Photo blog: Cincinnati media at Kentucky Speedway

Post race press conferences as viewed through my video camera

Last weekend at Kentucky Speedway was a lot of fun. I rubbed shoulders with some of the best in the business, both literally and figuratively.

Jeff Gluck, of SBNation.com talks to fans during Saturday's tweetup

I also got to stand back and watch all four local TV stations in Cincinnati broadcast live shows from the turn one TV compound that Kentucky Speedway had set up for us.

Joe D about to go on live at 6 p.m. on Thursday evening

Joe Danneman and Brian Giesenschlag from FOX19 were my partners in crime if you will, along with photographer Dan Wood.

Dan Wood shooting some NASCAR Sprint Cup practice

Brian talks to Jerry Carroll former Kentucky Speedway owner as Joe D works the camera

Joe Danneman...Dale Earnhardt Jr... need I say more?

Brian and Joe on Friday nights "Final Quarter" on FOX19

I also hung out quite a bit with Mark Slaughter, from WCPO, Channel 9, when he wasn’t asleep in the pop-up trailer that WCPO had in the infield at Kentucky Speedway.

Slaughter tests audio for Channel 9 ("Come on dude, don't take a picture of me dude")

The number of great quotes Slaughter had might have reached 1,000 by the time Saturday night rolled around.

Slaughter sits down to join the rest of us in turn one at Kentucky hours after the Quaker State 400

From Channel 5 (WLWT) in Cincinnati came Denny Hamlin fan and photographer JT, who loved this shot I took of him filming his favorite driver.

JT was fired up to see Denny Hamlin. He just kept repeating the word "Denny" throughout the weekend.

After the race, as traffic was all but stopped at the speedway, we all sat in turn one and chatted about the weekend.

We were there so long they turned out the lights on us.

It was also a fine time to catch up with former FOX19 Sports reporter Zach Wells, who now works for Cincinnati’s Local 12 (WKRC).

Zach Wells doing his best Zach Wells impression (He does some great impressions, by the way)

All in all, I’d say it was one fun weekend at Kentucky for all of us involved in the local TV side of the show. If you stay tuned throughout the next few weeks I’ll find another time to show off some great photos of Joe Danneman and Dan Wood doing interviews throughout the week.

Nine days until graduation

I enjoy feedback, and yesterday’s blog, about moment No. 10 on the list of my top ten most impactful moments of my college career didn’t cut it for my dad, one of my most loyal readers. I understand why he felt it wasn’t up to snuff with some of my best work, but it’s because that moment only tells part of the story of why I’d love to go into TV journalism, especially here in Cincinnati sports.

Moment No. 9 has to do with a national story that broke here locally, just a little over a year ago.

Moment 9: “Just showing up”(April 2, 2010)
“When Matt James died it was tough,” former FOX19 Sports producer Ron “Rufus” Millennor told me in February. “When you’re dealing with somebody dying, especially a teenager, again, I go back to being old-school, I’d rather be right than first. My bosses probably wouldn’t want to hear that, but when you’re dealing with life and death, it’s different.”

The night of April 2nd, 2010 was a pretty average night for sports in Cincinnati. The Cyclones were in town, and on their way to a second Kelly Cup title in three years. So, as a good sports intern, I followed FOX19 photographer Dan Wood down to US Bank Arena to shoot some highlights for the Final Quarter on FOX19 that evening.

While I was getting ready to edit the highlights, my phone buzzed.

“Matt James died,” the message read.

“What?” I responded. “Don’t mess with me. If this is true I want to run it by the news people here.”

James, an offensive lineman from St. Xavier High School, had committed to Brian Kelly at Notre Dame just two months before his fatal fall in Panama, Fla. He was the top offensive line recruit in the country according to most, and considered to be Kelly’s best recruit in the former UC coach’s first recruiting class in South Bend.

Given who I was talking to (a co-worker at the time, who shall remain anonymous, because I can do that as a journalist) I wasn’t sold on it being a hard and fast fact. Plus, it was dollar beer night at the ‘Clones game, so who knew if the message wasn’t a prank related to that.

As soon as my phone buzzed with the reply, “No it’s true [name redacted] got a message from a buddy who said it happened,” I spun to go tell Rufus. This was big, big news.

I turned to look down at Rufus’s desk (the video editing computers are a few feet above the news room at FOX19, and glass separates the two areas), where he had just hung up his phone, and looked across the newsroom. I’m not sure exactly what he said, but I’m pretty sure it was, “Everyone needs to find a way to talk to anyone to confirm Matt James has died, in Florida.”

Rufus and Zach Wells started working the phone lines, along with the folks at the news desk, and anyone else who could make phone calls. I began searching through “saver” tapes—old files tapes—of high school football looking for anything we had of the massive offensive lineman.

After logging some video of James, I headed out to St. X with Dave Smith, another FOX19 photographer. Before leaving Wells asked me, “Do you know who Steve Specht is? Do you think you can stick a microphone in his face and ask him a few questions?”

“Yes, sure I can do that,” I thought to myself. (Read more about that night in the blog I did on the one-year anniversary of James’s death in April: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/04/one-year-anniversary-of-matt-jamess.html)

As it turned out, Specht had flown to Panama with James’s parents, and wouldn’t be on St. X’s campus that night. When Smith and I arrived the lights in the stadium were on, but we were told that no cameras would be allowed in the stadium. This was a private time for mourning, no TV cameras were allowed in.

Nothing can prepare you for a moment like that night. I never thought I would walk into FOX19 that night and end up at St. X after one of the most tragic events to hit the Jesuit high school on North Bend Road in recent memory.

But I learned something very important that evening, other than on the fly training for how to deal with a breaking news story that surrounded a sensitive topic. Zach Wells said this, advice I still hold with me today: “Half of this job is showing up. It was crazy tonight, but you did a good job.”

Whether it’s showing up to the most boring class or the best baseball game ever, more than half of life is about showing up. And that’s a lesson that will stick with me far beyond anything else I ever learned in college.
-------------------------------------------
That was moment No. 9 in the countdown. If you’ve got comments, suggestions or anything else for me to hear, leave me a comment, tweet at me, or e-mail me (if you don’t have my e-mail address all comments get sent to my e-mail anyway, so just leave a comment!). I’m open to new suggestions and comments on my stuff.

Hopefully my dad thinks this blog was better. If not, I better start working harder.

One-year anniversary of Matt James’s death

“Do you know who Steve Specht is?” Zach Wells asked me.

“Yes,” I replied. As an Elder grad who worked for three years with the Panther football program I was more than familiar with the head coach of our biggest rival.

“Do you think you can stick a microphone in his face and ask him a few questions?” Zach said, pointedly.

“Yes,” I said, nervously. God I was scared.

Within seconds I was walking out the door, tailed closely by producer Ron “Rufus” Millennor, who was quickly giving some last second directions to myself and photojournalist Dave Smith.

“Get out there and call me, OK?” Rufus said.

“Got it,” I answered.

“Send a Sat truck,” Rufus yelled inside.

“Rufus…Are you…going to put me on air?” I stammered as the door closed behind him.

----

When I arrived to FOX19 on Friday, April 2nd last year I didn’t expect to be thrown into a whirlwind of action that became one of the biggest local and national sports stories of the year.

The Cincinnati Cyclones had a game that evening, and as an intern, I had come to enjoy the Clones. Games were always fun to watch and easy to edit for the nightly sportscast. To be honest, I’m not sure the highlights that were shot that evening even made it to the air.

By the time I had gotten back to the station, after watching two periods of hockey, I knew what the goal was. My job was to chop up 30 to 35 seconds of action for Zach Wells to talk about that evening on the fifteen minute “Final Quarter” on FOX19. Easy enough.

While I was cutting some highlights in an edit bay, I received a text message. It stated, simply, that Matt James, a star Notre Dame recruit that attended St. Xavier High School had died. I replied to the message, “Don’t mess with me. If this is true I need to know, we need to run it on the news.”

As I swung the chair to tell photographer Dan Wood what I had just heard, he walked away. Commotion was occurring feet below me in the newsroom. Rufus had just hung up the phone with someone who had the same message for him: Matt James had passed away in Panama City, Fla., during a spring break accident.

The Cyclones game no longer mattered.

Rufus, Zach and everyone who had the time picked up their phones to try to confirm the story. Rufus sent me to the edit bay to compile footage on the massive 6-foot-6 left tackle, who had chosen two months earlier to play football for Brian Kelly at Notre Dame.

No one in the newsroom could find anyone to confirm the story. Although every news outlet had heard the rumors no one in Cincinnati or Panama was able to confirm that James had actually perished.

“When Matt James died it was tough,” Rufus told me a few months ago. “The way the business is now where a lot of people want to get information now, rather than waiting and being right. When you’re dealing with somebody dying, especially a teenager, again, I go back to being old-school, I’d rather be right than first. My bosses probably wouldn’t want to hear that, but when you’re dealing with life and death, it’s different.”

It was almost a surreal experience. Until we could confirm that James had died, we couldn’t run any video. It’s the ethical thing to do, and while it was totally new to me, I was in the hands of professionals who had dealt with this in the past. They knew how to do this.

‘Follow their lead,’ I thought.

“It was chaotic,” Rufus said. “In this era of social networking, people were Facebooking that he had died and Tweeting that he had died. There are no established guidelines for dealing with that. There’s no handbook out that says Twitter and Facebook are now accredited sources.

“So, you’ve got to go with your gut. If it’s somebody you know that’s Facebooking or Tweeting it, you’re a little more comfortable, but if it’s a kid saying So-and-so died, I really need confirmation from somebody else,” he added.

By the time Dave Smith and I were on our way to St. Xavier to try to get some footage, the newsroom was able to confirm the sad story. Zach Wells sat at the news desk and told the audience the story of James, a heralded recruit that chose Notre Dame over Cincinnati and Ohio State. When Smith and I got to St. Xavier I called Rufus.

“The Final Quarter” was on air, but I was able to relay a message to his voice mail. I told him that the lights were on at the stadium and that students were walking into the football stadium for an impromptu prayer service.

As we approached the front gates a parent asked us kindly to return to our car. Cameras were not allowed at the event. We obliged, thanked the man for telling us to turn around, and left.

By the time we got back to the station it was 11:15 p.m. Rufus and Zach stood around the bank of TVs by Rufus’s desk and watched the other three stations talk about James.

I walked over, and let Dave Smith explain what happened. There was nothing more we could do.

“Half of this job is showing up,” Zach told me as I packed my backpack and prepared to leave. “It was crazy tonight, but you did a good job. Thanks.”

I highly doubt I would have gotten to be on air if a satellite truck had met Dave Smith and I out at St. X, but on the drive out to North Bend Road I was abuzz, and plenty worried. I was only wearing an orange polo shirt and khaki pants. I couldn’t go on the air looking like that could I?

We never found out, but I know that if need-be I would have done my best job in front of a camera. It would have been the right thing to do, the best thing to do, the only thing to do.

I’d say that more than half of the job was showing up that night. It was caring to get the story and get it right, something that is lost on some in the media business today, where being first is sometimes all that matters.

When Rufus explained to me that in this instance it was only appropriate to get the right information first before getting wrong information and running with it, my mind was at ease. Ethics are covered thoroughly in all my journalism classes, but this was a real-life opportunity to practice the ethics of reporting and journalism.

It was a sad day, but a great opportunity to learn about some real-world instances in the newsroom. Hopefully I never have to cover another story like this again.

The catch-all Ron Millennor blog post

Last week I gave a few good Ron “Rufus” Millennor stories, but there were some fantastic comments from Rufus that just didn’t quite fit into any category from last week.

I’ll share them along with any funny Rufus memories I have that I may have left out last week (those that are shareable, of course). The one that most prominently sticks in my mind is one that I’ll expand upon in a few weeks: the tragic death of St. Xavier football star and Notre Dame signee Matt James.

“When local people die it’s always tough,” he said, referring to the Friday night in April when phone calls began barraging all of us at Fox 19.

“When Matt James died it was tough,” Rufus said, pausing, before adding “The way the business is now where a lot of people want to get information now, rather than waiting and being right…. When you’re dealing with somebody dying, especially a teenager, again, I go back to being old-school, I’d rather be right than first. My bosses probably wouldn’t want to hear that, but when you’re dealing with life and death, it’s different.”

And what he said is something I agree with. When I first received the news it was in the form of a text message from one of my co-workers. I had no reason to believe him, but I also had no reason not to. I simply told him, “Don’t mess with me, this is about to become news.”

Due to Facebook and Twitter, though, it already was.

“It was chaotic. In this era of social networking, people were Facebooking that he had died and Tweeting that he had died,” Rufus said. “There are no established guidelines for dealing with that. There’s no handbook out that says Twitter and Facebook are now accredited sources. So, you’ve got to go with your gut.”

“If it’s somebody you know that’s Facebooking or Tweeting it, you’re a little more comfortable, but if it’s a kid saying ‘So-and-so died,’ I really need confirmation from somebody else.”

Rufus noted that it was a story that he personally wanted to make sure he could hammer down the facts before he sent Zach Wells onto the set to deliver the sad news.

“You can make a mistake about Carson Palmer being traded or retiring or whatever,” he said. “Sure you have egg on your face and you can come back and say, ‘We made a mistake. We got bad information, a bad tip.’ But when you make a mistake about somebody dying, that’s terrible.”

“Those stories for me are the toughest.”

As I said last week, Rufus is full of fantastic stories from his two decades within the business. But his advice is top-notch as well.

Even though I’ve worked with him before, I asked him what was the best advice he could give to those seeking a job in local television. Boy did he have answers.

“I would say make sure you’re prepared for a lot of different things,” he started with. “People get into the business thinking that they’re going to walk in and be on-air immediately, and that they’re going to walk in and make a lot of money. The reality is that if you want to be on air it’s a tough struggle and you’re going to start in a market that is small and work your way up and not make a lot of money.”

He continued with, “And be prepared for change because 20 years ago, change didn’t come very often in the TV business. Equipment would change, formats might change every so often, but now, you’re dealing with some kind of change in technology every six months. Whether it’s shooting video on an iPhone,” as he picked up his newest ‘toy,’ “or Facebook or Twitter or whatever the next social media thing is going to be, you have to be ready to adapt.”

But the best advice he could give, in my opinion, was this: “You get into the business because you love it, you love what you do. So don’t go in with expectations that you’re going to be a star, that you’re going to get rich that you’re going to be running with a lot of athletes, because athletes don’t want to run with you.”

And although that was icing on the cake for me, I’ve always wanted to know what Rufus’s feelings were on being on camera for the first time. In June last year he started doing his own on-camera work for Fox 19. I was there the first night he did his own sportscast.

“You obviously want to do the best job you can,” he noted. “I’ve seen George Vogel and Thom Brennaman do their first sportscast. Everyone is a little bumpy at the beginning, but I’m sure the best in the business—Bob Costas and Dan Rather—have had rough patches at the beginning.”

“Nobody is good off the top.”

And it’s true. I completely sucked the first time I did anything in front of a camera, and mine was all on tape for a short story on Moeller’s volleyball team. Even though it’s become slightly easier and slightly less chaotic for me to do my own standup work, it’s going to be a long time before I’m completely comfortable in front of a camera.

When Rufus began in the late 80s, everything was on video tapes, a foreign concept to most youngsters in the business today.

“As kind of an older school guy, I know how to use computers, but I was still a little scared,” he said. “I was very concerned about it because I never want to be the weak link in the chain. So when I heard we were switching to digital editing, and they set up some test stations down in the basement here, I stayed overnight and just played with it.”

“It didn’t take long to grasp the basic concepts of how it works before you realize, ‘Wow this is great. This is easy.’ There was a lot more anxiety now than there should have been for me. It turned out to be a fairly easy transition for me. Now I love it.”

He’ll probably kill me when he reads this, but I still get a kick out of watching Rufus hunt and peck his way on the keyboard when he writes.

From the first day I met Rufus through all the stories and knowledge I gained on that day in February when I went to interview him, I’ve learned the right way to do things. Just as Rufus said he learned from the best during his college internships, I’ve pulled plenty of knowledge away from Rufus, and all the other folks I’ve had the pleasure of working with at both Fox 19 and WCPO in the past two years.

I’m sure this spring will be no different. Thanks for reading the stories on Rufus, I hope you’ve enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed writing them. Have a good Thursday everyone…
--------------------------------------------
Oh, and check Fox 19’s Sports page later tonight for a story I’m working on about the man who waved the green flag on Sunday. I feel with all the promotion I’m doing for this story it better be a good one. I’ll try to not disappoint.

Ron Millennor: First impressions aren’t everything

When I asked current Fox19 Sports Director Brian Giesenschlag about his best Rufus memory, I quickly added, “It’s got to be printable Brian.”

His response, “OK, you get a lot of people that can’t share those stories.”

Former Fox19 Sports Director Dan Hoard said nearly the same thing. “Shareable eliminates most of the great ones,” he said.

It’s not that Ron “Rufus” Millennor is mean, or not a nice guy. In fact, everyone I’ve ever talked to in the media business around town absolutely loves Rufus (myself included). It just takes a while to get used to his brutally honest attitude.

One time a Fox19 news producer asked Rufus, “What is wrong with you?”

He responded, rhetorically, “Do you want it in chronological or alphabetical order?” before launching into a stream of consciousness that had his sports intern at the time (that’d be myself) laughing out loud.

So the first time meeting the local TV legend might be something that worries some people. Hoard was one of them.

“It’s something that Rufus and I have laughed about many times. Let’s just say that my impression of him was way off the mark,” Hoard said. “His sense of humor can be a little rude and crude, but he’s an extremely intelligent guy who is well-versed on a wide variety of subjects and we share many of the same interests.”

Giesenschlag recalled a similar feeling the first time he met Rufus.

“I was in the car and we were talking about the job and he basically said something to the effect of, ‘I’m sure you’d do just fine here, but...’ and then basically said, ‘I think you’re a swell guy and all, but we’re basically waiting to see who they pick.’ I think I know people, so I could tell that he didn’t mean it to be derogatory toward me, but it was just Rufus and his situation and how he is,” Giesenschlag said.

Both Giesenschlag and Hoard are two of the most talented people Rufus said he’s ever worked with, but neither of them knew if Rufus was a fan of theirs at first.

“I know I worked here for more than a year before I knew if Rufus liked me or not,” Giesenschlag said. “It’s that much of a process with him and it’s only because he takes what he does really seriously and he doesn’t want someone upsetting that process of doing things as well as he can and the standard he’s set for himself.

“So until he trusts you, you kind of wonder, but most of us take it upon ourselves to earn his trust, but once you have it, you’re locked in.”

During the story Giesenschlag pointed out numerous times, “You know how he is.”

And I do.

When I first began working at Fox19 late last March I wanted to show Rufus that I could handle editing pieces. On my first night he taught me some of the basics of the Avid editing system—a system I had never used before in my life—and was willing to sit by and watch me edit some Reds spring training highlights for that evening’s newscast.

Once I had earned Rufus’s faith, he was willing to go out of his way to drive out to Moeller High School with me on a Monday evening to film interviews for my story on Moeller’s volleyball dynasty (Which can be seen here: http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=12536075).

Rufus was also responsible for posting many of my NASCAR post-race recaps to the Fox19 website, as well as credentialing me for the 2010 Brickyard 400.

It’s a work ethic like that, according to former Fox19 anchor Zach Wells (who is currently across town at WKRC-Local 12) that makes Rufus one of the best to work with.

“What makes him so good at his job is his big-picture vision for what he wants to see on the air and his very detailed execution of what needs to take place in order for that to happen,” Wells said. “Really good executive producers take care of things before anyone else even thinks about them.

“He keeps his people on track with credentials, satellite information and equipment. He’s very organized and a very clear plan is set forth before every project, big or small.”

Hoard mentioned that Rufus has so many good qualities that make him the best producer he’s ever worked with.

“Attention to detail, local knowledge, a tireless work ethic, the ability to get along with everybody in the building and the mastery of a wide variety of skills,” Hoard listed. “Somebody else might be a better editor, another guy might be a better shooter, but nobody can do – or is willing to do – everything under the sun as well as Rufus.

“Plus, he knows what makes good TV. You’d be surprised by how many people in the business don’t.”

Giesenschlag agreed.

“Everybody has their own strengths, but in terms of what makes you good at his job—producing—he’s clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the people I’ve worked with. And it’s because he’s never distracted by anything else in what he has to do and what he needs to do to get it done,” he said.

“So, in terms of organization and time management and having certain contacts, all of those things, I lean on him a lot. He’s really good.”

And he’s not just really good to the people he works with. He is willing to go out of his way to help others, as Wells found out in 2006.

Before he became an anchor at Fox 19, Zach Wells was working as a reporter in Green Bay at the Fox affiliate Fox 11. When the Packers came down to visit the Bengals in ’06, Wells checked with Rufus to see if he could send video and soundbites back to Green Bay from Fox 19.

“It’s one of my favorite Rufus stories,” Wells said. “He stayed until some crazy hour (‘I believe it was 3am,’ Wells noted), plugging in cables and making sure everything was sent back to meet our deadline. It’s a snapshot of everything he stands for—making sure to be as helpful as possible.”

“I can’t think of an anecdote that better reflects the legend of Rufus.”

Well, maybe a few things. Hoard and Wells both noted some of the more comedic side that Rufus displays to those he works with.

“For several years we used to begin ‘Sports Wrap’ with humorous skits, and Rufus was great because he had zero vanity,” Hoard remembered. “He would do whatever was required to get a laugh. In many instances that meant removing his shirt and flexing his muscles—or lack thereof.”

“Just as Will Farrell constantly exposes his flabby gut for laughs, we would often use Rufus’s super-skinny frame for comedic purposes. Trust me, it was comedy gold.”

And Rufus’s competitive nature doesn’t relax when he’s off the clock either, according to Wells.

“Him picking me up full court in our pick-up basketball games, for the entire game, is just funny stuff,” Wells said, with an emphasis on the word ‘entire.’

The one thing that strikes those who work with Rufus, and work around Rufus is his loyalty. As Giesenschlag noted, once you are on Rufus’s good side, he will do anything for you.

“Rufus is very slow to warm up to change or new people, but once you get him, you’ve got him. He’s an ardent supporter and true friend,” said Giesenschlag.

Hoard added, “He’s the most loyal friend anyone could ever have.”

Yet, as nice as Rufus is to those he works with, he understands his job, and notes that he doesn’t try to socialize with athletes.

“If you socialize with these people, you make it much tougher to cover them like [fairly],” he said. “The more you know about a person, it may be tougher to ask a personal question. Especially in this day and age where sports and legal lines cross and you have to ask a player about a DUI or a domestic violence issue or something like that and the fact that you’re not socializing with these people and they’re not really your friends makes it a lot easier.”

“If you can’t draw a distinction between my job and being a professional and being a friend, it’s hard to cover a friend because you’re going to slant your coverage to be fair to your friend,” he added.

As much of a personality as Rufus is, he also has an eye for talent. He pointed out that Fox 19 saw Chad Johnson/Ochocinco’s incredible talent with the media way before Ochocinco started his own news network.

“We recognized his ability to be something special with the media and with the fans. He was doing a segment with us during the season called ‘Chad’s Corner,’ very early in his career,” Rufus said.

“A lot of athletes give you the standard, ‘Oh we’re going to give 100 percent and we’re going to do the best we can,’ and all that. Chad was totally different. He was a reporter’s dream, is a reporter’s dream.”

As for other colorful folks Rufus has had the chance to cover, Sam Wyche, the former Bengals head man tops that list.

“He was such a colorful man, but also a nice man. He invited us into his house numerous times and sometimes he invited us in under stressful situations. He was fired or resigned or whatever story you believe,” Rufus said, noting that Wyche’s story doesn’t quite match up with Bengals owner Mike Brown’s report. “But he invited our crew into the house. It was around Christmas time, and there was a crew camping outside his house and it was cold and he just invited them in.”

And they don’t get much nicer than the late Skip Prosser, former Xavier head basketball coach.

“Skip Prosser may have been the nicest, smartest person I’ve ever had to cover,” Rufus recalled. “He was gifted in so many ways. The things he would do for you were unbelievable. If the SID wasn’t around he’d go in to the locker room and get players for you.”

“He’d say, ‘Hey Rufus, who do you want?’
‘Could you get me David West?’
He’d go into the locker room and get David West for you,” Rufus said.

“He was always available…he was so smart and so nice. They don’t come any better than Skip Prosser.”

Prosser passed away tragically from a sudden heart attack in July of 2007. His favorite quote was from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Our chief want in life is someone who will make us do what we can.”

There’s little doubt that both Prosser and Rufus can stand by that statement.
-------------------------------------
Tomorrow I will revisit some nerve wracking times, and offer some first person perspective on what it was like to be around what Rufus referred to as the “most chaotic” time he’s ever dealt with, as well as offer up some more advice from Rufus on the TV business.

Enjoy St. Patrick’s Day and the beginning of the NCAA Tournament. Let the madness begin.

The opinions of Ron Millennor: Not just rants

It doesn’t take much to get Ron “Rufus” Millennor fired up, and once he’s on a roll, he’ll tell you whatever is on his mind. However, he doesn’t rant just to rant. He normally has a point, and he can back up his complaints with over twenty years of experience in the local television business.

“The biggest difference is just the philosophy of television news as it applies to sports. It doesn’t have the importance that it once did. When I started at Ch. 5—and this is pretty much standard for all the stations in town—we had eight or nine guys in sports. And today, we have two right now at Fox 19. And all the other stations are the same way.”

“Since I started, all the staffs have been cut in half.”

It just means that at Fox 19, as well as other local TV stations, doing more with less in the sports department has become the norm. As Dan Hoard, the former Fox 19 Sports Director said, no one is willing to do more than Rufus.

“Rufus would joke that it’s because he has no life outside of work, but that’s not really it,” Hoard said. “He busts his tail every day because he is uber-competitive and takes tremendous pride in making sure that Fox 19 has the best TV sports coverage in town.”

“Different sports anchors have come and gone but Fox 19 has always provided good coverage. Rufus is the constant.”

Sports coverage has also taken on a different meaning to news directors and the media in general. If you want sports news, turn to ESPN, not the local news.

Rufus admits the internet has caused a lot of the cutbacks in local sports coverage as well.

“Sports was bigger back then [when he started in the late 1980s]. Some of it has to do with the immediacy of the internet and some of that stuff,” Rufus commented. “Advertisers spend dollars elsewhere now. Back then it was either the newspaper, radio or TV. Now, there’s not as much of an incentive to cover sports on TV.”

But that doesn’t mean that with less incentive to cover sports that stations are suddenly cutting back on hours for their employees. In fact, many stations have completely cut out overtime pay.

“I can honestly say I’ve never worked under a 40-hour week,” Rufus said. “Typically I work 50 to 60 hours a week. Now, that’s nothing compared to a Marvin Lewis, or some people that I cover, but I think for the everyday person, they’d be shocked to realize you put that many hours into it, because, especially the way the staffs have been cut, now, when I’m here by myself and the Bengals have a 10 a.m. press conference, I go to that and work through the day and night until after the newscast.”

And with these cutbacks, Rufus and Brian Giesenschlag, the only two full-time Fox 19 Sports employees, are stretched beyond their means to cover as much as they can. Being a part of the media can subject you to some criticism. Fans are miffed that you don’t cover enough high school sports, or there’s too much Bengals coverage on. (And I’m guilty of the fight for more NASCAR coverage)

Last year I was in the pack of folks who chatted with Brad Keselowski at Kentucky Speedway on Friday afternoon. Fox 19 photographer Dan Wood is hiding behind the video camera, and I'm on the right, wearing the aqua colored shirt (Photo from Getty Images/Yahoo! Sports)

Rufus explained his side of the stories behind the scores.

“There are a lot of 12-13 hour days that people might not realize what goes into a three-minute newscast,” he said. “People question, ‘Well, why didn’t you cover this high school game?’ They have to realize we don’t have the resources to do that. Believe me, if I could cover all the games I’d love to have them covered.”

And he’s not lying either. Rufus and Giesenschlag scour the web and the Enquirer for high school games to cover. They try not to always cover the same schools either. Sure, some are bigger and draw more crowds than others (the GCL South is one) but it’s important to cover as many teams as possible.

That still doesn’t stop folks from complaining about not seeing their school on Fox 19.

“The biggest struggle is the time,” Rufus said. “I think more often than not the complaints we get, the complaints that are sent to the sports department are that we don’t cover enough of little league or girls sports. I wish we could cover all that, but you have a three-minute sportscast and you try to weigh what the importance is to the most people.”

“It’s hard to justify going to a girl’s soccer game where there’s maybe 40 people in the crowd,” he continued. “If the school’s fans don’t attend the games, then why would my viewers care about it if fans of your own program don’t show up?”

“That’s not a knock on the schools but we have to weigh what we think our viewers think is the most important thing. Obviously the Bengals and the Reds always take precedence over everything, but during high school football season, high school football takes priority on Friday nights. There is nothing bigger on a Friday night in the fall on Fox 19 than high school football.”

In fact, on Friday nights in the fall, reporters will travel to various high schools and broadcast live from two or three places. The man who is behind the scenes organizing it all is Rufus.

But even though his job is seen as pretty cool by some, he warns that it’s not all glitz and glamour. Even though he spends some time with athletes and high-profile coaches, it’s not always what you see when you flip on the TV.

“I do get to spend time with athletes or whatever, but, believe it or not, it is a lot of work, a lot of hours. I think that’s the thing that most people probably don’t realize is that to do it right and if you want to be successful, how many hours are involved,” he said.

“Being able to spend time with Carson Palmer or Joey Votto or Butch Jones is cool, and it can look glamorous from the outside but there’s a lot of hours that go into it that aren’t glamorous. Sometimes the hours are fun but they can be draining,” he admitted.

Yet there’s a reason people get into the job.

While Rufus isn’t planning on writing memoirs any time soon (and if he was, I feel I’d offer up my services to write something. After this week, I’ll already have half the book written) his best advice for those seeking jobs in the sports media field is advice that applies to any job seeker really.

“You get into the business because you love it, you love what you do. So don’t go in with expectations that you’re going to be a star, that you’re going to get rich, or that you’re going to be running with a lot of athletes, because athletes don’t want to run with you.”

That passion and dedication has made him one of the best producers that most of his colleagues told me they’ve ever worked with. But at first, it’s tough to get a read on Rufus. For some funny stories on the TV legend, tune in tomorrow.
-------------------------------------------
These stories are probably well out of order and hardly make any sense, far from what I first planned on, but hopefully you get to see a little of what goes on behind the scenes at Fox 19, and you gain a snapshot of the man who makes a lot of it possible.

By the end of the week I hope to have brought together all these aspects of Rufus and hope that you can see him the way those of us that have worked with him see him.

Dan Hoard said it best when he told me, “No one deserves [a story] more than Rufus. I’m glad you’re doing it.”

Have a good Wednesday night, and be sure to visit tomorrow.

The year in (local) sports

I love family parties. The opportunity to sit back and talk to family members is something I really enjoy. However, I hate answering one question: “What are you going to do after your graduate?” My response is normally, “I don’t want to grow up and get a real job,” but if push comes to shove I guess I can’t be a Toys R Us kid for my entire life.

Of course you read that paragraph thinking, ‘Where’s he going with this?’ and I don’t blame you. One of my courses of action after I graduate is to get into covering local sports with one of the TV stations I have interned with. So why not take a look at 2010 in local sports?

I enjoy every level of sports in Cincinnati, from high school to college to professional sports, but I obviously keep more of an eye on certain sports than others. My apologies to those teams that I seem to not care as much about. Better step up my game if I want a job in this city I guess.

Yesterday Cincinnati-area radio personality Mo Egger posted on his blog about the year in local sports. His thoughts were pretty good, and might I add that I have enjoyed four years of sitting behind Mo on flights to out of town games. He’s always a fun guy to listen to, and enjoys joking around on flights. He’s also a guy who really tells it like it is about his local teams.

Here’s Mo’s blog if you haven’t seen it yet: http://www.1530homer.com/pages/mo.html?an=2010-HAPPENED

So, with some memories of my own, here was the 2010 year in local sports.

The Moeller basketball team made a run at their fourth state title since 1999. Their state final four game and state title game was the first thing I got to cover in my spring internship with FOX19. Moeller won the state semi-final game against Cleveland-area Mentor High School, but fell, and fell hard in the state finals to Jackson High School. The Polar Bears beat Moeller 57-34.

I also thoroughly enjoyed watching the Cincinnati Cyclones win the 2010 Kelly Cup, their second title in three years. Both as a fan and as a guy who got to cover the Cyclones, it was a fun run. The Clones may be Cincinnati’s best kept secret, and the marketing they’ve employed over the past few years have made their games more exciting than they used to be. Dollar beer nights and other fun giveaways have made the Cyclones a fun night out with friends.

Of course I love to tell people about the biggest news that only I seem to care about in this city: NASCAR is coming to town (kind of). With the summertime announcement that Bruton Smith was finally making every Cincinnati-area NASCAR fans’ dream come true—bringing the big boys of the Cup Series to Kentucky—I was more excited than I thought I’d be. There’s 50 plus days until the Daytona 500, and a little over seven months until the Sprint Cup Series goes under the lights in the Bluegrass State.

My money is on Joey Logano, and I have three years of experience to back me up on that. Logano completed the three-peat at Kentucky by winning the pole and the Nationwide (nee Busch, hey, old habits die hard) Series race in Sparta. Anyone want to bet against me on that?

Reds fans—who were used to having nothing much to root for after August—saw their Reds make a run at the playoffs, and one player win the MVP. Although the Reds fell apart after they won the NL Central, the way they clinched was nothing short of awesome.

A homerun by Jay Bruce to centerfield was one of the coolest moments I had seen in quite some time, and although I’m not a Reds fan, I was thrilled to see the hometown team in the playoffs, even though they fell short.

After the summer swelter goes away, Cincinnati area sports fans start thinking this is the year the Bengals make that elusive Super Bowl run. Even with the city in Reds fever, the Bengals found a way to make headlines of their own. This year, with the addition of superstar wideout Terrell Owens, most Bengals fans thought their team would be unstoppable. Not so much.

The Bengals turned into the “Bungals” as the season rolled along, and fans have become disgruntled once again. I honestly don’t follow much NFL ball, but it’s so entertaining to open the Cincinnati Enquirer every day and read the angry letters to the editor about the Bengals. Kinda makes me wish I was more of a fan of some NFL team. It would make this more fun.

The biggest surprise of this sports season locally was the absolute failure of the UC Bearcat football team to repeat as Big East champions for a third year. Sure, not a whole lot of “experts” (real or perceived) expected UC to win the Big East, but no one, no one, expected to see this much of a failure by the Bearcats.

Next year is a new year, and that’s how UC football fans should look at it. Plus, Mick Cronin has the basketball team playing well, so that’s a plus for Bearcat fans.

Without reading Mo’s blog I would have completely forgot what Mo called “The Worst TV Sports Move” of the year, even though it happened right in front of my eyes. Egger said FOX19 letting go of Zach Wells was the aforementioned “Worst Move.”

In my six or so months of hanging out at FOX19, I got to know Zach, and learned a lot from him. I’m glad he got to stay in the city (he’s now working at WKRC, Channel 12) and so we all get to hear from one of the most fun guys I’ve worked with in my two internships in as many years.

One of my favorite Zach Wells memories wasn’t of the advice he gave me (and Zach was willing to give me advice, and lots of useful advice to boot) but of the day I walked in to the station and he looks at me and says, “You know what we need to do to get fired up this evening?” I gave him a quizzical look, and said, “What?” He made a few clicks on his computer and within seconds was blaring Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On a Prayer” from his speakers, complete with Zach playing the air guitar.

We had fun that night, and I would enjoy working with Zach Wells in the future if I had the chance to do so. After all, it’d let me cover local sports, kind of like this blog post attempted to do.
To borrow a line from Zach Wells, “It’s time to turn out the lights on another edition” of the local sports blog here. Join me tomorrow for a final look at the year, and possibly a little look ahead to 2011.