One-man Band

Reporter, producer, cameraman Jorge Estevez rushes to keep up with the Bronx for News 12

Feature by
Ronald Gonzalez

Bronx Journal Staff Reporter

It’s just a bit after noon, and Jorge Estevez, a reporter for News 12, is due to take break. Estevez has been in the station’s studios since 3 A.M. reading the wire and thinking over stories he’ll tackle during the day. Now, in this very short moment, amidst the hum of computers, fax machines and telephones, he makes a call to his tax accountant and pops a peppermint in his mouth.

All of a sudden, fresh from the “field,” rookie news reporter Jessica Borg bursts through the door of the conference room where Estevez is taking a rest. She frantically storms in wearing a pair of unstylish, “off-the-air” boots, and rushes up to Estevez during his “time out.” Borg has only 35 minutes to edit a segment on a new public service announcement concerning police brutality and what reaction people have in the very same Bronx community where Amadou Diallo was shot. In that time, she’ll have to record her script, find the names of the people she spoke to, search for opinions (positive, negative and neutral) to balance her piece and create a video copy for her producer - all before a 1 P.M. broadcast. Frazzled, Borg wipes away her windblown hair and chews on her nails, pleading with Estevez, who promised to help her earlier that same morning.

Welcome to the grind at a 24-hour cable news channel. Estevez, 24, is part of a team of 40 full-time employees, including 3 anchors and 11 reporters that cover the entire borough. 

News 12 started on the air this past December. Its headquarters are at 930 Soundview Avenue, just off the Bruckner Expressway in Hunt’s Point.  There, the 24 hour local news channel produces and transmits stories focusing exclusively on the Bronx to Cablevision cable subscribers throughout the borough.

Although still a rookie, Estevez, who pronounces his first name just like the English “George” has the calm of a veteran now, just 9 months after he took the job. Despite the long hours, and breakneck pace, he seems to stay neatly groomed, keeping to his “on-the-air” personality, and never rumpling his requisite suit and perfect hair. Throughout the day, you hear spurts of his infectious laugh break moments of tedium there at the studio.

Estevez started out in the business as an intern for NBC’s Access Hollywood, moving up later to the post of a production assistant. “Reporting on Brad Pitt became boring,” he says.  Soon afterward, Estevez came to the decision that he needed to do “hard news.” He found work as a reporter with the Piscataway Community Television Center, a public access station in New Jersey, and five months later answered an ad for a reporter based in the Bronx.

He’s what you could call a natural news hound. “I am a ‘chismoso’ (a Cuban-ism for gossipmonger) and enjoy the job of telling stories,” he says. Estevez, whose parents are Cuban, was born and raised in West New York, New Jersey.  He graduated from Rutgers University, with dual major in Broadcast Journalism and Mass Communications. Still, he’s the first to admit that when he started at News 12, he had no experience with technical equipment or the geography of the “boogie-down Bronx.” “I quickly learned the Bronx by getting lost in it; I picked up how to work the camera by using it,” he says.

It helps that Estevez is a quick study. Reporters at News 12 are required to be “one-man bands,” as Estevez puts it. They are not only have to report on stories, but operate cameras and work as field producers arranging camera angles, interviews and lighting. “We at least have a car,” Estevez adds, offering up a hearty laugh.

That has opened Estevez up for his share of harrowing experiences. While reporting on a building that needed more security, “Half a dozen eggs were thrown at me by some one who was definitely annoyed by my presence,” Estevez recalls. Then there was the time he covered a story on a fight between a squeegee guy and a paper boy. The squeegee man pelted poor Estevez with a hail of bottles.

Estevez says he’s in the business because he feels he owes it to the Latin community. “I am Latino and we are a huge minority, we have to keep it going,” he says. Estevez thinks he can contribute by adding his own experiences to his work. And while News 12-The Bronx must cover the “unfortunate stories to stay competitive, we add a balance to our newscast,” Estevez is quick to point out. “Our viewers trust us to show that the Bronx is also a hometown,” he adds, stressing that the station’s philosophy is to show people what’s going on in their borough – not dictate to them. “Bronx residents are tired of being typecast as one dimensional by the network news,” Estevez says.

The young reporter’s day begins long before dawn, when he arrives at the newsroom, scans the newspapers and wire services, gives a call to the local police precinct – all in search of a story. By noon he not only must have a story, but has to have finished it and have it ready for newscast to meet his deadline. Although the news station and program is less than one year old, they are not short on experienced people or technology. Estevez says News 12 is one of the first stations in the country to be fully digitally computerized from cameras to the control room monitors and editing work stations.

This particular day, Estevez not only had to “package” his story, he had to lend a hand to a colleague. With the precision of a pro, he edited the audio and video components of Ms. Borg’s piece. Estevez gently scolded her as she broke into an occasional nervous outburst of laughter. Handing her the video package, so Borg can hand it over to her producer – five minutes before the broadcast - Estevez sighs and then smiles like a wily, old pro. “This never happened to me."