Q’s Hats in Review, Prepping for Rocky

The complaining about how much snow we “didn’t” get is taking up too much room in cyberspace. It is time to just enjoy TV reporters and the hats they are wearing out on the elements.

The last post had some doozies. Thanks for the submissions. If you have a photo to submit, send them in an email to me at IPTVPaul@gmail.com or just put them on Twitter @paulyeager.

Taylor Umland, KWQC, Davenport.

But one of the best ones came directly onto my Facebook wall. Here is the bar for today. A Wartburg College hat being worn on my old TV station, KWQC in Davenport. Taylor Umland was rocking the orange and black during his morning reports in the QC.

One of my former co-workers at KWQC was Matt Davis. Mr. Matt was a nightside reporter when I started and we would do liveshots without a hat. A certain morning radio duo named Dwyer and Michael’s would razz him on-air about not wearing a hat and looking cold on his evening live reports.

The radio guys decided to send a gift to Matt of a hat, which he would sometimes wear and other times it was just sitting on his desk, ready for the call of duty.

Bailey Dietz, KWQC, Davenport.

Sticking at KWQC, we bring in Bailey Dietz from her nightside live shot Thursday.

Former TV6 intern and now reporter at WGBA in Green Bay, WI, Jonathan Gregg is in on the action.

Jonathon Gregg

Jon is a former board member of the Iowa Broadcast News Association. I’m sure he’s already made plans to attend this year’s convention on April 20 in Johnston at the Stoney Creek Inn.

Now to some of the morning crew.

Arielle Nixon was wondering why she had to take a picture of herself wearing earmuffs. She wasn’t sure what the request was all about, but thanks to Pat Dix for this.

Pat’s Tweet.

Thanks for playing along.

Arielle Nixon, WHO, Des Moines.

Thanks to the MW ESPN bureau for this submission of KARE photojournalist Nate Anderson.

Nate Anderson, KARE, Minneapolis.

Jason Rantala, WOI, West Des Moines.

Kim St. Onge, KCCI, Des Moines.

My little reporter, Levi. That’s a hat OVER his hooded sweatshirt.

Megan Ruether is always a good sport about trying new hats and thanks to Travis Jungling for lighting up Megan Friday morning for this picture.

Megan Reuther, WHO, Des Moines.

But it was Megan’s former station that wins the day. You may remember Nikki Newbrough from last year with the space cadet interview subject.

This year she’s gone above and beyond with a sombrero and a friend, Danielle Wagner. I think Danielle is the Ice Princess? Did I get that correct?

Danielle Wagner and Nikki Newbrough of KWWL, Waterloo.

Thanks again for the submissions. We’re only a couple of days away from doing it again with Winter Storm Rocky approaching.

Climbing Cooper Mountain for 5 minutes in February

During 2011, my goal is to update this blog with tales of the Yeager boys.

A fun idea I’m stealing from others is to spend five good minutes with each boy and capture that conversation on tape on the 5th of each month.

Right now, I’m 2 for 2.

I spent some time with Noah outside on Saturday. We were playing in the snow. The weather was warm enough to allow for some play time. We made a snowman and threw snowballs. But the real fun was climbing the mountain.

So, I may regret a couple of those things later, but jumping from a snow pile to the snowy ground while covered in six layers is pretty safe.

Now, Levi on the other hand, still stays indoors most days. We spend our time with him in the basement showing off his new tricks for the month.

If you remember during last week’s posts, Noah made some silly videos. As my sister Kris said, Noah looks like Amy, but there’s no denying he’s your son.

The sun did shine in Day 5 of YBHA V

The sun was almost shining when we awoke from our winter slumber on Wednesday.

The storm had passed. The sub-zero cold was setting in and the boys slept all night. Plus I was feeling 900% better than the day before. I hate being sick. So, Wednesday was off to a great start.

Or, so it seemed.

It did seem the cold was hitting a little close to home when I did get out of bed.

With a near-fever the night before, I was sleeping in short sleeves and figured that was why I was cold. But, a closer check of the furnace answered my gut feeling. Hopefully, the furnace intake was clogged and nothing more. 52 degrees is a little too cool in the house.

The boys have space heaters in their rooms, so they didn’t notice any difference. Noah cuddled up under a blanket for breakfast as I headed out to clear the air intake.

The furnace restarted, I got the driveway blown clear and we were in business. (Thanks to 72 degrees for the tip last December when the same problem happened.)

Noah was one of four kids between two classrooms. There are two rooms side-by-side that are preschool rooms and usually there’s about 30 kids between the two rooms. Today, because of a the blizzard closing Ankeny schools and 6 kids in Noah’s class sick, it was just an intimate group.

Noah got sad on drop-off. He hasn’t done that in a quite some time. He told me later it was because he was the only boy in his room at that time.

We had to make up for some lost time following work and school on Wednesday. We needed to get Mom her birthday present. Get to the airport to make sure her car was not one big drift and would start, plus get to the Wiese’s to practice for this Sunday’s special music.

We did it. And with a little time to spare. Thanks to Grandpa for riding along to the airport. He’d had a busy day of giving driveways a little extra cleaning, that was much appreciated.

When we got home from music practice, Noah decided to address the camera about his new character.

If you thought that one was silly.

Check out this one. I think I know where he gets it from.

Finally, I was able to calm Noah down to talk about his day in a normal way. He sure loves the new iPhone ability to watch what you’re recording.

The day ended with Amy telling me she was in Amsterdam, ready to board her flight for Detroit and it was on-time, no delays. But will that truly be the case?

TIJ – Flooding Potential

Our look at the potential for flooding this year in Iowa is taking shape.

A little background is here in a post made earlier in the week.

I did take a drive to Waverly yesterday. Plenty of cars in the ditch along the way, but along Highway 3 from I-35 to Waverly, no cars were the ditch. That’s because there was no ditch as they were all filled with snow. And there is usually more snow upstream from there.

A related, but not totally, OpEd was in Wednesday morning’s Des Moines Register. It was written by Michael Burkart and Bill Stowe. It looks at the issue of not rushing to redesign farm land drainage. Here’s the link.

And even the story about all the reporter hats has info on how much snow has fallen and how much budget has been used to date to clear all the snow, how much snowfall is on the ground and of course, what hats the reporters were wearing.

I’ve also come across this article in the Wall Street Journal talking about the plan to divert water through a giant channel to avert flooding the downtown of Fargo, North Dakota. That idea is not sitting well with those downstream.

As always, you can watch our show online at http://www.iptv.org/iowajournal

And I’ll take your questions on the flood show topic to iowajournal@iptv.org

And here is our official press release about our show. Air time is 8p on Thursday on Iowa Public Television.

Iowa Floods of 2010?
On the Thursday, February 18 edition
of The Iowa Journal

(Johnston, Iowa) –Thursday’s episode of The Iowa Journal will take a look at the probabilities of this winter’s excessive snow fall turning into floods similar to those seen across Iowa in 2008. This program airs Thursday, February 18 at 8. It will be rebroadcast Friday, February 19 at 6:30 p.m. on statewide Iowa Public Television and Saturday, February 20 at 8:30 a.m. on IPTV WORLD. It will also be available online at iptv.org/iowajournal.

The National Weather Service has reported that Iowa is at risk for significant flooding this spring, particularly in central and western Iowa. The Iowa Journal will ask studio guests if Iowa is prepared to deal with more floods while still recovering from those in 2008. In the studio to address both the short term and long term solutions on how to best handle floods are three guests: David Miller, administrator for the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division with responsibilities for coordinating the State’s response to disasters; Kamyar Enshayan, city council member for Cedar Falls, whose town suffered in the 2008 floods, and who helped instigate plans to help safeguard the town during future floods; and Marty Adkins, of the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, whose office has a floodplain easement program to pay some qualified landowners who want to discontinue farming land with chronic flooding.

For more information about The Iowa Journal, visit http://www.iptv.org/iowajournal or call (515) 242-3146. For information on how to watch IPTV WORLD in your area, visit Iptv.org.

Hat Day and Night

Hillary Minz - WOI-TV

Here are some of the early nominees for best hat in the Winter Death Storm 2009. We’ve got some good ones, so enjoy. What we’re looking for is best hat in the snow storm. A litt Some will go fashionable, others will be more practical. We start with Hillary Minz of WOI-TV in Des Moines. Her live shot was dusting off a car that had been snowed on all day.

Andy Fales - WHO-TV, no hat

Andy Fales of WHO-TV was out for a few shots on Tuesday, sans hat. He’s a sports guy, so hats don’t get worn in sports. Unless its a ball cap, which, BTW, I’ve yet to see a ball cap in this coverage.

Emily Price - KCCI-TV, standard black

Emily Price was along the interstate with a standard black hat. Very practical. Good backdrop, BTW on her shot. Emily is hoping its warmer in the studio this weekend when she gets behind the anchor desk.

Megan Salois - WHO-TV, hood in the blizzard

Megan Salois of WHO was along the interstate, it appeared. She was wearing a hat, but it was covered by her hood. So, that was all we saw, the hood. Megan is a meteorologist and that’s always good to see them in the field during a big storm, it works for the Weather Channel.

Triple Box - KCCI

Here’s a look at one graphic by KCCI, a triple box. You know its a real story when graphics are specially made for the storm. You will see their special graphics from here on out for the rest of storm. When music gets added and an open made, you know its a big story.

Quad box - WHO-TV

WHO brought out the quad box on Tuesday. Always impressive. Thanks to the network news for inspiring the idea. The Today Show is famous for their boxes. They seem to put anyone’s picture in who’s around. Good for them.

Angie Hunt - KCCI -TV, Dec. 8, 2009- Snowball on her shoulder.

Angie Hunt is based in Ames for KCCI. She was in the middle of serious snow, or so it seems. She’s got a good red hat, but its the apparent hit by a snow ball on her shoulder that got my attention.

I can remember a black trench coat just seemed to suck the snow. I’m not going to admit to having Bob Palmer throw snow at me to make it look like I really was out in the elements.

Eric Hanson - KCCI-TV, earmuffs.

Eric Hanson goes with the ear muffs to allow his red hair to shine in the snow. He wore those two nights in a row. Good stuff. Eric’s live shot for KCCI included sticking his ruler in the snow. It appeared that worked to demonstrate the depth and reason for him to stay out for 2 hits in the show.

Keri Gavin - KCCI-TV, standard black hat.

Keri Gavin of KCCI was using the standard black hat as well during her live shot. She gets bonus points for wearing a scarf.

Full screen of reporters, KCCI-TV

And KCCI has another graphic of where there reporters are during the newscast. But, we never saw Steve Karlin in the elements. Maybe today.

Now we get to some entries from Jesse Gavin of KCRG. He’s provided a few screen shots of his reporters. Thanks for that.

Justin Gehrts - KCRG-TV

Justin Foss - KCRG-TV

Dave Franzman - KCRG-TV

Josh Baynes - KCRG-TV

Katie Wiedemann - KCRG-TV

Thanks Jesse for those.
Now to the always creative Wartburg Comm Arts kids.
Sometimes, though, they don’t know enough about dressing for the live shot.
Here’s Nate Vaughn.

Nate Vaughn - Wartburg TV8

Here’s one I found of Megan Reuther of WHO-TV.

Megan Reuther - WHO-TV

Thanks to Romelle for a post from WHO and Elizabeth Klinge.

Elizabeth Klinge -WHO-TV

And if you would like to go ahead and vote, you can do so right here.

Snow Day

11p Monday night

Ok, all that talk of snow coverage got me going on a little snow reporting today.

How about a little play-by-play of the snow storm? I was planning on shooting video of Harrison Barnes and the Ames Cyclones playing at West Des Moines Dowling Catholic for a feature on the Iowa Journal. That will have to wait until January 23rd, 2010 as the game was snowed out tonight.

I’ll post a few pics of the storm as I deal with it.

The first picture is from 11p Monday night. The snow started falling shortly after that. At 4a when I got up to feed Levi, about an inch had fallen.

7a Tuesday

By 7a Tuesday, the view from my house showed snow on the ground and my two neighbors on either side had already been out and ran their snow blowers and shovels.

1015a Tuesday - before the snowblower

The drive to Noah’s school was nice and slow. He’s excited because he’s getting to wear boots.

After a morning of appointments, it was time to snow blow. I had a hair cut scheduled and only person had cancelled by the time I left at 830a.

At my dentist appointment, a few people had shuffled. Noah was to see the ENT again about his tonsils, just to make sure they weren’t there anymore and that appointment got moved up as the office was going to close. Amy isn’t the biggest fan of snow, but she made it and just took it slow.

Now, back to the snow blower. I’ve had one the last couple of years and its been great. My friend Mike gets to use his new snowblower today. To say he’s excited, is an understatement.

1040a Tuesday - after the first pass, with the Ankeny Public Works truck driving down our street.

It only took a few minutes to get the two inches off the driveway.

By the time I was done, the Ankeny Public works department had a truck going down our street. I call that good service.

I did catch the noon news today, a few hats were in force. That’s always good to see. Here’s a link to my post yesterday about what’s happening in the newsrooms as the storm is approaching.

I am working on a story about the Iowa Wine Industry. Quite fun to think of warm days in the vineyard while watching it snow.

For the record, my view from my home office is quite nice. I can see it snow and hear Noah not take a nap. Fun times.

235p Tuesday - Mail arrives. Thanks USPS!

2:45 UPDATE: The United States Postal Service does deliver. The mail carrier, more like mail driver, just stopped by the house with our mail. Amy was working on getting more of our Christmas cards/picture out. This year it features the boys. That’s still weird for me to say that we’ve got two of those crazy boys.

Soon, Noah and I will head out and do our part to put a dent in the snow that’s piled up since 1030a.

BTW, I have been updating the Iowa Journal twitter stream today with videos you can watch during the snow storm. As long as you’ve got the internet, this will be a chance to catch up on our back episodes. You can follow those Iowa Journal tweets here.

430p Tuesday - Noah sees how high the snow piles are

UPDATE: 430p Tuesday
Noah decided he wanted to come outside and see the snow in person. He also wanted to see if the snow was good enough to build a snowman. Not quite. But you can see the piles were starting to mount. He helped shovel for a bit.

He’s doing better in the snow this year, than other years. Just a year makes a big difference in his tolerance of cold and snow. Plus, its a new thing again right now. We’ll see what he does in a couple of months when we have snow over the house.

Hopefully by then, we can build at least one snow man. That seems to be his goal this winter. I’ll do what I can to help that one out.

430p Tuesday - Noah helps shovel the front steps

Noah did some damage outside our front door. But a big thanks to our neighbors for helping clear our driveway this afternoon.

The snow is now falling so fast, you can hardly tell where you shovelled in 3 minutes. Then, the snow covered up your work.

I think the snow blower will stay in the garage tonight. We’ll start it back up Wednesday morning.

6p Tuesday - Another snow plow goes by our street

UPDATE: 630p Another Ankeny snow plow made the rounds after we got done eating supper. This is the second time a plow has gone through our street. This was one of those front end loader types. Normally, they come through our street in the middle of the night, to clear us all out. Tonight, it was only a drive path.

The snow did stop around 830p and it will likely begin again soon. Quite the night and the wind is blowing already. Can’t imagine what it will be like when the real wind strikes.

926p Update: Remember my friend Mike’s snow blower excitement? Of course he’s got video of it to share for the world. Enjoy.

RT @michaelgraham: And so it begins…  http://twitvid.com/13424

Wed 5p Update: In all my years of covering winter storms, I learned something today. Our furnace did not kick on at 5p like scheduled. Called for service. Was told it would be 4-5 hours. 72 Degrees in Ankeny suggested I check my exhaust and intakes on the exterior of the house. After a little digging, I got them cleared and we have heat. Thanks for the help 72 Degrees of Ankeny.