Stories from the Front with Tim King

Tim King's war reports from Afghanistan showcased by Portland, Oregon TV station.

Tim King during the taping of Stories from the Front

(PORTLAND, OR) - During the winter of 2006 and 2007, our News Editor Tim King was in Afghanistan to cover military operations of the Oregon National Guard. In addition to reporting for Salem-News.com, Tim also reported for Oregon FOX-12 KPTV in Portland. Both agencies carried roughly 30 reports filed over approximately sixty days.

Oregon FOX-12 produced two half-hour television programs about Tim's work after he returned. This first of two episodes, posted below, aired in February 2007.

Tim says working with FOX-12 was a good experience. "From the news director and executive producer, to the anchors and the news editors, this is a good station and they were good to work with. They even shipped a battery for my TV camera to Kabul when I was having problems," Tim said.

What makes all of this interesting on a technical level, is that Tim used the Internet to file all of his reports, and while this may be a common practice today, it was considerably difficult six years ago. "We were very limited in our ability to compress these reports, so they would take around six hours to transmit back. If anything interrupted the transfer of data, I had to start over. It was challenging but wonderful and the bottom line is that it worked!" Tim says understanding the mechanics of a conflict like the one in Afghanistan is extremely important.

The documentary style program shows a number of reports that Tim filed and also features insight from Tim throughout the program, as he comments on the people, the soldiers, and the memorable stories that he covered.

Special thanks to Shauna Parsons and Wayne Garcia, Patrick McCreery, Debbie Curran, Q Madp and others who made this possible.