Yes, I was extremely fortunate to get an internship as a sophomore at the NBC affiliate, channel 36. The Juniors weren't too happy because the tapes of your work were basically your resume.
I worked at channel 36 for a couple of years for a pittance.
Then, there was a story that kind of turned me off of the job that was my passion.
A 13 year old, Elaine McQuistion, went missing on her way home from school. I was low reporter on the totem pole, so I got the story.
She was a heavy girl, played in the band, and was already packing for a trip to Europe with her grandmother about 3 months in advance. Not exactly the run away type. Plus, the police had found her bike on the side of the road, bent and hidden.
The police finally believed she hadn't run away, but I had met with her family many times, spent time in her bedroom, anything to keep the story alive, even though we all knew she wasn't alive after a few months.
Don Henley Henley has a song called "Dirty Laundry" that is a good summation of TV reporting.
Our station literally had a pool going on when and if Elaine's body would be found. I was outraged, almost crying (and I rarely cry in front of people) and one of the older reporters put his hand on my shoulder and said, "don't worry, you'll get used to it"
Well, I didn't ever want to get used to a shy, most likely unpopular girl going missing, and joking about it. So, that started me thinking.
Elaine was found in August, outside of Austin, under some tree branches and bushes. I could never explain what she looked like or what the smell was like.
And then I had to go shove my microphone in her parents face and ask them how they felt. They finally caught the 4 Mexicans who had knocked her off her bike, raped her, and strangled her to death. They were all high school aged, and weren't tried as adults.
I had many offers in much larger markets, I'm not trying to brag at all, but people had a way of telling me things for some reason.
The job was my top 3 passions, writing, photography (filming a story) and being nosy! But, the way you climb the ladder in that field is by doing more and more horrible stories. And my boyfriend was in medical school, so, I took a job with a pharmaceutical company that my dad had been bugging me about to earn much more money, thinking I would go back to TV when my then boyfriend was making money in a residency, but that never happened.
I am very proud that I had 2 stories I thought of myself go National, again, not trying to brag, but I was only an intern and looked about 16.
One was about the lack of wheelchair access at UT. My dad wouldn't pay for summers, only 4 years, so I slung hash at Kinsolving dorm, and all the people in wheelchairs ate at one table. There was one girl that looked like the type of girl I would have been friends with, and I asked to follow her to class as I was curious. It took her about 45 minutes to access a class I could have walked to in about 5 minutes.
So, I did a story, and it won an award and went national.
And, many, many more wheelchair ramps were installed at UT.
I often wonder where I would be if I had followed my passion instead of punking out. Probably working selling cars on the commercials that air at 2:00 am. One of my classmates did that.
Sorry for the lengthy post. I'll blame the Vicodin again.
