Text and photography by Jadrian Klinger

 

In the world of local TV journalism, the daily grind is an unending hustle to be the first on the scene, to be the only source covering the angle, to be the top spot on the dial that viewers trust most. There is no rest for the weary, as the old idiom goes. And for the seemingly tireless men and women who fuel the well-oiled machine that is WHP CBS 21 News, whether on air or behind the scenes, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

Stakes are high in television news, and there is little room for error. One tiny mistake is seen by thousands and thousands of viewers. It takes a team of reporters, photographers, anchors, directors, producers, editors and engineers working together to ensure each morning, evening and nighttime broadcast is the best it can be. Yet, somehow, the crew at CBS 21 News makes it look easy. 
 

A couple of hours after the morning crew has finished their last broadcast of day, the expansive CBS 21 newsroom is quiet and uncharacteristically empty, except for two producers tapping away at their computer keyboards. The reporters are on assignment and the evening anchors have not yet arrived. A lull in the action, while network programming fills the station's signal. 
 
 

Out In the Field
“I like reporting better,” admits reporter Ewa Roman. “It’s more exciting. It gets me out with the people. You have the feeling, the adrenaline rush, the intensity that you do when you’re in the field versus when you’re inside – it’s a different feel, a different dynamic.”

Roman has been in the business of televised news for the past 10 years, seven of which with CBS 21. She got her first break with an NBC affiliate in Elmira, N.Y. “After working there for three years, I got a job here as a morning show weekend producer/reporter, so I produced two days and reported three,” says the 33-year-old. “Then I moved on to full-time reporting. I also fill in at anchor here whenever they need me to.”

She spends much her day out in the field with a photographer in tow. “We collect our elements all day for what we’re working on. Then sometimes breaking news happens and what we’ve been working on all day isn’t important.”

Winner of a Mid-Atlantic Emmy for her work on a team-coverage story about seven children who died in a fire, Roman’s job is to report on stories of all kinds as an objective observer, but it is not easy to remain unaffected by the tragedies. “I’ve learned to deal with it,” she says. “I’ve been in the business 10 years now. In the beginning, it’s difficult because you don’t realize it hits you like it does until after you’re done. I remember I covered these two sheriffs deputies shot and killed while they were serving a warrant. And seeing their comrades crying while they were looking for the man on the run, I’ve never seen that before – an officer with tears streaming down his face while he was in the middle of a pursuit...I’m a very faith-based person, so I try to find my strength there. And then what I do is try to put myself in their position. How would I feel if a reporter came up to me, how would I want to be approached?”

 

Reporter Ewa Roman and photographer Brian Smithmyer arrive at a the Derry Township Police Department to interview Chief Patrick O’Rourke about an inebriated man who jumped into the Swatara Creek the night before and survived. Armed with a notepad, Roman expertly asks Chief O'Rourke questions. Smithmyer adjusts operates the large and very expensive-looking camera capturing every word. Little more than 10 minutes pass, and the interview is finished. They pack up and jump back into the CBS 21 News SUV – off to the capture the next story.

Through the Camera Lens
Fresh out of college, photographer Brian Smithmyer started as a production assistant at CBS 21 six years ago. His goal was to become a photographer. “They knew I wanted to be a photographer, so they worked with me,” explains the 28-year-old. “I shot football. I’d go out once a month [in the field] to see what going out on stories was like. Then eventually I became full time.”

The station’s decision to make Smithmyer a photographer paid off when he won a Mid-Atlantic Emmy for continuing coverage of the proposed City Island Sports Hall of Fame.

As a six-year veteran photographer, Smithmyer keeps his camera close because he knows that news can happen at any moment. “Say we’re driving somewhere, and I see something happen, I can pull over and am ready to shoot,” he says. “That happened about a year ago. I was working in York that day, and I said to myself, ‘Why is there one fire battalion chief pulled over?’ I walked over, and it was like, ‘Whoa, there’s a body in the river.’ So I started shooting as they were pulling the body out.”

 

Back at the station, the newsroom is a little fuller and little louder than before. A few more producers and an editor or two fill the space. Sports Director Jason Bristol sits at his desk clearly lost in his pursuit of a story to be aired on the upcoming broadcast. Everyone has a spark of quickness in their steps; the preshow meeting is fast approaching.

 

Behind the Scenes
Without Julie Kupchella, producer for the 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. broadcasts, the show simply wouldn’t be possible. Aside from actually being on camera, she does it all – chooses stories, writes stories, picks out graphics, decides on the visual presentation and coordinates with reporters. “At night, we have a little bit of a challenge,” says the 26-year-old. “We only have two reporters. During the day, we have four or five, so if something happens, breaking news happens, I have to decide if we’re going to make a sacrifice on this story to go to another one. I have to manage who goes where and how we’re going to cover it.”
Kupchella started as a video editor and production assistant with CBS 21. “The next spring, somebody quit. They looked at me and said you want to be a producer, here’s your chance. I started producing on the morning show for about a year, then I moved to the 5:30 p.m. [show] for a couple months. I’ve been working on 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. for about two and a half years now.”

Her poise and skill betray her years. She is known around the station for her grace under pressure. “There’s no point in panicking. I’m here, and I have to do a job. I’m not going to panic because if I panic, I’m going to waste 30 seconds that I could have had to put the story on television.”

 

The whole team, they are all there seated at the large table in the conference room. It is the 3 p.m. preshow meeting. Co-anchors Tanya Foster and Robb Hanrahan, Meteorologist Tom Russell, Sports Director Jason Bristol and Webmaster John Wertz bounce ideas back and forth as producers and editors run down story options. News Director Craig Hume run the meeting. In less than an hour, the entire show is planned.

 

 In Studio and On the Air
The co-anchor duo of Tanya Foster and Robb Hanrahan have been delivering the news together for the past two years. The obvious chemistry they share, on and off air, is what makes them a compelling pairing to the ever-growing CBS 21 News audience.

A 25-year veteran of TV news, Hanrahan reported and anchored locally for WHTM-TV in the early 1990s before anchoring for stations in Miami and New York City. He happily returned to the midstate two years ago. He also hosts Face the State with Rob Hanrahan, which airs on Sundays at 11 a.m.

Foster, a transplant to the area from Texas, worked in Waco and Wichita Falls prior to joining the CBS 21 team four years ago and has been enjoying every moment of it. “In this business, you never know, and we’ve been so fortunate because we get along so well all the time,” says the 32-year-old. “We often say on the desk with Tom, us two and our camera man Jules, that it’s time to relax. You’re day is so busy with your home life and work and preparing for the newscast. Obviously, it takes a lot out of you. And once we get to the anchor chair, we’re able to kind of breathe a bit.”

Hanrahan echoes Foster’s sentiments. “We work hard all day long, up until the time that we’re on,” says the 49-year-old. “And that’s why I wanted to do this for a living because, unlike a lot of other jobs, there’s nothing to really take home at the end of the day. You’ve done the best that you can. It’s like running a sprint every day. You go home and the next day everything is fresh. For us, that hour and a half in the evening is just a chance to let loose, tell people what’s going on.”

In many ways, they are the collective face of the station. And they are both acutely aware of the obligation they have to the viewers who, in a way, invite them into their homes on a nightly basis to hear the news of the day. To them, the most important aspect of their work is preserving that trust, and earning it anew each broadcast.

 

The studio lights are up and camera operator Jules [Get Name] positions the large HD cameras for the first live show of the day at 5 p.m. Foster and Hanrahan look over their scripts one final time before the "on-air" signal is given. Meteorologist Tom Russell checks the latest weather readings to ensure the most up-to-date forecast is ready. And then, mere moments before they go live, a palpable calm blankets the studio. [Get Name] points to Foster and Hanrahan, and the rush of news begins to flow.

 

Predicting the Future
“We always approach weather the same way, just like reporters do,” says Meteorologist Tom Russell. “We want to tell the weather’s story, and the good thing about the weather’s story is that it’s always changing. You’re talking about something people like to talk about. Whether or not they like the weather, they like to talk about it.”

For the past nine years, Russell has been telling the weather’s story for CBS 21. Prior to that, his news career spanned radio and TV as well as the country – from Maine to California to Florida to Pennsylvania.

Not only does he give the weather forecast, he also puts together all of the graphics that play behind him as he expertly maneuvers between the camera and the green screen. “The first thing I do when I get in is build the seven-day,” says the 43-year-old. “In this business, you inevitably have those days when everything else craps out, but I can at least spend two minutes in front of the weather wall doing the seven-day...I always try to wrap it up with a nice neat bow. Here’s what’s happening tonight, here’s what to expect tomorrow and here’s what to expect next. For us, there’s always something to talk about.”

Forecasting the weather is no easy task; meteorologists are the first to get blamed for rain and snowstorms – not to mention the times conditions don’t pan out as he predicted. “We do hate being wrong,” he admits. “The big joke is that we’re always wrong, but we do agonize and want to be right over the smallest details...I take the heat when it’s wrong, so I take the credit when it’s good.”

 

Just down the hall from the newsroom, News Director Craig Hume watches the show on a large flat-screen TV in his office. A bank of smaller sets tuned to competing stations rest above the main television. A misplaced graphic splashing across the bottom of the screen prompts Hume to call the control room to fix it for the next broadcast. His calm demeanor, which spreads throughout the station, does not reflect the real pressures of his job.

 

The Boss’ Office
On call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, News Director Craig Hume lives and breathes CBS 21 News. His average day starts around 6 a.m. by, as he puts it, “Getting a feel for the news cycle and the competition.” He then comes in to the station around 9 a.m. “In the morning, we already have an idea of what’s planned in central Pennsylvania, but sometimes things change overnight,” explains the 57-year-old. “Then we meet at 9:30 a.m., and we always start with our web and mobile updates, tracking stories that are most popular. We sift through all that and decide what we are going to cover. On an average day, we have seven reporters working and between seven and eight photographers. On a typical day, most reporters will do two stories.”

Hume’s responsibility is enormous. “As the news director, I have two broad roles,” he says. “As the chief content officer, I am in charge of all of the content that goes into the news broadcast. My second broad area is that I’m the chief brand manager for the news department. I’m responsible for making sure we have interesting, accurate, balanced content in the newscast, but I’m also responsible for making sure that viewers who are watching our station prior to our newscast know what we have coming up.”

After all of the meetings are over and the broadcasts finished, he leaves the station in time to get home to watch the 10 p.m. show, which plays on CW15.

With a background in print journalism, Hume transitioned to television and worked in Chicago, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles and Orlando. “After working in Orlando, I became known as someone in the business who knew how to either build something from scratch or could go in and take a station in a different direction.”

He joined the CBS 21 team two years ago. Since then, under the guidance of General Manager Holly Steuart, the station has experienced a renaissance of sorts – higher ratings, more viewers and a better overall news product.

“Our three brand claims are, ‘We’re your station for breaking news;’ ‘First-warning weather;’ and ‘Stories you’ll only see on CBS 21 enterprise reporting.’ We work every day to build newscasts around those promises, and we work very hard to make sure that we do it around all three...We work very hard 365 days a year to give people solid, interesting, accurate stories that they’re not going to get anywhere else.”

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