March 1997 - March 1998

I started with Metro Networks in its Richmond, Virginia office as a morning producer and midday traffic anchor, later transferring to its Miami, Florida office. I didn't especially enjoy reporting traffic, but since I was only getting about 24 hours a week working part-time doing news for WRVA and the Virginia News Network, I was happy to get the full-time position at Metro. It also gave me great exposure on a lot of radio and TV stations. I ended up being heard at one time or another on more than half of the radio stations in Richmond. I have to thank market manager Tom Fanning for hiring me and giving me a chance.

In the years before this, I had filled in for a long stretch reporting traffic in Little Rock, in addition to my news duties at KARN, so I had learned how to report traffic and the importance some 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 different 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 overhead in the mornings and afternoons in a small plane. Then starting at 10 AM, I would anchor traffic reports on news station WVNZ-AM 990, talk station WLEE-AM 1320 and country station WXGI-AM 950. I also did additional reports for other affiliates when significant traffic problems would arise and filled in whenever any of our other anchors were out.

At that time the offices were located on the ninth floor of an office building in downtown Richmond, which gave us a view of the I-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: Traffic report for WVNZ-AM, All News 990, July 11, 1997. Because this short-lived news station was competing with WRVA, I used the alias Scott Thomas. Runs 0:54. Download as MP3.

AUDIO: A special midday traffic report for WTVR-FM, Lite 98, one of Richmond's top-rated radio stations, because of several accidents, August 20, 1997, runs 1:13. Download as MP3.

AUDIO: Traffic report on WBZU-FM, 106.5 The Buzz, which at that time was Richmond's alternative station, and one of my favorites to listen to, runs 0:58. Download as MP3.

The biggest challenge for me was remembering the specifics for each station. All had different styles and formats and the reports would be coming up quick, one right after another. Of course the biggest sin of all was to confuse what station you were broadcasting on and say the wrong station name. Fortunately I only did that once, when I was reporting traffic on talk station WLEE. At the end I accidentally called it "All-News 990, WVNZ," which was a competing station and I used different names on the two stations. I didn't even realize I had done it until the guy at the station called me. Thankfully he wasn't really pissed, just wanted to make sure I realized I had done it. Another big sin was to not be there when the station threw it to you. That's a problem with being in another building. The person on the air can't see the traffic anchor sitting in another booth and doesn't know if the anchor is standing by. But sometimes it wouldn't be my fault. There was a tight schedule and if one station ran late and missed its window, I'd have to move on to the next station, sometimes knowing the other station would toss it to me and I wouldn't be there. I hate to say it, but I also would sometimes have to decide which station I wouldn't be on depending on which was a bigger, more important station.

I maintained a grueling schedule in Richmond, working at Metro from 6 AM to 2 PM, then most afternoons I would go over to anchor newscasts from 2:30 to 6:30 PM on the Virginia News Network. 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.

I had a serious girlfriend in Miami, 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 the Director of Operations Christopher Leonard to give me a chance after one of his morning anchors put in her notice. 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 7 and sports station WQAM-AM 560. I would later change to afternoons, anchoring traffic on WINZ-AM, Newsradio 940, Christian station WMCU-FM 89.7 and urban station WEDR-99 Jamz.

AUDIO: Traffic report on WINZ-AM, Newsradio 940 in Miami, Dec. 1997. Within a few months I would be hired by the station as a news anchor and reporter. Runs 0:40. Download as MP3.

AUDIO: Traffic report on Miami's top rated station, WEDR-FM, 99 Jamz, December 1997. This was the most fun of the stations I was doing traffic for. Runs 1:21. Download as MP3.

AUDIO: Traffic report on WMCU-FM 89.7, December 1997. This was a Christian station, which was kind of a stark contrast between reports on urban and news stations. Runs 1:13. Download as MP3.

It was through my reports on WINZ that I got to know people at the news station. In January 1998, 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 do news, thankfully bringing an end to my short traffic career. I never found traffic to be as interesting as reporting news, but it was a good experience and gave me more appreciation for the difficult work people reporting traffic have to do.