I have a cat-dog named Tim Riggins and a kitten named Six (for Jason Street). IYKYK.
Anyway now that I have your attention, can we talk about Texas sports?
When asked what I can bring to a media outlet that is on trend, unique and exciting, I point to my new 15-60 second show, the Blietz Blitz. I write, shoot, edit, design everything for my daily (M-F) episodes. I am bringing a new kind of video format to TikTok, it’s informative but not information overload. The goal is for viewers to learn enough about a topic to join in a conversation, but I also add in “Blietz Bonus” boxes with extra details for the more hardcore fan.
Prior to starting my own show, I spent two years as a sports and news reporter at Spectrum News. Initially, I was hired to cover sports for a duel market show in San Antonio and Austin. In that role, I covered the Dallas Cowboys (even went to training camp in Oxnard!), San Antonio Spurs, Texas Longhorns, UTSA Roadrunners, as well as all local high school and minor league teams. However, three months after I started, Spectrum cut all of its sports coverage and I became a news reporter.
I still covered Spurs games, and learned various techniques to make them feature or news stories. I definitely gained new skills and honed others while in news, including extensive live shots and breaking news coverage. Between the two stations, I was live up to 8x per night. I was responsible for pitching timely stories that were relevant to the market (and ideally to both markets). I learned how to drop everything and turn on a time when my EP called and always had backup story ideas for slower days.
I moved back to Texas after a couple of harsh winters in Chicago and Montana, so I’m pretty sure I could survive anywhere. I was recruited to be the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram’s first-ever video producer. The flexible role gave me a lot of room for creativity, so I shot and edited my own stories, created text-based videos for other reporters, and helped fun the social media accounts.
In Bozeman, Montana, I was a sports anchor/reporter and news reporter at KBZK, the CBS affiliate. I was promoted to this position after spending a year covering the crime beat. Countless hours spent staying late and coming in early to practice anchoring and producing practice shows finally paid off and I took on a hybrid role. After my promotion, I continued to also serve as a news reporter, leading the court coverage for Gallatin County.
During my time in Bozeman, I had numerous opportunities to cover major national news and work with reporters from the country’s top media outlets. I covered the November 2016 elections, including Montana’s gubernatorial and congressional races, regularly interviewed state representatives. National stories I covered include Congressman Greg Gianforte assaulting The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs, the murder of a local deputy, an exclusive interview with Debbie Reynold’s son just after her death and the death of Carrie Fisher, former Congressman Ryan Zinke’s appointment to President Trump’s cabinet and the arrest of a Montana State football player and son of late rapper Nate Dogg on drug-related felonies. Additionally, my reporting has been featured on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt”, “The Rachel Maddow Show”, TMZ, CBS and CNN.
I started my television career right after graduating from the M.S.J program at the Medill School at Northwestern University in 2016, with a video concentration in the Sports Immersion Program. I also hold a B.A. in journalism from TCU, with a major in journalism and minor in political science.
I hope to eventually use the skills I’ve acquired and refined throughout my time in television and newspaper, to bridge the gap between the two platforms, via digital media.
Despite my efforts, I haven’t yet convinced my former news director to cancel the television newscast or my current editors to stop creating a print product. But I’m ready to see how various platforms will adapt and converge in the not-so-distant future.