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Kerry Kinsey's Blog

  • Reporters know...every day is an adventure !

      

        You never know what you are going to get when you go out on a story. Take the other day; I was looking for reaction from a man for my report at 10:00pm. I had his address and was prepared to walk up to his front door. This one had potential for danger though. We had good information that the homeowner had quite a few weapons inside his home, rifles, shotguns and the like.

     

        My photographer is CAM, which is not his real name. Cam told me if I put his name in my blog, he would kick my tail. Not one to back down from a challenge I told Cam, “Well like Jim Brown said, I guess that’s a tail kicking I’ll have to take.” Cam said, “Nothing happened that day why are you writing about it” I said, “It’s a blog, we’re not competing with Dickens here,” Cam laughed at that one.

       Cam is a nice person. We talk often about women, politics, sports and other interesting subjects under the moon. No seriously, he says he's a former Gulf War veteran. He's a pretty big guy, and I’m not exactly a shrimp. Therefore, I feel like we can both handle just about any situation. Cam though wants to shoot video of me walking up to the door. I’m like,” No, why not walk up there with me? That way if he opens up his purported arsenal we’ll both be shot? If we’re going down, I’m not going out alone.” I was joking but Cam thought I was serious. The next thing I know we’re both starting our trek to the front door. The man’s driveway though is shared with the neighbor’s driveway. We take a few steps toward that driveway and we spot an aggravated looking boxer headed our way. I mean he has this look as if we are his next dinner. He stops within ten yards of us. We stop too and stare at him. He stares at me, I look over at Cam, Cam looks back at the dog, and the dog goes back and forth between the two of us. It feels like the movie, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. You know the graveyard scene with Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef all staring each other down.  The three principal characters meet in a graveyard where a fortune in gold is supposedly buried there. They all star each other down.

     

    That’s how it felt, nobody was moving. The dog looked like he wanted us both rare.  About thirty seconds passed and I said to Cam,” You think we should talk to the owner,” Cam says, “Yah.” The dog’s owner was about ten yards behind the hungry looking K9. He was sawing on some wooden car trailer. I said, “Sir, is your dog friendly,”

    He said, “ Oh him, he wouldn’t hurt a flea.” Suddenly I hear that song by George Strait blaring in my ears,” Famous last words of a fool,”

     

    Yah, that’s all I need to have, *** Clark introducing this mistake on TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes. Clark says, “Now here’s a reporter in Salt Lake City who thought a dog was going to be friendly when he petted him. Watch the animal gobble up a hand and a microphone.”

     

     

    I have had a few friends in this business who have had these kinds of confrontations with angry dogs. But, this time the owner was right. The dog never acted up, and we found out the man with the suspected boatload of firearms no longer lives at the house next door. That is why I love this job, every day is different. You never know what you are going to get.

                    

    posted Thursday, June 07, 2007 12:40 AM by kkinsey | 0 Comments

  • My first blog

    It’s my first blog and I wanted to make sure I wrote something that wasn’t stupid. Well, it still might be stupid but at least I did some research first. I peaked at the other blogs written by my colleagues here at ABC4. I started to sweat bullets wondering what I would put to paper. They always say your first words are the hardest ones. After writing packages for TV News for over 20 something years, I find that to be so true.

     

    It did not make it easy that people near me were going stark raving nuts. For a Saturday night there is quite a bit of craziness in the newsroom. I finished my story somewhat early. But, I see editors running around, producers with the”eye of the tiger” look. It appears to be unsettling, but as usual, the show is flawless.

     

    Okay time to write that blog. I have to play off the sentiments of my friend Chris Jones. Well, he probably doesn’t consider me a friend but we chat from time to time about immature subjects. Since I’m sometimes near his desk, I know that area is cold. However, guess what’s colder? The studio is unbearable!

     

    For years doing radio and TV, I’ve always heard engineers tell me, “We have to keep the equipment cool.” Yah cool is fine, but why is it when I enter the studio just before news time I have flashbacks of the movie, “Ice Station Zebra.” You remember the 1968 Big-budget, all-star, action-packed adventure about an American submarine sent to the North Pole to retrieve a downed satellite which contains a roll of film.

     

    Every time I go into that studio, I think I’m going see Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine and Patrick McGoohan come around the corner in a thick, fur-lined, hooded outer garment intended for artic conditions. Maybe the floor director should yell out, “Lights, cameras, parkas.”

     

    I’m not kidding. As I got the near the studio for my live shot intro today I started to see my breath. I sat next to Terry Wood and moved his soft drink, which he always keeps in that seat. I didn’t catch the brand of the thirst-quenching concoction because the label was iced over. The bottle was frozen. I thought, "Hey Terry you want to buy some Ice Cubes." I can make a killing off this guy.

     

    Seriously, it had to be 32 degrees in that studio. My story is still 45 seconds away as we are in the show open. I rub my hands together and complain about the cold. Wood says, “You’re a wimp.” I laugh it off as I have for the first time, visions of thermal underwear dancing through my head.  I cannot believe how cold it is in this studio. The cameras have icicles hanging off them. Anthony on camera one is wearing winter gloves. Also, Johnny on prompter is wearing two coats and a Balaclava Winter Cap covering all but his eye sockets. Is he going to follow the anchor or hold the place up?

     

    Will the equipment overheat? Not in this climate, the studio resembles Siberia. I unseal my frozen lips just in time to read my tag. Seconds later, I am out of that newsroom and running for my car. It’s 85 degrees outside and I have the heater blasting in my ride. Is this kind of cooling down of the studio necessary?  I expect our station to be the subject of the next show, “Modern Marvels” on the History Channel. I can here the booth announcer saying, “Can the equipment in a Salt Lake City TV station survive sub-zero temperatures.”  

     

       

    As I finish off my blog I am just now thawing out. I just hope my next live shot is far from that studio. St.George anyone?

     

     

    posted Saturday, May 19, 2007 10:49 PM by kkinsey | 0 Comments

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