Special Projects
Producing into the 2011 Blizzard
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Remember the Blizzard of '11? The snow started falling while I was producing the morning show, which aired an additional two hours. After working three days and sleeping two nights at the station, I finally went home. The marathon broadcasts offered interesting challenges to keep our audience interested and informed. Social media saved the day. Facebook comments and Twitter tweets from viewers added content to the extended newscasts, which is why this clip has a lot of chat at the beginning. Skype calls with reporters gave additional context as to what was happening in the surrounding areas.
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Producing Skype Calls On-air during the 2011 Blizzard
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KOMU had five teams of reporters in surrounding cities ready to report on conditions with a smart phone and the newly-released Skype application or a laptop with Skype. I became the Skype Coordinator because we had too many shots for one producer to handle and I was the only one who knew how the technology worked with our broadcasting equipment. I produced 8 hours of Skype calls, connecting otherwise inaccessible reporters with the news station and our audience. Quick shot checks and 40 second lead-time on-air changes required constant communication and coordination. My phone charger worked as hard as I did!
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Trucking Industry Feature
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Missouri piloted the new trucking regulations program imposed on the US trucking industry at the end of 2010. I set out to understand how the rules affected Missouri's truckers and how the industry would be expected to change. This is a feature-length story that ran the day before the new rules were enacted.
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Solely Representing ABC
The summer of 2007 I was an intern at ABC News Radio. After attending one press conference, I solely represented this outlet at conferences and junkets for the remainder of the summer. I was the only intern at ABC News Radio cleared to do this. I learned to ask better questions to celebrities, choose sound bites and put together stories that were compelling to radio listeners. These stories were then distributed around the country for affiliate stations to use.
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