HIGHLIGHT REEL
RECENT SHOW
Sunday, October 27, after Sunday Night Football
KARE 11
SAYING GOODBYE TO FALLEN HEROES
February 28, 2024 10 p.m.
On February 18th, 2024, a man shot and killed two police officers and a firefighter-paramedic during a standoff in Burnsville, Minnesota. Ten days later, the three were remembered in a joint memorial service including a procession of first responders from all over the country that spanned several miles. The community’s support was massive. Many businesses and the local school district closed for the day, and thousands of people attended the memorial and lined the procession route. As the producer, I was looking to capture the community’s grief and show how they came together to honor the fallen heroes.
This show won a Regional Emmy award for Best Evening Newscast in a Large Market.
GOVERNOR WALZ PICKED FOR VP
August 6, 2024 10 p.m.
After weeks of speculation and a list that got progressively shorter, Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. This show aired hours after Walz and Harris took the stage for the first time in Philadelphia. As Walz introduced himself to the country, back in Minnesota we also wanted to answer every question possible - Why Walz? How will his experience in Minnesota play into his campaign?
In this show, I looked to used different showcasing tools available at our station to show just how extensive our coverage would be. Behind the scenes, I was juggling four reporters with different angles, making sure nothing overlapped and that we delivered on everything we said we would.
KOMU 8
BUILDING OUT THE BIG STORY
March 19, 2021 10 p.m.
Three days after a gunman in the Atlanta, Georgia area targeted several Asian-owned businesses and killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent, members of the Columbia community held a vigil to remember their lives and talk about their own experiences. When I came in to produce this show, I knew I needed to take the story beyond just the vigil and the latest updates on the criminal case. I expanded the coverage to provide context to what the Asian community had been facing over the past year and added new information we had learned that day about the victims.
Producing this show helped me find the boundary between being a journalist and being a person with lived experiences, but it also helped me realize when my lived experiences can be an asset in the newsroom. As an Asian-American journalist, I recognized that I had a unique perspective in putting together this show. I knew I had experiences and a level of cultural competency that could help me tell our sources' stories. Throughout the day, I also worked with other people in my newsroom- from connecting reporters to sources and resources, to helping on-air talent pronounce the names of the victims.
TWO LEADS IN ONE DAY
January 11, 2021 6 p.m.
When I was preparing this show, I knew I had two lead stories- it was Inauguration Day for the governor, and there was a school board for the biggest district in our viewing area that could (and ultimately did) bring students back to the classroom after being out because of COVID-19 for almost the entire school year. I decided to lead with the schools, but I built a lead that also acknowledged the inauguration coverage ahead.
There were also some obstacles to overcome along the way. With 15 minutes left before the show, the reporter at the school board meeting said the doors had not opened yet, and I did not want her to set up a full live shot with her camera and risk losing her spot in line. I ended up asking her to go live from her phone- something we had tested for Election Day two months earlier but never used on air. She ended up walking into the meeting as the show open rolled and did a live hit in the meeting room from her phone. It looked a little awkward, but I was happy we could keep her in the show without jeopardizing her spot in the room.
SHOWCASING REPORTER STORIES
December 6, 2020, After Sunday Night Football
In June 2020, a Sheriff's Deputy in a rural Mid-Missouri county shot and killed an unarmed woman during a traffic stop. The only video of the shooting came from a nearby business, prompting questions about why the Sheriff's Office didn't have body cameras or dash cameras. At the time, the Sheriff said the old system broke and that the department did not have the funds to repair it or buy a new system. When a KOMU reporter started looking at records, she found that the department never applied for grants to fix the system, and never even tried to get a quote for the cost to fix it. .
Given the extensive coverage we had of the shooting, the reporter's months-long investigation, and significant promotion in the week leading up to the air date, I wanted to make sure I could do the story justice in my show. I put the story by itself in the B-block, and at the end of the A block I wrote an unconventionally long tease to give away just enough of the story to leave viewers interested and wanting more. I also used some compelling sound as part of SOT/VO headlines at the top of the show to pique the viewers' interest at the beginning.
PRESIDENT TRUMP'S COVID-19 DIAGNOSIS
October 2, 2020 6:45 a.m.
President Trump announced he tested positive for COVID-19 just before midnight central time, just under five hours before the start of our 2.5 hour-long morning newscast. From there, my fellow producers and I worked on providing context to the positive test, and as the show continued we kept adding on the latest developments to our coverage- including an update in the last 30 seconds of the show. This clip is from the Non-Stop News segment I produced that morning- Non-Stop News is a 15 minute commercial-free block that ends our morning show, leading straight into the Today Show.
ELECTION DAY 2020
November 3, 2020 10 p.m.
Election Day 2020 is one of the days in my career I will never forget. I produced the 10 p.m. newscast, the latest show on KOMU. In the fifteen minutes before the show, the Associated Press projected Governor Mike Parson as the winner in the governor's race and President Trump as the winner of Missouri's electoral votes. I had to make snap decisions during the A-block to make sure we got Parson's victory speech, as well as challenger Nicole Galloway's concession. There were several technical issues across the show, but overall I am very proud of the show that we were able to put on the air.
FRIDAY NIGHT FEVER
October 23, 2020 10 p.m.
High school football is a mid-Missouri staple, and with 11 minutes of football highlights on Friday nights, KOMU has the most extensive coverage in the market. As the Friday Night Fever producer, I oversee 8-12 crews who shoot as many as 15 games. I also create score graphics for the games where we don't have crews. When I stepped into this role, I did my best to find every opportunity to bring viewers to our digital football coverage, adding the website to graphics and scripting in a dedicated push to the web.