Reporting Sings To Me

I’ve always had a love for music. That basically guided me to covering a story about a local community band. Two band directors in the Jefferson City area wanted to bring former musicians in the area back to playing their instruments. 

Ever since I left high school, there’s been a small hole in my life now that I have no time for choir and piano. So any opportunity I can be surrounded by music, I’ll go for it. Paul Hinman, the band director of Jeff City High School, was a great interviewee. I tried to ask open-ended questions that would lead to more than one answer. This was one of the first things I learned about interviewing people. I asked many short and simple questions that I could use for facts before I put Paul on camera. My fellow reporter friends Mark taught me this trick, per say. It saves time going through tape that you won’t use as sound bites and makes the interviewing process more enjoyable and like a conversation than a chore. 

It wasn’t easy getting all of my video at once. Paul had to reschedule our interview because he had to handle both the band meeting and the high school booster’s meeting at the same time. Luckily, it worked out in the end because it was a great interview and we were able to talk about all kinds of things outside of the story’s topic. I enjoyed watching the band members laugh and interact with one another just at the meeting, discussing how long it’s been since they played an instrument. 

I told Paul that I’d much rather be out reporting and talking to people about their stories than be in the newsroom. I’m a people person and doing this story made me realize how much I love reporting. No matter what problems pop-up, I still enjoy the core ideals of reporting.