Once I heard about a waiter who, after years of working through the pain and embarrassment of unhealthy teeth while still smiling, received intense dental care as a tip, I knew I needed to tell the story of his journey to a fantastic smile. I quickly convinced a young, talented reporter to join me on a months-long series of shoots to document his transformation. Eventually, this story gained national attention for the recipient and his benefactor.
This is a follow-up to the viral YouTube video featuring the Kansas rancher who taught his cows to come in at the sound of his trombone. We stopped by to find out what happened when he tried to teach a new herd the same trick.
This is one of the most important stories of my career. It took an unprecedented level of trust for the staff at the children's home to allow us the bring a camera in to shoot one of the hardest days of each of these kids' lives. It was a story we needed to tell and the community needed to see. It won the 2014 Edward R. Murrow Award for hard news in the region.
This is one of my favorite examples of a collaboration with a reporter. Michael received a call just as we were both about to leave for the evening and asked me to check out the tip. In the vehicle, we decided we needed to act quickly at the scene and then call police. Once we realized the severity of the case, we began planning and writing at the scene. Within minutes we'd come up with Michael's standup and shot video of the sensitive information. Early the next morning, I was back at the scene to get video of the crew taking away the dumpster. I also collaborated with other stations whose videographers shot interviews with potential victims in other markets.
A reporter and I followed a class from an at-risk Wichita school with an incredibly difficult goal, especially for a group of fourth graders: every single person in the class was to turn in daily homework assignments for 100 days in a row. No exceptions.
I pride myself in fostering trusting relationships with reporters. They trust me to get important shots that will never happen again. They also trust me to turn stories in the narrowest of deadlines, when the day demands it. This is an example of both. The reporter and I collaborated together to take the opportunity other stations missed, to return the album to the owner. We knew making that decision would give us little time to make an incredibly tight turn-around, but with constant communication throughout the changing day and a plan of how to tell the story, we delivered a compelling, well-edited piece.
