Seven: Busted

A photog who was filling in for Iggy, named Mason, took me out to a pretty interesting shoot. Here's the story: a house on the West Side, on San Gabriel street, was demolished.

The house was said to be one of the biggest drug trafficking spots in the city. Heroine, the drug of choice. There was even a prostitution "area" in the back. It was more like a shack. Anyways, apparently the woman that headed all this up was Dolly.

We watched as they tore the little blue house down. Wait, they found something...we thought it could be drugs, or a body...no, a box full of children's toys.

The police, city officials and DEA was there. To them this was momentous occasion, but the question was raised. Why not donate the house? Why not use it in some beneficial way? Why turn this house to a pile of rubbish?

The answer: symbolism. The idea is to rid the city of this idea completely.

Mission accomplished?? Sweet thought, though.

I didn't have my camera that day. Wish I did. Maybe I'll find some photo's on the internet and post them.

Six: Music Man

I met Iggy at a private Catholic high school in San Antonio. Here's the story: Senior, Erin (a boy and yes, this is the spelling) decided to start an "instrument drive". People could drop off their used, old and even broken instruments. The instruments would then be repaired and cleaned and given to less fortunate people who could use them. It was a sweet little story.

Five: Friday Night Lights

As an intern, one of our responsibilities is to go to the station on Friday nights to help update high school football game scores. It's an easy job, but I don't mind it because it's the only time I get to be around other interns.

There are typically four of us, all girls. The sports guys, Mike and David, give us each a sheet of paper with about 4 or 5 games and the numbers of someone at the game. It's our job to call the numbers every so often and enter the score into the computer system. Apparently, high school football is a big deal in San Antonio.

This is what we say: "Hi, this is News 4, can I get a score update?"

You end up calling the same person several times, so towards the end, my phone conversations sound something like this: "Hey, it's me again, hows the game goin'?"

I draw pictures to pass the time.

Four: A Flashback

I went out with one of the morning reporters, Kristina De Leon. She was doing a cutesy, feature story where she went back to her old High School, Douglas MacArthur. We talked to the principal, walked the halls and took a look at how the place has changed. MacArthur High got a huge makeover a couple years ago. Kristina barely recognized her old stomping grounds.

I watched the interviews and watched Kristina do her stand-up. I got to do a stand-up as well. Stand-ups are when the reporter says a couple sentences about the story. Nothing too formal, just a short little blurb.

Here's Kristina:

Three: News Desk Daze

After the exciting first day I had, the next few were a little bit of a let down. I get to the station at 5:00am, Iggy, the photog, leaves around 4:30. So, I just miss him. What do you do when you're not out with a photog? You sit. You sit at the news desk and observe. And that is only a slight exaggeration.

First, I make beat calls. This means calling the dispatcher's from all the surrounding counties.

This is what I say: "Good morning, this is News 4, just wondering if you have anything working you could let us know about?"

(The term "working" in the biz, means, "do you have anything going on?")

This is what they say" "No. Everything's pretty quiet."

They ALWAYS say no. Thus, beat calls, are not so cool.

Sometimes I get to write little blurbs from police affidavits. Sometimes (meaning once) I get to write for the Web.

But mostly I sit.

Switching my tense to past, I'll let you know that I changed this whole monotonous sitting around and observing. I couldn't take it anymore and I knew I wasn't getting anything out of it. Now, I text Iggy the night before, and at 4:30 the next morning, when I'm about half way to San Antonio, he texts me the address of wherever he's shooting. I put it into my GPS and I head to the story. So long, news desk. You will not be missed.

Two: Respect the Water

My first day as a production intern. I dressed up, because it's my favorite thing to do. It wasn't necessary. I hate when that happens. I went out with the early morning photog, Iggy, to chase down a story. Here's what we know: two missing persons in the Guadalupe River in New Braunfuls, Texas.

We arrive at our destination, a bridge with a perfet 360 degree view. On one side, a railroad bridge. And this thing is high. So as we're there, the story develops. Here's what we learn: two couples vacationing are enjoying a day at the river. The two men decide to jump off the railroad bridge.

Here's what they didn't know: the river had been flooding and about 100 ft. in front of them is a dam. The water is very rough and the current is very strong. They jumped anyways. One of the guys was swept down stream while the other got sucked under the dam almost immediately.

So, Iggy is teaching me how to set up shots, how to get in good with the cops and how to keep a keen ear out for more of the story. The two girlfriends arrive a little flustered and the search continues. The police and firemen come with boats and jet-skis. There's even an air search going on. After several hours of this, the officials finally declare it a recovery search, basically meaning, they're searching for dead bodies. The girlfriends are told and that's when I realize that this job isn't for the faint of heart. I told Iggy I was going to need to toughen up a little bit.

They were sitting on the bridge, crying, with their heads in their hands. Their boyfriends had died from the jump.

The media was all around, shooting their live feed, reporting their stories, doing their stand-ups. It was the first time I had seen this all first hand. It was the first time this wasn't all pretend.

http://kgnb.am/radio/news/bodies-two-men-found-flood-swollen-guadalupe-river-new-braunfels-113

One: A new adventure.

It's my senior year as an electron media student. I GOTS to do something with my life during the wee hours of the morning. That's right world, this girl, the girl who rolled out of bed at around 1pm and headed directly to the pool during the summer, wakes up at 3:30am every Tuesday and Thursday. All in the name of making something of myself one day. What can I say, I'm a news worthy kid with a news worthy life.

Here's the deal:

I started a new internship at News 4 WOAI in San Antonio.
Here you'll see my pictures, my musings, my questions, complaints, concerns and of course...
what I'm learning.

Goodbye life. Hello opportunity.

Standby, this is gonna get good.