Producing TV News at NonStop Local KHQ
I worked at KHQ-TV in Spokane, WA -- the leading TV news station in the #67 U.S. TV market -- for nearly a year (Sept. 2022 - July 2023). The majority of that time, I was in charge of producing the late-night weekday newscasts. On this page, you can find clips showcasing a variety of segments I produced, including breaking news, weather, explainers, and talkers.
Breaking News Coverage
Breaking news is some of the most important and dynamic work I was responsible for as producer. When our team heard a call go out over police scanners, or saw a press release come into our inbox, it was time to jump into action.
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The following is one particularly big breaking news night which happened in April, 2023 -- a man had allegedly fired shots at police who approached his home, leading to a multiple-hour SWAT standoff in a dense neighborhood. We called in off-duty reporters and photographers to fully cover the severity of the incident, and our nightside newscasts began with extensive coverage after the suspect was arrested.
I'm proud of the work we did on this story; we were able to tell the full story of the standoff and give the audience the information they needed (i.e. which roads were still closed), and we finished by promising follow-up coverage. Here's the edited segment from our 11 PM show:
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Sometimes, multiple breaking news events would happen in the same night, and our team would do as much as we could to cover them all.
In one instance, we learned of a large fire at a structure North of Spokane and a car going off a mountain road, both just a couple hours before we went on air. We didn't have a live reporter on staff that night, nor were our law enforcement contacts giving us detailed information, so we did what we could to cover both, while also prioritizing the weather forecast because we were in a heat wave. I think the coverage was solid, and it set the stage for the morning show to do more coverage on each as needed.
Creating a Strong A Block
The A Block (or first 10-13 minutes of a newscast) is generally the most important part of the show; it's where the biggest stories of the day go, including breaking news, weather, local, national and international headlines -- anything that was in our audience's interest to know.
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Here's two full A Blocks from June, 2023: one which we led with a Weather Alert for thunderstorm activity, and another which was packed full of important stories for our region.
Mad Minute
Each night, I produced the Mad Minute, featuring as many offbeat news stories from around the world as we could fit in one minute. It's a segment I always had a lot of fun with because it's much lighter in tone, and I was able to express my comedic side.
It was also the segment I put the most work into most nights, as I had to source six to eight new (and sufficiently weird) stories, condense them down to just one or two sentences, and find legally-usable visuals for each.
Here's a few of my favorite Mad Minutes.
More Selected Segments
Fourth of July Segments
For Independence Day 2023, we caught the Spokane fireworks live off the top of our 10 PM show. I also had my talent face off in a gummy hot dog eating contest (a la the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest held in New York).
It was a fun night of shows!
Livestreamed Coverage of Artificial Intelligence
For a month of my time at KHQ, I was put in charge of producing an experimental weekly livestream, in which we would focus on a particular large story or issue throughout a multi-hour broadcast. I produced streams about LGBTQ+ Pride Month, Mental Health, a high-profile murder suspect's arraignment, and more.
Here are some clips from our stream on the rise of artificial intelligence, including a news story written by Chat GPT.
Solar Eclipse Talker
In April, 2023, a solar eclipse occurred, visible in Southeast Asia and parts of Australia. I love space news of any kind, and solar eclipses only happen a few times a year, so I wrote a segment about the celestial event -- and I got my weather anchor involved in explaining some of the mechanics!