Covering Rural Nevada Alone part 6

When I began my new career at Channel 8, it only seemed natural to me that I should cover Rural Nevada. Actually the seed was planted back in my late Channel two days when I created a series called “John Tyson’ Diary.”

The show was widely received but it wasn’t enough to save my job at Channel two. But it was noticed by my News Director, Kirk Frosdick, who my assignment editor back then.

But I had to learn to shoot a camera first.  It took some doing, but I was finally able to shoot well enough to get by. It also gave me the freedom to come and go as I pleased in order to cover the issues facing the hinterland.

Armed with a camera and an old Ford Bronco II, I took off across Nevada looking for stories I felt best reflected out unique culture and character. There were the buckaroos in Paradise Valley where I worked when I first came back to Nevada in 1981, gasoline wars in Elko County, old miners up in Manhattan, Nevada, and hundreds of other stories about everything from wild horse issues to ghost towns and mining camps.

Unfortunately though, I still had to do hard news when it was necessary. And like most television stations at the time, it seemed we were always short handed. I produced and anchored week-ends, did breaking news live shots, and on occasion, I was actually able to run away from home with the old Bronco II and my camera and head for the hills.

There was the opal mine near Summit Lake, where you could pay a fee and mine opals. Better yet, you got to keep what you found. I did stories about the fall colors in the Ruby Mountains, the train in Ely, wash hanging on clothes lines in Smith Valley, (who would have thought), and a lady in Midas who used to go out and feed the squirrels every morning in her backyard, and a mailman who thinks rattlesnakes need to be protected.

There were flat tires in the middle of nowhere, and breakdowns of camera equipment and the old Bronco II that was obviously getting pretty tired.

Then in 1993, I presented an idea to my news director at the time, Mark Mayhew. I suggested he give me a camera and a new truck and cut me loose to do stories were to call “John Tyson’s Journal.”

It took some doing, and when I forced the issue by finding a sponsor, it caused some major violations of the Sense of Humor Act. But in October, 1993, a whole seven years after I was first hired, the “Journal” was on the road. First stop, Washoe Valley.

That story next on Covering Rural Nevada Alone Because Nobody Wants To Go With You.