From warding off the flu to prepping for live shots before the sun rises, the WRAL-TV crew in South Korea is ready to cover the 2018 Winter Olympics. WRAL-TV Anchors Kathryn Brown and David Crabtree and WRAL-TV Photojournalists Jamie Munden and Richard Adkins have tested uplink connections, traveled to venues and already know where to find the best coffee.
On Wednesday, February 7, Adkins shared some insight about his South Korea adventure.
“If cold is a knife, the temperature here is a razor blade. That’s a saying I once heard, and it definitely applies here,” he posted. “A quick update here for those who want to know how things are going in Korea. We left our workspace this evening to catch the 6:20 bus… Which didn’t come, and left us in 15° windchill weather for more than half an hour. Let’s just say it’s cold, damn cold.”
He and Crabtree spent the day visiting the DMZ.
“My trip to the DMZ was a great adventure, but not great television,” wrote Adkins. “The Army has a way of taking the wind out of your sails sometimes. We were limited to just a few minutes of photography time, and with a large tour of nearly 50 journalist, and there was a whole lot of pushing shoving, wrangling to get a spot. It was a 3 1/2 hour bus ride each way, and turned into a 4 AM to 8 PM day.”
“Working around the Olympic venues is pretty cool, and the people here working at the event or just awesome, very friendly, and for the most part things run efficiently. Except that bus tonight…” said Adkins.
He spoke of the complications of getting to the cafeteria for food, going through security and the hours that might or might not jive with the WRAL crew’s schedule.
“Instead we’ve been adventurous, hitting many of the restaurants in the town where we are,” Adkins explained. “The area here is safe and walkable… And the servers are very patient with those of us who need a lot of time to figure out the menu.”
The WRAL crew is already working long hours with early wake-up calls, and fighting the bitter cold, to bring Olympic coverage live to central North Carolina viewers.
Find the latest scores, medal standings, television schedule and much more on WRAL.com and WRALSportsFan.com by searching for ‘Olympics’.
The WRAL Olympics team will begin reports on WRAL-TV every evening beginning Wednesday, live at 5:00, 6:00, the Olympic Zone at 7:30, and WRAL’s 11:00 News. Brown and Crabtree will also post daily on WRAL.com and Facebook.
Check out the latest blog entries from Brown and Crabtree on Inside WRAL
Thanks to WRAL-TV’s Richard Adkins, David Crabtree & Kathryn Brown for these capcom photos.
SLIDESHOW: WRAL-TV Team in South Korea Begins Pre-Olympics Coverage