This week at KOMU was a very cool reporting shift. I was paired with JoBeth again, since she is one of the only Friday reporters, and we went to the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ festival to do a story about a Gibson trailer with tons of vintage guitars they were letting people play. The guitars were unbelievable, they were all vintage and ranged in value from $4,000 to $15,ooo. They had original Les Pauls and SGs and pretty much every great Gibson guitar. I play guitar, so this was really cool for me, and we had a lot of downtime waiting for our contact so I got to play some of the guitars while we waited. I really wanted to steal one but that would probably be wrong. They wouldn't even let anyone play the $15,000 which was in a big glass case. I'm not sure what made it $15,000 but it was very nice to look at. It must have been an original or one of 15 ever made or owned by Eric Clapton or something. Anyway, we listened to some blues and played some guitars and I had one of the best pulled pork sandwiches I've ever had, so all in all it was a good shift. I also thought I took some pretty good pictures and the people at the station really liked them, so that was nice. I think my slide show got messed up, but the first few photos in there and the ones next to the story are mine. Great last KOMU shift, though.
Gibson Guitars story
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Post for Week 4
During week 4, we worked on a fairly widely covered story about the closing of Reactor Field for tailgating. We missed out on tailgating for the first Mizzou game, but I suppose we got to attend tailgates and interview tailgaters. We interviewed about 6 students from East Campus and a few parents and students near the stadium the day of the game. No cops or people guarding Reactor Field would talk to us. Later in the week, we interviewed an officer at MU police and I found a good article on other schools that have made parking restrictions in the past. I emailed all of the schools listed in the article, and only Georgia and NC State got back to me. The assistant athletic director at Georgia was nice enough to do a phone interview with me, which was cool since that's a huge football school. We also interviewed MSA members and tried to talk to bars, but they were reluctant to talk to us.
We had a bit of trouble finding people who actually could comment on how they think these parking restrictions would play out, so our story didn't come out as great as I had hoped. The best info we got, I think, was that the other athletic directors felt like the students were just fine at their schools. There wasn't much of a public outcry at the schools that got back to me, while at Mizzou there are petition groups and student organizations going nuts. But at the same time, those schools had other big parking lots they didn't close, while Reactor was one of the only places students could tailgate.
We had a bit of trouble finding people who actually could comment on how they think these parking restrictions would play out, so our story didn't come out as great as I had hoped. The best info we got, I think, was that the other athletic directors felt like the students were just fine at their schools. There wasn't much of a public outcry at the schools that got back to me, while at Mizzou there are petition groups and student organizations going nuts. But at the same time, those schools had other big parking lots they didn't close, while Reactor was one of the only places students could tailgate.
Post for Week 3
The first week of stories and my first KOMU shift were very interesting. For our first team assignment, we did a story about student parents at Mizzou and the complexity of their lives. They really have no time for a social life and all of their time and effort goes into caring for their children and trying to get through school with respectable grades. We also found that many student parents feel the university does not provide adequate support for them, and the university refused to comment on the matter. I often get really sick of school and feel crammed, but something I learned from this story is how much harder some people have to work to get through school. Since a college education is so essential in today's society, students parents don't have much of a choice but to live two very complex lives with usually very little income in the process. Stories like this make you think how hard some people's lives are.
My first KOMU shift wasn't a blast, but it was alright. It's kind of difficult to get excited about E. Coli. JoBeth Davis, one of her B2 shadows, and I drove out to the Jefferson City Department of National Resources and were shown how lake water is tested for E. Coli. I thought I got some pretty cool photos, especially one that looks inside a blacklight machine, which causes the samples to glow if E. Coli is present. Here is a link to the story I helped work on
E. Coli Story
My first KOMU shift wasn't a blast, but it was alright. It's kind of difficult to get excited about E. Coli. JoBeth Davis, one of her B2 shadows, and I drove out to the Jefferson City Department of National Resources and were shown how lake water is tested for E. Coli. I thought I got some pretty cool photos, especially one that looks inside a blacklight machine, which causes the samples to glow if E. Coli is present. Here is a link to the story I helped work on
E. Coli Story
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