- An Iowa sports reporter is going viral after he was reassigned to cover the arctic blast this week.
- Mark Woodley of KWWL grumpily endured subzero temperatures while live on air.
A local Iowa sports reporter who was reassigned to weather coverage amid an arctic blast this week made sure viewers at home knew just how unhappy he was about his new role.
Mark Woodley, a sports anchor and reporter at KWWL in Waterloo, Iowa, donned a grimace in tandem with his heavy winter gear as he begrudgingly endured subzero temperatures and blizzard conditions on air.
"I usually do sports; everything here is canceled for the next couple days, so what better time to ask the sports guy to come in about five hours earlier than he would normally wake up, go stand out in the wind and the snow and the cold and tell other people not to do the same," Woodley said.
A compilation of Woodley's crotchety coverage from the station's morning show was going viral Thursday after he posted a video on Twitter with the caption: "This is what you get when you ask the sports guy to come in to cover a blizzard in the morning show."
—Mark Woodley (@MarkWoodleyTV) December 22, 2022
The reel of zingers came from about 14 separate live shots Woodley did during Thursday morning's newscast, he told Insider.
Woodley, who said he was used to working the evening news shows, which are only 30 minutes and "generally inside," appeared to get grouchier as the hours-long morning show pressed on, much to his colleague's apparent entertainment.
"This is a really long show. Tune in for the next couple hours to watch me progressively get crankier and crankier," Woodley said.
Woodley told Insider he was reporting outside about 30 feet from the backdoor of KWWL's main station, so he, admittedly, had the chance to warm up between takes. But with the wind chill making the temperature feel like minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the moments spent outside were enough to render him cranky.
KWWL's weekday morning show starts at 4:30, and Woodley said he was in between the station and outside up until 8 a.m. local time.
"I didn't even realize there was a 3:30 also in the morning — until today," Woodley quipped on air.
At one point during his ordeal, Woodley seemed to quibble over his colleague's reassignment, which involved tracking the impending storm, presumably inside a warm vehicle.
"Clint got the better end of that deal — that thing's heated," Woodley said. "The outdoors currently is not heated."
The temperature outside, Woodley said, continued to decrease throughout the morning show, even as the sun slowly began to rise.
"I've got good news and bad news: The good news is I can still feel my face right now. The bad news is I kind of wish I couldn't," he said.
By the end, Woodley was pleading to return to his regular job.
"I'm pretty sure, Ryan, that you guys added an extra hour to this show just because somebody likes torturing me," he said.
Finally, in his last shot of the morning, with daylight having arrived, Woodley signed off.
"Live in Waterloo, for the last time this morning, thankfully," he said.
All jokes aside, Woodley said he wanted viewers to know that he took his job seriously.
"It's a pretty serious storm. We take it very seriously," he told Insider. "I want people to know it's not a complete joke to me. I kind of felt if I brought a little personality to it, people would pay attention."