The weekly video news program “The Loop” produced by the Ohio Department of Transportation recently celebrated its 10th anniversary; a media tool that helps the agency disseminate information visually to the public and internally to its workforce.
[Above image by the Ohio DOT]
Matt Bruning, press secretary for the Ohio DOT, recalled in an interview with the AASHTO Journal that the inspiration for The Loop came from the “News in 90” show created by Ohio DOT’s sister agency, the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
“When I came to Ohio DOT in February 2015, I saw that program and said to myself, ‘that’s cool; we should do something similar,’” he said. The idea suddenly took a step closer to reality when Kayla Blakeslee – who Bruning knew from his days in news radio – joined Ohio DOT a few months later.
“She had just moved to Columbus and applied for a job opening we had as a videographer,” he said. “We hired her and I showed her ‘News in 90,’ saying I’d like to do something similar. So, we filmed a pilot episode, sent it to our leadership, and they loved it.”
Initially, an episode of The Loop would drop every two weeks. “But it was so well received by our leadership that my boss challenged me to make it a weekly feature,” Bruning said. “So, ever since the first week of January 2016, it has been a weekly news feature.”
The Loop sources video and photos from the public information officers in all 12 of Ohio DOT’s districts, but with the hiring of videographers Colin Trubee and Ben Leeson – both of whom are licensed drone pilots – more of the video is also created by Bruning and his team directly.
“They really enhanced the production value of The Loop, giving it a more movie-like feel quality versus a news package,” Bruning said.
Typically, planning for each episode of The Loop occurs on a Thursday morning, with the “anchor portion” filmed on a Monday or Tuesday. Production and post-production occurs throughout the week, before the planning begins for a new episode, with episodes published on Friday morning.
Bruning himself has appeared in all 512 episodes on The Loop to date, sharing co-hosting duties first with Blakeslee, then with Emily Hanson, Erin McBride, and finally Renee DeFord for the last three years.
Dave Rose – now chief communications officer for Ohio DOT – originally handled filming duties for The Loop before stepping in front of the camera as the ubiquitous “Who Knew Guru” – which ended up becoming one of the program’s most popular features.
Bruning noted that the impact of The Loop has been felt in a variety of ways. For example, local PBS affiliates around the state include The Loop in their daily programing stream.
In another instance, one of the program’s stories highlighted an employee-built front loader attachment to help workers pile up salt more effectively in the agency’s Jackson County storage barn. Not long after airing that episode, another Ohio DOT garage on the other side of the state got in touch to find out how to construct a similar attachment for their salt barn storage needs.
“The only way they would ever have connected was through The Loop,” Bruning said. “That’s why it’s not just telling the story of Ohio DOT to the public and our workforce; it’s also a venue for sharing best practices that can be implemented by others.”
In the future, Bruning hopes to take The Loop on location more – something the program had to do for 12 straight weeks a few years back when its video studio underwent an overhaul.
“When we can get out of the studio and go where the story is, we can tell the story better,” he said.
“We are also looking to incorporate elements of The Loop in spin-off videos on social media as well. We are blessed with that ability to have a videographer and editor who can make that happen,” Bruning added. “Because a program like this would never work without a whole team behind it; the Ohio DOT headquarters communications team and district communication teams as well. We love having a communications tool of this caliber.”
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