Ann Compton in the ABC News booth at the White House, Aug. 28 2013
In my recent post here about Vic Ratner and the audio tools he uses, I invited readers to tell me about their own.
In response I heard from another iconic radio network reporter, Ratner’s co-worker Ann Compton, who covers the White House, her beat since 1974 and the Ford administration.
“As a colleague of Vic’s at ABC News Radio, I marvel at Vic’s unflappable control under any conditions as he reports. I am not nearly as clever with gear,” Compton told me by email.
“Traveling with seven presidents, my run bag is now down to a laptop on which I connect by Skype (for free!); a headset with attached mic connected through a Shure X2u XLR-to-USB Signal Adapter, which the N.Y. engineers vow sounds studio quality; and a [Tieline] Report IT app on an iPhone, from which I dialed in live to make the 7 a.m. newscast the morning green paint was splattered on the Lincoln Memorial.”
Compton adds: “It was a lowly Motorola clam-shell cellphone on which I broadcast the dramatic flight of the president in the 10 hours after terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001.” She was, in fact, the only broadcast reporter allowed to remain aboard Air Force One that day.
News veterans: What audio tools do you love? Share the word.
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