Bringing the Outdoors Indoors
Ron Wilson
North Dakota Outdoors video news program turned 30 this month, impressively marking decades of nearly uninterrupted coverage of all things outdoors in the state.
Mike Anderson, North Dakota Game and Fish Department video project supervisor, has helped shuttle the 2-minute weekly segment from field to viewers for 29 of those 30 years.
Airing for the first time in 1994, the program was initially on a make-or-break trial for a year before becoming part of the Department’s permanent budget.
At the outset, NDO’s show was a tough sell to TV stations in the state because they were an unproven product trying to slip into local news coverage that was aired, unlike today, at just 6 and 10 p.m.
“The TV stations had legitimate concerns.
Were we going to produce a high-quality program? Was it going to be consistent? Was it going to be ready to air every week?” Anderson said.
“It was not only hard to get on those stations, but to maintain those stations over the years.”
The last to climb on board was WDAY in Fargo.
“I’ve been trying to get on there for about 27 years, and now we’re part of their local news every week for about the last three years, which is great,” Anderson said.
Greg Freeman, Department communications supervisor, said the program’s reach is impressive as it broadcasts the agency’s message to inform hunters, anglers and others who recreate outdoors.
“We are on 12 television stations across North Dakota, parts of South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota and into Canada, connecting with over 100,000 viewers each week.
In addition, it’s shared across the stations associated social media outlets.
Mike Anderson interviews RJ Gross, Department upland game biologist, in studio.
That’s coverage we can’t get from any of our other communication platforms,” Freeman said.
“And then when you combine it with our magazine, webcast, podcast, blogs, newsletter, social media and marketing efforts, it would be hard-pressed for a hunter or angler to go a couple days without encountering some of our outreach efforts.”
Like the other divisions within the Game and Fish Department, the video crew runs lean.
For 16 years, beginning in 2001, Anderson shot and edited the show’s content, while Tom Jensen was the writer and voice behind the program.
Today, Ashley Peterson, Department photographer/videographer, can be found behind the camera shooting video for the program and photos for the magazine, while Anderson continues his longtime duties, plus script writing and narration.
With this you’re constantly planning and thinking ahead.
Today, it’s mid-September, but my mind is already thinking about what needs to be done by the end of October,” Anderson said.
“There’s a lot of logistics involved with lining up interviews all over the state because we cover every corner of North Dakota.
Then again, we can’t complain because we’re seeing and filming a lot of things firsthand that most people don’t get to experience.”
Out of the hundreds of interviews the video news program crew has done around the state, Anderson said he’s only had two people cancel in nearly three decades.
Blame it on COVID, he said.
The changes in the equipment, especially in lenses and cameras, the latter of which have gotten lighter and easier to pack into the badlands, follow pheasant hunters through cattails, or haul with the other gear to a sage grouse blind in the dark, are staggering.
