Well, after almost NINE MONTHS of working on them, I FINALLY got the Ann Arbor News (MI) to notice us!
On 2/6/02, the AA News ran a FULL PAGE, "Connections Section" (local happenings) PAGE ONE article the three local teams (rookie NASA/Pfizer/MDI/ACTI/Ann Arbor Huron HS 830, GM Powertrain/Willow Run HS 66, and Visteon/Ypsilanti HS 470).
During the CDI contest, we (830) had TWO "dog and pony" shows for them, where we finally got a photographer out. The first reporter we had didn't have the political connections to help us the first time around. BUT, she DID match me up with Marianne Rzepka, the Connections Editor.
With that personal connection, Marianne took notice of us. She was GREAT, and VERY thorough in her research. We talked numerous times, and she took the time to look up the game.pdf for this year, and talk with ALL of my references to the other teams in the area.
Her article talked both about FIRST and the CDI contest. They even included the FIRST definition in a bold "bubble", and THREE huge Team 830 build and demo photos in the article including one with our HP/Drivers/Bot, and a closeup of a driver with our team shirt on.
I now see that the online version of the article is already aged out and is gone. If we can get AANews permission, we'll try to put it on our website (once the public area is up and running... we only have the team's private area running now).
(Someone, please tell me who I should send a copy of the article to at FIRST for inclusion into the media kit.)
HINT: Whenever possible ENCOURAGE MEDIA PERSONNEL AND PHOTOGRAPHERS TO DRIVE YOUR ROBOT. Letting media people "behind the stick" gets THEM excited, and MUCH more motivated to work with you.
Quote:
Originally posted by AntiCrombieDuck
[...]why can't we bee like the Olympics, a little on every channel
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Well, IMO we're not even THAT far along yet...
We're still fighting to get the media to even NOTICE us.
Example: What really got to me was how we were snubbed by the Detroit area TV stations on the day of the Novi MI Remote Kickoff.
It was held at the Novi Expo Center. Blair Bowman, a REALLY great guy, is the owner of the center. He was cool enough to DONATE the use of one of the center's larger areas to us (AND set up a new FIRST Scholarship in his name as well!) I saw a TV truck from the local affiliate there, and thought: "Cool... It is about time they noticed FIRST!"
That afternoon, the stations ran "teasers" to "not miss the news as big things happened at the Novi Expo Center today"! I was excited. As I wasn't going to be around that evening, I set my VCR to catch it.
When I reviewed the tape, they even teased throughout the news broadcast itself, but still didn't say what was happening.
Then, at the very end of the broadcast, they had several MINUTES of RICHARD SIMMONS hopping around, and not us! (WHAT???) He apparently had his roadshow there that day, and had a few overweight people dancing around to music in one of the smaller areas separate from us. I had faintly heard the music from the common restroom area, and poked my head in to see a small aerobics class going on, but hadn't noticed him.
Now the Simmons event was NOTHING like what WE had going on! We had
over 1000 people present !!! What got me was that even though the TV crew was RIGHT THERE, we had LOTS of activity, AND the OWNER of the facility was behind it, the TV stations STILL never even bothered to MENTION the kickoff or the FIRST contest at ALL on the air!
Apparently, Simmons hopping around in a classroom was MUCH MORE newsworthy ITO of the station!!!
Moral: We all REALLY need some bigger PR campaigns working on the local media to convince them that this is an IMPORTANT,
Newsworthy activity! This has got to be a concerted effort on all of our parts to educate our local areas. IMHO, we could really use the assistance of a political PR specialist firm or two here to start turning society's priorities around.
One win, one loss... Not too bad...
- Keith McClary, Advisor, Ann Arbor Huron HS Team 830 "Rat Pack"