COVER FEATURE - JUNE 2003
They say nothing compares to your
first time, but Tommy Opliger would beg to differ. Being featured on our cover
(and now centerfold) for a second time (the first being back in March 2000)
has been an even bigger thrill for this veteran trucker. After a few life-changing
events and decisions, Tommy now finds himself as a company driver for an elite
fleet of television production trucks – and loving it!
When we last left Tommy back in 2000, he and his wife Jane were owner operators
driving a “Hot Rod Pete” for Intercity Lines hauling classic and exotic cars.
About six months later, Tommy hurt his back while loading cars at a race in
Georgia. The injury wasn’t career-ending or a chronic problem, but it was bad
enough to put him in bed for almost four months. Imagine not being able to work
for four months – it was a tough time for the Opligers. Jane got a part-time
job and decided that when Tommy went back on the road it would be alone. After
ten years, she was ready to get out of the truck.
After a complete recovery,
Tommy went back to work, but it wasn’t the same without his beautiful bride
at his side. His truck was getting older and was needing more attention, prompting
Tommy to start wondering what he would (or could) do next. He didn’t want to
build another show truck, but he knew he would have to buy another truck soon
– he was at a crossroads. About that time, he met a guy at a truckstop in Kentucky
that drove for a company that owned a small fleet of television production units.
Tommy was intrigued. The driver was kind enough to inform Tommy that this was
his last trip and that the company, Game Creek Video out of Hudson, New Hampshire,
would be looking to hire a relief driver. So Tommy got the company’s particulars
and went to New Hampshire for an interview. He got the job and immediately sold
his truck.
For the next twelve months, Tommy worked for Game Creek as a relief driver,
going out maybe two weeks a month. When not on the road, he had a local trucking
job to help them get by. Eventually, a full-time position became available and
Tommy took it. Looking back, Tommy now realizes how fortunate he was to have
this opportunity present itself to him – and he hasn’t regretted his decision
a bit.
Started in 1993, Game Creek Video is a leading provider of mobile television
production units. We’re not talking about a “news van” that runs all over town
covering breaking stories – we’re talking about a fully mobile production studio
capable of transmitting feeds of games and events to customers like ESPN, Fox
Sports, ABC, CBS, HBO and many others. We at 10-4 were surprised to learn that
stadiums and arenas have absolutely no production equipment. No cameras, no
tape machines, no audio equipment, no computers to generate graphics – nothing!
Every sporting or entertainment event you watch on television is fed to the
network through a truck. Apparently, it doesn’t make sense (financially) for
venues to buy and maintain their own equipment.
We spent a couple fun
days hanging out with Tommy and the crew at Edison Field in Anaheim as the World
Champion Angels took on the Cleveland Indians in a three-game series. Tommy’s
truck was providing the feed back to Cleveland, as they always do, for the Indian’s
away games. Although his truck is plain and simple on the outside, it’s what’s
inside that counts. The truck is a 2003 Peterbilt 387 with a 550 Cummins and
a 13-speed transmission. The truck is always kept clean and has a few pieces
of chrome, but Game Creek likes to keep a low profile so they don’t “trick out”
their trucks. But the real story is the trailer.
The trailer is a 53’ Great Dane that was fully customized by a company in Columbus,
Ohio that specializes in building television production units. The trailer is
divided into three compartments (rooms). The front room is the engineering area,
the middle section is the video tape/production area, and the back of the trailer
houses the audio equipment. There is over 50,000 feet (roughly ten miles) of
wiring throughout the trailer. It also carries another 10,000 feet of cable
(two miles), twelve cameras, and all the equipment required to produce a television-quality
program. The rolling weight of the tractor/trailer is about 73,000 pounds –
all of the time.
During a game or event, each of these three rooms is filled with people. At
the baseball games we attended, there were three engineers, three video tape
operators, seven production people and one audio technician. There were also
six people operating stationary cameras and two people (each with a helper)
operating hand-held cameras. There were a total of fourteen people working inside
the trailer and another ten running cameras outside on the field. It was exciting
to see an actual Major League Baseball game being produced and televised right
before our eyes.
A team of engineers
from Game Creek occupy the engineering room and make sure everything works right.
If a problem crops up inside the trailer, the EIC (engineer in charge) fixes
it and if something happens outside (say to a cable or camera) the ME (maintenance
engineer) goes out to make the necessary repairs. But these three people, the
truck driver, the EIC and the ME are the only Game Creek employees at the event.
Everybody else is either flown in by the network or hired locally. In this case,
the EIC was Ward Lindsey from Florida, and the ME was Mark “Oscar” Dennie from
New York. Tommy, the driver of course, is still from North Carolina where he
resided the last time we talked to him. We were amazed at how easy it was for
the crew of strangers (in some cases) to come together, in a trailer with equipment
that was not familiar to them, and be able to put together an awesome show.
Our hats go off to these folks for being true professionals.
During the games, all of the excitement (besides the game itself) is in the
production room of the trailer. In the video tape area of the production room,
the three operators watch a bank of over 50 monitors and make sure that everything
runs smooth. Each camera (at these games there were eight) has a tape machine
running, recording everything. It’s the tape operator’s job to run replays and
provide other video tape footage to the producer to use in the program. At the
other end of the room is the actual production area. In this area, the director
and producer, along with five assistants, pick camera shots, run graphics, and
do everything else needed to produce the program. On the back wall is another
50 monitors the crew closely watches while producing the show. There are also
several ports for plugging laptop computers into. These computers provide the
graphics for the program. One was running specifically to put the network’s
logo in the lower corner of the screen and another was being used to display
the graphic that depicts the batter’s count, the score, the outs and who’s on
base. Still another laptop plugs in and connects to the internet, accessing
the stats for every player in the game, which are then fed to the announcers
inside the stadium’s Press Box (and you thought that those guys just knew everything).
The rear section of the trailer houses all of the audio equipment. A technician
sits at a huge sound board (like the ones you see at music concerts) and makes
sure all the audio comes through clean and clear. Compared to all the other
rooms in the trailer, it was quiet back there – of course it has to be so he
can hear and adjust the audio as needed.
When first arriving at an event, Tommy coordinates with the venue’s “people”
and schedules what they call a “park and power”. At this time, its Tommy’s job
to maneuver his truck into the television compound, open up all the doors, set
up the steps, and plug in the trailer’s main power cables. At some of the older
arenas, which were designed and built before 75-foot tractor/trailer combinations
existed, it can take up to two hours to park the rig. And forget about using
mirrors. Any seasoned veteran knows that you never trust anyone – you only trust
yourself and your mirrors when backing. Tommy had to forget all that, because
it takes four people, standing outside at each corner of the truck with hand-held
radios, to guide the truck into some of the “more difficult” locations. After
the event, it’s Tommy’s job to check all the equipment in and make sure it all
gets put back in the trailer properly. Then it’s on to the next event – in this
case, after the last baseball game, Tommy packed up the truck and was off to
Baltimore to cover the 128th running of the Preakness Stakes horse race.
Game Creek boasts that
they have one of the youngest fleets in the industry, which currently includes
six digital production units, one analog unit, and six “B” units providing tape,
graphics and office space. The name of the company, as well as all of the units,
is named after a ski slope run in Colorado, as the owner Pat Sullivan and his
wife are avid snow skiers. At one time, Pat’s family owned the New England Patriots
football team. With just ten full-time drivers, Game Creek isn’t the largest
television production company out there, but they are certainly one of the best
– and growing at a steady pace. Not only do they cover baseball and other sporting
events, but lately they’ve branched out to other forms of entertainment. They
recently covered a live Rolling Stones concert, broadcast from Madison Square
Gardens in New York, and Celine Dion’s opening night concert in Las Vegas. But
the largest event they cover each year is the National Spelling Bee in Washington
D.C. Believe it or not, this is ESPN’s highest rated show of the year – and
Tommy’s truck supplies the feed.
Tommy says it isn’t easy going from a show truck to a plain truck, but it didn’t
take him long to adjust. As far as he’s concerned, this is his last job. At
56, he has a lot of driving still in him but he doesn’t want to drive until
he dies. He works about twenty days a month and spends the other ten at home
with Jane. Unlike running freight (or cars in his case), this trucking job is
more like a regular job – and Tommy likes that. He gets to have a life outside
of the truck, which is something most long-haulers can’t imagine. Tommy likes
interacting with the different people at each event and takes pride in the fact
that he’s an honest, upstanding guy. He treats people the way he’d like to be
treated (ah, the Golden Rule) and feels he is better off because of it.
Tommy is grateful to Game Creek for giving him the opportunity to change careers.
He never thought he would stop being an owner operator and leave Intercity Lines,
but here he is, just a few years later, driving a company truck and loving it.
And as much as Jane loved driving, she is enjoying being home and having some
roots. I guess there is a “fun” side to trucking. And if you get an opportunity
like Tommy did, you too might someday graduate up to a more exciting form of
trucking. You know what they say about the second time around? It’s much better
once you know what you’re really doing!