Two minutes and 57 seconds.

That’s how long it took to get Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna a working microphone at the Governor’s debate in Yakima. A lot of people have asked me what I was thinking as the seconds turned to minutes and still we could not get his microphone to work correctly. Yes, my first thoughts were “OH NO”.  But I quickly realized that I could not freak out. My thinking went from “OH NO” to “be calm” and “do not panic” and “don’t say anything stupid” and if possible find a little humor in the situation.

This has happened to me before, but not during a major debate like this one. Over the years, I have been in numerous ‘live’ situations where the audio has failed or something unexpected has occurred. As a television news reporter, I had a fellow walk up to me during a ‘live’ shot and start cursing at me loudly. Another time someone drove by in a car and started honking their car horn just as I started delivering a ‘live’ report.  It scared the heck out of me. And there was the time during an event at Union Station, a Taiko drum group, these are huge Japanese drums that are very loud, started playing just as the anchor tossed to me to start my ‘live’ report. I could not hear her and she could not hear me. In fact, no one could hear me because the drums were so loud. The photographer finally waved cut to me because the news producer took it back to the studio. When they did come back to me I started to panic because the drum group was about to start up again. Fortunately, someone got them to hold off. Those experiences taught me a lot about staying calm and focused.

Still the nearly three minutes in Yakima was during a Governor’s Debate being broadcast and streamed statewide. It was a debate between two candidates in one of the tightest gubernatorial races in the country. As the seconds turned to minutes, I had to keep my composure, talk slowly and succinctly, and wait it out. The nearly three minutes felt like eight or nine minutes and I was running out of things to say. Finally, the crew got a working microphone to Rob McKenna and we could move on with the debate.

It was just a blip. Well, ok, a big blip. But we got it fixed and the debate between the two candidates happened. It was fiery and contentious and in the end the content of the debate mattered more than audio failure. I apologized profusely to Rob McKenna and his campaign manager Randy Pepple. They were gracious and understanding. The broadcast received a lot of great press coverage. Not much was reported about the audio problem. There were also excellent ratings for KCTS which shows that people care about this type of public affairs programming. It made for a memorable night. Yes, a little tense at times, but I have to admit, it was a lot of fun.