Just because they may be thin, doesn’t mean the hats aren’t mighty

Nikki Newbrough, KWWL - TV Waterloo.

Thank goodness winter is here. We needed the snow to help bring out the hats.

We had one crop already this season. This would be the second round of lids.

We begin with Wartburg grad and now KWWL reporter Nikki Newbrough. She is the morning reporter for the NBC affiliate. Translation: She can be silly when needed.

Nikki's live shot on earth.

Earlier in the day, Nikki was at the University of Northern Iowa campus asking students about the cold and snow. Her interview almost stole the show. He was in a NASA-type space suit.

Earth to UNI dude, nice hat.

You can see in this picture, Nikki put the space helmet on her head for this still frame.

Brian Boesen, KWQC - HD, live on Brady Street Hill in Davenport.

Brian Boesen is reporting on Brady Street Hill in Davenport. I’ve done that shot a few times in my career.

The KWQC reporter and I met backstage at the Girl Scouts Night on Broadway a couple of months back.

I also met the clubhouse leader for hats in 2012, Megan Ottier that night in Bettendorf. More on her in a moment.

Back to Brian… I did ask him if he was related to the Des Moines Boesen’s. Specifically, former Dowling Catholic TE Ben Boesen who is now playing football at Iowa State. No relation between the two. Yes, I was that guy who asked.

Angie Hunt, KCCI - TV Des Moines.

Back to Central Iowa and an ‘ole favorite for hats here at PP&M and that would be Angie Hunt.

The Ames bureau reporter has been captured with many great lids on her head the last few years. She gets the plum assignments in all corners of the viewing area, many northern points, so wearing a good head topper is vital to her good health.

Thank you to Angie.

Krystle Kacner , WHO - HD Des Moines

Newly hired reporter Krystle Kacner of WHO-HD is now getting into the hat game. She’s new to the area and to the station.

But her hat is one of veteran caliber.

As she settles in, we’ll get her to tweet a couple of pictures of herself wearing a hat.

Chris Earl, KCRG Cedar Rapids

And back to eastern Iowa and KCRG reporter/anchor Chris Earl.

Mr. Earl deserves special attention for this furry wonder on his head.

Would you call that Cousin Eddy’s hat from Christmas Vacation? Or is that more Daniel Boone?

Now back to the hat that I received the most in my inbox.

Morgan Ottier of KWQC opens the competition with a home run.

Megan’s hat is spectacular. But some question if the hat is for show or if she’s serious about wearing the hat. Better yet, is she serious while wearing that hat?

I know many reporters were looking forward to getting out in the elements this weekend to talk about the ice and snow, but it looks like those pictures will have to wait, as the next winter death storm is staying to the west.

So Lauren Squires, bring us your hats from the Omaha market.

If you know of a hat to share, send the pic to IPTVPaul@gmail.com .

Flood Potential for Iowa

Iowa Department of Transportation snow-blower like plow tries to keep the shoulder clean of Highway 20 in Grundy County, Iowa.

All of this snow has to go somewhere, right?
Or does it?
What is our flood potential for a top 10 record snow fall and its eventual melt?

There are a lot questions surrounding the snow fall of 2009-10.

The big question for this week’s Iowa Journal is what is our flood potential for the rest of this year? Have any changes been made since the flood of 2008?

This is not a welcome topic for those of you in Cedar Rapids, Waverly, Cedar Falls, Mason City, Columbus Junction… need I go on?

The immediate answer to the question is: It depends. It depends how fast of a warm up and melt we have. It depends if we get more rain this spring. It depends if flood prevention measures since 2008 work. Will those new mitigation efforts work? Will more land in wetland protection hold back the water on the land and not end up so quickly into streams, rivers and downtowns?

We’ve heard the National Weather Service warn that Iowa is at risk for significant flooding this spring. That sounds more positive than what the NWS is saying Fargo, ND where they are dealing with a “keg of dynamite” of flood potential.

I just got back from looking at producer Nancy Crowfoot’s piece. You’ll see some familiar shots of flooding and snow, but we’ll be talking with 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.

You can read the full release here, which includes two other posts about this topic.

The Journal Monkey will be taking your questions here before 2 tomorrow.
Our show airs in HD, not quite as pretty as the Olympics, at 8p Thursday, 630p on Friday and 830a on IPTV World on Saturday.

Last week we talked about Unemployed in Iowa. You can learn more about the show and watch it by clicking on this link.

Next week we’ll be looking at how getting refugees to Iowa just got a whole lot harder. We’ll be featuring a group of Iraqi musicians who are here in the state. On March 4th, we’ll look the state of Iowa’s Mental Health issue.

Thank you for the time.

February Hats

Elizabeth Klinge - WHO-TV Des Moines

I had to do it.

After many great posts and polls, I’ve found more pictures of hats to share with the world.

I’ve held off as long as possible, but this time away has also given TV reporters to get new lids and see if the hat patrol caught them in the act of wearing that new hat.

Geoff Greenwood - KCCI-TV Des Moines

We’ve got a new entry this time. Mr. Geoff Greenwood of KCCI-TV in Des Moines is seen here to the right. Geoff has covered several snow storms in his day and is a hard working and very organized reporter. He serves at the expanded media coverage coordinator for this district. He’s always good to work with on things.

Emily Carlson - WHO-TV Des Moines

Emily Carlson of WHO-TV is back in this round with a new hat. She appears to be out in the conditions the most this season. And that’s been quite the season as we’ve had near-record snowfall this season. More on that in a moment with a graphic that Ed Wilson of WHO-TV put up Monday night. You know, Ed, I’ve yet to see you in the elements this season. This would be a good time to get your entry together for next year’s Iowa Broadcast News Association‘s Excellence in Weather Coverage category.

Keri Gavin - KCCI-TV Des Moines

Keri Gavin’s entry is more of a fit for construction season, but it counts as a fun hat.
We did have a few past entrants who have been trying to enhance their google search results and we’re always pleased with the hit counts to the site.

We are working on an upcoming Iowa Journal about the potential for flood this spring in light of all this snow we’ve received. The post was made Monday.

Danielle Wagner - KWWL-TV Waterloo

Thanks to my friend Michael Graham for coming through with this picture from the Waterloo/Cedar Rapids TV market.
Here’s Danielle Wagner of KWWL-TV and her hat. That’s a hat that matches the coat. That should get some bonus points for the effort.

This is also her first entry into the Mad Hat-ness.
We did have several KCRG and KWWL entries before, but not anything from KGAN… ahem, cough, ahem.

Courtney Baker - WHBF-TV Rock Island

And I had to make a stop in the Quad Cities for another WHBF-TV entry. This time Courtney Baker is outside the front door of the Rock Island studios. I guess that makes it easy to get to the District when you have a front porch live shot.

At least the camera is pointed down the street and not with the station as the backdrop.

If you remember, the last entry for WHBF looked a lot like Britney Spears.

9th Snowiest Winter on record at 58 inches.

About the weather. Ed Wilson posted this chart on Monday, February 15th, 2010 to show where we are at for record snow fall. At least now, we’re in the Top Ten all-time snowiest winters. We’ve come this far, we might as well go for broke and hit 72 inches.

KCCI did a story Monday that included lots of numbers. In Des Moines alone the city’s public works department has logged 50,000 hours, 57.5 inches of snow, 80,000 gallons of fuel and spent $4.2 million.

That flood potential show airs Thursday at 8p, by the way, on IPTV.

By the way, February is traditionally the snowiest month of the season. I’m just saying.

If you’ve seen a good entry, drop me a line at yeagerp@hotmail.com and we’ll put together another rundown of hats and reporters. We’ve only got 4 more weeks of winter to go.

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.