March 1997 – March 1998
The only photo I took at Metro Networks, showing flowers in a window of the downtown Richmond studio in July 1997.
I started working for Metro Networks at its Richmond, Virginia office as a morning producer and midday traffic anchor, then transferred to the company’s Miami office. I didn’t especially enjoy reporting traffic, but since I was only working about 30 hours a week part-time anchoring newscasts and reporting news for WRVA and the Virginia News Network, I was happy to get a full-time position at Metro, while continuing my news job. Reporting traffic gave me great exposure on a lot of radio and TV stations. At one time or another, I was heard on more than half of the radio stations in Richmond. I have to thank market manager Tom Fanning for hiring me and giving me the opportunity.
In the years leading up to this, I had filled in for a stretch of time reporting traffic in Little Rock at KARN, in addition to my regular news duties. That taught me the basics of reporting traffic and the importance many listeners placed in those reports. I first became familiar with Metro Networks while living in Washington, DC, where I was intrigued that one person could be on several stations, even those owned by competing companies.
My duties in Richmond involved constantly updating our list of traffic accidents and other problems by calling police agencies and talking with our airborne reporters who circled the city in a small plane during mornings and afternoons. Then, starting at 10 a.m., I would anchor traffic reports on news station WVNZ-AM 990, talk station WLEE-AM 1320 and country station WXGI-AM 950. I also provided special reports for other stations when significant traffic problems would arise and filled in when any of our other anchors were out.
At that time, the office was located on the 9th floor of a downtown office building with a view of the Interstate 95 James River Bridge, which was a regular trouble spot. The only photo I have from Metro is the one above. Co-worker Tracy Lynn Miller always had flowers on the window sill by her booth, which looked interesting to me on one of the few days I had my camera. Metro moved a few blocks away shortly after I left the Richmond office for Miami. Below are a few reports that I did for Richmond stations.
AUDIO: A special midday traffic report for WTVR-FM, Lite 98, one of Richmond’s top-rated radio stations on August 20, 1997.
AUDIO: Traffic report on WBZU-FM 106.5, The Buzz, which at that time had a great alternative music format, August 29, 1997.
AUDIO: A traffic report on WVNZ-AM, All News 990 on July 11, 1997. This short-lived news station was attempting to compete with WRVA, where I worked as a news anchor, so I used the alias Scott Thomas in my traffic reports.
The biggest challenge was remembering the specifics for each station. All had different styles and formats, and the reports would be scheduled tightly, one right after another. The worst mistake I could make would be to confuse what station I was broadcasting on and say the wrong station name. Fortunately I only did that once, while broadcasting on talk station WLEE. At the end of the report I inadvertently called it “All-News 990, WVNZ,” which was a competing station. I didn’t even realize I had done it until the board operator at the station called afterward. Thankfully he wasn’t pissed, just wanted to make sure I realized I had done it.
My business card from Metro Networks in Richmond.
The position could be extremely stressful at times because a number of factors were out of my control. Each station had a narrow time slot in which I would be available to give a report. If a station was running late and up against another station’s allocated time, as a rule, we would move on to the next station. The people on the air at a late station usually understood they had missed their window, but sometimes exceptions would be made. If it was one of the top-rated stations and the next station was low-rated, I would sometimes make a judgement call on the spot about who I would be available for. I would make a quick phone call to the control room of the station I would be missing to try and avoid someone tossing it to me for a report only to hear silence and an awkward acknowledgement that I wasn’t there.
I maintained a grueling schedule in Richmond, working at Metro Networks from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., then most afternoons I would go over to anchor newscasts from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. on the Virginia News Network, and on Friday nights would anchor newscasts on WRVA. Between both jobs I was working 60 to 70 hours a week. It was really wearing me down, although I did appreciate having both days of the weekend off. Perhaps most frustrating was that despite those long hours, I still wasn’t making much money and was struggling to get by.
TRANSFERRING TO THE MIAMI METRO NETWORKS OFFICE
I had a serious girlfriend in South Florida at the time, who I later married, and decided to try to transfer within Metro Networks to its Miami office. It took a lot of persistent calls, but I finally convinced Director of Operations Christopher Leonard to give me a chance after one of his morning anchors put in her resignation. I moved down to Miami in September 1997 and after a quick orientation on the layout of the streets, which included going up in the helicopter one morning, I began anchoring morning traffic reports on WSVN-TV channel 7 and sports station WQAM-AM 560.
The Miami office had many more tools that gave me more confidence in what I was reporting. The helicopter had a television camera beaming live footage to the office, so if they were directly above an accident, I could describe live what I was seeing. That footage was also shown on the TV station as I did my report. Metro also had seven stationary cameras in strategic spots along interstates and expressways that we could remotely move and zoom.
After a few months I was moved to the afternoon shift, anchoring traffic on WINZ-AM, Newsradio 940, Christian station WMCU-FM 89.7 and urban station WEDR-99 Jamz, which at that time was consistently the number one rated station in the market. Despite that, WEDR was the loosest station in terms of formatics. I could vary the length of my reports if I had a lot to get in or if things were quiet. I never heard a peep from its program director, while other stations were full of specific jargon they wanted you to use. And the afternoon DJ Terry Alexander was also a lot more relaxed in how he would throw it to me, sometimes even conversing a bit before I’d get into the report.
AUDIO: Traffic report on Miami’s WINZ-AM, Newsradio 940 in December 1997.
AUDIO: Traffic report on Miami’s then top-rated station, WEDR-FM, 99 Jamz, in December 1997.
AUDIO: Traffic report on Christian station WMCU-FM 89.7 in December 1997.
It was through my reports on WINZ that I got to know people at the news station, which I had applied to for a news job about two years earlier. In January 1998, corporate parent company Clear Channel made WINZ all talk, moving the news programming to sister station WIOD-AM 610. Two months later I was hired by the company to become a news anchor and reporter on WIOD, thankfully bringing an end to my short-lived traffic career. I never found traffic to be as interesting as reporting news and it was also a much more stressful environment. But it was a good experience and gave me more appreciation for the difficult work people reporting traffic have to do.
NEXT: WIOD, Miami, FL
