CBS Brings 3 Crews to Island for Yacht Race Coverage
By Leslie Rott

Television reporter Mark Malone on the patio of Iroquois Hotel.

An eager CBS affiliate from Chicago, WBBM Channel 2, brought in a boat crew, a plane crew, and a technical crew on the Island to cover the 97th Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac last weekend.

“It was a challenge and we wanted to do it,” said Jay Foot, the executive producer. Aside from the obvious challenges of coming to an island without cars, he noted that a major challenge for his crew was deciding the best way to cover an event with such a broad scope and audience.

Mr. Foot has worked for the Chicago station since 1989 and does not recall any major television news crew coming to Mackinac for race coverage. He said that for news crews in Chicago, the yacht race is a big local news event, but most do not travel farther than the Chicago area to cover it.

“The race to Mackinac is a big story and I would consider this to be a big project,” Mr. Foot said.

“This is one of the hardest shows to put together,” said producer Cathleen Karp. She described filming here to be a “logistical nightmare” and said that the crew had multiple plans, trying to be ready for anything, especially since no one knew how long the race would last. A month of planning beforehand went into doing the two-day shoot on Mackinac. Although they had filmed several features in Chicago, “This weekend was the big execution weekend,” Mr. Foot said.

The station sent Ms. Karp to Mackinac Island two weeks before the race to determine the best places to shoot footage. Mr. Foot said that he was impressed by the warm reception the crews received from Island officials and local residents.

Just before arriving on the Island, Mr. Foot told the Town Crier that he and his crew were “pumped and excited” to be coming, as only one of them had ever been to Mackinac before.

“It’s beautiful and it’s not your typical island experience,” he said. “Everything is clean and pretty and well kept.”

Despite logistical worries and then a slow start to the race, Ms. Karp said that the decision to come film on the Island was “absolutely worth it.”

“The Chicago Yacht Club and the people of this Island have been unbelievably helpful,” she said. “It’s enchanting and I love the fact that they’ve worked so hard to preserve antiquity.”

She described the Island as one of life's perfect kind of places. “I will definitely, definitely come back.”

Aside from the production team stationed on the Island, WBBM also had a team on the water to follow the race and one stationed at Navy Pier, in Chicago.

The one-hour commemorative segment will feature the Island, the Mackinac Bridge, and the race. It will be shown on WBBM Saturday, July 30, at 6 p.m. and Sunday, July 31, at 11:05 p.m. It is also scheduled to run locally on Saturday, August 13, from 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. on Channel 9/10 from Traverse City/Cadillac.