Local TV Station Going Green

[JimboK]

Originally Posted by Skwyre7

I can't make it tonight. I've got work obligations. (It is a business dinner at La Grotta, so it isn't all bad. ) It would have been great to at least ride along. The weather should be good tonight, although a little warm. Will you be taking the NBC12 Prius or yours? If you're taking theirs, don't forget an air pump to inflate those tires! Good luck with Andrew. I think he's one of the better ones to be doing this type of story.

Enjoy your dinner!

I think the weather will be near perfect. Warm enough for good MPG, but not enough to turn the car into a sauna -- or to heat up the battery too much. Pretty low humidity and no chance for rain. Not like last week, IOW.

I plan to use mine. I know it will be in S4 and the tires aired up. And I have Can-View of course. I'll use the factory display for the actual drive -- what I show him needs to be reproducible by him in their car -- but I will use CV to track trip MPG. I didn't suggest driving theirs, but it wouldn't surprise me if corporate policy would prohibit it. I'm OK with Andrew driving mine.

Yeah, I'm pretty optimistic about him doing the story. I like his on-air work as a meteorologist, and he seemed pretty enthused when we talked on the phone.

[JimboK]

OK, it's a wrap. I think things went pretty well, especially the driving clinic results -- more on that in a minute. It took over an hour to do the interview and the clinic, with the final product to be a couple of minutes, maybe. So who knows what it will look like after all the edits.

Despite having his undivided attention for that long, it was a bit of a whirlwind and there were some things I overlooked and thought later, "Dang, I meant to say ...." But he was continually asking questions -- virtually all positive -- and providing commentary for the subsequent broadcast: "OK, we're driving down Belt Blvd. at 18 miles per hour right now." Or (this was great) as we were gliding to a red light while others around us were doing the dash-to-the-light-and-brake-hard routine, "Now they're wasting a lot of fuel and kinetic energy, aren't they?" He was pretty excited when he could sustain a glide.

He had done some homework studying up on the car and hypermiling. I was impressed with the preparation. Many (most?) of his questions were on the Prius, but I tried to make generic fuel savings points when I could.

And oh, yeah: Chuck, the camera was running nearly the whole time.

As for the clinic, my lap was a disappointing 71 MPG. I think I paid more attention to describing the technique (and answering questions) than the driving itself. His lap: 80 MPG!

For Michael and other locals, it's scheduled for sometime during the 5:30 p.m. broadcast on Friday, 8/17. For the rest of you, I'll post a web link when I have it.

[Right Lane Cruiser]

Awesome job, Jim! I'm really looking forward to seeing this segment when it comes out.

[Skwyre7]

Thanks, Jim. I'm supposed to be on the golf course then, but I'll record it. I'm glad it went well.

Oh, and be ready for the friendly ribbing we give you for having your "student" get higher mileage...

[priussoris]

Good job JimboK,

How did it turn out?

[hobbit]

If there's a video file of the segment someplace please try
to dig down to the link directly to the actual file, since
a lot of the "wrapper" links generally don't work for
correctly configured browsers [e.g. script crap turned off]
.
_H*

[JimboK]

UPDATE TO BROADCAST DATE(S):

Andrew called me today to say they're not airing 8/17 after all. I had forgotten that he told me Wednesday night it also was to air Saturday morning too. Turns out they have something else for that slot this Saturday, and he wants the story to get more exposure than just one showing. So they are postponing until Friday, 8/24 (still during the 5:30 p.m. broadcast), with repeat airings Saturday, 8/25, during the 6:30 a.m and 9:30 a.m. broadcasts.

[Right Lane Cruiser]

Great news on the exposure!! More is better.

[mparrish]

Jim, can't wait to see the final product. Every media item = 150 more drivers going "holy s@#$, why didn't anyone tell me?"

[Skwyre7]

I'll have to adjust my DVR to record the right broadcast.