THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 1, 1995 TAG: 9504290046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
IT WAS ABOUT a.m. April 20 when Stephanie Taylor reported for work in the WTKR newsroom in Norfolk wearing a suit - a nice black suit with a skirt. By 5 that afternoon, Taylor was on the air live from Oklahoma City wearing the same suit.
In a few hours, she had rendezvoused with members of a Virginia search and rescue team, flown to Oklahoma with them aboard a C-141, pulled together her first story from where scores of people had died in a bombing, and was on the air live that day at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. With her was photographer Tony Baum, who would spend hours lugging a camera around.
WAVY already had a reporter on the scene. Channel 10 still had Doug Aronson reporting from downtown Oklahoma City as late as last weekend.
WVEC was there too.
What at first appeared to be a story far away in America's heartland with no local connection evolved into a priority matter for the news directors at the three local network affiliates.
There was, indeed, a local angle to the blast in Oklahoma City.
In Norfolk, at the Naval Base, the fast attack submarine Oklahoma City was preparing to set out to sea Friday, April 21. There wasn't much time to do it, but the commanding officer of the Los Angeles-class submarine, Cmdr. Richard Snead, organized a pierside blood drive on behalf of the victims in Oklahoma City. The city has close ties to the Norfolk-based sub.
The Hampton Roads TV stations had their local angle on the big, breaking story in Oklahoma City.
One of them broadcast an interview with the wife of an Oklahoma City crewman, Catherine Houpt, a native of that city. She recalled that her parents had been married at the First United Methodist Church, where stained-glass windows were broken by the bomb a block away.
And then the local ties to the shocking event in Oklahoma City grew even stronger.
Fifty-six men and women and four dogs from Hampton Roads were on their way to Oklahoma to help search for possible survivors in the federal building there.
Taylor and Baum reached the gutted federal building about 4 p.m. the day after the explosion. Taylor was stunned by the enormity of the destruction not only at ground zero but also for 10 or 12 blocks beyond.
It will be a long time before she forgets the sight of a woman returning to the scene again and again - never changing her clothes - in the hope of finding a relative who had been inside when the bomb went off.
There was no time to dwell on such tearful scenes. Taylor and her photographer had work to do.
Oklahoma City was crawling with reporters when the Channel 3 crew arrived. CNN alone had 60 people there, including 11 reporters. There was a scramble for satellite time, which cost stations about $125 a minute. Luckily for Taylor, a station in Memphis, Tenn. - also operated by WTKR's new owners, The New York Times Co. - graciously allowed Channel 3 to share its satellite hook-up.
``That helps when you're low on the network pecking order,'' said Taylor.
When the Virginians involved in the search and rescue in Oklahoma City came home, Taylor was there to report on that, too. She also had a hand in telling Channel 10's viewers about the spouses of the crewmen on the Oklahoma City who helped to round up 26,000 pounds of emergency supplies for Oklahoma City.
``We are one family,'' said Missy Snead, the wife of the submarine's commanding officer, when the local TV cameras were rolling.
The terrible events of April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City reached out and touched Hampton Roads, and because they did, the TV stations rallied to cover a national story that had become local.
Good job, everybody.
Time marches on. With a new day comes a new story.
Stephanie Taylor was on the air the other day with a piece about low-fat foods. I heard she burned her black suit.
KEYWORDS: OKLAHOMA CITY EXPLOSION BOMB TERRORISM by CNB