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Day 4: Lost Camera Mystery

Tim — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:55:32 +0000

I consider myself a lucky reporter when I get to do light feature stories. I’m usually assigned to murder, mayhem, scams or schemes. It’s always been that way. But not today. My story was entitled, Lost Camera Mystery, and it took me to the home of Larry and Jane Conklin of Travelers Rest.

Larry and Jane Conklin examine the camera found in their luggage

I’ll save the nuts & bolts of this story for WYFF4.com. In short, the Conklins found a mystery camera in their luggage after returning from a trip. After excellent sleuth work, they traced it to a man in Winston-Salem, North Carolina who is none other than former USC basketball star Danny Traylor.

Conklin found Traylor with help from a television station in Winston-Salem that agreed to broadcast his picture. A local viewer identified the “7 foot tall” man as his daughter’s school teacher.

News 4 Chief Photographer Don Jackson gets the shot

I’d love to do more stories just like this one.

Larry & Jane Conklin and Tim Waller

Day 3: Planning Day

Tim — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:49:40 +0000

I had a feeling this would happen when I decided to chronicle 100 Days of TV News. I’ve been given what my bosses at WYFF News 4 refer to as a “planning day.” That is, no on-air reporting. No electronic news gathering. Just a day to sit at my desk and develop promotable stories for the sweeps month of November.

That’s me. The sweeps guy. The Looking Out 4 You dude. The reporter who blows the lid off of…something. But what? Don’t worry. It’s not like I’m sitting here starting from scratch. I have my eye on several big investigations.

They are somewhere to the left of the box of microwave popcorn.

Day 2: The Egg Lady

Tim — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:39:46 +0000

Today’s assignment took us to Honea Path where Donna Putney raises “free range” chickens. The question before us was, are local egg producers seeing an increase in sales because of the nationwide egg recall?

Yes. No. Maybe. Hard to say. You see, demand for Putney’s locally-produced eggs is already high. Just ask Whole Foods Market on Woodruff Road, where Putney’s eggs are proudly sold.

Donna Putney of Honea Path

The fun part was watching News 4 photojournalist Johnny Bates trying to get shots of hens sitting on their eggs. “The girls,” as Putney calls them, were quite nervous. I guess they don’t like having their pictures taken.

JB zooms in for the shot!

We left Putney’s home with a new appreciation for her “free range” chickens that produce eggs of different colors. She even gave us an awesome new coffee mug that says, Upstate Locally Grown Market.

Thanks Donna!

Tim Waller and Donna Putney

100 Days of Television News

Tim — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:57:50 +0000

My biggest regret as a TV reporter is that I haven’t documented my travels very well. It’s a shame, because in 26 years, I have been almost everywhere, and I’ve seen almost everything. I have forgotten more stories than I actually remember, which is why I’m thinking about posting pics of my newest “travels” right here…on this blog. I said I’m thinking about it. I’m not sure I will actually do it, or will even remember to do it. But it’s a fun project to think about. Plus, it’ll give me something to do on “slow news days” like today…

…when I went to the City of Anderson, SC with photographer Mark Lyon for a Project Economy story.

Mark shoots the obligatory "postcard" shots of downtown.

Equal to, and perhaps even more important than the story at hand was, when did this restaurant open, and why didn’t we know about it?

J. Peters Grill & Bar in Anderson, SC

Fortunately, we resisted the urge to try it. Doing so would’ve been “expensive.”

Ticketing cars outside the restaurant

Much Ado about Clouds.

Tim — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:50:04 +0000

“You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds.” ~Henry David Thoreau.

I know. It’s been four months since I’ve updated this pitiful blog of mine, and what do I come back with? A post on clouds! But stick around. You may actually like it.

Here’s the deal…

My wife and I were in our car last weekend when we came across the most awesome display of clouds. She’s a cloud-lover. A regular student of clouds. She loves naming the different types of clouds. And me? It takes something special for me to get all gaga over clouds. I like ‘em as much as the next guy, but that’s it. These were different. These were clouds that made you realize just how small we are.

So out came my camera-equipped Blackberry. (Click-click.)

Cirrocumulus or altocumulus? You decide.

Of course, it was just a matter of time before we began discussing what type of clouds these were. My wife insisted they were stratus clouds, but me being the reporter that I am, I wanted to be sure. The following Monday, I took my photos to News 4 Chief Meteorologist John Cessarich. Surely he would know. He’s geekier than my wife (love ya, John) when it comes to clouds and other weather-related things.

How many cloud types? One or two?

John said there are two types of clouds in this shot: Cirrocumulus and altocumulus. To prove his point, he showed me a website that lists more cloud-types than I remember from fourth grade. If you can’t find your favorite cloud on Weather Whiz Kids dot-com, you live in a different solar system, I’ll tell ya!

So where is this going?

Nowhere, really. That’s pretty much it. But this post has afforded me the opportunity to show off my cloud shots. Like this one:

Major, major clouds.

I was so excited by these shots, I even created a “u local” account on WYFF4.com, where I uploaded ten of them. Remember, as Judy Garland once said, “Behind every cloud is another cloud.”

Whatever that means.

A Clockwork Waller.

Tim — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:44:45 +0000

To the youngest employees of WYFF4, my high school prom pic is a riot. But people my age who’ve seen this photo say I am a dead ringer for “Alex” in A Clockwork Orange.

Wha-?

Class of 1980.

For those familiar with the 1971 film by writer-director Stanley Kubrick, I can assure you I was not part of vicious teenage gang that committed random acts of brutality. Oh no! I just thought the get-up looked cool, especially the cane. A chick-magnet, fo sho!

Posing in mom & dad's front yard.

But this is what happens when you offer your prom pic to the TV station for its Prom ’09 campaign. My, how prom fashion has changed in 29 years!

Maybe that’s a good thing.

Ya think?

A Clockwork Orange.

Run, Forrest, Run!

Tim — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:47:32 +0000

I can’t believe I placed in the top ten in the 32nd Annual Reedy River Run. I can’t believe it because it isn’t true. We Wallers stayed near the back of the pack.

The. Whole. Time.

Nostrils flared, Waller moves into 4000th place.

This was my first sojourn into the organized world of fitness. It was my wife’s second time out. This year we entered as a family of four. That’s me, my wife and two teenage daughters.

Iva Waller leads the pack.

Chelsea, age 17 going on 30, kicks it up a notch.

Claudia, age 14, in no mood to be photographed.

It was a great time out for the entire family, and gave us all a much-needed workout. Who knew I’d run into one of my co-workers here? Below is Janice Limon, executive producer at WYFF-TV, and her husband Tony.

L to R: Janice Limon, Tony Limon, yours truly.

For those who spent the day under a rock, Saturday’s weather was perfect! High temps were in the low to mid-70s. Not bad for a March morning, and not bad considering it snowed here just a week ago.

The finish line.

4000th place? Hey, at least we finished.

********************************************************************

Here are some great shots of the race from Greenville Daily Photo, and more great shots from Greenville Online.

Trash In, Trash Out.

Tim — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:08:36 +0000

If the TV thing doesn’t work out, I may have a future in food services. Recently, my wife and I volunteered our “talents” at Wade Hampton High School’s spaghetti dinner fundraiser. This and other events helped raise $150,082.36 for Camp Spearhead in Upstate, South Carolina.

The only thing that isn’t clear is how we got stuck with garbage duty!

Matisyahu for Beginners.

Tim — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:12:15 +0000

Two things happened in Atlanta this weekend, the second of which I wasn’t expecting. First, my wife and I scored major “parent points” with our daughters by taking them to their first real concert. We planned the trip more than two months in advance. The $120 outlay for tickets was our pleasure. But what I didn’t expect was to leave the Matisyahu concert that night thinking I had just seen one of the greatest musical performances of my life.

Matis who?

Try to envision a Hasidic Jew with long, curly locks, a bushy beard and skull cap standing on stage in a smoke-filled venue cranking out the best darned Reggae you’ve ever heard. It’s a mind-bender, I know. But Matisyahu is no freak show. He’s the real deal when it comes to his religious faith. Take the lyrics to his best-know song, “Jerusalem,” for example. “Jerusalem, if I forget you, let my right hand forget what it’s supposed to do.”

But this is more than an amateur music listener’s concert review. This is about stating a fact. And that is, as concerts go, there was an importance to this one. I could sense it. So could everyone else. The acoustics in Variety Playhouse were perfect, and Matisyahu was larger than life. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that a film crew was on stage capturing each moment, or that a digital microphone tower was set up in the row behind us. This concert was being recorded. If Matisyahu’s Live at Stubbs performance in Austin, Texas catapulted him to fame, his concert in Atlanta over the weekend will surely be his next album.

It was just…that…good!

The funny thing is, I’ve never been much of a Reggae fan. Don’t ask me why. Maybe it’s the mind-numbing two-chord tempo, or the familiar image of Bob Marley shrouded in ganga smoke. But when a Hasidic Jew dressed in traditional garb bellows, “My spirit needs fitness, that’s why I flip this,” in beatbox, you listen. No matter who you are. No matter your taste in music.

Matisyahu. That’s who.

Was That Tim I Saw?

Tim — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:55:27 +0000

Over the summer, I received a flurry of emails at work from viewers who wondered if “that was Tim Waller they saw” on Dr. Charles Stanley’s Sunday morning TV broadcast. “If that wasn’t Tim, it sure looked like him,” said one. “I’m pretty sure I saw Tim and his wife on In Touch,” said another.

Yes, folks. That was us you saw.

My wife and I were in Atlanta the weekend of June 20-21. I was up for an Emmy award for a story I did last year on failures within the 9.1.1. system. (Yes, I won!) But equal to the excitement of winning my first Emmy was getting up the next morning and driving to First Baptist Church of Atlanta and getting to see Dr. Stanley in person.

What we didn’t count on in a church that large was showing up in one of the cutaway shots! In fact, we had no idea we were on until a week or two after the broadcast when emails from News 4 viewers starting pouring in. My first thought was (and this is funny coming from a TV guy), did I look okay? Was I scratching my nose when they took the shot?

The sermon in which my wife and I appear is Countdown to Judgment, Part 4, Our Eternal Rewards. You can watch the entire sermon here. We pop up for a brief moment about three-fourths of the way into the sermon. Plus, watching will explain why my wife and I appear to be laughing. Dr. Stanley had just said something funny, though I can’t remember what.

And for the record, you may see us again on In Touch. We’re heading to Atlanta to see friends this weekend, and guess what we’re doing Sunday morning?

Iva Waller talking to Dr. Stanley