NEW YORK (AP) – The New York City medical examiner’s office says DJ AM’s death was accidental. It blames a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs and cocaine.
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I ask you this… How is this accidental?
DJ AM
Sep 29
Abby and I get sent out to a Pothole in a bike lane. The first thing out of my mouth is, “Is our video a pothole?” and the answer is yes. A photgs worst nightmare, is a story with no or very little video. Lately, I like the challenge of trying to figure out what I am going to need to do a good story, with little video. Every-time I get in the truck going to a story, be it breaking news or a pot hole story, I start to think what I need to shoot, and how I am going to do it. With my sticks (Tripod), handheld, low angle, how do I shoot the interview, I try to think of me editing the story and what am I going to need to edit, cover all my bases. I do this on every story.
We get there and we see it. It’s a pothole. We talk to the homeowner who called us. We are doing a interview with her, and she sees 2 guys biking so we stop and run over and get a few shots of them riding by, and Abby stops them, and they tell us that they have called the city pothole hotline several times, since August. The homeowner tells us the same. Nothing has been done.
We shoot all over interviews and we shoot a standup for our story.
Abby gets back to the car to call the city and find out why this has not been fixed while I shoot some more.
We head back to the station and we still do not have any word from the city. Come to find out, the city does not think the pot hole is theirs and reffers us to utilities.
They do some research and discover, that indeed, it is a utilities problem. I go get some sound at 4:00 pm from the utilities and Abby writes.
I come back and edit the story, and all is well.
At 5:45 pm, neighbors call and advise us that a hour and 45 min after it is discovered who’s pot hole this is, the hole is fixed. 2 months a problem can not get fixed, a few calls later, and BAM! Fixed. I love this business.
Here is the video.
Emily Keys
Sep 27
On Saturday we went on our yearly trip to the high country to see the leaves change, and go for a hike on the Colorado Trail at Kenosha Pass. We love it up there. We take the scenic route, Hwy 24 to to Hwy 285 then you hit the 285 jct. and then head west. As we get to the junction, there is a Jeffco Sheriff car in the intersection, There are a lot of people waving, as I look I see as far as the eyes can see, of motorcycles riding through the intersection, heading west. It then hits me, the Ride for Emily Keys.
For those who do not know, Emily Keys was a 16 yr old Junior at Platte Cannon High School. She was taken hostage along with 4 other girls, and she was sexually assaulted and then shot and killed by her captor, before he took his own life. I remember that day…
I was working nightside and I was coming in early to do something, do not recall what, It was about 12:20 and I get a call from the desk, asking where was, which in the news biz, is a sign something is happening, I explain that I am about 2 blocks away, and they tell me, to get her load up in the Sat truck, and GO.
I get in, load up, and they are printing me my maps, at this time I have been in Colroado 9 months but have not yet been to this area, Bailey Colroado in Park County. I am looking at a 2 1/2 hour drive.
when I am getting close, I look in my mirror, I see 3 or 4 satellite trucks behind me. I get into Bailey, and there is no one in the area, as I keep driving, I hit traffic, and there is a sea of people. I see where I need to go, a parking lot where there are already 4 or 5 Satellite Trucks and a lot of media, as we are going Traffic comes to a stop, and I look up, and I see 3 or 4, maybe more school busses with a police escort coming my way. I jump out and grab my camera, but by the time I am ready to shoot the carivan is gone, they were moving pretty fast, but I did have a chance to look at who it was…
I knew they were students, I will never forget the FEAR in their eyes, many were crying, some were waving at parents who has gathered at the road block. They were being driven to a middle school a few miles away, and that is where they were meeting families. After the busses had passed, I was able to get to the parking lot and set up, I knew I had a live presser I have to air in about 1 hour, so I had to get to work.
I remember doing a Live Presser, and Live shots for the 4,5,6,9 and 10 pm shows, Then I had to drive back, and come in the next morning and do it all over again, I think I was in Bailey 4 or 5 days for this story.
As we are watching the motorcycles go by, it reminded me of what happened, and how this many people were ridining for a cause, and it made me pause. Driving through the small town of Bailey there were people everywhere, waving, and watching. When we drove by the High School, there were so many people, it was unreal, in this very small community.
It made me think when these life changing events, we the media, come to town, and set up shop for a short time, cover the stories, and then we leave, off to the next event, and yet these people in these communities, and towns live on with what has happened, and try to cope.
I myself, try to take myself out of the situation, I have a job to do, I have a deadline. For the most part the death and destruction does not bother me. There are times when it does, I am then reminded, I am human.
It is often events like this, when I think back, and remember.
The Pre-Story of Benjamin James Knapik
Wednesday, July 26, 2006 is the day I was told the news, then, it was a bombshell,
now I look back, it was a happy day.
I remember that day fondly…
It was a Wednesday, I was set to get off work at 6:30 pm. I was working with Susan, and we were doing a live shot at America the Beautiful park. After my 6:00 pm live shot I was done, and Corinna had asked me to bring her some food at work. So I was going to. I was packing up from my live shot and I get a call, there is a standoff and you are the only one who can go. I head that way, and call Corinna and advise her of what is going on, needless to say, she is less than thrilled!
I am at the standoff about 2 1/2 hours, and I need to get back to the station to feed the video down for someone to write the story. I call Corinna and advise her I will be unable to bring her food, she is ticked, to say the least. I am heading home from work, and I call her, and say, since we both did not get dinner, why not pick something up. She agrees.
I could not wait to I go home, the night before, one of the local weather guys from another station was a doing a update, and everything went wrong, like no audio. So they go back to the programming, and he rips into the studio crew, dropping the F Bomb a few times, and his audio goes out OVER air. So the GM was going to be on the 10 pm newscast to talk to the viewers, and I was all excited to see what he had to say. So Corinna gets home around 9:45 pm, I have the trays all setup, ready for dinner. She comes in, and puts the food on the counter, She tells me which bag is mine, I say OK. I do some other stuff, and she tells me again which bag is mine, I tell her ok, I grab my bag, go sit in my chair, and get ready for the news… I open the bag, there is a stuffed toy in the bag… I think to myself, did she get me a kids meal, I look at the toy, and it has a rattle type noise inside. I am thinking… what they hell is this… Corinna says to me, “Read the Card”, so I am not sure what it going on, I open the card and it says…” I took a test today…” My jaw slowly dropped, and I did not say a word, Corinna started crying and said “I have been waiting all day to tell you…” I think I said “Are you F&*^ing kidding!?” not sure if she was joking… I said “are you SURE, any chance it could be wrong?” Corinna said, “the test is 99% accurate” and I said “So you saying there a 1% chance that it is wrong!?” Corinna then says to me, “this is accurate and I going to take another test.”
At this point, I am thinking…. OH NO! This can not be happening, she is messin with me… This can not be…
Corinna walks out of the bathroom and shows me the test thingie… it is positive…I say to her “So now there is a .5% chance?” I then remember not saying anything for a moment or to, I get up, go to the fridge, and get a Mike’s Hard Lemonade and drink that up in a heartbeat, I sit back down, and realize that I had missed the GM talking about the F Bomb. I then recall, not saying much.
I then get miles and I had to go tell him, and I had to make some phone calls to let some people know back in Detroit.
What a day.
Life’s Simple Pleasures…
Sep 24
One of Life’s simple pleasures is taking my kids to the zoo.
People should help more
Sep 24
Today while driving on Union going under Austin Bluffs, Bill and I pull up to a 2 car accident. We miss seeing the wreck by what must have been only seconds. As we pull up you can see steam coming from the cars, and glass all over the place. I look around, and it seems like a movie, people are just driving by, slowing down, but not stopping. I pull ahead of the wreck, put on my hazards, and Bill and I jump out, as we run up to the cars, I am dialing 911. The phone seams to ring and ring, I get to the car, and I look at Bill and he asks if I am calling 911, which I am. I ask both women in 2 different cars if they are ok. Both are crying, but we do not see and REAL trauma. Both Airbags did deploy. All I remember is holding the phone to my ear, and the phone rining and talking to both women, at this time, about 3 or 4 more people are getting out of their cars, I remember telling the women not to move, and thinking, did the 911 operator answer… They did not. I continue to talk to a women, and then I hear 911 answer, I advise where we are , and how many are involved, as I am on the phone a unmarked police car pulls up. Since we did not see the accident, and there was nothing we could do, we leave. The one thing I remember seeing was the womens eye glasses were on the ground, windows shattered. Yet people did not stop to help.
The question I always ask myself is IF I ever get in a situation like that, what would I do… Grab my camera and start shooting, or run up and help… I was thinking about this and I was pulling up…. While driving by I scanned the accident, and knew it was serious, but not awful, that may sound bad, but it’s truthful. It did not look like anyone was dead, they were moving around, so we ran up and helped.
What would you do?
You too can watch the LIVE First Alert Doppler…
Blog from the Past…
Sep 21
A Blog from the past… Officer Down…
Monday Night I went to bed at 11:00 pm… at 11:58 pm my Nextel went off…. “We have a officer involved shooting, It does not look good” is what I was told. I got dressed and headed over to the scene. Police Cars everywhere, All the local media now there, we wait in the bitter cold for any new information. I then look at the scene, and I knew this was not good, I need a reporter here with me, I knew it was going to be a long night. I called Aaron, our producer, and I told him that I need a reporter, a Live Truck and a laptop editor. I also called Corinna and told her I would call her in the morning to make sure she was up, and she had some things to do early, she knew I was not going to be home tonight.
My Reporter, Bill Folsom showed up about 20 minutes later. As we talked about our game plane, we get the word from the PIO, the officer has died at a local hospital. Everyones heart dropped, silence among all the media there. Yet, we all have a job to do, and we do it.
After we get the sound from the PIO, and all of our video at the scene, we learn the Chief is over at the hospital, not knowing if he would talk to the media, Bill and I head over to the hospital to get video of all the police officers coming in and things going on over there. We then learn that the Chief is not going to talk to the media now, we get everything we need from the hospital and we head back to the scene. We know that Bill and I are going live from the scene, and that the morning crew will be from the hospital. Making sure that they can get live from there, They need our Live truck. We have Rachel and Mike meet us at the scene with the Satellite truck. The Sat truck is our hub, so-to-speak. We have a laptop editor, internet, and a camera on the mast so we can get those high angle shots you saw.
Mike and Rachel arrive a short time later, I dub all my video off to him, so they have video to work with, and Bill gets writing. We cut a VO for the top of the 5:00 am and a package that will air for 5:30 am. We worked all night to make sure the viewers had the most up-to-date information as they tuned in to the morning news. We did all the news and even the cut-ins for the Today Show. We then reworked our package for the 11:00 am midday show. While Bill was writing, I was out shooting video of the detectives going through everything, taking pictures and collecting evidence. As I was shooting, Juice showed up to help out, The Calvary is arriving. I edited another package for the 11:00 am show, and we did our live shot. When we were done, Juice take the Sat Truck to the POC for the rest of the events going to happen there. Bill and I went back to the station and we briefed everyone, on the video we had, and everything that we knew. Then Bill and I went home around 1:00 pm.
BOOM BOOM POW
Sep 20
The Coolest kid…
Life’s Simple Pleasures
Sep 15
One of Life’s Simple Pleasures is getting my son up every morning.
