The first major difference is I no longer edited my own pieces. Instead I would send via microwave (no, I didn't put tapes in the oven) to the station in Madison and a photographer would edit it together to match the audio and plug in the sound bites in the proper places.
This was my first job with a computer.
It was 1989 and I used what looked a little like a large phone book. It had a conventional keyboard at the top, a glass screen that had a grey scale screen that displayed about three or four lines of text as I typed. When it was time to send it in, I'd hook on to a phone line and send to the station.
Up until then, it was me and a manual typewriter banging away to punch out a story. I miss the old style manual typewriters - something about them "felt" like news to me.
Not long after starting, Mark was on the way. In fact, if he arrived three days earlier our insurance plan wouldn't have covered the birth. So, thankfully his birthday came after the start of May. But since it was Wisconsin, just a few days later we had three inches of heavy wet snow on the ground. Channel 3 announced the birth on that evening's news - but unlike Channel 7, I didn't have to drag the camera up to the hospital room to get video of Mom and son. (I'm not sure Rhonda would have done that again anyway.)
My office in Rock County had a small TV 'set' - a desk with a backdrop and WISC logo hanging above it. There were TV lights and I could set up my camera and shoot my own live shots when the news called for it.
I covered a variety of news for the station. Rock County was important because the coverage helped turn it from the Rockford market territory to Madison - which made Madison a larger TV market and that meant more ad dollars.
Two stories stand out in my time with News 3.
The disappearance of Michelle, an 18 year old high school girl was a dramatic, heart-wrenching, but ultimately uplifting story.
Usually a reporter is a detached observer. Not this time. Michelle was the oldest daughter of two teachers I had as a student at St. Paul Lutheran School. While in high school, an injury caused her to experience short-term memory loss. One afternoon, she didn't come home from school.Janesville residents turned out every day to canvas the town and search the roads, parks, and ditches around the city. St. Paul Lutheran Church had nightly prayer services that packed the large church. I covered the story everyday - interviewing parents, friends, family. I helped when I wasn't working by with a group of concerned friends and family deal with other media requests.
Every day that passed made it less likely she would found. I remember praying that we find Michelle, whatever the outcome. On the seventh day, she was found. In North Carolina! She was all right. Thanks be to God!
A local businessman chartered a plane and she returned to Janesville in a very happy reunion. What followed was an enthusiastic Thanksgiving worship at church that I will never forget.
The other story that stood out was one I would have loved to have never covered.
An idiot (even 20 years later this seems like a charitable term) in Janesville and "friends" started posting fliers around the city about a coming rally of the KKK. The Ku Klux Klan.
This was news at its ugliest. Twice I went to the man's home to interview him. Passing the tattered confederate flag into the small house was unnerving. I did my best to do my job, ask the questions and get out.
The group had a rally in front of the county courthouse. Police came from all over southern Wisconsin to help keep the peace. There were the members of the Klan and other groups who shared their misguided and wrong point of view. Outside the fence were anarchists yelling them down along with other folks opposed to performance. At the bottom of the hill a group marched in prayer and sung hymns.
It was a frightening day. The abhorrent views of the klan were bad enough. The anarchists were just a scary group of people - looking to provoke a fight.
The story needed to be covered - but was a sad day for my hometown. I was aware that there were people who had these views, but until then had not been aware of meeting any of them. This is no great conclusion, but it seemed like the local leader was down on his luck and needed some one or some group of people to blame.
As my third anniversary with the station approached, I was let go. The station was kind about it - but the day getting the news was one of the worst in my life. I think most of us men identify ourselves with our jobs and while afterwards I understood why the action was taken, I never saw it coming.
What came next was quite an experience for me and our family. Not an experience I'd recommend, but a life-changing one nevertheless.
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