"Val, on the Gitner"

[RickN]

And if it's not, they will make it SOUND rough!

I do not ever remember Val inflating the threat of a storm. He is usually the one right on the tornado giving pretty direct info. He leaves it to David Paine to go into panic mode. Personally I think News 9 Made Paine the man weather guy to compete with Mike Morgan when it comes to panic. I went so far as to suggest to Gary England that they should slip Paine a Valium before each broadcast.

 

[TerryMiller]

^^^^^^RickN NAILED it!!!^^^^^^

 

[DRC458]

I do not ever remember Val inflating the threat of a storm.

You must've not been watching long enough or paying enough attention. He does it constantly ... to the point I get tired of him crying wolf. The saddest part is, they are the best option we have in this part of the state.

 

[OKNewshawk]

Also, Val's younger brother, Von, is a storm chaser for the News on 6, News 9's sister station in Tulsa. There are times when they'll work the same storm from different sides of the front. I love how the two stations will work in concert during statewide severe weather events.

 

[OKNewshawk]

Gentner Radio, is just a form of communication that they use, they can be linked together so a news station can talk to multiple people, thye don't use cell phone towers, so they work in more places and are more reliable.

The Gentner they are talking about is not a radio but a phone interface for the audio board. I used to work at a cable company that did local news and programming and we used a similar system for a call-in talk show. Our system was a single line system (it only fed one call to the audio board) but the Gentner the News 9 used had multiple phone inputs so they could have more than one storm chaser "cued up" and ready to go.

 

[DavidMcmillan]

6 & 9 are both owned by the Griffin family, the Griffin Waffle Syrup group. Von and Val do a great job of covering not only the state, but Von has also covered some of the hurricane events in recent years.

 

[RickN]

You must've not been watching long enough or paying enough attention. He does it constantly ... to the point I get tired of him crying wolf. The saddest part is, they are the best option we have in this part of the state.

Been watching for many years and I do pay attention. We have had Val less than half a block away reporting on a tornado twice and both times has been accurate. Once here at home a year or so ago when a tornado went thru parts of Edmond, and once on the road listening to reports on the radio when he blew past us chasing a tornado that we could see.

 

[DRC458]

... he blew past us chasing a tornado that we could see.

I can certainly believe that!

 

[Shadowrider]

Val doesn't blow things out of proportion that I've seen. He also just pounds on his truck too. He shows it no mercy!

 

[RickN]

Gary England just shared this video of the 99 OKC tornado and you can hear Val reporting in.