Child Abuse Investigation with Ties to Mid-MO

I had a great start to the week because I didn’t have to get up at midnight for my morning live shot! At the last minute I did a big switcheroo with a couple other reporters, and got a chance to sleep in a little bit. Mondays are always so hard because by 7am I have stayed up all night doing live shots for the morning show, I get home at 8, sleep for 2 hours, and wake up for class and meetings until 8pm! Horrible! I am not one of those people who can stay up all night and function without sleep… I need to train my body to deal with that if I’m going to be in this crazy business!

Because of the switch, I ended up as a 10pm live reporter for Thursday night. The biggest story for us this week is also a tragic one. The Mohler Family from Kansas City – one 77-year old father and his four middle-aged sons, are being charged for horrific sexual acts they performed on the oldest son’s children from 1988 – 1995. One of those sons, 48-year old Jared Leroy Mohler, is from Columbia. What makes it even weirder is that he is fairly involved in the community and his church. Although the children/ victims are grown adults now, one woman just admitted her experiences with these men this week. KOMU received a detailed press release of each man’s charges. I chose not to read them, judging from the reactions of reporters who did. Although they were arrested on Tuesday, Thursday was the first time the 5 men appeared in court. When I came into the newsroom to write my scripts, I thought the only updates to the story were the court hearings, and the continued search for a possible body and written notes on the father’s property. We had file video from Bates City and Lafayette County (where the men went to jail and to court), and graphics of the charges against the brother from Columbia. However, at about 9pm, we got a tip that a sixth man had been arrested in association with these sex crimes. I called the Lafayette County Sheriff, and they were useless. The woman on the other line would not tell me anything, and transferred me to some main line. I then called KMBC in Kansas City, and the man at the assignment desk was helpful and refreshingly polite. Thank you! He told me that he had JUST gotten a press release the minute I called, and forwarded to KOMU’s email. I had just enough time to get the information about this sixth suspect, and then left for my live shot.

 

Columbia man Jared Mohler on top left

 

 

I am not used to hard news crime stories such as this. I enjoy all news, but if I had a choice, I prefer Feature reporting. However, this turned out to be the best live shot I have ever done. The most interesting aspect of this whole thing was the search for written notes in glass jars. Detectives say that the suspects told these kids to write down the “painful memory of their childhood” and bury them in the ground and out of their mind. Maybe it’s because I knew my information and wanted to tell the world how disgusting these men were. Somehow, when I went on camera there was hardly any need for me to use my scripts, and all the video and graphics played perfectly. Horrible story, great live shot. I’ll keep you updated with what they find out about these men.

 

Burrell Mohler Senior's home in Bates City - search for possible body

 

 

Winding Down

Halloween just ended and now I feel like it’s already Christmas! TV Commercials already have holiday themes, and the music is already in the outlet stores! Christmastime means job hunting starts soon! Which means STRESS! The semester pushed the fast-forward button and all of a sudden went from the middle of the term to having only a few weeks to finish up! All of my classes are winding down, and that means final papers, tests, projects, and presentations. Tomorrow I am giving a presentation in my 4000 level spanish class on Spanish surrealist director Luis Buñuel and his film Viridiana. Wish me luck! I’m going to be talking to a class of native speakers

Last Monday I came into KOMU to do a live shot about Jefferson City’s new recycling program. This has actually been a very heavily debated issue in the city, and Monday was the first day the program went into effect. It’s called Single-stream recycling, and it means that all types of recycling go into the same recycling bin, instead of requiring users to sort through the trash themselves. The reason this issue is controversial is because it is a requirement for all Jefferson City residents to pay about 46 cents more per month.. whether someone recycles or not. I went out to Allied Waste Services to set up a shot showing all the new trucks pulling out to get the new trash early in the morning. Since the trucks leave around 5am, it seemed like a perfect way to “show something”. But unfortunately, Allied Waste Services was located so far down in a valley that the live truck could not get a signal.

Tuesday I worked at Newsy on Warren Buffett’s biggest purchase ever. He bought a railroad on the East Coast, and the controversy was whether this was a good time to buy, or it the “Oracle of Omaha” had lost his touch. It was a little intimidating dealing with the stock market for the first time, but I ended up with a good story at the end of the day!

On Thursday I began working on an “8 Goes Green” story for KOMU: Organic Chicken Farming. It sounds a little random, but there is actually a lot to be investigated. We want to a) if people know what organic is, and why they are willing to pay up to 50% more for their chicken in the grocery store, b) what’s the difference between a corporate company and a smaller family farm. Missouri is one of the top states for having the most family-run farms, so my teammates and I are trying to use our resources and show the true Missouri with this story. This weekend will be dedicated to this Organic Chicken story as well. We plan to visit the local Farmer’s Market tomorrow, and then “ambush” (in a friendly way) some shoppers in the grocery store on Sunday!

Last Friday I anchored the 10pm newscast with Angie Bailey. I had a really good time and the show went smoothly. It was fun because it was Parents’ Weekend for a lot of campus organizations, so a lot of my friends and their parents were home at that time and got to see me on the news for the first time.

Happy Halloween!

This is officially the last halloween of my college career. Sad! It’s weird to think what I will be doing to celebrate next year. Where will I be? Who will my friends be? I’m excited of the unknown, but it’s definitely a little nerve-wracking!

As I told you last week, one of my good friends was on the Homecoming Royalty Court here at Mizzou. Every year they announce the King and Queen at the Football game, and Although I had to anchor that night, it was important for me to be there to watch her walk out onto the field! Anchoring last Saturday was very hectic. I was driving to a lovely story on “Tree Days” where a local company donates trees to public schools or the Ronald McDonald’s house. It seemed like an easy VO/Sot, but on the way to the tree farm I got stuck in traffic. A lot of traffic. Los Angeles-style traffic. This is SO not normal for the middle of the country. I was stopped on the highway for a good 15 minutes, and called my producer to tell her I might not make it in time to do the Tree Days story. As I called her though, I told her how strange I thought the traffic was at this time, and I wanted to see what was going on. She approved this new story idea for me, and I inched along in traffic to see where the source of the delay was coming from! I finally saw some police lights up ahead, so I pulled onto the shoulder of the highway, put my blinkers on and my fashionable yellow vest, and started getting video of the traffic. When I talked to the cop, he said there had been a bad collision that blocked one of the two highway lanes. The accident had been cleared by the time he and I got there, but he told me the details of the people involved in the accident based on his computer records from the police database.

I finished with JUST enough time to get to my original Tree Days story. I got a quick interview with the event organizer, got to take a ride into the country for a good look at some trees, and rushed back to the station. Usually I give myself plenty of time to write, edit, put on makeup and style my hair. Not this week! This was a mad dash all the way until I sat in the studio chair. Luckily, the weekend football delayed the show about 15 minutes and gave me some extra time.

Monday morning was the official start to 8 weeks of 430 am live shots. Sound rough? It is! But everyone has to do it. The good thing about reporting live in the morning is the opportunity to go on camera several times during the two and a half hour news block. You get a lot of face time, and a lot of practice, when not a lot of people are watching . This week I did an update on the tragic story about the death of 9-year old Elizabeth Olten. The young Missouri child was found dead in the woods last week, and officials believe a 15-year old local killed her. On the Monday that I reported, new details on funeral arrangements and advising for her school had been published, and I went live in the studio to update the ongoing story. Another one of my good friends had reported this story from the beginning, and he did an amazing job journalistically. So good, in fact, that CNN and Network News requested his story. I am so proud of him.

9-year old Elizabeth Olten

Tuesday was my Newsy Day, and I am really proud of the final product from that work day. I originally wanted to pitch a story about the new “dead celebrity/money-making business” phenomenon going on. the “This is It” Michael Jackson movie would premiere that night, and I thought it would be a good bridge to see if people thought that the movie inappropriately exploited the deceased celebrity. However, as I was looking for a “backup” news pitch (just in case someone else had already used that one), I found one that seemed more newsworthy. There has been a lot of debate as to whether it is good to be a Conservative in the age of Obama. I wanted to see what all the news outlets had to say about this theory, and it turned out to be a perfect Newsy story! Lots of perspectives and angles. I will try to post the video here once I get it onto a hard drive! stay posted.

Friday we had the annual KOMU Halloween Party. You are allowed to dress up like anything you want… as long as it has something to do with broadcast! Anyone working at the station or in broadcast is invited to attend, but this is the first year I really felt comfortable enough to go. This year I know everyone, and I feel like the station is really my home. My friend and I spent a couple of days creating out “Twitter Tweet” costumes, and they came out pretty cute! I had such a good time at the party, because broadcast people are all outgoing, and most have a positive perspective on life! It was a lot of fun, and people came up with the most creative costumes… weather walls, Honor Flight veterans (a series KOMU has worked on for months), and even Michael Jackson was there.

On Saturday (Halloween!) I anchored the news for the very last time. Or so I thought (more details below). I covered a story on the annual “Champion of Champions” Marching Band Contest for Missouri high schools. I couldn’t believe how much of a following there is! There were hundreds of people in the stands at the Mizzou football stadium. As I was going to get a Media Pass from the ticket booth, the sweetest man started asking me questions about the video camera I had in my hands. He knew all these facts about the evolution of the video camera, as well as the editing systems. We got to talking and I asked why he was there. It turns out his grandson was in the local band at Rockbridge High School. Perfect! My producer specifically told me to get an interview from the local school. The man helped me find his grandson, get me onto the field for the best view, and I got a great interview! It was a fun story.

The newscast went really well too! It was Halloween, and it was the day to set the clocks back an hour for Daylight Saving Time, so we had a lot to “chat about”. To top off a great Halloween weekend, the assignments for the next 8 week anchor shifts were posted, and I am still a weekend anchor for the third session in a row. I couldn’t believe they asked me back again. Since it is a learning station, I figured they would give someone else a chance. This makes me feel amazing and so honored to represent KOMU for the next two months. Tune in Fridays at 10pm with me and Angie Bailey!

Jan Moir Tweets, and Living in the Classic College Town

I’m back from a tropical vacation and back to the rapidly chilling Missouri weather. What a slap in the face! Oh well, at least it’s Homecoming week, and the Fall leaves are undeniably beautiful. I love that the Midwest actually has seasons, compared to the same thing year-round in Southern California where I grew up. Supposedly, The University of Missouri invented Homecoming, and so the whole city of Columbia makes the event more than just a football game every year. There are countless traditions and events to attend. My roommate and one of my best friends is even on Homecoming Royalty!

We find out tomorrow if she is queen… cross your fingers! They will announce the King and Queen at half-time during our football game against Texas, but we’re nervous that we’ll be losing so badly by then that no one will be in the stands to watch the Royalty ceremony! Im trying to stay optimistic though! In addition to the game, the Greek Life on campus performs elaborate skits all week, they decorate several areas throughout downtown Columbia, they make floats for a parade, do philanthropic work, and even make huge “pomped” decorations outside the Greek Houses for the children of the community. A “pomp” is an evil, evil word which means tissue paper, wrapped around a thick stick or pencil, stuck in glue and placed on a huge backdrop. Except each pomp takes about 30 seconds to do, and there are a bazillion “pomps” needed to fill the whole backdrop! It seems a little silly, but tradition is everything around here. Now that I’m a senior, my required “pomping” hours are at a minimum, but it still is very tedious work!

Because of my trip to Costa Rica, I missed one of my weekly ten-hour shifts in the Newsy office. So this week consisted of a lot of makeup hours. On Tuesday I was there all day working on a story I found via Twitter. I woke up that morning looking for a good “Newsy” story (something controversial with various opinions). I made my routine morning twitter check-up, and saw “Jan Moir” as one of the Twitter Trends… I had never heard of this person, so I clicked to see what people were saying. I later found out that she was a writer for the Daily Mail out of the UK, and people were very upset with her for an article she wrote on the late Stephen Gately.

For those of you who dont know, he is an Irish pop-star and Boyzone band member who died earlier in the month while in his Majorcan apartment. He had been partying with his partner throughout the night, but died of natural causes. Jan Moir, however, wrote an article titled “Why There was Nothing Natural About Stephen Gately’s Death”, and this infuriated his fans and fans of fair journalism worldwide. The story received record complaints (about 22,000 is what I saw when I wrote the story on Tuesday), and many thought it was an attack on his homosexual lifestyle.

This was a huge story overseas, but not as big of an issue here in the United States. For that reason, it was a challenge for me to find enough quality video required for our targeted audience. In fact, until I argued my case that this was a worthy story, some of my superiors wanted to kill the story all together. I rarely fight back with my directors, because I trust them, but after working on this story for 9 and a half hours, I knew it was a good story that deserved a place on the website. I’m glad I went with my gut, because it was later anchored and put on the website.

On Thursday, I worked in the Newsy newsroom with my good friend on a more technology-focused story. Microsoft’s Bing will start showing Twitter in their search results, and Google is attempting to jump on that bandwagon and do something similar. This is a big deal for a lot of people. Some think this will re-invent the way search engines find information for users, while others are worried about invasion of privacy. For example, would status updates normally shown only to selected friends now be searchable to anyone? Although that is not the case (it is an opt-in application), there was a lot of buzz about the possibility this week. My friend and I searched the WWW all morning to find out what journalists and bloggers were saying about the new addition to these search engines, and by the end of our shift I thought we had a really good story. When I got home a few hours later, however, I learned that the story had been killed. Apparently, there was not enough time for other Newsy workers to finish editing the story, and other scripts were more pressing. It seems like a lot of work out the window, but that’s what happens in journalism! This is real-world experience, and I appreciate learning early on that these disappointments are a reality in this business. Thanks! i guess.

http://www.newsy.com/videos/daily_mail_s_article_on_pop_star_death_sees_record_complaints

Was that a dream?

I’m going to dedicate this post to my weekend trip to Costa Rica, because it deserves a different category than the journalism reflection I will write about the week following my vacation. I have been dating a boy there for almost two years, and I am so happy. I met him while studying abroad there and studying spanish at one of their universities. It is the definition of  a LONG-DISTANCE relationship, but we knew it would be from the beginning. He is a Costa Rican, and his life and history is so different than mine. Picture My Big Fat Greek Wedding… but Hispanic style. He has the big, loud, super fun family that all live in the same little neighborhood. They are always in each other’s business, always planning reunions and cooking way too much food. I am that little, quiet, Caucasian family from the movie. We are conservative in our way of life, and the few relatives we do have live hours away. I’m not saying we don’t know how to have fun, but it is very different from my boyfriend’s lifestyle!

Anyway, I am a student and currently have no income, and although he has a fantastic job in Costa Rica, the cost of life there is a lot lower. Therefore, buying plane tickets all the time takes a toll on the bank account. We figure we get to see each other every 3 months, which is a lot considering how far away we are! It is cheapest for him to travel to my house in Los Angeles. Flights into LAX are a lot cheaper than into St. Louis, and we get to stay at my parents house for free! This time however, we were in a pickle. His travel visa expired, and he wouldn’t get a new one until the end of this month. We didn’t want to risk buying $500 plane tickets if he didn’t get his visa approved, so I decided to take a mid-semester weekend vacation and go back to Central America! Not complaining!

I flew into San Jose, Costa Rica, on Wednesday night. We planned to spend the evening watching the Costa Rica v. United States soccer game at our favorite pub, but by the time I got out of customs, the game was over . Instead, we decided to go out to a nice dinner and act like a normal couple on a date! (We usually end up having Skype dates once a week…. Thank goodness for technology! I don’t know if this relationship would work 10 years ago.)

We got up early Thursday and drove 5 hours to the prettiest beach in the country. Honestly, anyone planning a trip to Costa RIca, Guanacaste is the place to be! It may be far away from the main cities, but worth it! Since it was “low season” for the tourism industry there, we got an amazing deal on a gorgeous hotel right by the beach. That’s the thing… it stinks not being with him all the time, but when we do see each other, it feels like a honeymoon! We spent the whole weekend at the beach, the pool, shopping for souvenirs, and doing absolutely nothing. It was perfect. Actually, I would have liked to take a nice boat ride, but he gets REALLY sea sick. I’ve seen him turn green before .

We drove back into his home town on Saturday, and met up with his best friend for a late night showing of Inglorious Bastards. It was fun to catch up with my old friend again (even though I made a big, classic clumsy American scene and knocked over his beer when I hugged him… sheesh). Also, I think I missed a third of the movie hiding under my sweater. Too much unnecessary gore. But then again, that’s Quentin Tarantino for ya!

It’s always hard to say goodbye. We kept it off for as long as possible on Sunday morning. We went to the airport, checked in my luggage, and then left AGAIN to go out to breakfast (They have Denny’s in Costa Rica!) and stayed together until the last possible minute.

In the end, it was an amazing trip, and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have such a loving, trusting person who cares for me.. even if he is thousands of miles away! The only unfortunate part of the trip was the plane rides back! First, I lost my cell phone somewhere in the Dallas airport. I still don’t remember if I left it in the restroom, the bookstore, or the lounge area. THEN… when I finally got home and unpacked at one in the morning, I realized that someone had taken my camera out of my checked suitcase!  I had no idea I had to be careful about putting valuables in checked bags. I learned my lesson the hard way, but was devastated to lose most of my pictures from the trip.

My boyfriend and I already planned out next trip for the Holidays! He will come stay with me and my family in Los Angeles, and we will go snowboarding in Mammoth Mountain and stay in my family’s condo. It’s fun to see a Costa Rican in the snow.

Reality Check

Ready for your weekly update? Great! Me too. I love blogging because it forces me to stop, take a deep breath, and reflect on all the crazy things I have accomplished all week. It’s always a whirlwind, but it’s nice to look back and think, ‘Wow! I’m proud of that.” I wanted to start out talking about my day at Newsy on Tuesday, because that is also becoming a big part of my journalism career here on campus, and sometimes I forget all the great things I’m learning there as well as KOMU.

At Newsy on Tuesday I started working on a story about the Erin Andrews’ creeper, Michael Barrett. After months of investigation, the FBI finally tracked down is electronic record and found out that this insurance salesman flew all over the country to stalk this ESPN reporter. The scandal I wanted to look deeper into was the fact that the Marriott hotel accepted his request to stay in a room adjascent to hers! All he had to say was that they were friends, and they obliged. This is scary to think that people will believe anything. This naked peephole video of hers could have been easily avoided. Barrett could have served up to five years in prison, but he was released due to his clean record. The thing about Newsy is, it is a very visual media source. There were a lot of articles about the controversy, with differing opinions from blogs and news sites, but hardly any video of Andrews’ or similar hotel privacy violations. Therefore, after hours of research and work, I was forced to change directions and start working on a new story. That’s the biz, I guess! .

I had a great end to the day on Tuesday, because one of the full-time anchors at KOMU sent me a personal email asking me to fill in for her the next night! I was honored that she trusted me to take her spot, and of course I wanted to help! It was fun anchoring with the professional anchors again. They make me feel more at ease because they are so relaxed and conversational on camera. I love that!

Additionally, one of the m0rning anchors is getting married tomorrow, and took two weeks off work to prepare and enjoy her honeymoon! Congrats to her! However, my news director has to fill the anchor spot for that whole time slot, which is certainly a challenge with so many student reporters anxious to get some air time! I was lucky enough to be asked to anchor the morning show for the first time on Thursday, and it was a blast! My co-anchor is really sweet and fun, and made it easy for me to keep up the whole two-and-a-half hours! I am used to anchoring at night, which, when you take out sports and weather, means you are only on camera for about 10 minutes. The Morning Show is a whole different ball game! All the camera changes and moving around took a lot more concentration, but I think my first attempt went pretty well! I get another opportunity to anchor the Morning Show the day I get back from Costa Rica on October 19th, so hopfully I remember what I need to work on for next time.

Anchoring in the Morning was a great experience, but when you are up all night and then come home for a two hour nap, you dont necessarily enjoy waking up to a soaking wet Missouri. Additionally, I was scheduled to do a Live Shot downtown to preview the big football game against Nebraska, and I was very sleep-deprived. Yuck! I woke up at 11am on Thursday, and called the station to see if I would be going live outside. Since it was storming all day, we decided I would preview the gameday traffic in the studio. Phew! Much better. It was a fun story and fairly easy to get a couple sound bytes and video of cars. I was in the studio for the 5 and 6pm shows, and they both went pretty well!

I got out of the station about an hour before the football game started. I felt obligated to go since I have season tickets and haven’t been avalable for one game yet! However, it was pouring rain, and I was still exhausted from work, so I met up with some girlfriends, we made an amazing pasta dinner, and watched the game from the comfort of a warm and dry home. It was perfect. We even drove through my favorite ice cream parlor, “Andy’s”. If you are ever in Missouri, go to “Andy’s Custard”. It will change your life.

Because of another football game, the 6pm show at KOMU is cancelled for Saturday, but the 10pm student anchors are letting Elyse and I anchor for them instead! That’s so sweet! So as usual, my Saturday will be filled with VO Patrolling and anchoring. I’m almost done with my 8-week anchor spot, so I definitely want to make the most out of the great opportunity to be a weekend anchor. Wish me luck!

Mizzou Idol and the FOX News Challenge

Buenos Dias!

Thanks for checking in to my blog. This week went by really fast but really slow at the same time… Fast, because I feel like I was just writing this blog yesterday. Slow, because I am going to Costa Rica in a little over a week, and I am so anxious to go!

Earlier in the week, I was chatting with my parents about life, and this FOX Challenge came into the conversation. I had never heard of it, but my parents watch that channel all the time, so I asked them for more details. They told me it was a competition for journalism students in college, where you create a mock broadcast story in an effort to win $10,000 details. Awesome! Since it is a national competition, and Mizzou is obviously the best broadcast school on the planet, I think my odds are pretty good! The final product is not due until February, which gives us an extensive amount of time to prepare, research, investigate, and perfect!

At first I thought I was going to do it alone, but when I read the rules, it required teams of two to four people. Luckily, the next day, one of my teachers tweeted about the competition, and a lot of my friends were interested! I am now in a team of three other amazing journalists, and I am so excited to get started on an amazing story. We have a meeting with the four of us later tonight, and I’m excited to get started and brainstorm some ideas. I’ll keep you posted with the updates as it develops!

On Thursday I had my weekly live shot, which I am still smiling about. I woke up early on Thursday to find a good story for the 5 and 6pm newscasts. Up until now, my stories have been OKAY, but I know I can push a little harder and do better. I enjoy the pressure and the adrenaline that comes with going live, and I want to make sure I do the best I can since I only have a few chances!

I found out that auditions were being held for Mizzou’s National Anthem singers at the sporting events for the upcoming season. How fun! I pitched the idea to my producers, and they thought it seemed like a good story. I had an interview at the Mizzou Arena (where the auditions were being held later that day) with the Assistant Director of Marketing for the MU Athletic Department. I had a great meeting with him and got video of the women’s basketball team practicing. However, with only a couple of weeks left until my dayside live shots were over, I wanted to make this story stand out. There is a boy on campus who everyone knows. He sings at almost every Mizzou event, and has a fantastic voice. I made a few calls until I found his number. I asked him is he was auditioning to sing at the basketball games, and sure enough, he was! I asked him to meet me as soon as he got out of class for a live interview, and everything worked out perfectly.

It was a really rainy day, so I made sure I had made a backup VO-SOT for the anchors to read just in case the live shot was rained out. Luckily, we were able to set up the shot inside the Mizzou Arena so we could all stay dry. One of my friends in a lower broadcast class was shadowing the live truck, so she was able to help me as I scrambled last minute. My live interview showed up just in time to practice for a couple of minutes and prepare for his on-camera debut. I requested that he start singing at the “good part” of the National Anthem… we all know when it gets exciting.

At the end of the day, my live shot was definitely different than the usual VO-SOT I aim for every Thursday. I am going to try for something even more unique my next couple of weeks. My live truck operator was one of the best at the station, and it was a pleasure to coordinate the look I wanted that day.

On Saturday, Elyse and I anchored the 6pm newscast. It was chaos! It started out perfectly, when I went to Jefferson City to cover the 8th annual Multicultural Festival at Memorial Park. There were hundreds of people there and tons of performances, food, and activities from all over the globe. This made it easy to get interesting video. Additionally, I talked to a woman who impersonated Harriet Tubman, and she was a great interview.

Too bad no one ever got to see that VO-SOT. The football game on NBC went overtime… 45 minutes overtime. We started the show at 6:45, and had to be finished by 6:57. A 12-MINUTE NEWSCAST? REALLY? And when you take away 5 minutes for sports, and 3 minutes for weather, that means i spent an hour and a half on my makeup for about 15 seconds of airtime. Worth it? Maybe… but Elyse and I were so loopy after waiting at the news desk for an hour that we couldnt stop laughing! It does make a pretty funny story.

On Sunday, I had professional photos taken! I am trying to work on my professional website to show my reporting work, and I think these pictures will make everything look very polished and beautiful. I could have waited to get them taken at home, but luckily we have an amazing cameraman at KOMU who takes pictures of students in the News Studio. That is a great opportunity to show how it really is for us there, and I think the pictures turned out well! Speaking of this cameraman, he happened to have won 6 Emmy’s for the regional competition in St. Louis the night before, so he was in a pretty good mood.

Relax? What is that?

Now that my big Hispanic Heritage project has aired and the hard work is over, I don’t know what to do with myself! I took a few days to relax and be a normal college kid, but now I’m restless! I’m thinking about working on a new KOMU en Espanol story, so let me know if you have a good idea for a feature piece.

I worked my usual Thursday dayside live shot shift, and it was a unique experience as usual! As I was heading out the door to the news station, I received a text from my producer, who told me I would no longer be live on the scene, but rather live in the studio. Although this is a lot less pressure, since you can rely on working technology and a teleprompter, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed. I haven’t yet had a ROCKIN live shot that I am extremely proud of, and I was hoping to get out in the field and really “show” something with my live read. My producer also informed me that they had a story for me to report on, so all I needed to do was show up and get my assignment!

If this happened to me a few months ago, I would have been grateful for the relief. But I have been doing this for a while now, and I now like the pressure of the unknown. That is how I know that I am really getting comfortable in my “reporter” skin. I know I can handle anything, and I would have loved to do something more adventurous for my weekly assignment. My story was this: the local shelter received almost $2 million from the Columbia Housing Authority, to remodel their building in an ec0-friendly way. Not a bad story. However, when I was at KOMU, an alert came over the news scanner that piqued my interest.

A car had run into a school bus. A big, yellow, huge school bus. How does that happen?! Well, I wanted to find out! Since I had enough time, I hustled to the scene to see what it was. Of course, I got stuck in traffic, and got to sit there and watch as the school bus drove away fairly unharmed. I was able to get a few good close-ups of the squished Nissan that ran into the bus before the tow truck took it away.

It turns out the 30 year-old driver of that sedan was totally at fault. She drove herself and two young children over two double-yellow lines, and straight into the side of a schoolbus! There were about 45 students on the bus, and fortunately only one complained of pain and went to the hospital. When I first got to the scene of the accident, I didn’t know any of this information. Anyone who knew information was already gone, so it seemed that this story would not come to fruition until I learned more information.

While I waited for certain officials to get back to me with details on the accident, I went to the local shelter to see what I could learn about this new grant they received to remodel. I worked on that story for a while, but that didn’t seem to be going far either. No one was in their office that day, and the best thing I had was an interview from a resident at the shelter who gave me her reaction to the news.

Finally, a press release about the car crash came in, and I was able to give a reliable report. So I came back to the station, wrote a script about that, and ended up doing only that story. It was very confusing for me and the producers, since I wasn’t sure what story I was working on all day, but it all ended well and no viewer had to know about my hectic day .

I ended the week by anchoring the Saturday 10pm newscast. I usually anchor Saturdays at 6pm, but my friend needed a favor so I was happy to help him and switch this week. The show was fine, but I definitely appreciate the feeling of having a set team of the same people every week. I am excited to go back and rock the show next Saturday!

http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/edb3c230-80ce-0971-0170-fb262bb8c6e2

Thinking of the Future

Time is flying by and I am well into my senior year. STOP! This is too overwhelming for me! Before I know it my friends and I are going to be wearing caps and gowns to receive graduation diplomas. I know I am ready, but it still scares me to think about entering the “real world”. Mizzou is so predictable, so safe. Everything is here for me and I am perfectly happy here. I am excited to get out and show the world what I’ve got, but it makes the feelings even more tense when you know exactly when the deadline is, and you have to watch is slowly creep towards you.

I think all these “graduation” scares came to me this week because of spring break. I know, random, right? But a bunch of my friends and I planned to go all out for our last college vacation, and a cruise sounds perfect for all of us. It is pretty cheap ($430… not bad!), safe (we’re all stuck on a boat), and a great way to end off an amazing four years with people who made it so. Anyway, the point is, even though the cruise isn’t until the end of March, that fabulous price is ending next week! So all of a sudden, something I wanted to ask my parents about over Christmas holiday came 4 months early! Ah! Fortunately, my parents are extremely generous and supportive, and they thought it sounded like a perfect graduation gift.

My mom was the one who mentioned that when I get back from the cruise…aka back to reality, it will be April, and I will be leaving Mizzou shortly after! Crazy. But you know what, I’ve done it before, and I can do it again. I moved 2000 miles away from home when I was only 18 years old, and started a new life for myself in the Midwest. This is just the next chapter of my life, and I need to get that care-free, “jump in with two feet” attitude I had when I was a teenager off to college.

Speaking of the future, I got a very exciting phone call from Los Angeles this week! I am going back home for a month over the holidays, and I wanted to use that time constructively to see how the broadcast business works in a big market like L.A. My little sister helped me out with this one. She remembered one of her best friends from high school had an internship with her dad at CBS, and told me she would help me make that connection to see if I couldn’t do the same! I knew it would be a long shot, but it sounded like an amazing opportunity. I have been talking to her father at CBS over the past two weeks, and after several fishing emails and resume deliveries, I got a bite! He had sent my information to the internship coordinator, who was unbelievably open to me working there over the holidays. Woo hoo! We will be meeting over Thanksgiving to work out all of the dates, but I can not be more excited and grateful for everyone’s generosity!

Hold for Release is Released!

I’ve done this before. I’m not sure how I forgot how much work goes into a spanish version of a KOMU news story, but it hit me all over again last week! Hispanic Heritage Month is underway, and I kicked off the series on Thursday with a 3 and a half minute story on scholarship opportunities for Hispanic students in Missouri. I did a good chunk of my work LAST Thursday, when I took that day-trip to St. Louis in search of my “experts”. I ended up getting to talk to four different people who were excellent sources. However, as of Monday, I was still missing my “central compelling character”, or “CCC”, as we Mizzou broadcast students like to call it. Jomo from At&Ts HACEMOS scholarship program gave me the names of a few students who received the scholarship in Columbia, so I met up with one of them Monday morning to get the more personal side of this news story. David is a Masters student at the University of Missouri, but over the course of his studies has received three scholarships from these local Hispanic organizations. Their main goal is to improve their cultural community and reputation, and they are trying to start from the ground up by giving their kids the opportunity to get a higher education. It was a pleasure to put this story together, and I am very proud of the final product: the graphics that KOMU designer Scott and I created, the writing, the interview bytes. However, writing a completely different script, in Spanish, for the same due date, is not so fun. I love speaking the language and have fairly advanced skills (for a gringa ) but it still takes a long time for me to make sure the grammar and structure of the story correctly follows a proper TV format.

In the end, I was at the news station from 7am until 2am Thursday (not to mention all the other hours I put into it the past couple of weeks), but I am finally finished! Now I get a three week break before my weekend getaway to visit friends in Costa Rica! I studied there my Sophomore year of college, and am excited to go back to what feels like my second home.

But anyway, enough daydreaming… back to broadcast talk! Thursday… it was the air-date for my HFR, but also my weekly live shot shift! I was assigned a very fun and very “me” story about a local museum crawl. I ran to campus to get a quick interview, take a look at what the scene would look like during my actual live shot, and ran back to the station to write a script and pick out a sound byte. I practiced what I wanted to say at least 10 times, but of course I changed my mind the second before I was on the air. At first I wasn’t sure how well I performed, but when I got back to the station, several people said they really enjoyed the story! That made me feel great.

However, I didn’t have much time to chat with anyone! I had just gone live at 5, and drove back to the KOMU studio to intro and tag my HFR for the 6pm show! phew! People hopefully didn’t notice, but I can tell from the video that I look like I had been running around at a museum crawl all afternoon. Now I have a little bit of time before I need to start thinking about my next KOMU en Espanol feature piece, so let me know if anyone has ideas.