Radio-info posters, both anonymous and otherwise, should be proud of the clutch performance by Tag Martin of WCAT, whose eyewitness accounts of last evening's police apprehension of a man suspected in a rash of convenience store armed robberies made for excellent broadcasts on WCAT and WQXA, stations not especially renowned for their dedication to breaking news.
Tag's reports, fed via cellular phone, painted a vivid picture of a scene unfolding quite literally before his eyes, and one could easily sense his slightly frayed emotional state, as a police standoff transpired one short block away from his Mechanicsburg home.
I was also on the scene, and when I was not feeding information to my own home base, I had the opportunity to observe Mr. Martin, a broadcaster whose dedication to his craft and his sense of duty to his stations and the public superceded mere formatics. For one night, he was a reporter. And a good one.
Tag's reports, fed via cellular phone, painted a vivid picture of a scene unfolding quite literally before his eyes, and one could easily sense his slightly frayed emotional state, as a police standoff transpired one short block away from his Mechanicsburg home.
I was also on the scene, and when I was not feeding information to my own home base, I had the opportunity to observe Mr. Martin, a broadcaster whose dedication to his craft and his sense of duty to his stations and the public superceded mere formatics. For one night, he was a reporter. And a good one.