Bubba Ha Baker is a photojournalist for WISC TV new
station now here in Madison and the producer of a Saturday morning segment
morning notes a segment covering local music in Dane County here in the studio
to tell us what it's like is a TV news photojournalist and is
passionate for covering local music is Bubba Ha Baker. Bubba, welcome to Max
Inc. Radio. So great to be here. This is awesome. I love I didn't know you guys do
this every Saturday. I got it, you know, start turning in every Saturday because
local music is my passion for sure. Every Saturday 6 p.m. to midnight we're
here. That's right. I already invited him to come back. Oh, we could we could
share info. You're supposed to wait to see how things go first before you invite him back.
He was going to be great. Well, nervous. No worries. Okay, so you are off to the
Barrymore. Tell us why you're going there. Yeah, my friend Jeff Blakehorse, he
plays in a Madison mystery tour. It's a local Madison or a local Beatles
cover band. They they're playing the Barrymore. They were doing the 50th
anniversary of every album and they ran out albums. So they did the red album
a few last year and and this year is the blue album. They're going to play the
blue album. It's an entirety. So I'm excited. Wow. All the hits. Wow. I think I'm
trying to verify I think a dumb test phase there tonight. If I'm not mistaken
maybe I don't know. I'm not finding it on I think he was at high noon. Was
he? I don't think he's at Barrymore, but okay. I'm not sure. Okay, so yes, as I
know, you are one of the kind of behind the camera guys. You're also a producer.
You do I'm just going to say you guys do all the work. That's what I've always said.
Well, yeah, I mean a lot of people, you know, don't realize the camera guys they
go out and shoot the news. They, you know, go out and make do the interviews as
well. You know, I've done go out and shoot a story and then bring it back and
edit it and the producer helps write it. And you know, there's a lot of people
behind the scenes besides the anchors. Well, and we always say, oh, it's so
glamorous. It's it's kind of not some time. Give us a little back story about you
and then, you know, why you decided to go the news route, but now here you are
really passionate about music and being able to show that off. Yeah, I've always
enjoyed music. I've never played, but I always enjoyed, you know, just going to
shows and covering local music. I from Chicago originally, but came up here
to Edgewood College and, you know, always seeing live music because there's
something about it. And and meeting the people, meeting the local musicians,
just bringing that Madison scene and publicizing it and showing it off, you
know, there's so many great bands that I've covered. I've been doing this
segment that I do in the mornings on Saturday mornings, not every month, but try to
do as often as I can where I, you know, just go out and and film a local band and
then, you know, interview them and make a little segment out of it. Thank you for
doing that. Yeah, no, it's great just to show off this Madison music scene. It's
that I'm so, you know, we always say we feel so fortunate. You know, you turn around
and there's incredible musicians, no matter which way you turn. So, and from
our experience too, when we have bands coming in for interview or to play live in
the layer, this is great for them as an artist to showcase their, their
wares and their music and their art. So, you know, just like us when they come in
on the radio, when they get you to come in and put them on TV, they have to be
ecstatic about that. Oh, it's great. It's great. Just to show them off and
and and show them music that that Madison has. You know, yeah, I've been here
since 96 came up, went to Edward College and, yeah, live on the east side and
so I, you know, I've got two kids and and yeah, it's just love, love Madison. Yeah,
yeah. I know how your careers have come together too. It's very cool.
Hey, now tell us about the glamour. So, you've been with WISC for 10 years now and
you've been a director, a master control operator, even worked a morning show
getting up at 2.30 in the morning. But now you're a Florida journalist. Tell us
about working in TV news. Like, what, what's that like? TV news is, it's, it's hard
because it's, it goes on all the time. You know, there's always something going on.
You're always trying to be out and, you know, there's no off days. People are
working all the time. You know, like I said, I worked the morning show for six
years and getting up at 2.30 in the morning and directing at 4.30 am newscast,
you know, we go start at 4.30 and we're on, you know, till 7 and then there's a
new show and a 4 and a 6 and a 5 and, you know, all the different newscasts that
you got to fill up and, you know, you're just, I love bringing what I see and
bring it to people to, you know, for everyone to see, you know, what I see
through the lens and just bring it for people to see on TV, bringing that local
flair, that local, you know, all the local stories that everyone loves, you know,
and telling, telling the good stories, not just the fires and the crime and stuff,
but the music and the culture of Madison. It's not that glamorous, I guess, because, you know,
there's just a lot of little things that bring it all to a lot of people to bring it all together.
What brought you from being like a director and, you know, master control operator to,
you know, photojournalist? Yeah, I just love being more creative,
being able to put a story together. Like you said, the morning notes thing is,
is I produce that, I book the band, go out, you know, and, and, and film them and putting it all
together is much more creative process than, you know, all the jobs are important,
master control, you know, director. There's so many things that put the news on, but I really
enjoy telling this story, being the storyteller and, and being the journalist. And you do, you have
to get, you know, kind of up close and personal when you do those interviews and get to know people.
How do you feel about that? Especially since you did come, really not a traditional way to get to
being a photojournalist and then doing these interviews. Definitely. Yeah, it's, it's interesting.
It was around about, yeah, kind of way to, to become, you know, all of a sudden,
interviewing the governor and going to, you know, Lambo and covering football and, you know,
back in the day at Edgewood, we had a cable access show that we did. And so that gave me some
experience on video and just always been behind the camera and shooting weddings and bands and,
you know, just putting on a show, putting something together, you know, as always been something
I've done and, and love doing. Do you feel like you've found your place? Definitely. Definitely. I love
just, yeah, meeting the local musicians and, and, uh, yeah, uh, want to plug, yeah, my, uh,
morning notes at wictv.com if people have local, uh, anything, uh, a band that they, you know,
are a music video that they, they can send in a link to and they can consider it for, for a future
segment. That's awesome. We'll share that link too. For sure. Being a photojournalist is kind of
cool too because, uh, it's some, I mean, everybody's different how they, how they present their,
their piece, but most of the time you're letting the subject tell the story through the camera.
Exactly. Yeah. That's what we call it a nat pack or, you know, like letting the subject
tell, tell, you know, speak instead of having a voiceover or a reporter track. A lot of reporters
put together things and they're, they have a lot easier job to bridge something together or,
you know, they can just, you know, talk over it. Right, right. And a lot of times I just have the
bands explain, you know, what, what they say their music aren't, you know, how they describe their
music or how they, how they, how they got started in the music and let them tell their stories.
Those are my favorite stories. Yeah. Yeah. Really good. Well, now I know that, uh, Terry Byer,
she's meant Brett Farve and heard her and he's named somebody besides the governor. They,
you're like, wow, like I met Aaron Rodgers. I mean, who's
rocker? I met rocker. Yeah. Oh, yes, today, uh, promoting the matinee series,
you know, I really think that's, that's, that's what we were going to share that as well. We'll
grab that link and share that on our socials. Yeah. Um, right when I started Bernie Sanders,
oh, yeah. And, uh, Lou Ferregno came in the studio. Very strong grip on Lou Ferregno.
I have met Lou as well. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Very strong. Almost a little like intimidating.
He's a big guy, dude. Yeah. But then at the Joey song too, you know, butch Vig, he's a legend,
you know, being able to meet him and he's such a down-earth guy. Yeah. Did, uh,
did Charlie Barron stop by? Did he, uh, did you just say hi to his parents for him?
Or did he say hi to your parents? Well, actually, he looked into my camera and he asked me,
is this live? And he said, blank the bears. Hey, watch out for gear.
He's a nice guy too. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. Boba says, tell us one more time how we can
check out the show on Channel 3. Yeah. So, uh, Channel 3 on, on morning, uh, morning notes
is a segment on, on Saturday mornings, uh, WIC, uh, Channel 3, Channel 3,000 is our website.
And you can go on YouTube and you can, uh, Google, uh, or YouTube morning notes, uh, Channel 3,000
for all of my old stories that I've done. Check out all the old bands that, uh, I've covered.
Thank you again for doing this. Yes. Thank you. Appreciate you. It was awesome. Was it a
Dem Tess Faye? I misspoke. It was Sean Micodargan. He's there. He was one of the members of the band. He's
like the music director for that, right? Exactly. Yes. Uh, he rocks. All right.
I'm rock. Rocker told me that you love this band disc.
This is great. Awesome. Here's their song right now. Kujo Kiddies on Maxic Radio. Just for you. Thanks, guys.