Coming Together

Sleep had lasted 20 minutes when the call came.






R News' nightside anchor, Amy Young, was on the other line. The plane crash in Buffalo. It was more than first reported. Much more.




In a queasy daze, CNN came on with a fiery orange, Skyped image. "They were gone."

The next call went out to our new Operations Supervisor. "Josh, we have work. A plane's gone down in Clarence... I'll meet you."

Perhaps two hours after this Buffalo News photo was snapped near the crash site of Flight 3407, Josh and I met with Time Warner Cable News' other crew , R News Casey Bortnick and Scott Barstow at the command site for the response, less than a mile away from impact.

With the adrenaline injection you get from covering a lightning bolt story like a plane crash, you learn a lot about who you work with. With Josh, I learned that while he could be industrious at a disaster scene and rugged enough to stand on ice for hours in frigid temperatures on no sleep, he couldn't necessarily stand watching, or listening, to me dry shave in a car.

Three days of coverage later, joined by a half dozen brand-new Buffalo news channel staffers, and R News' regular staff of veteran news people, we'd come together to cover the tragedy. Coordinating with TWC's news division, we delivered all the crucial information on the response.

What a first assignment together. We've only had time in our off hours to absorb the sadness of this happening, and what it means to the community we will serve.

What we learned in that weekend was the job is the job, no matter where you do it. Stay on top of things, be curious, agile relentless. The news channel's first six-pack of workers pushed themselves in ways they'd never done. Videojournalists Katie Bogey and Jenn Bernstein both delivered live updates; Jenn became the first in the division to go live via Skype. Both were introduced to the old fashioned way of remote linear editing. Josh and his partner on our operations end, Jason Carroll, kept the video coming. E.P. Bill McCarthy had covered a lot of news in his career, but never a horror like this. And for Molly Hirschbeck, running the desk for the first time, she learned how to make things work for people in Buffalo and across the state.

And so, between live shots and news conferences and Skype feeds, we came together in a way we'd not expected. In the best of ways, by trusting each other and giving each other opportunities to succeed in a job we want.

None of what we did made air in the market we will serve. Most of the rest of the state saw it, and that's the way it'll be, until we introduce Buffalo to what the news division can do.

They're the boldest colors I've ever seen in a Time Warner Cable building. Whole Wheat, a warm, yellow-based earth tone, which those who study color's effect on people will tell you, brings subtle energy to those around it. Triumph Blue. Stability, calm, according to those same analysts. "It's science," Ron Burgandy would say. WNY'ers would say they're Buffalo Sabres colors too. A bonus. They're what news staffers in Buffalo will see in their office.

The paint's drying as the training begins to heat up, as we approach T-minus five weeks before launch.

The staff is complete. It is experienced in the most important places, and full of energy where it needs it. It's backed by the news division's top people and its statewide staff that in resources, rivals any TV news operation in the Empire State.

The channel has a place. Most will see it on Channel 9, though in the city of Buffalo, it'll spend its first few months on Channel 14.

And the channel has a name.

For that, and the names of those you'll see, you'll have have to wait just a bit longer.