Crazy things you've had to do to file a story

[vandelayindustries]

Best one I can remember:
Covered the JUCO national indoor track meet just outside Minneapolis in the late 1990s. Yes, I think I was the lone media member there. There is no media setup -- no workroom, no interview area. Just grab who you need near the track.

Well, to save moolah, the paper bunks me at the arena in one of those dorm-style rooms that housed most of the athletes, too. The paper gives me one of those tried-and-true Radio Shack TRS-80 style computers and wishes me well. The first day, I file with no problem.

Day 2: Write, but can't file from the dorm room. Nothing else in the facility will work. The meet administrators have flown the coop. I borrow a rental car from the coach and brave the 15-degree chill and start driving. I find my way to a hotel -- I think it was a Motel 6 -- and explain my plight to the clerk. He thinks I'm making the whole thing up, but he lets me use the phone line. I file. Call the paper with the trusty 1-800 number and it arrived. I think drive back to the facility. Fun times.

 

[JackS]

These stories remind me of a lot of crazy ways I got games on the air on radio before the era of cell phones. I mean, now, if worse came to worst, you'd just call a game on your cell for a few hours. Back then, with all the jack compatibility problems and the like, you'd have to be unbelievably creative.

For example, I remember once broadcasting an American Legion baseball game via MARTI to a receiver in an office a few hundred yards away (a MARTI would typically have a range of about 30 miles, so using one in this manner would be the rough equivalent of killing an ant with a sledgehammer), then putting a landline phone handset up to the receiver's speaker, dialing up the station and putting a "Don't touch!" note next to the whole Rube Goldberg setup. If somebody had hung up the phone 15 minutes into the game, I never would have known. That didn't happen, but after the game I asked how it sounded and I was told, "like you were calling the game in a barrel."

I miss Louisiana, JD.

My media internship and my first job out of college were both in radio. At the internship, there was a MARTI unit that probably would have made it much easier to broadcast home games but for some reason, the owner decided he didn't want to use it any more. He owned a cell phone dealership as well, so he just sent me out with the bag phone for home games.

Except at this time (1991-92), this little town didn't have particularly good cell phone service yet and I had loads of trouble broadcasting home games. I could hear over the radio I was using to listen to myself that the cell signal was subject to horrible interference. One game, I just gave up and used the press box phone to call in after scores.

One road game I couldn't broadcast because the phone line in the press box that was supposed to be live wasn't and there were no phones in the locker rooms that I could hook up long extensions to.

Pre-season basketball tournament, two gyms, one phone line and we played in the gym without two of the three nights. Luckily, the gyms were close to each other and I had enough extension line to lead from the line to the auxiliary gym via a connecting hallway that wasn't open to the general public.

The unit that I used for road games (and any home games where the other team didn't have a radio station with them, allowing me to use the courtesy line) was made in either the late 50s or early 60s. It ran on a lantern battery. I had to bring a phone and connect it to the unit with a cord with 1-inch jacks at each end. And it was much more efficient than the cell phone kit.

If it wasn't for the insane owner at the first job, I'd probably have a lot more of those kins of stories to tell.

Yeah, well, the MARTI was a huge pain in the ass, so you were lucky. For those not familiar, they're the size of a large toolbox and the weight of one full of hammers. Then you bring a large pole out with an antenna that reminds you of an old-time TV antenna you'd put on your roof. It was literally like setting up a small radio station.

But yeah, I remember extension line issues too. At one road basketball game I had this long cord strung through the ceiling all the way to the principal's office, only to discover they had something called a "Merlin" phone system which had a totally different sized jack that didn't match the coupler on the cord.

It took me until about 5 minutes left in the game to figure out a way to broadcast the conclusion.

 

[young-gun11]

How did you broadcast the conclusion?

 

[hondo]

True story about a guy who used to work for us. Covering high school football playoff game in the boonies of southwest Florida. Typical post-game: no phone in press box, no principal, AD or coach to let him in the office to send. Remembers there's a convenience store nearby so he finishes his story on the trash-80, gets in his car and goes roaring through the podunk town.
Yes. Speed trap. Cop pulls him over. 60 in a 35. Also, expired license and registration (he had a tendency to let small things lapse). He's taken to the town hall and tossed in a cell with Otis the town drunk. Gets one phone call.
Uses his phone call to send the story, and made deadline. Conned the cop into letting him have one more call to check the story in.
Then spent the night in jail.

Also, friends of long-time FSU beat guy Steve Ellis know this story from three years ago. Steve just finishing a mid-week story on FSU-Clemson football. Starts getting the chest pains. Wife calls 911. While they're treating him, he gives his wife directions on how to email the story to the paper. Steve died the next day, or the day after.
Now that's a beat guy.

 

[MTM]

There was a longtime sportswriter in Palm Springs named deck White who died in the same manner ---- making sure he filed his article just before he passed.

 

[cyclingwriter]

great stuff on this board.

Will share one from one of the photags I used to work with. This is about two years ago and he was supposed to send a shirt ton of photos to a gallery via his laptop. Can't get a signal so drives into a neighborhood looking for a signal. Finds one. Semi pulls over on a narrow street. Car lights come up behind. He tries to wave them around. Horn honks. He waves again for them to go around. Rolls up window. Keeps tapping away. Hears knock on window. Voice goes, " I don't mind you downloading porn from my wi-fi, but can you please move out of my driveway."

Photag rolls down window. Starts to apologize profusely.

 

[writingump]

It's 2004 and I'm covering a football game at Wake Forest in what used to be the worst college press box in America (now it's arguably the best, the envy of some NFL stadiums). Anyway, my wi-fi wasn't working that day, so I was looking for a phone to file and couldn't find one ... until I looked in the timekeeper's booth. I set up shop there and managed to get it sent on time -- with dirty looks from some who were in my predicament.

 

[jr/shotglass]

From somebody who hasn't filed in a while -- are air cards SOP for you folks now, or is it rare to have that luxury?

 

[flexmaster33]

I have to find hot spots...although there's been discussion of bringing in air cards. But with hot spots so readily available anymore I doubt it's an expense my shop will approve.

 

[dirtybird]

From somebody who hasn't filed in a while -- are air cards SOP for you folks now, or is it rare to have that luxury?

My shop had one in the half-year before I got there, but that was done away with. Thankfully 24-hour restaurants are adding wi-fi every day, so between them and just driving back to the office, I'm usually set.

 

[JackS]

How did you broadcast the conclusion?

Memory on that is hazy, but I think I finally found someone in the building who had a Merlin compatible cord long enough to at least get into the gym, even though not exactly in a prime spot. The worst part is that the game was not competitive, so broadcasting the last 5 minutes of a blowout was kind of a waste.

 

[DriveMyCar]

Some great stories here. My favorite memory, and it's not a bad one, is covering a high school football game in Tazewell, Va. I had to file my story from the fieldhouse laundry room, and when I emerged, the coaches were sitting there, passing around a jar of moonshine. When they offered me a sip or two, I couldn't turn it down. After all, it was pretty cold outside.

By the way, one of the players for Tazewell was Billy Wagner, the former major league relief pitcher.