Life on the Road

I'm reading a book by fellow Garden State resident Kevin Smith, who is one of my favorite film makers. He grew up in the same area that I did, although I've never met him. He's responsible for one of the first breakout indie films ever, Clerks, as well as Dogma, Chasing Amy and Mall Rats to name a few. His book is basically a highly detailed blog of his every day life. For some reason, it has inspired me to set a goal of doing a little more blogging than I have been. Sometimes I am reluctant to write about the behind the scenes minutia of my life as a sportscaster, but after reading the same reservation in the beginning of Smith's book, I realize that perhaps folks may enjoy knowing how the sausage is made in the TV sports factory. Besides that, I can have a little bit better of a reference point when I tell these long stories to friends and colleagues years from now. And maybe my kids can enjoy these tales down the road. So with that, here are the adventures of my Virginia road trip.
First of all, road trips are so much better with my wingman, Ed Piotrowski, who shoots highlights and navigates the Southeast almost as good as he forecasts hurricanes. We often joke about how there is always some excitement and drama when we leave the WPDE nest. Flying solo is no different.
The Cliff Ellis show airs on Sunday's at noon, like many coaches shows across the nation. What makes our show a bit of a challenge is that the majority of games in the Big South are Saturday and Monday. CCU is usually home for two games or on the road for two games. The logistics on the calendar pointed to one major challenge: the VMI/Radford road swing in February. VMI is about 7 1/2 hours from home base, with Radford about 6 1/2 hours. In the past, we would split the trip up - I get the Saturday game and drive back to the beach and then Hags getting on the road Monday morning for the second leg. The VMI game was slated for a 1pm tipoff and it left little margin for error with the Friday night show duties wrapping up about 12 hours earlier. I rolled the dice and came up with a plan:

1. Fly to Roanoke early Saturday morning
2. shoot the VMI game
3. drive to Lynchburg, Virginia and go to the ABC affiliate (WSET-TV) and feed out the highlights for the news as well as the Cliff Ellis Show segment
4. SLEEP on Sunday
5. Shoot the Radford highlights on Monday night
6. Fly back Tuesday morning in time to get back on the anchor desk.

After calling WSET and getting the go ahead that I can go to their station and feed our stuff out of their satellite truck, it was time for the mission to begin. Thanks to Coastal's win over Winthrop, coach Ellis and I taped segments 2, 3 and 4 in the studio on Thursday afternoon. All that was missing was a 4:46 second hole that would contain the VMI highlights and post-game reaction.

The plan was all set until a phone call came at 10:30 pm to the sports office on Friday night. WSET said their truck was being used by CNN at Virginia Tech and would not be at their station thanks to a Bill Clinton speech. Blacksburg was about an hour further than the original route and all of the sudden, the deadline got a lot tighter. Thank goodness, the good folks at WSET said I was more than welcome to come to their truck and edit and still feed my stuff out! Stress level is high and what little sleep I was going to get is about to be more restless.

I arrived at the airport at 4:55 am and got to Roanoke no problem. After renting a small blue box from National Car Rental (I'm a company man - got to keep those expenses down), I tooled to Lexington, Virginia and was in the media parking lot at 10:30 am. I had 2 1/2 hours to spare and I took a nap in the car. When I woke up 70 minutes later, I realized something -- I took a nap in this same parking lot in a different cheap rental car two years earlier prior to a CCU/VMI football game. How crazy is that? What frightens me is that I could be doing the same thing this fall, unless Ed makes the VMI trip with me!

The Chants build a 17 point lead in the second half and Jack Leasure is on fire with 9 three pointers. But just like in January, the blue chickens fade down the stretch and lose a game that they really should have won. Final score: VMI 88 CCU 83. Next up is interviews and taping my intros and outros to the segments as well as doing the highlights in the camera. When I get to the satellite truck, I'll cover the sound of the highlights and match them up with the video. Three stories to do and the clock is ticking.

Now it's time to rant about something we call in the trade "one man band". A one man band is someone who has to do it all himself or herself. Shoot the video, do the interviews, the whole nine yards. The biggest challenge of the one man band is shooting yourself on camera. After all, if the picture looks crooked or out of focus, it doesn't matter what your story is, the viewer will be completely distracted. After running the litmus test of setting up the shot, I finally have myself in the center, in focus and looking like there's a cameraman with me. I'm just ready to launch into my on camera introduction when a flying basketball heads right towards the unmanned camera. My first reaction is to dive for the ball like Logan Johnson trying to get a turnover, but I realize it's too late. Fortunately, the camera gently brushes the tripod and the camera is safe, but my shot is now completely out of whack. Back to the drawing board. I'm ninety percent done with my work when I'm told that an alumni basketball game is about to start. Exit stage right and I'm now in the corridor of the VMI gym doing the highlights of the game. I keep track of the plays I'm going to use on my Blackberry and the stray people walking by look at me like I'm a reject from sportscaster camp: on my knees talking in a hallway with great enthusiasm about CCU's first half play. Finally, it's one more camera set up outside for a Monday pregame feature on the Radford game and I'm in the car at 3:38 pm.

Virginia Tech is about a 90 minute drive and I'm doing the math. Best case scenario is a 5pm arrival and the sportscast is 80 minutes away. If I don't get lost, I can get my stuff cranked out for the newscast by 5:30-5:45 pm, feed the story to Mark and phase one will be complete. After that, I'd piece together the Ellis Show segment and the Monday preview and feed that out later on. I call the sat truck and the operator says I'm all set, but I have to be done by 7:15 pm as CNN will take the truck over for former President Clinton's speech in Hokie land. Now the deadline is super tight: one 1:45 news segment, one 4:46 coach's show segment, one 1:30 Monday preview piece to get done in about 2 hours.

Mapquest is my friend! I get into Blacksburg and the good folks at WSET steer me towards their truck at about 5:05 pm. One problem - parking is gobbled up and the open spaces are yellow taped thanks to Clinton. Now the clock is really ticking and I have to talk a Virginia Tech security guard that I am a member of the media and I need to get to the satellite truck even though I'm driving the blue Chevy box that is hardly a TV station vehicle. Video tapes and a camera bag do the trick and the kind Hokie secruity staffers carve me out a spot. I tell them that Bruce Taylor, our Myrtle Beach high linebacker and Hokie recruit will be bringing some extra tackles this fall thanks to the kind deed.

Now it's my gametime. I get the tape in to the editor and start cranking out as fast as I can. Starting at about 5:11pm and getting done at 5:40, I have a tidy recap of the game for Mark's 6pm newscast as well as some highlights for WSET to use on their show. Call CNN and at 5:45, the magic of TV has highlights beaming from Virginia Tech to the WPDE sports office. It's 5:50 and I have 85 minutes to get two more pieces done. Normally, it takes me about an hour or so to go through an entire game and pick out the highlights. I didn't have that luxury, but thanks to adrenaline and nausea, I'm in the clubhouse at 6:40 pm and back on the phone with CNN. At 6:55 pm, the show is beamed back to Myrtle Beach and I breathe a sigh of relief.

This is when fatigue sets in. I'm tempted to find the nearest hotel and crash, but I realize that I have a 6am flight out of Roanoke on Tuesday. Rather than make a 45 minute drive on Tuesday, I'd rather set up shop in Roanoke, go to Radford on Monday and then return to Roanoke and have a short trip to the airport. I push up highway 81 with just about an hour to go before I can seriously relax and forget about the 4am to 7pm run that I am currently on.

I'm not a savvy traveller and with the uncertainty of the TV world, I figure I'd find a hotel no problem. I get to Roanoke near the airport and see a Hyatt Place hotel. I walk in and see the lobby under major construction, but decide to check in anyways. It's a real nice room, but as I turn the TV on, there's only about 10 channels and half of them have horrible reception. I was ready to get some food and watch the Bud Shootout and realized that it was definitely not snowing in Daytona, just on my TV set. As tired as I was, I did something I've never done before -- I walked out. I told the front desk folks, sorry and moved on to look for another hotel. I hit the TGIF for a to go order and pray I can find a hotel with a working TV. 30 minutes later, Courtyard by Marriott has the answer and I'm chilling out by 10pm watching Dale Earnhardt, Junior celebrating a victory. Eight years in South Carolina and I realize that my wife is right -- I am a closet gearhead! I left a hotel because I couldn't watch the race with a clear picture!

I've got Sunday completely to myself and plenty of big plans. No sightseeing, no work, just a simple plan: sleep late, hit the excercise room, watch Dustin Johnson (CCU golfer) play his 4th round at Pebble Beach playing with Vijay Singh in the final group, go to the movies and relax. I wake up at about 11:30 am and realize that the TV won't turn on and neither will the lights. Gusty winds in Roanoke caused a power outage. The front desk said that we'll probably be back with power by 3:00. I ventured out to the IHOP and then did some reading in the room along with a little Tiger Woods 2008 on PSP. Now it's nearing 4:00 pm and still no power. The estimate has been moved to about 5:00 pm. I decide to hit a 4:40 pm showing of Juno at the movie theater.

Movies during football and basketball season are a big treat so I was excited to go even if it was by myself. I was totally buying into the Oscar buzz and one of the most underrated actors in the game, JK Simmons, doing another fantastic performance when with 10 minutes to go, the projector is toast. No fade to black, just cut straight to black. Juno was about 10 minutes away from getting tied up in a nice bow and now a poor 16 year old kid who's handling his first mini crisis comes running into the theater out of breath. The power is out, but we can get a pass to see any movie at the theater in the future. Not helpful for me! More importantly, how does Juno end? The poor kid does about the worse job explaining the end of the movie - kind of like when you didn't know the answer to an essay question in high school and you just fill the blank page up with as much bs as possible to try and get some credit for just filling the space. Finally, a woman in the theater comes to the rescue and gives a much better explanation as she has seen the movie already. My wife was preturbed that I saw this movie since this was on the date movie list and not the "go see that on your own list". Semi-pro with Will Ferrell falls into this category along with a host of other comedies. She wasn't as mad when she knew I got jipped on the ending.

As I leave the theater, I realize it is now pitch black dark as most of the area is in the heart of the power outage. It sinks in that the Marriott Courtyard is probably a black cavern fit for a horror movie. My scouting report was dead on. I am given a flashlight by the staff and I walk by myself in the pitch black stairwell to room 409 and hunt and peck for my belongings. Hauling the camera and the duffel bag it is time to check out of Roanoke and go on another road trip. After getting shot down in Blacksburg, Christiansburg comes to the rescue and I have found a room 10 miles away from CCU's next opponent, Radford.

Monday night comes and the Chants are able to rally for a win against the Highlanders. Coach Ellis and I crank out a show segment so he doesn't have to come into the studio mid-week, I load the camera on to the team bus so it arrives back in Conway safely and I'm back in the blue box. With all that has gone on, I'm ready to come home. I call National to see how much it would cost to drop the car off in Myrtle Beach. I didn't want to get to the hotel at 10pm and know that I have to wake up at 4am to drive 45 minutes north, drop off the rental car and head to two flights before landing at 10:30 am. I was ready to get on the highway and get home. $250 surcharge changed that thought process and I sat by myself at Denny's eating a post-game meal.

I did get up at 4am and got to the airport and landed at 10:30 am in Myrtle Beach. I was back to work at about 3pm and already figuring out the high school basketball playoffs, the Ellis Show and catch up on the dozen or so things that needed attention.

So there you have it - it's like you were sitting in the little blue box next to me and lived the whole road trip. I'm sorry if it was boring or uninteresting, but it was fun to get down on the blog. It was a long trip and it was challenging, but it feels good to have that show on the air Sunday at noon and the die hard Chants basketball fans getting their fix of every twist and turn of the CCU basketball season.

Blog notes
* JK Simmons reference above. Schillinger from Oz (one of the scariest bad guys in cable TV history. Pop in an episode of Oz to a group of teen troubled kids and watch the crime rate go down. He was also Peter Parker's editor in Spiderman and was awesome as the Detroit Tigers manager in the Kevin Costner movie "For Love of the Game" which is also underrated (a little too much Kelly Preston love interest angle, but the Vin Scully play by play was tremendous).

* Dustin Johnson finished tied for 7th and maybe would have done better if I was yelling at the TV to help guide his putts in (oh, well).

* The scariest part of the whole trip might have been me driving down the highway during the wind gusts and the little blue box bouncing around two lanes like Kyle Busch with a loose condition at Bristol.