This has really been an exciting year!

Since I started at KTAB back in August of last year, I have seen so many new things, met tons of wonderful people, and done so many things that I had only dreamt of.

For example;

1) Meeting Randy Travis

















2) Filming and reporting on devastating fires



















3) Filming a tornado (From the Easter 2011 Outbreak, not the tornado I was thinking of, but close enough)

















4) Getting my video played on CNN, CBS Early Show, and countless other stations around the nation


5) Going to Cowboys Stadium and filming an LSC game from the sidelines that was carried live across Texas

















And most recently, taking my first ride on a hot air balloon!


The Big Country Balloon Festival is an annual fundraiser for the Optimist Club of Abilene, many people come out and see the balloons rise majestically into the air, but few get the chance to ride in the balloon. Even fewer get to do it with such wonderful people as the Sunny-D-Lite crew.

Ron and Brenda McKinney from Oklahoma City are avid balloonists, not only are they great at what they do, but they make you feel like you are part of their family when you are with them.

So let me tell you how this all started...

I was walking through the newsroom one day and overheard my boss telling Alex that he wanted her to go on a balloon ride, I literally ran to her desk and said, “Can I go too!?” Of course Austin had something funny to say about my enthusiasm, but I didn’t care, he agreed and we set the date!

We woke up super early (5 AM) on the morning of September 23rd, 2011. I came to the station, grabbed the live truck, and headed for the park. After meeting Alex, setting up our live shot for Josh that morning, and making a quick run to Starbucks (I told you it was early!) we came back and waited for our ride.

While we were standing around we noticed a group of people in bright orange shirts, keep in mind this was around 7 AM so it was still dark outside. They’re shirts were bright! One of the “orange shirts” came up to us and started talking to us, my first thought was, “I hope we get to go with them!”.

Sure enough, it came time to set up the balloon, we chitchatted for about 30 minutes before getting everything set up. They got the balloon all aired up and ready to go, then it was “hop in, hold on, here we go!”, and we were off!

The feeling was like floating on a cloud, you knew you were going in the air but it sure didn’t feel like it! The heat from the burners right above my head kept us nice and cozy, but a little breeze kept us moving. It was a perfect flight! We took off from Redbud Park, drifted over Buffalo Gap Road, South 27th, and eventually came to rest in a baseball field behind the Hendrick Home for Children. The landing was just as smooth as the takeoff. It was amazing how far you could see, we could clearly see I-20, Kirby Lake, the Mall of Abilene, every direction you looked you could see for miles! The cool thing was, you could hear people on the ground probably better than they could! The sounds of cars driving, children playing, and even passing fire trucks made the event even more amazing.

After coming to rest, we talked... for about 30 minutes, about this and that, how they met, who they were, etc. Then we all loaded the balloon in the trailer, piled into the Suburban, and went back to the park. It was such a wonderful experience, but little did Alex and I know, it wasn’t over!

When we got back to the park, we met up with the rest of the crew. Then, Brenda told us they had something special for us. I was excited! Alex went first, Brenda went over the history of ballooning and then the fun part! They said the balloonists’ prayer, then we had to drink our “champagne” (ok, so it was sparkling grape juice, but it was still good!). They sat the cup in front of us, had us on our knees on the ground, then told us to drink our juice... without using our hands! Alex was a pro and had no problem with it... I on the other hand, was not as graceful.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience that I would do again in a heartbeat!

A special thanks to Ron and Brenda McKinney and the entire Sunny-D-Lite team for giving us such an awesome experience, you guys rock!

The video of my ceremony is below, feel free to laugh AT me!


Cody “Captain” McDonell
Videographer,
KTAB-TV KRBC-TV

No, Seriously...Local TV Stations Might Go Away!

Folks, you need to take note of what is going on with the Government with regards to how we bring you not only the news but also CBS and NBC programming. In the future, local broadcast TV stations might be FORCED to stop broadcasting in HD...or worse, even off the air all together.

Here's how it works right now. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has issued us a license to broadcast to you on UHF Channel 24 (KTAB-DT 32.1) and UHF channel 29 (KRBC-DT 9.1). Every TV station in the country is assigned a channel to broadcast on. That signal can be picked up by an antenna and watched on your HDTV (or older TV with a converter box) for free. That signal reaches a certain radius from around our transmitter tower. Cable and satellite companies also pick it up and send it to you.

The FCC wants to get rid of some channels in the spectrum (see the links below for an explanation of what the spectrum is). That means there are less available channels for TV stations to broadcast on. If channels are eliminated from the spectrum, some stations will be forced to change the channel they broadcast on. That means you will have to re-scan your TV or box to get those stations. If the FCC eliminates enough channels from the spectrum, some stations will be forced to share a channel. Right now, our competition does this. Notice the other channels on their frequency are not in HD? That's because there isn't enough bandwidth (again, see the links below for an explanation on what the spectrum is) to broadcast two HD signals on the same channel. To do it, the quality must suffer. And that's what could happen to all broadcast stations..they could get consolidated into sharing a channel. This means you could lose your over-the-air free HDTV signal. What you would be watching would most likely be a wide screen standard definition signal. By the way, I mentioned earlier that most cable companies and both satellite providers use our off air signal to get our stations to you. If consolidation happens, you could also lose HD reception until those providers find an alternate way to get it to you. The methods of doing that are fiber optic or microwave direct feeds from our studio..and that's very expensive and would most likely raise your bill.

The FCC wants to take our channels and sell them to other companies, mostly cell phone and Internet providers. Don't be fooled. It's already happened a couple of times. At one time, there were 83 available channels for TV stations to broadcast on. That was reduced to 69 (in the 90s I believe). When the DTV transition happened in 2009, channels 2-6 and 52-68 were eliminated. Things like wireless Internet routers, cell phones, blue tooth and many other technologies now occupy that space in the spectrum.

This summer the FCC proposed a "voluntary" system where broadcasters give their channel up and get compensated for it. Stations who chose to do this would be re-assigned another channel or share with another station. Our industry, with your help, fought to make this remain a voluntary thing. We succeeded. But it's far from over. We need you to help us keep our ability to bring you over-the-air free TV. See the following links for more information. There's lots there. Take some time and explore these sites.

http://www.thefutureoftv.org/

http://www.nab.org/television/thefutureoftv.asp

Beating the Heat

In my previous post, I mentioned how I've transitioned from "the streets" as a full-time videographer to a desk job.  I've actually really enjoyed these last couple of months....and not to mention, it's 68 degrees at my desk, and I have a fan blowing on me.  I don't miss the outdoors in the summer!

From Behind the Lens to Behind the Desk

I guess you can call me a broadcast news veteran. For 10 of the 11 1/2 years I've been in the television industry, I've been a news photographer (videographer/cameraman/whatever you want to call us).  I could go into excruciating detail on the specifics of my professional career, but here it is in a nutshell: I worked at KRBC from 1995-99, mostly as a news photog.  I then moved up to a "big" market, working as a photog for WINK-TV in Ft. Myers/Cape Coral/Naples, Florida for a year and a half from '99 to the end of 2000.  I left the news business for a "real job" in Houston, but I was "downsized" in early 2005. I returned to Abilene, and in the summer of that year I was named Chief News Videographer of the now-combined KTAB/KRBC.

Fast-forward six years, and it's time for a new position with a new title.  I'm now the Assignments Manager for the KTAB/KRBC/Bigcountryhomepage.com News Department.  The title doesn't mean much to people outside of the business, but it's the #2 position in our news operation, just below our fabulous News Director, Austin Kellerman.  My functions are too numerous to describe here, but in future blogs I'll elaborate on my new digs.

The biggest change is the scenery.  As a photog, the majority of my time was spent on the streets; my news vehicle was my office.  I was on the scene of the news as it happened, documenting it all with a very nice high-definition television camera.  Now, I sit at a large, U-shaped desk most of the day, with scanners and telephones constantly blaring in my ear.  But it's a nice change, and I'm enjoying it!  And the best part is not having to be out in the 107-degree heat; or the 2 degree cold....

Much more to come later!

Rotan Gets Evacuated...and I'm Right in the Middle of it!

I was alone while shooting all this. I was sent to get fresh fire video. The wind changed, sending the fire straight toward Rotan. The evacuation order happened right as I got into town. It presented a unique opportunity to show it as it was happening. Normally the town is already closed down by the time we get there. I've allowed some of the video to roll RAW, so there are long clips between narration and a lot of shaky shots. Hopefully it will give you a sense of what it was REALLY like in Rotan that night. I was also working VERY quickly to get enough to tell the story but get out of town before the fire got there.

Are You Watching News or Listening to Someone's Opinion?

You need to be careful about how you form your opinions around what's going on in the news these days. The information you are getting might not be fact but someone's opinion.



More and more, it's becoming OK for "anchors" to state their opinion on TV. I use "anchors" loosely because the person you are watching may not actually be a journalist.



This is not generally the case in local news (certainly not KTAB-KRBC, I can assure you). It tends to happen on the cable news networks (CNN, HLN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel) and syndicated tabloid shows like Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight and TMZ). You also need to be very aware of what websites you get your news from.



In the age of hundreds of TV channels and millions of websites, everybody is competing for your eyes. Lots of opinion-based shows have emerged, even on the news networks. It's getting harder and harder to distinguish between a newscast and an opinion show with news topics. As we move further and further in this direction, (and here's my opinion) I think some people are not able to tell the difference, especially young folks who weren't around before the change took place.



Glenn Beck, Bill O'Riley, Sean Hannity, Rachel Maddow, and Nancy Grace do not do newscasts, they do opinion shows. Sometimes a big national or international story (like what's going on in Egypt right now) breaks during one of these shows and they do news, but for the most part each one of these shows is planned as an opinion program on a nightly basis. And it works. Ratings have soared. If you listen to them closely, sometimes they will say "this is my opinion, I've done my homework and you should do yours". Be careful. Not every talk show host reminds you of that.

You don't have to get a degree in journalism to be on TV. Likewise, you can go into TV not knowing anything and become a pretty good journalist just by learning from those who are and by practicing it yourself with guidance. All of our reporters at KTAB-KRBC have good training and guidance, just so you know. That's not the case with the national cable networks these days. How do I know? I went to Colorado City every day for a month covering the Hailey Dunn story. During that time I worked with many people on the Nancy Grace Show. That's all I'll say about that (it's a whole different topic for another day)

You can trust your local TV news outlets (not just here, but anywhere). Here's my opinion again...if you hear about a story on one of the opinion shows, look it up on the website of a local TV station in that area. They are probably reporting the most accurate information.

And, most importantly, be aware of what you are watching and use your head to determine if someone is reporting or giving their opinion. It's getting harder and harder to tell what is fact and what is opinion in this changing society we live in.

Behind the Scenes (er, Lens), January 2011

It's been a while since Goose or I updated the blog, and for that I apologize. But I've been busy documenting some of the "daily routine" with my BlackBerry's somewhat-decent camera, so here's some photos to start the new year....



The KTAB/KRBC News Department received two very generous Christmas gifts, courtesy of our parent company, Nexstar Broadcasting Inc.  For the first time in four years, we were able to purchase brand new vehicles for our news car fleet, both 2011 Nissan Rogue SUVs.  Pictured here is the new Unit 5, which replaced a dilapidated 2003 Honda Civic.  When this picture was taken, it had about 9 miles on the odometer.  Just over a month later, it has about 4,500 miles on it.



Our other new Rogue, Unit 10, is silver with a black interior.  It replaced a 1999 GMC Jimmy that had over 200,000 miles on it.  Both new cars take their place among our existing fleet of Honda Civics, Ford Focuses, a Chevy Trailblazer, a Honda CRV, a Chrysler PT Cruiser, and three live vans.  Unfortunately, Civic Unit 4, pictured in the foreground, was involved in an accident a few days ago.  It's likely totaled.  Thankfully, Manny Diaz (who was driving) wasn't injured.

KRBC's Morgan Bond smiles for the camera after a live shot from a grass fire near Hawley in late December.  She and I were using our live remote van dubbed "ENG-9."  In the background, KTAB's Priscilla Luong and Goose get ready to go live on the KTAB side while standing on the roof of our other primary live van, ENG-32.

A heartbreaking sight....two days before Christmas, and a family loses everything when their home is destroyed by fire.  This is just off FM 707 north of Tye.

While driving along Barrow, I noticed a CityLink bus several blocks ahead of me, with a large KTAB logo on the back.  I had never seen it before, and when I finally caught up with it at the intersection of S. 7th and Sayles, I had to take this pic....

This Cessna ran out of fuel and had to make an emergency landing on an I-20 access road in northeast Abilene.  Talk about luck!

Just after 11am on January 4, Abilene firefighters responded to a structure fire in the 1200 block of Cypress Street.  Upon arrival, they found this detached garage and upstairs apartment involved in heavy smoke and flames.  No one was hurt, but the owners lost many items in the fire.

Bob and Lane anchor the 6pm news live, while Sam chills out in the forecast center.  Notice the television set on the top right....that's what's being broadcast at that moment.

The biggest news story of this young year, unfortunately, has been the disappearance of Colorado City teenager Hailey Dunn.  CNN/HLN host Nancy Grace has been closely following the story, and routinely interviews Hailey's mother, Billie, from her Colorado City home.  KTAB/KRBC are CNN affiliates, so we get to use their Dallas-based satellite truck whenever it's in C-City.

On the left is the CNN camera crew's fancy setup for the Nancy Grace show, while on the right is my meager camera shot for KTAB's 5 & 6 newscasts.

Here's Goose, editing a news story inside the CNN satellite truck.  Our company has our own "sat truck" based out of Lubbock, but it's not nearly this nice!

On Friday, Jan. 21, Dyess AFB received its 5th C-130J.  Eventually the base will be home to 28 of the brand-new planes.

Sam Nichols and I are live at the Abilene Civic Center, previewing the West Texas Rehabilitation Center's 2011 telethon and auction.

Our news director, Austin Kellerman, and his wife Laura, hosted an "After-Christmas Christmas Party" at their home.  It was a fun time for the KTAB/KRBC news family!