shortly after my noon live shot, Brad rolled back up. We called Huntsville and decided that since there was no longer a hostage, this story might not be the big news it was. So we had already decided to head back to Albertville. Then we changed our minds and decided to stay, since the guy was armed and running through the woods somewhere.
It was still quiet, everything except for my stomach. The decision was made that it was time to seek food. Problem, there is nothing in the area. We had our choices. One, getting something from a store that was also a bait shop. Two, a store that was also a plumbing store. We decided to keep driving. We drove to the town of Gaylesville. There on the corner, in a small trailer was Jay's Burger Shack. I'm not sure if it was Jay himself who took our order. At that point he could have served me a shoe with some fancy mustard on it and it would have been good. So after my lunch of a burger, fries, Pepsi and a pack of plain M&M's, (I saved the Peanuts M&M's for later) it was back to the scene.
Man this is taking a long time to write.
We get back to find that the suspect has been seen. I decided to stay back at the sat truck. I figured it would be another wild goose chase. Brian wanted to go with Brad. I sat outside our truck. Then walked around some. I began to think they weren't coming back. So I went over to Fox 6's truck. Christie del Amo, who used to work at 19, was there. I went in their truck and started working writing my two, count 'em two, packages.
This is where the swap part of my title starts. While we were busy setting up my noon live shot, a family member of the hostage came by. We didn't have a way to record it, but Fox 6 got it. We had let 6 use some of our Howell Heflin video a few days earlier. So they returned the favor and let us use their interview with the family member. That was Swap Number One.
Swap Number Two: Channel 13 had run across the step daughter of the hostage. She was with her when it all happened. Remember, I had let the 13 reporter use my cell phone. So it was time to return the favor. We had helped them with some video recently too. So they gave us their interview with the step daughter.
Swap Number Three: Brad and Brian finally had to come back from the area where they thought they had the suspect cornered. It was getting too late. A photographer from Channel 42 was there. So we worked out a deal with him. If he would stay and try to get as much video as he could, when he got back we would feed his video back to Birmingham for him. We in turn would get to use his video.
Swap Number Four: 33/40's sat truck was in Huntsville covering the Rudolph hearing. So we agreed to feed their video from the hostage scene back to Birmingham for them. That's a favor we didn't redeem today, but I'm sure someday they will help us out.
Swap Number Five: About two months ago, I was working by myself in Guntersville. I needed a stand up shot. A fellow reporter helped me out and shot it. Today, I returned that favor and shot his stand up.
Strange how all this comes together isn't it? I wrote two packages, a vo and a vo/sot. We were live at noon, 4:30, Five and Six. People at home had no idea what all went on to get those few moments on TV. Normally I would say, "and tomorrow we get to do it all again", but I'm off tomorrow.
Thanks for stopping by.
Anyway, as I was driving into work, our assignment manger Errol Davis called me. Cherokee County deputies were looking for a man who had taken a bail-bondsmen hostage overnight. We don't normally cover Cherokee County on a regular basis. It's not in the Huntsville DMA(designated market area.) In fact, I'm not sure who's DMA it's in. However, this was a story of a bit more unusual character.
I drove on to our office in Albertville. My photographer, Brad Hood, was already there. So we made the rainy trip to the middle of the Taft community, which believe it or not, isn't in the middle of nowhere. I'm told it's just on the outer edges of nowhere. The Cherokee County Sheriff's Department had set up a command post at a church. When we rolled up, NBC 13 out of Birmingham was there. Darrell Norman, a reporter for the Gadsden Times, who's a fellow New York Times employee, was also there. Shortly there after, every other station in Birmingham rolled up.
This is one of those stories that's the meaning of the phrase "hurry up and wait." We listened to the scanner and when police thought they had something, we all followed. Finally around 11am, word came that the hostage had been found down the road. Brad jumped in our Jeep to head there. I had a slight problem. I had let the reporter from Channel 13 borrow my cell phone so she could do a live report on their 11am news. (Pay attention, because this becomes very important later on.) I couldn't leave the church or I might never see my phone again. So Brad went without me. Time went by and our Satellite Truck operator Brian Covington showed up for us to do our noon live shot.
It was 15 minutes till 12. He hadn't booked any satellite time and the truck wasn't set up. So I grabbed the camera and tripod and got that all together. Then I ran the camplex cable from the truck to the camera. All this time, Brian is getting the dish up, time bought and satellite tuned in. We got it set up with just seconds to go before I was live in our pre-show for the noon.
Shortly after my noon live shot, Brad rolled back up. We called Huntsville and decided that since there was no longer a hostage, this story might not be the big news it was. So we had already decided to head back to Albertville. Then we changed our minds and decided to stay, since the guy was armed and running through the woods somewhere.
It was still quiet, everything except for my stomach. The decision was made that it was time to seek food. Problem, there is nothing in the area. We had our choices. One, getting something from a store that was also a bait shop. Two, a store that was also a plumbing store. We decided to keep driving. We drove to the town of Gaylesville. There on the corner, in a small trailer was Jay's Burger Shack. I'm not sure if it was Jay himself who took our order. At that point he could have served me a shoe with some fancy mustard on it and it would have been good. So after my lunch of a burger, fries, Pepsi and a pack of plain M&M's, (I saved the Peanuts M&M's for later) it was back to the scene.
Man this is taking a long time to write.
We get back to find that the suspect has been seen. I decided to stay back at the sat truck. I figured it would be another wild goose chase. Brian wanted to go with Brad. I sat outside our truck. Then walked around some. I began to think they weren't coming back. So I went over to Fox 6's truck. Christie del Amo, who used to work at 19, was there. I went in their truck and started working writing my two, count 'em two, packages.
This is where the swap part of my title starts. While we were busy setting up my noon live shot, a family member of the hostage came by. We didn't have a way to record it, but Fox 6 got it. We had let 6 use some of our Howell Heflin video a few days earlier. So they returned the favor and let us use their interview with the family member. That was Swap Number One.
Swap Number Two: Channel 13 had run across the step daughter of the hostage. She was with her when it all happened. Remember, I had let the 13 reporter use my cell phone. So it was time to return the favor. We had helped them with some video recently too. So they gave us their interview with the step daughter.
Swap Number Three: Brad and Brian finally had to come back from the area where they thought they had the suspect cornered. It was getting too late. A photographer from Channel 42 was there. So we worked out a deal with him. If he would stay and try to get as much video as he could, when he got back we would feed his video back to Birmingham for him. We in turn would get to use his video.
Swap Number Four: 33/40's sat truck was in Huntsville covering the Rudolph hearing. So we agreed to feed their video from the hostage scene back to Birmingham for them. That's a favor we didn't redeem today, but I'm sure someday they will help us out.
Swap Number Five: About two months ago, I was working by myself in Guntersville. I needed a stand up shot. A fellow reporter helped me out and shot it. Today, I returned that favor and shot his stand up.
Strange how all this comes together isn't it? I wrote two packages, a vo and a vo/sot. We were live at noon, 4:30, Five and Six. People at home had no idea what all went on to get those few moments on TV. Normally I would say, "and tomorrow we get to do it all again", but I'm off tomorrow.
Thanks for stopping by.
posted by Carson Clark @ 11:08 PM
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