There are few professions that require the driving skills of a demolition derby driver, the nerves of a paramedic and the troubleshooting skills of MacGuyver. News videographers can easily spend more hours during their day driving, than covering news. So, what they drive is extremely important. A news or ENG vehicle isn't just transportation, it's also their office and depending on what circumstances they end up in, that vehicle could be their best friend. The West of Tulsa team thought it would be interesting to invite three veteran news videographers to Studio 3 to talk about their profession and what they drive. As you'll find out, we were right, it was very interesting.
We discuss why many videographers in Southern California call Herb Tuyay, Yoda. He's trained many of the top news videographers in SoCal, especially in the Los Angeles TV area. Sean Browning talks about why some news vehicles are unmarked and the evolution of news live trucks and satellite trucks. The trio give their best examples of 'cat in a tree' type stories. They provide details about the stresses of the job and how they decompress at the end of the day. Mike Tauber for example, jumps in his beautiful 1974 Alfa Romeo GTV and just drives. The guys talk us through old photos of them and their assigned news vehicles over the years. Everything from the Izuzu Trooper, Nissan Pathfinder, Dodge Ram Charger, K10 Chevy Blazer, Mitsubishi Montero, Pontiac Vibe, Triton V10 Ford Econoline van and Mercedes Metris.
They also tell us which one is the best workhorse of all the news vehicles they've used over the years. It's unanimous by the way! They also take us behind the scenes. They offer up great stories about two videographers who were fired for drag racing their live vans, one story about driving back from a spot in downtown LA after someone had wiped feces all over the windows of their news vehicle, another story about coming face to face with a suspect in the middle of a high speed police pursuit, surviving a roll over accident in a news live truck and why many news vehicles always smell like In 'n Out Burger.
We have a little bit of everything in this episode. Some stories will make you hungry and others may cause you to toss your cookies. Sit back and enjoy and thank you for supporting West of Tulsa.
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