PINE HILLS, Fla. – News 6 anchor Matt Austin will soon be leading a small crew to Pine Hills with one mission: to solve someone’s problem, hopefully that day!
Austin and the team will head to a random spot in the Pine Hills neighborhood on Wednesday, Oct. 9, to seek out someone in need of help.
But what will that problem be? Well, that’s what the team is planning to find out.
During the trip, the team will approach people in the community to see whether they have any problems that can be addressed. If so, the News 6 team will do whatever they can to find the solution.
Ahead of that, Austin sat down to answer some questions about what viewers — and Austin himself — can expect from the project.
Q1: Tell us a little bit about this project you’re doing next week.
“We had a crazy idea. We pride ourselves on getting results. That’s what we do. So we decided: how could we push the limits of that? What if we randomly get results for someone that day?
The news tends to be slow. Some of our stories can — it can take a couple of weeks to put them together. Many of them are day-of, but it takes a long time to get results. In this case, we want to see if we can go out randomly, find someone, get results for them. Maybe it gets all fixed that day. Maybe it’s a little messier, and it takes a little while, and we follow along.
The goal is to have a process that is documented throughout the day, online and on broadcast. It’s going to be complicated. Nobody’s done things like this before, but we’re excited.”
News 6 Anchor Matt Austin
Q2: Walk us through it. What’s that day going to look like?
“We’re going to go out to an undisclosed location (at this point), and we’re going to meet people with a camera. And I’m going to go up to them, and I’m going to ask, ‘How can I get results for you today?’
If they don’t need anything — maybe they say they’re good. ‘Was there anybody in your family who needs something? Is there anybody around here?’ We’re gonna hunt down.
My goal that day is to find a problem and help somebody fix that problem. Now, what does that mean? I have no idea. That’s the terrifying thing — and the exciting thing.”
News 6 Anchor Matt Austin
Q3: Is there a timeline for this? Are you planning to do this all in one day?
“It’s one day. I’m gonna go in the morning, and we’re gonna go to this place. We’ve got a team of people. We’ve got people who can research. I have a small amount of money dedicated to this from the station, and we’re just going to put the powerful WKMG to the test. Can we help somebody in about 12 hours?
We’re going to find out. I don’t know what the answer is. Maybe we won’t. Maybe we’ll fail and fall flat on our faces. But I think we’re going to be able to do this!”
News 6 Anchor Matt Austin
Q4: You seem pretty excited about this. Is that why you’re taking the lead?
“This is kind of my jam. I love when you go out to do a story and you’re worried that it’s not going to work out. It taps into my hunter-gatherer phase; it’s a good part of my brain.
You go out on the hunt. You don’t know what you’re going to get. Hopefully, at the end of the day, we have this big, beautiful prize where we help somebody out. And maybe helping this person out will lead to our viewers seeing how it happened. Maybe they’re struggling with the same issues, and maybe we can help them, as well.”
News 6 Anchor Matt Austin
Q5: What do you expect will happen?
“I don’t know. I could end up fixing something at somebody’s house. I could end up helping somebody with their relationship. If they’re having a problem with bills, we could help call the place. You know, I don’t know. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I don’t even know what to expect. I’m hesitant to (guess), expecting one thing, because I think it’s probably going to be way different.”
News 6 Anchor Matt Austin
Q6: Let’s say you can’t fix the problem in just one day. Will you call it quits or keep going?
“Do you think I would ever quit!? (Laughs)
Now, I am going to try like hell to make this happen in one day, but if for some reason I meet a problem that takes longer than that, we’re going to do everything we can. And then, we’re going to follow up and follow up until we get some sort of resolution.”
News 6 Anchor Matt Austin
Q7: While this is all going on, how can folks stay updated on what’s happening?
“We’re gonna have our own web page on ClickOrlando.com, where people can follow along with this. It is gonna be all over our social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram. It’ll be easy to follow — you can’t miss it!”
News 6 Anchor Matt Austin
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