Some radio station managers are not interested in using a Remote News provider for obvious reasons. And if you can hire someone in house, I will never disagree with giving someone a job or even try to talk you out of that. But, this last week is proof that we can do what they do, and sometimes even better.

The Rocky Fire (picture above) in California hit a region where I personally report news. I’ve worked in and out of this particular market since I started this business in 2007. I’ve been to the area many times as I grew up in Calif. As we know there are always fires in the dry, brushy, timber filled Northern California woods (and many Southern Calif. areas too). That’s nature. But now with the drought, it’s insane.

I reported this fire as 150 acres a week ago and before I knew it I was pulling 12-15 hour days for this tiny market because that little fire quickly became a massive inferno, charring close to 70,000 acres. Last Saturday it made an amazing run of 20,000 acres in only 5 hours! Using Cal Fires incident site, Facebook pages for local emergency responders and one local news site was good, but I got to put on my old-fashioned reporter hat too, and with new technology, made calls just like a reporter in your studio would. (I plugged a splitter into my iPhone, one end in my ear, the other into my board and voila, recorded incident command.)

Oh, and my news is sold out in this market… just sayin’. Still not interested?