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 Kyle
Hamm is the Chief Photographer for KOCO. Kyle has been storm chasing for almost
20 years. Kyle enjoys the thrill of chasing and
knows the thrill of getting a tornado live on the air.
During severe weather Kyle is coordinating crews in the field, and directing
operations.
 Chris
Lee has been storm chasing the plains before it was the thing to do. Chris has
been storm chasing for more than 25 years. He is responsible for many of the
techniques used world wide for storm chasing. Chris is an EMMY ® award winning
photojournalist. Chris enjoys all aspects of storm chasing. Enjoying the severe
thunderstorms, and sunsets alike.
Rob Hedrick's
passion for storm chasing is as intense as his up-front personality. His
self-taught tornado chasing, and forecasting skills are the key to his success
as a storm chaser, and photojournalist. Rob’s life revolves around news and
weather, from chasing tornadoes, to shooting a beautiful sunset at the end of
the day. Rob enjoys all aspects of his job as a photojournalist, and the
high-energy environment of television news. Rob is quick to point out that
working long hours is part of television news, and a necessity for telling a
story well. Rob
has been interested in television from a very early age and his passion for Late
Breaking news and weather brought him to KOCO in the spring of 2002.
Rob is the architect of the FAST Video system used by KOCO. FAST Video
allows KOCO to minimize time-to-air on breaking news, and weather events.
Whether it is getting the scoop on the day’s news, telling a human-interest
story, you will find Rob traversing the plains in his customized explorer.
The Desire for knowledge led Rob to attend college in New York, and major
in theatre arts and film. He currently resides in Oklahoma City with his dog.
check
out his website: http://www.roberthedrick.com
 Jay
Beauchamp has been storm chasing for 5 years. Jay started in Oklahoma as an
award winning documentary film maker. He enjoys all aspects of being a
photojournalist. Jay knows the thrill of the chase, and is one of the few people
who have experienced storm chasing in a helicopter. Jay's career in television
started in TX. He then moved to Oklahoma and began storm chasing. Jay came to
KOCO in the spring of 2000.
 Growing
up in Oklahoma City, Chad Bradley has been fascinated with severe weather since
childhood. Chad has been chasing storms since he was 16 years old and has
worked for KOCO since March of 1995. His most memorable tornado occurred near
Hoover, Texas on June 8, 1995 - the same day that Pampa, Texas was struck
by an F-5 tornado. Chad's full time job is with the State of Oklahoma.
George has been actively involved with spotting
and chasing severe weather here in Oklahoma and throughout the Southern Plains
for the past 19 years. As a professional storm chaser weather has to be a
passion and with George it is. He first got involved with severe weather after
joining the local civil defense in his home town of Perkins, Oklahoma when he
was just a junior in high school and has been hooked ever since.
Some of his accomplishments over the years
helping report and track severe weather in the effort to save lives during some
of Oklahoma’s worst days like June 13th 1998, May 3rd
1999, October 9th 2001 and May 8th 2003; have been used in
training others about the effects and dangers of severe weather and how to stay
safe during these disastrous events. He has been with KOCO-TV News Channel 5
First Alert Storm Team for the past 9 years and is also a police officer with a
local agency here in central Oklahoma.
George’s other passions in life are being a
loving father to his 3 amazing children as well as promoting and racing cross
country motocross here in Oklahoma.
Jack Quirk began his career in
video as a youngster idly tagging along with his father to local and national
news events. As the son of NBC news photographer, John Quirk, Jack gained
valuable experience in camera techniques and visual story telling. He went on to work for an NBC affiliate on the east coast before establishing his
own business. As event planner and videographer for a highly successful real
estate auction house, he was responsible for all areas of media preparation for
multimillion dollar contracts with private and government agencies. He left the
real estate industry to expand his skills and talents in video, and thereby
established KJ Productions.
In addition to contract
projects, he does freelance work for CNN and a local ABC affiliate, and his
footage has aired on national television news several times, most recently for
coverage of reaction to the Terry Nichols trial verdict.
 Chris
Caldwell grew up south of Ponca City in the Bressie Community which happens to
be where he saw his first tornado 7 years after moving away from the area.
On his way to Tulsa while driving for UPS Chris saw a mile wide F4 tornado hit a
mobile home that had the highest recorded wind speeds ever up until that time.
Since then the F5 tornado from Moore on May 3rd, 1999 is the only wind speeds to
surpass the ones from the Red Rock tornado of 1991 that Chris witnessed
firsthand that night. Chris also saw in excess of 15 funnels that night along
the Cimarron Turnpike and then had a tornado illuminated by lightning that was
just 1/4th of a mile in front of him around the Hallet area which forced him to
abandon his vehicle.
Chris became more and more interested in weather in general after that night of
tornadoes and destruction and he started reading everything he could on weather
and attending classes put on by the National Weather Service and other
organizations. Chris has been providing KOCO 5 with weather images and video
since 2002 and became a member of the KOCO First Alert Storm team shortly
thereafter. In addition to weather coverage, Chris also provides KOCO with news
and sports from all over Northern Oklahoma for the most part but has traveled
all over the state as well covering everything from wild fires to man hunts and
auto accidents. You may have seen his customized storm chase vehicle in and
around Kay County as well as other areas around the state.
Chris focused his interest on journalism during both high school and college and
was employed by UPS for over 10 years. Chris currently resides in Ponca City
with his wife Shelli and has 3 daughters, Sabrina, Kayla, and Kelsey, one son,
Michael, and 2 grandsons, Kaden and Kaje.
Chris also maintains a website dedicated to weather and it can be seen at www.poncacityweather.com.
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