CNN
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An Iowa sports reporter has gone viral for his vocal complaints after being asked to fill in for a weather reporter – during a snowstorm.
Mark Woodley, sports journalist at CNN affiliate KWWL, posted a video to Twitter on Thursday it brought together some of his grunts from his time as a weather reporter.
“I usually do sports, everything’s canceled here for the next two days,” a sarcastic Woodley said in the video, standing outside in snowy Waterloo, Iowa. “So what better time to ask the sportsman to come about five hours earlier than he would normally wake up, go stand in the wind, snow and cold, and tell others not to do even ?”
“I’m used to these evening shows that are only 30 minutes long, and usually these shows that I’m on,” he said in another segment. “It’s a really long show, so tune in for the next two hours to watch me get grumpier and grumpier.”
“Can I go back to my usual job? he grabbed at another moment. “I’m pretty sure you added an extra hour to this hour just because someone enjoys torturing me.”
Woodley said he “didn’t even realize” the channel had a 3:30 a.m. slot – and only found out he would be covering that slot the night before.
As a result, he only slept about three hours before being sent into the storm.
“Some of these things I probably wouldn’t have said if I had slept for eight hours,” he joked in an interview with CNN on Friday.
Woodley said his sarcastic remarks were “just a bit of who I am”.
“We cover these things every year, it’s the same thing, and I think sometimes viewers stop, and I thought if I brought a little attitude, viewers would pay attention,” a- he declared. “It’s a very severe storm,” he said, and stressed the importance of “making sure people know what they need to do to be safe.”
And luckily, Woodley’s managers approve of his on-air attitude.
“At least right now they’re okay,” he said. He explained that his flippant remarks were only a fraction of the time he spent on the air.
“It was my sister-in-law who said ‘you have to tweet that,'” he said. “I put it on Twitter, thinking 20-30 people are going to see this, my managers don’t care, it’s not going anywhere. Within hours I get these text messages like, ‘Dude, you’re going viral , Judd aApatow retweeted you”.
“It was crazy,” he added.
Woodley said the video “was a lot of fun” although there “was some truth to it”.
“I think all the journalists who did this meant to say it,” he said.
As for fan calls that he should switch from sports to weather? “It’s my absolute nightmare,” he said. “We’re a bit understaffed, like every newsroom in the country, which is why I was in this situation.
“I’m a team player,” he continued. “If asked, of course I will, but it would be my absolute nightmare. I hope to God they never ask me to do that again.
