Tough One

This may have been the toughest story I've ever had tonight. I worked off a tip from a caller earlier in the day who said she felt she was excessively pressured by a salesman from APX Alarm, a security system company. I talked to her by phone and she said she could do an interview, but not on camera. I asked if anyone else in the neighborhood that she knew felt the same way about the salesperson or salespeople from APX. She said she couldn't find anyone who could talk about it. She did say the person next door disconnected the service she bought from APX a few years ago. I kept in contact with this woman throughout the afternoon as she kept checking in with neighbors. Meanwhile, I called a local security system company to get its take on door-to-door sales. I set up an interview with the owner there at about 5 p.m. After that, I headed to the person's house who made the call to KOMU. I talked with her for a few minutes and then decided to go into the neighborhood to see how other people felt. I talked with two people who said they felt the salesperson made a fair pitch. I wondered at this point if I actually had a story. I called Mike Brannen and he told me to keep pursuing. I went to a house that had an APX sign in front of it. There, I was able to talk to a woman who said she has had no problems with APX. Now I had both sides of the story. I was able to get some shots of the security equipment in her house and some nats sound of the system working.

I headed back to the station and arrived at about 8:30. I got to work and realized I needed to do a phone interview with the spokesman from APX. I recorded this at about 9 p.m. and then started editing. Mike moved me down to the D block to allow for more time to edit. A graphic was created for the phone interview. I put all this together and my story made it in its spot in the D block. It turned out pretty well, I think for the time I had. I should have been back at the station sooner, but it was hard to find people to talk to in the neighborhood. I think I definitely need to set a goal of being back by 7 p.m. each shift from now on. That will guarantee I can get everything done the way I want it to. I need to start working quicker from the very start of my shift at 1:30.