W. B. A. L. T. V. Presents, makeup room confessionals.
Welcome to our new web series called makeup room confessionals. I am your
host, Blair Young and I am the newest digital editor here at W. B. L. T. V.
This show is going to give you a behind the scenes and personal look at some of
our morning crew here at W. B. A. L. Hope you enjoy it. In this week's
episode, we ask the morning crew where they get their start in media and ask
them to share one of their favorite stories from that time. First up we
have reporter Tommy clark. Hello, my name is Tommy Clark. I'm a newer
reporter here at W. B. A. L. T. V. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about when
I first started in the news industry. So for those of you who don't know I am
from des Moines Iowa but I didn't start in des Moines, the capital. I started
very small, There's all these TV markets 200 some it's the smallest. I
was in market 150 it was there that you do everything by yourself. So I was
what's called a multimedia journalist which meant I was the photographer, I
was the reporter. Um I did it all by myself. I edited my stories every
single step. But one of my favorite memories from when I started was a
pheasant hunt. So you may have heard I was the first in the nation caucus
state and when you are a multimedia journalist, you do it all yourself. So
one of my stories was to go pheasant hunting with the republican
presidential candidates. And then we went pheasant hunting and it was quite
a track. I had a tripod that your camera goes on a camera, a backpack.
I'm climbing hills in heels wasn't the best idea. I was like 20 years old, I
think so. I learned a lot. Um you remember Ted Cruz was there all kinds
of candidates. Um it was an interesting story to say the least. I learned if
you're gonna go pheasant hunting don't wear heels. Um, but it was fun and I
got to learn more about the kind of people that they are, their character.
And I really learned a lot at my first job. Next up we have mindy bazaar hi
Mindy Basara, the morning anchor Wphl tv. And my first on air job in Tv was
at a little tiny Tv station in Harrisonburg Virginia, in the mountains,
in the Blue Ridge Mountains um wh S V T. V. And it was the only Tv station in
the market. It was actually a house, somebody had converted into a tv
station and there was actually even a swimming pool out back that was one
part that you could just swim in the swimming pool when you're finished with
your shift. Um and I was a one man band meaning I carried all the gear. So I
was the photographer and the reporter and the gear back then was really heavy.
It was something called three quarter gear and the gear weighed £75 and I
weighed about £100. So it was quite a struggle and I was not a good
photographer, but it was a really good learning experience. None of us made
any money there. We, I think we all made minimum wage. My parents were
horrified that I went to college to make minimum wage in carrying all this
gear around. But it was a great experience, a great learning experience.
Um, it was actually a lot of fun even though it was a lot of hard work. And
the thing I like best about it and what I remember the most most fondly was
that, um, we all became really tight. All the reporters there because we're
all in the same boat and we would all go out together a lot and we went to
this one pizza place that felt sorry for us because they knew we didn't make
any money. And so at the end of the night they would save pizza that was
left over and give it for free. So we would head out at this bar and we have
a couple of beers and we need the free pizza because you know, we had no money,
none of us. But it was a really interesting experience and something
I'll never forget. And I learned a lot about the basics of television,
especially the video part of it because I was my own photographer. So I have a
real appreciation for what photographers do because of that. So,
but I'm here now and I can buy my roommate
up next reporter and anchor. Theo Hayes, hey everyone, my name is theo Hayes, I
am the noon anchor and also the A. M. Morning, what they called desk anchor
and um yeah, I got my start in lubbock texas at a duopoly was the CBS and the
abc station, it was combined um Kay, L. B. K. And K. M. C. Small town love of
texas and um like most of us do is a small town and and um actually I was
not good at all. Um but you know after 2.5 years working there, they worked
with me um my riding got up to par and then in in 2.5 years I jumped to
Milwaukee Wisconsin and from there the rest is history. I've worked in a lot
of different markets. Oh my goodness! So I covered a lot of different stories.
One of my favorite memories, one of my favorite stories was sadly a barn
burned down and there were dozens of pigs in there. I know it sounds crazy,
but it smells like bacon, it made me hungry, I was sad for the piggies, but
it was, it was such a fun story because it was like exciting, it was breaking
news, it was like run run run, run, run the barn's burning that type of thing
up next we have traffic reporter lacey Griffith,
hey I'm lacey Griffith morning traffic anchor here at W. B. A. L. And looking
back, I like to think that my journey to tv started when I was just a teeny
tiny girl, my best friend and I used to ride our bikes around the neighborhood
and we would kind of animate and talk about what we saw on the way the nature
and I felt like we were already getting into broadcasting, I was in the camera
club in elementary school and then in high school I was in the T. V. Club
where we did a weekly live broadcast to everyone in the community so it just
kind of unraveled without me really knowing what I wanted to do. But my
very first tv job was just across the bay bridge, the other D. M. V. Delmarva.
Um and I started at W. B. O. C. Right out of college and I loved it there. I
worked my way up from weekend reporter, two weekday reporter, I did mornings
and then eventually morning anchor and met my husband there and we ended up
staying because we both worked at the station and we loved the area, I got
married in Ocean City and spent seven years there. So it was a great place
where we really got to learn everything every aspect of tv behind the scenes in
front. So it really made us appreciate this job and what everybody does to
work together as a team to make it happen. So it was a good experience.
And last but not least we have anchor Jason Newton.
Hey everybody, I'm Jason news and I'm anchor reporter, anchor 11 News today.
So I started in 2000, the year 2000 and W. B. O. C. In salisbury Maryland after
going to school at the University of Maryland. Uh and I was a reporter there
in Denver Bureau and then um eventually became anchor of the news show and some
other things. My favorite memory at least the most one that comes to mind
is the first day they asked me to anchor and one of the anchors steve
Hammond sat next to me to go through the show and the whole time you could
hear like this thumping noise and the commercial break. He asked me do you
hear that too? What's that noise? Uh And it was my leg hitting the desk
because I was so nervous getting through the first show and now look at
me 22 years later. That's it.
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Mm hmm.