Chasing for the Media?

[Billy Griffin]

So - who here is affiliated with the Media. Maybe not so much as an occasional freelance thing (we all can do that from time to time) but who is actually affiliated with a media outlet, TV or Radio?

Me, I've been affiliated with three TV stations as a true "on-staff" chaser, as well as one radio station as their chasing coordinator. I had a lot of good times doing it, but it certainly came with a lot of frustration along the way. And in the end, it seems that either my personality, independence, or whatever else has triggered an unpleasant departure from my relationships with the media. A couple of times, I never was made aware of what triggered their decision to "@#$# can" me from their teams. Others, I've left on my own due to their expectations. A few media sources here in OKC are so competitive, they actually desire the most extreme, up-close, "defying the odds"-type drama. Sure, all media feed off of it - but when it's an "EXPECTATION" and asking someone to get their vehicle torn to pieces, in addition to deliberately getting into life-threatening situations, that's all it took for me to say, "no thanks!"

Anyone else have any stories to share, good or bad? In fairness, please keep the media source(s) nameless in your stories. I look forward to reading others' reviews / stories / comments.

Thanks !!!

 

[Joey Ketcham]

I worked in the Joplin Mo/Pittsburg KS market for close to 5 years as a news photographer for the CSB affiliate and immediately became part of the chase team out there after I started working there. The first two years I worked there we had an awesome chase team, our chief meteorologist at the time, Dan Bickford, was an OU grad and did some stuff with NSSL out in the field. He was all about chasing and did a great job getting us out and nowcasting for us.

I loved it, I had chased for a few years prior but I always chased solo, at the station we had about 6 people that made up our chase team and we always went out in at least groups of 2's so we never chased along. I have a lot of good memories from back then.

After Dan left, the chase team kinda went to crap and no longer had the organization that it did. I still e-mail Dan here and there with video's and pictures of recent chases... I have nothing but good things from my time as a media chaser. And you hear about the horror stories of media chasers being wreckless, that was one thing Dan hit upon very hard is safety and chasing responsibliy and I think we did a pretty damn good job doing so.

 

[Billy Griffin]

Yeah, sometimes when the "chief" leaves, things can fall apart rather quickly. Still, sounds like you guys had a great team!

Me, I'm pretty happy, and quite honored, with my current set up. Pretty much the world's most popular station with a darn good reputation for accurate, safe information to the public.

I've been going through years and years of old chase tapes, from stuff originally on 3/4" tape, to SVHS, to 8mm, mini DV, DVD and finally, HDV. Funny how some of the media sources still have one or two who seem to push the limits. I was just reviewing a tape from back in 1999, where a chaser was asked by the on-air talent to go to a certain location. Moments later, the person in the field calls in that their windows had been blown out by wind and hail. The on-air (studio) guy replies, "keep going, and try to get us some pictures back as soon as you can!" This was in the days of the P.V.T. units - no such thing as streaming video, only a video capture or two at a time using the bag phones.

 

[Jason Boggs]

I have been chasing for KAMR-TV here in Amarillo, for about 6 or 7 years now. I don't have to bring in video to get paid because I'm actually an employee that gets paid an hourly wage. I think chasing for a TV station has it's perks because LE knows that I'm out there to help save lives by doing phoners and relaying reports back to the station for the viewers in our coverage area. I carry a media pass that I got from the Amarillo police department so I can get into damage areas if needed. I also use it to get through road blocks when it's safe to do so. Getting paid to do what I love is sure nice, especially since gas is so high now. By the way, here is our coverage area:

All the TX panhandle down to about highway 70 which runs E-W through Plainview.

All of the eastern rows of counties in Eastern NM.

All of the OK panhandle.

All of the western rows of counties in Western OK.

Morton, Stevens and Seward counties in SW KS.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I have chased for a station out of Wichita for four years now. They are a great station to chase for IMO. They pay about as good as you are going to get from a local station and in addition to that they have given me shirts, a jacket, and a stormhawk with GPS for chasing. I don't have a whole lot of use for the stormhawk because I already have XM, but it does offer some pretty cool features (and I do like being able to get warning text off of it). They have a radar overlay screen at the station that shows all the chasers locations. We can send in reports through the stormhawk, which shows up on the screen where we made the report. We got a new chase coordinator this year who is doing a really good job. He is always willing to help out with nowcasting and any other information. When you get video he will make sure everything is lined up so I can feed from DDC or Hays if need be. He will also make the arrangements to feed to national networks when I sell video. They have been the number one rated station in Kansas for something like 20 years. They are always grateful and appreciative of the chasers. I really enjoy chasing for them. IMO they hands down have the best weather coverage in the state. I have an extremely strong hatred for the closest competitor station though, so I may be biased.
I also have a station in Iowa I will chase for if I'm up there and a station in Oklahoma I can feed video from in exchange for a free 10 day license.

 

[Scott Roberts]

I chase for the same station as Mike Gribble (in fact, it was me who recruited him to the chase team). This is my second year doing it and I coordinated for two years before that. I much prefer being in the field to coordinating -- not because I didn't enjoy coordinating, but because of the other stuff I had to put up with on non-chase days. I'm a radio guy, and I just didn't cut it on the assignment desk, for some reason I've never been able to figure out.

Before that, I chased/spotted for the #1 radio station in Wichita, as part of my responsibilities on thier news team. I say chased/spotted, because we covered a severely restricted county area with our chasing, in comparison to the geographic area I cover now. I handled most of the Mobile Unit coordination during storms for one year of that time.

As Mikey mentioned, the station provides StormHawks for the core memebrs of the chase team, and pays for the cell phone it takes to keep the data current. In addition, they have sprung for the EVDO data plan on my "station" phone, so I'm piping all my data through that now. On my side, I have set up an FTP site where the chase team can upload video from the field and the station can gat it quicker. Some of us use it, some don't.

We have an interesting mix of people -- some who are hard-core chasers, and rarely stop to feed video until the storms are done, and others like me who shoot something and get it back as soon as we can. Some rely on the station for a lot of nowcasting, while some are pretty independent, only calling the station when they have something to report. I guess I'm somewhere in the middle.

Overall, the experience is extremely positive, and it's a relationship I plan to continue as long as possible. Among the weather team and the chase team, there are no problems with egos, people feeling like they are getting stomped, on, and no demands that we go into areas we shouldn't go. We make all our own decisions in that regard, and the station supports our decision. It has been said, and proven, a number of times that they value our safety first and foremost. And most, if not all, of us take our role in the warning process as seriously as we do taking photos and video.