Guy On The Tube

I often call my lectures and classes the Dog and Pony Show. Not because I particularly address dogs or ponys in my talks, but more so because I bring all sorts of equipment and specimens preserved in glass vials filled with alcohol. I bring a computer and a digital projector, and when it’s all set up I talk for six or seven hours. It’s like the circus has come to town, freak show and all.

I don’t mean to demean what I do; I just like to look at things differently from time to time. My talks and classes are pretty important to those in agriculture. I just did one last weekend in Central Oregon and had eighty students that not only stayed through the lecture but stayed on for an hour afterwards to ask questions.

Word got out to the local media that I was coming to town and one of the TV stations asked if I could come by the studio for a live interview. Though I’ve had TV news cover my speaking engagements before, filming while I lectured, this was the first time I’ve ever been invited for an in-studio sit down chat.

It was pretty cool. My wife and I showed up on time and we were seated in the news room where a couple guys where hammering out news script for the 11:00 news. I was to be on during the end of the last news segment. We wandered around and were able to look in through the darkened glass on the control room which was a small room with several consoles and two extremely large screens that were divided into multiple screen in screen images.

Behind the back wall of the control room was the studio. The control room viewed what was going on in the studio on screen, not through a window.



Walking into the studio was like walking onto the bridge of a movie spaceship. Everything was big and bright and shiny. There were large screen video displays everywhere, even under the desks. It was beautiful and breathtaking and designed to look great and futuristic with lots of color and movement.

The producer hooked a wireless mike to lapel and introduced me to the anchor that was going to interview me. He seemed like a nice fellow and looked the part of someone with a good TV face. His hands showed that he never worked in the woods and that he has probably never changed the oil in his car.

The interview in total was six minutes long; two three minute segments with a commercial spot in the middle. Time went so quickly. The anchor told me that if you are ever told you have six minutes to live, don’t live out your final minutes in Television, the time goes too quickly.

It was a good experience, though I didn’t get to see it. I went to do the class on Saturday, and nearly everyone in the class had seen my segment. They told me I did a good job. It was fun. I've used up six of my fifteen minutes of fame.