Slice of Life With The Lady Vols

This is the true definition of March Madness, at least for a reporter. I am sitting in the lower reaches of the Arena at Gwinnett Center, awaiting the Lady Vols' SEC Tournament semi-final game against LSU. It's three-hours before tip-off. I've just finished shooting a story that will air on 6 News tonight at 6.

Photographer/editor Garrett Gooch (who wants to be known only as "Gooch"), is squeezed into a satellite truck outside the arena, editing the story. It will be fed via satellite just 30-minutes before it airs. For us, that's a ton of time. On deadline, we often feed with just minutes to spare. In critical situations, the tape is "hot-rolled" -- meaning it rolls live in our satellite truck, flies 22,000 miles into space, and is bounced off something called IA-6. It then travels 22,000 miles back to Earth, and is received by a satellite dish at WATE-TV on North Broadway. All this, in the blink of an eye. You see it at home 2-4 seconds after the button is pushed. Thank the Russians and Sputnik. We won the space race, but they pushed us hard to get there.

While Gooch edits, I sit here watching a telecast of the UT men play Georgia in Athens. We'd be there-- if not for the conflicting start time with tonight's Lady Vols game. The Lady Vols have just arrived at the arena. I'm sure LSU is here too. They expect a big, vocal crowd here tonight.

Fans, satellites, and something called March Madness. All this, to see a team shoot an orange ball through a hoop. Ain't life grand?