FOX-12 Oregon Airs Second Half Hour Special Sunday on Tim King's Work in Afghanistan

This week's program airs Sunday at 6:00 PM.

Photos by: Tim King

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - A second half-hour program will air on Oregon's KPTV FOX-12 this weekend featuring the work of Salem-News.com's Tim King in Afghanistan. Tim spent just under two months during the winter of 2006/07 embedded with the Oregon National Guard's 41st Combat Brigade Team.

The first of the two half-hour shows aired Saturday, February 24th at 10:30 PM on FOX-12 following the news. Featuring Tim's reports as well as an interview with Tim and shots from the studio, the program received a lot of feedback via phone calls and emails from viewers according to KPTV.

This week's program also aired at 10:30 PM Saturday following the 10:00 news. Those who missed it have a second chance to catch the program Sunday at 6:00 PM.

FOX-12 dubbed the coverage "Stories From the Front" and ran more than 24 reports from Tim that were sent back to the United States from Afghanistan via "FTP" on the Internet. "FTP" stands for File Transfer Protocol and King says it is an amazing way to move large amounts of data around the world, though the technology moved slower in Afghanistan. "It would take six hours to send a typical report back to Oregon that was about two and a half minutes long, while in the states on a high speed Internet connection, it would take about twenty minutes to move the same amount of information."

Tim King in Afghanistan, winter of 2006 Photo by Gerry Golden, 41st Combat Brigade

Talks with CNN and the FOX News Channel generated some interest in Tim's reports but both agencies lacked confidence in a reporter's ability to transmit quality TV material from a country that has limited broadcast and satellite transmission capabilities. As it turned out, Oregon's FOX-12 was able to receive the reports and air them with minimal difficulty and good quality. The station's News Director Pat McCreery said the reports surpassed his expectations in terms of quality.

"The process from beginning to end was fairly unknown when Tim first arrived in Afghanistan, but we were able to get through some technical issues and make this work, it went really smooth overall. The project has been very successful," commented General Manager Bonnie King. "Families of soldiers are the most vocal about appreciating this coverage, and we are happy to bring it to them."

The stories that have aired on KPTV Fox-12 are the same reports that have been an ongoing feature here at Salem-News.com called "Dispatches from Afghanistan," and Tim says there is more to come. "I haven't finished editing and presenting the material that I recorded, and now we are formulating plans for my return to Afghanistan. It seems to have become a rather big part of my life and I think it always will be." This time Tim hopes to capture footage of things missed on the first trip, locations like schools and orphanages and the region around Kandahar in the southern part of the country.

You can email Tim King at: tim@salem-news.com