- Idaho News 6 is 50 years old this year
- Roland Beres has been part of the station for about a quarter of that time and looks back at his favorite stories
- These are not the "biggest" stories, but the ones that were the most fun to bring to our viewers
(Below is the verbatim of the story that aired)
As a reporter, you sometimes get a chance to do some pretty unusual things in the effort to tell a story. It’s an opportunity I’ve tried not to shy away from, even when it sometimes went wrong.
Things that fly or go fast were always an attraction.
Flying in a P-40 Warhawk from the Warhawk Air Museum was the thrill of a lifetime. A ride in a plane that was a childhood obsession.
I also tried my hand at the controls of a helicopter in Caldwell where they teach all sorts of people the art of hovering... just not me.
Then there’s the opportunity to put the pedal to the metal at Firebird Raceway in a borrowed Corvette, or previewing the new C-7 Corvette on a test drive.
And trying my hand at a dirt bike converted into a snow bike.
Among the weirdest stories I’ve ever covered was the shark exhibit that came to the Western Idaho Fair. I fed hungry nurse sharks in the back of a specially designed semi-truck. That’s as close as I ever want to get to a shark.
Then there was the opportunity to see why our firefighters are such heroes.
For a day, I learned how tough their job is by donning full gear, crawling into an active fire, cutting a hole in a roof and climbing a ladder to jump on a building. A whole new perspective on the dangers those heroes face every day.
And as a lifelong skier, one of the most inspirational stories I've covered is how local ski resorts have found ways to stay financially viable, in particular, Tamarack, which went through bankruptcy, but was kept afloat by a community that stepped up to manage the operations until it got back on its feet.
And from skiing to surfing, I previewed a competition of wake surfers at Lucky Peak when the sport was first taking off.
In a world where we cover a lot of serious, difficult and even heartbreaking stories, it’s nice to look back on some of the fun we also had along the way.
