(Facescan at MCRick's house: 1994)
JSinn : A bit about your host....
Thanks for taking the time to check out the site. It's been an ongoing project since 1994. I update it when I get the chance to and hopefully that will be more frequently.
At the present moment, I am a news photojournalist for the ABC affiliate, WVEC-TV, in Norfolk, Virginia. I went to college here for a year (Old Dominion University: '89-'90) but had to drop out because of too many road trips to the beach.
I now live at the beach, some 13 years later, working for channel 13, and I haven't missed a day of work...bad luck on the horizon? I hope not.
My career in television began in 1999 at Missouri Southern State College,
where I graduated from in May of 2002.
I started as a station board member of KGCS-TV, the college's TLC affiliate,
and developed my own local-music show, Locals Only.
I eventually became the student production manager,
which gave me the opportunity to make several station commercials,
promos, and graphics while producing Locals Only and directing programs
such as Newsmakers, Southern This Week, and Window on the World. It was here I learned how to shoot, edit, and produce.
In 2000, I became the Student Station manager, which carried a less creative,
more administrative role. I was in charge of scheduling, programming, production,
and other aspects of the station's ongoings.
At the same time, I got a job as a Production Technician at the ABC affiliate in Joplin, KODE-TV channel 12.
I assisted the nightside newscasts there in several different roles: camera operator, audio engineer, video technician, director, and then finally as a weekend photojournalist.
I found my calling the day I shot and edited my first story.
An opening as the morning-side photojournalist and live-truck operator became available
at KSNF, the NBC affiliate in Joplin, which was the number one station in the market
and, in my opinion, the best place I've worked.
I worked there for well over a year while finishing my last year of college.
After six months on the morning show, Hometown Today, I took over as its producer. It was a more prestigious role and with it came a great deal more responsibility.
I truly enjoyed the position and it allowed us to be creative on the show;
everything from camping in the woods to filipino martial arts to wild animals on the set to
an Indian Trailriding episode, which was at the peak of my time on Hometown Today.
While working as the morning-show producer, I continued to shoot news and feature stories for the station. It was a great adventure there and I made some great friends...but the ocean was calling me after a long stay in the Midwest. I finished college, and with a job in Pennsylvania waiting, I headed back east.
I am the father of two beautiful children, Christian and Katryn who live in Orlando, Florida, with their mom. The stay with me in the summer and I'm excited about them coming to Willoughby. They'll love the beach.
Christian was born in Wilmington, North Carolina and Katryn, in Joplin.
Oh yeah...I used to be in the Navy.
I was stationed onboard the USS Rushmore(LSD-47) in San Diego at the 32nd St. Naval Base.
I am working on a tribute page to this period of my life.
It's called the Ship's Log.
It will have pictures from Operation Restore Hope in Somalia and our tour of the Persian Gulf,
plus other things not normally found on a US Navy page.
Do you want to hear more???
Ok...well, I was born in Los Angeles and lived in Altadena until I was five.
My family moved to Waldwick, NJ with my grandmother and grandfather.
We lived there for a year and then moved to Lake Hopatcong, NJ. I went to elementary school there in a nice, wooded environment in North Jersey.
In 1979, we moved to Toms River, NJ on a lagoon which outlet into the Barnegat Bay, part of the Intracoastal Waterway.
The beach was great and I discovered surfing, skateboarding, and music. We lived there until my freshman year of high schoo at Toms River East.
I moved for my sophmore and junior year of high school to Green Lane, PA, the most backwoods redneck
town in Amish and Menonite country.
My senior year my parents moved us to Chalfont, PA where I graduated from Central Bucks West in Doylestown.
It was just 45 minutes by train or auto to Philadelphia.
I was a dedicated skate punk so I used to hop the train with my friends on the weekends
to go street skate Philly or check out the shows. I made some great friends there: the upper east greenville crew, DTHC, the Cheap Skates skaters, my philly friends.
While in Pennsylvania I went to Bucks County Community College for a year and then transfered to Old Dominion in Norfolk.
After my brief college stint in Virginia, I moved back to Pennsylvania in 1990 and landed a job lifeguarding and teaching swim lessons to kids at the Shawnee-At-Highpoint Country Club for a little over a year
While guarding I also worked as a fitness trainer in the weight room; I was working out a great deal at the time so it seemed like a good way to make some extra money.
Well I started getting bored with my life in Pennsylvania and I got this offer from an old college buddy to move to Miami, Florida.
I get down there and it is cracked out so I leave after three months or so and move back to parents house.Only this time it isn't in Chalfont, PA. It is in Joplin, Misseri...
I am in this truck stop metroplois for two weeks, see the Paint Stallion, go to the mall, freak out and join the Navy and am off to Great Lakes, Illinois and then Sand Diego, California.
I came back to Missouri after my time as a sailor and discovered computers and television...
and after eight years, television got me out of there.
Now to new oceanic endeavors...
back...