Tom Hawley’s workday: Up before sunrise and on a helipad
November 14, 2014 - 9:42 pm
On the rooftop above his second-floor office at KSNV-TV is where Tom Hawley usually begins his workday.
It’s a helipad.
He climbs aboard the NBC affiliate’s traffic helicopter well before sunrise to get the first look at what the day will bring. It’s something he’s done at Channel 3 for nearly 20 years, one of the longest -tenured television news reporters in the Las Vegas market.
His office is just a few blocks away from where he graduated from high school at Rancho High.
The models in his office are a giveaway to his passion for transportation — a high-speed-rail train, a magnetic-levitation vehicle, a streetcar and a Citizen Area Transit bus, the predecessor to the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada’s Ace and Deuce buses.
Although viewers identify with his daily observations of traffic in the valley and his researched historical reports from Channel 3’s video vault, most don’t get to see — or hear — his musical prowess.
The son of a professional Strip musician, Hawley once thought he was heading for a musical career but changed course while attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
He still gets to flex his musical muscles regularly, playing classical pieces on bass for the Henderson Symphony Orchestra or electric bass with the blues band Slim Henry &the Good ’Uns.
Question: What came first, broadcasting or flying?
Answer: Broadcasting actually came first, and that led to the flying because after graduating with a degree in communications, I tried to sell some local radio stations on traffic reporting in 1988 while I was working for a helicopter company. One of the stations I worked with was Channel 3, and I first did some work with them in 1989. I ended up working exclusively with Channel 3 in 1995. I was not hired to be a pilot when I was working at the helicopter company, and the pilots kept razzing me because I didn’t have a license. I eventually learned how to fly while I was there. I now have a helicopter pilot’s license, but I haven’t used it since the early ’90s. To fly solo again, I’d have to spend some time on some lessons.
Question: Describe your typical day on the job.
Answer: I roll in about 4:15 or 4:20 a.m. and I’m on the air by 4:30, so there’s not a lot of morning prep time. If there’s anything prepared, it’s done the day before. I’m on the air about 4:30 to 7. Typically, I’m in the studio from 4:30 to 6 and in the air from 6 to 7. Then I come back in and do a couple of “Today” show cut-ins. In the middle of the day, I’m flexible depending on what needs to be done. Sometimes, it’s a five-hour day, but sometimes, it’s a 12-hour day. I just need to be back here by about 3:30 for the 4 p.m. news and the 5 p.m. news and at the end of the 5, go home.
One place that I go several hours every week is at either the Nevada State Museum or the Las Vegas Library on Las Vegas Boulevard, just pulling archive stuff.
Question: You see traffic every day. Where do the worst tie-ups occur on a regular basis?
Answer: It’s fairly well-documented that on northbound (Interstate 15) from Sahara to Charleston is now a regular accident spot that seems to be an unintended consequence of widening I-15 several years ago and adding express lanes. There’s usually a big tie-up on northbound I-15 at the Spaghetti Bowl in the afternoon and southbound (U.S. Highway) 95 at the Spaghetti Bowl in the morning, especially because the recession threw everything behind and the long-term fixes have not been installed yet on the merger of 95 south to I-15 south.
Question: Describe your best day in the helicopter.
Answer: I like anytime when we do something different. I can’t tell you how many tens of thousands of times I’ve orbited this valley and people I meet say, “It must be so cool to fly over the valley every day.” It really loses its glamour after the 10,000th time. But anytime when we actually go somewhere we haven’t been before, like if there’s something big that takes us to Laughlin or Southern California, all of a sudden, it’s interesting again. One thing we haven’t done in a while is, if conditions are just right, we’ll land in the snow on top of Gass Peak. By conditions being just right, I mean we have to have fresh snow because it doesn’t last very long up there. We can’t go to Mount Charleston because it’s too high for us. So there has to be fresh snow and the clouds have to clear. That’s a wonderful day, to do a live shot in the snow on Gass Peak.
Question: How about your worst day?
Answer: Every once in a while, you have to cover really horrible stories, and so that’s sort of unpleasant, having to talk about carnage on the roadways. One that immediately jumps to mind was the shooting and taxi crash on Flamingo Road and the Strip.
Question: How do you deal with that?
Answer: Well, we’re physically separated in a way that reporters and photographers on the ground are not. It’s just very clinical. We’re reporting. We’re doing our job. You’re trying not to think about the personal aspect of what’s happening and I observe and report how what’s happening is affecting people in the area.
Question: How do you come up with your Video Vault selections?
Answer: Lots of different things. Sometimes people will send me ideas. Sometimes there will be an anniversary to tie in. Sometimes I will just randomly look through our archives and see what was happening 25 years ago and find something interesting. And sometimes, I just stumble across something. One of my favorite stories came when I was looking through the archive and saw a slug that said, “Playing on golf course.” I stopped and looked at it, and it looked like a scene from the movie “Casino.” There was a little kid that was interviewed named David Goldwater. Turns out it was the same David Goldwater that later served in the Nevada Assembly and became a lobbyist. I tracked him down and we ran 11-year-old David Goldwater and the current David Goldwater in the same spot on the golf course and tying it in with the movie “Casino.” People love to hear about the mob, so anytime you can tie in the mob and movies, people are going to watch.
Question: What is it about Las Vegas that keeps you here? You could probably move on and do this elsewhere.
Answer: I don’t know that I could. My biggest value to the station is my localness, especially since I’m no longer as young as when I first started. The very thing that makes me valuable to Channel 3 would do nothing whatsoever in another city. So I’m the local guy, along with Denise Rausch, who’s also local. I do love the city.
Question: Many people don’t know you’re a musician. Tell us about your musical career.
Answer: When I went to college, I hoped to become a musician, just like my dad. Music goes way back in my family. That would have been a nice place to go. But while I was in college, I discovered that I didn’t really have the disposition or patience to do the kind of practicing you need to do to become a high-level musician.
At the same time, on a lark, I was at the student radio station and found I had an aptitude for that. Somewhere midway through college, I switched majors from music to broadcasting. But I’ve always kept a toe in the water for music and always been in some sort of a group as an adult. I’ve got enough talent and training to be an OK musician, just not enough to be a professional like my dad.
Question: What’s your favorite genre?
Answer: I’m all over the road. I love classical music, but I also like jazz and rock, particularly jazz-rock hybrid. My all-time favorite group is the Dixie Dregs. They’re not around anymore. But I also like anything by Prokofiev. And anything by the Dixie Dregs.
Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.