White House

Brady & Kellie White

Posts Tagged work

The Great Escape

Apr 29

Posted by Kellie White in Weekly Life | 1 Comment

This week we launched a series on our morning show called “The Great Escape.” Every Friday for the next three weeks, KSL 5 Today goes on the road to a different quadrant of the state, to spotlight the lesser known activities that area has to offer. This week: Northeastern Utah.

I was the field producer for this adventure. I traveled out with anchor Scott Haws and crew man/camera operator Jeff Smith. We met up with the rest of our production team at Flaming Gorge, in a place called Red Canyon.

red canyon live

I wish I could show you the viewpoint of Chopper 5 of where we were standing…literally on the edge of a 1,500 foot cliff. We got there at 5 a.m., and were taking live shots from the chopper just as the sunrise hit the red cliffs around 6:24 a.m. It was incredible.

Here’s a clip of the show.

 

 

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

I was mostly communicating with the chopper and control room from inside the satellite truck, so I didn’t have to be out in the cold for too long. But it was definitely nippy out there in those early morning hours.

sat truck

After our morning show, we packed up the truck and moved down below the Green River Dam, for a couple live shots during the noon show.

green river

live shot on the green

While not perfect, I felt like the show was a huge success. It certainly reflected in our morning show ratings. We beat the competition by a pretty big margin. But more than that, it was fun to do something so completely different for the show. Utah is a big place, and there are so many undiscovered gems in every part of the state. How awesome that we get to showcase it on live TV!

Tags: , , , ,

90 Seconds of Fame…

Nov 12

Posted by Kellie White in Weekly Life | 5 Comments

I produce the morning show. I thought it meant that I would never have to be in front of a camera…

Until last week.

Tags: , , ,

NoteSync

Apr 23

Posted by Kellie White in Major Events, Weekly Life | No Comments

Brady and his friend Kyle won the Crexendo Online Marketing competition a couple weeks ago.

(I know, I’ve killed all the suspense. But since it happened a couple weeks ago…most of you who care to read this probably already know. Continue reading if you wish.)

It all started over Christmas break, when Brady got an idea: “Taking notes should be simpler.” (insert Windows 7 commercial here.) He found a little desktop app called Notational Velocity and loved it, but it was only available for Mac users. And since Brady is a PC, he figured, “Why don’t I just make my own?” Being a software developer has its perks, I suppose.

The result? NoteSync.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

It’s a note-taking app that syncs with your Google Docs account, so you can access your notes wherever you are.

Well, winter semester started and Brady caught wind of an online marketing competition at BYU. Top Prize: $8,000 and a whole bunch of bragging rights. Brady joined his friend and fellow ISYS student Kyle, and together they formed Team NoteSync.

For the competition, they had to build an awesome website, and get people to come to that site and download/buy their product. Check out their site, it’s pretty sweet. (Not that I’m biased or anything.)

All that development took place over the course of about three months. When the competition finals arrived at the beginning of April, NoteSync was online, available for download…even a few purchases to show for it.

All the teams in the competition were present for the finals. I went with Brady as the official NoteSync cheerleader. As we were walking to the building, Brady said, “I really don’t think we’re going to win this competition.” He’d been saying it for days, and because I wanted to be optimistic and show my support for his hard work, I shook my head and said, “I think you’ve got a pretty good chance.”

Kyle met us there, with matching T-Shirts for the team (gotta have the lucky T-shirts.) There were 17 teams at the finals. Eight were announced as finalists and told to give a 3-minute pitch on their site, and what they did to increase traffic and conversions (purchases). The audience would then vote on who gave the best presentation, and that team won the audience choice award, and tickets to the first Jazz playoff game.

NoteSync made it to the final eight.

Brady stood up and gave his 3-minute spiel. In my opinion, he was the best, but I’m his wife so I’m going to think that, regardless. Turns out, the audience agreed with me, because when the votes were taken, NoteSync came out with literally twice as many votes as the nearest contender. (I bet it was the T-shirts.) Woohoo! Free Jazz tickets! At that point, I didn’t care if NoteSync won a cash award or not. At least we got sweet seats to the Jazz game.

Then came the announcement of the winners. Winners were chosen from the top eight, though the 3-minute pitch had nothing to do with their final placement.

The announcements were painfully slow…perhaps just because we were all so anxious.

Fourth place…not NoteSync.

Third place…still not us.

Second place…no.

At this point I was sure NoteSync hadn’t won. There were so many other competitors who had launched their sites earlier, had more links and traffic, and some had already raked in thousands of dollars in revenue. There was no way we could beat them.

First place…winner of $8,000…NOTESYNC!

Shut up. I totally didn’t believe it at first. Kyle and Brady jumped out of their seats. They ran to the front and were greeted by a giant check, and lots of cheers from the audience. A flurry of photographs and congratulations ensued, and even after most people cleared out of the room, Kyle and Brady were still shaking hands, answering questions from reporters, and grinning from ear-to-ear.

Of course, no victory is complete without the celebratory ice cream. We met up with Kyle’s wife Whitney and went to Burger Supreme, where shakes just so happened to be half off between the hours of 3 and 5. Yes, life doesn’t get much better than that.

Just goes to show what a good idea, a lot of hard work…and maybe some matching T-shirts…can do.

I’m so proud of my genius husband, and his genius friend.

Congratulations.

Tags: , ,

Nightside

Jan 22

Posted by Kellie White in Weekly Life | 2 Comments

Remember when you were young and you thought it was cool to stay up all night at slumber parties?

Well, I get to do that EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. (minus the slumber parties.)

Now that I’ve got you fuming with jealousy…let me explain a little bit about my job. I work as a producer on KSL’s morning news (watch it). The show starts at 5 a.m. and ends at 7. Which means my shift starts at 11pm the night before. Awesome, right?

Actually, I must say it’s been better than I expected. At first I dreaded the crazy schedule, but I’m managing the perpetual state of jet lag pretty well. On weekdays, I’m on the same sleep schedule as a person in Hong Kong…and on the weekends, I get back to a Utah schedule. Somehow, it works out. If you ever have questions on how to make it through a full-time graveyard shift, just ask. I’m pretty much a pro now.

I’m almost two months into my new position now…and I’ve started to notice a few things about myself, as a producer and as a person.

1. I’m getting really good at multitasking…probably too good at some points. During a typical show…it’s not uncommon for me to be checking traffic cameras, giving the weatherman time cues, talking to my reporter out in the field, writing scripts, and adding and removing stories from my show…simultaneously. Two months ago…that would have killed me. But as I’ve grown used to doing three to five things at once, I’ve realized that my interpersonal communication has become somewhat…fractured? I’ve caught myself on several occasions having a conversation with Brady, when suddenly I stand up to go wash the dishes or put away a pair of shoes. While this may seem like a rude or disinterested behavior…it feels quite normal to me. I’ve found in order to behave like a normal person in conversation, I have to consciously switch out of super-productive mode and into calm, focused mode.

2. Having an 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift is NOT the same as working 9 to 5. 9 to 5 people typically have a lunch break…and can run errands on their way to and from work. Not so with 11 to 7. The only things open on my way to and from work are the gas station and the grocery store.

3. My daily meals now consist of two breakfasts and two snacks. I get home from work at 8 a.m., which my brain knows as breakfast time. I drink a weight loss shake or eat a small bowl of cereal, then I go to bed for the day. But when I wake up in the late afternoon…my body thinks it’s breakfast time again. So I have another bowl of cereal, or other type of breakfast food (I go through a lot more cereal these days). The only problem with that is…the average person’s “dinner time” falls just two hours later. So Brady will eat a full meal, but I only eat a half serving, then I’m full. Not much more than a snack, really. Then I go to work and snack all night.

Another strange eating habit I’ve noticed…I often crave pizza or a burger and fries as I’m driving home in the morning. Unfortunately, (or perhaps fortunately) there are very few fast food or pizza places open at 8 a.m.

4. I use ellipses with unjustifiable frequency (observe the above content of this post…count the number of times, including the one I just typed). This likely stems from broadcast writing habits…when I want the anchor to pause, or add emphasis to a certain point, I use those three magic dots. But it’s trickled into all my forms of written communication…emails, blogposts, even hand-written notes. I fear I am rapidly losing my ability to punctuate correctly.

Broadcast media…it does things to you.

But, all things considered, I honestly love my job. Where else would I be so happy working in the middle of the night? I love what I do, and I love the challenge of putting together a fresh newscast every day.

Life is good.

Tags: , ,