Somerset —

The name “Emmy” is instantly recognizable to any pop culture devotee as the highest award one can achieve in the area of television broadcasting. Now one Somerset High School alum has seven of them. David Brinkley, a 1986 graduate of the city school system, recently won three Emmy Awards for his work on a pair of PBS informational programs about what is surely Kentucky’s most majestic natural wonder, Mammoth Cave. Brinkley is senior producer and director at WKYU-TV, the public television affiliate associated with Western Kentucky University. He’s also an adjunct faculty member at the Bowling Green, Ky., school, teaching classes in the area of directing, field production, television writing and more. (He’s also co-founder and executive producer for the Hilltopper Sports Satellite Network.) Those skills came in quite handy with the Mammoth Cave project, a set of two different programs — one is the hour-long documentary, the other is a half-hour “behind-the-scenes” look at the making of the first film — with footage acquired over a 14-month period beginning in the fall of 2008. “The Mammoth Cave project was easily the most challenging of my career,” said Brinkley. “We had a team of students that assisted us each time we went underground.” This is the educator in Brinkley coming out; he noted that the experience will serve the students in the future. “That is another area of job satisfaction for us — teaching students while using practical experience,” he said. Going Deep The experience didn’t come easy. Brinkley called the technical challenges of shooting underground “endless.” Nearly as endless as the cave system itself, the world’s longest, with 367 miles explored and many more yet unseen by modern human eyes. “It was dark, very dark,” said Brinkley. “Electricity and light were sometimes non-existent. That is an issue with television. We sometimes spent several hours preparing an area of the cave for just a few seconds of usable video. However, this video is now digitally preserved for future generations.” Filming in high definition presented problems in the unique brand of clarity offered, making it so things the team was not used to seeing appeared on-screen. Several of the crew’s lights ran on battery power and an individual was responsible for timing the light usage to make sure that they could make it through the day. “An area of the cave with bats required lighting that produced no heat, which presented an interesting technical scenario,” said Brinkley. “We researched and used a new kind of LED lighting system for those shooting days.” The documentary “is really about all of the untold stories of the park,” described Brinkley, portraying stories of exploration and discovery beginning with Native Americans as far back as 10,000 years ago and ending with ongoing explorations with scientists today. “We were given access to all areas of the cave and park,” said Brinkley. “Several of the areas that we shot have not been seen by several of the Mammoth Cave National Park employees. It was an incredible journey for us.” The program was recently picked up by the National Educational Telecom-munications Association for nationwide distribution, and Brinkley is “very pleased” that viewers everywhere will now have the opportunity to see it. “It was fun journey for me personally,” he said. “Growing up in Somerset, I had been to Mammoth Cave a few times as a tourist and later produced a program from there early in my professional career but this type of in-depth production was completely different. The access that we were given was incredible. We had a new adventure almost every day.” Among the wondrous things Brinkley witnessed: underground waterfalls; “beautiful” gypsum and mineral deposits; pottery and mining tools; eyeless cavefish and crayfish; a bat hibernacula with hundreds and hundreds of bats; and even petrified “paleo-poop” (that is, prehistoric human feces). “I am not a fan of flying mammals but I tried to put that aside when I was standing a few inches from hundreds of them,” said Brinkley of the ever-present bats. “Thankfully, they were asleep.” Small Screen Success “Mammoth Cave: A Way to Wonder” debuted on October 4, 2009. A complementary piece to the six-episode Ken Burns film, “The National Parks: America's Best Idea,” is being marketed to other outlets across the country. What’s more, it and the behind-the-scenes accompanying piece were the first high definition programs on WKYU-PBS, making their production not only an accomplishment for Brinkley and crew but a historic one at that. The trio of peer-selected awards (four altogether for WKYU-TV) at the 46th Annual Ohio Valley Emmy Awards which took place in Columbus, Ohio make seven Emmys in the last four years for Brinkley. He received them in several categories but is most proud of the craft category awards for “Videography and Television Lighting,” and credits the creativity-edifying environment at WKYU-TV for the accomplishments “Those (videography and lighting awards) go back to fundamental effort,” said Brinkley. I believe in strong fundamentals. Knowing the fundamentals gives you time to work on the creative side of it. ... Being closely associated with such a great broadcasting school has lots of benefits.” Brinkley has enjoyed plenty of success in his career. After leaving Somerset, he attended the University of Kentucky, first on a music scholarship, then graduated with a degree in Telecommunications Science after realizing his love for television. “Television was, as still is, a powerful medium,” he said. “All of us retain imagery for a very long time. How we perceive ourselves is, in part, shaped by media outlets, and the media has a great responsibility to treat everyone with fairness.” Despite that fondness for the arts, it was sports that provided an avenue to the future for Brinkley, who got to work video for UK Athletics in the Rick Pitino (basketball) and Bill Curry (football) years. He moved on to work for KET (Kentucky Education Television) in Lexington (”KET was like a dream for me”), then did freelance work for ESPN, traveling 47 states for a decade for work on SportsCenter, College GameDay, Baseball Tonight, the Masters, and other prestigious sports events and programs. Brinkley operated the robotic crane camera known as a “jib arm,” and learned much about the television industry in the process. “It was all great, every minute of it,” he recalled. “It was my way to see the country.” However, Brinkley would come back to the Bluegrass in 1995, opening a field office for KET at Western Kentucky University, which grew into a permanent position and “the most rewarding and challenging job” Brinkley has had. “Throughout my time at WKU, we have done our best to continue to refine and establish the finest in local and regional television,” said Brinkley. We strive to positively influence the next generation of media professionals and make sure they understand the responsibility of mass media.” Local Roots That love of regional coverage began here in Pulaski County. Born in Louisville, Brinkley was adopted by Pulaskians George and Justine Brinkley and found the town a wonderful place to grow up. “I used to ride my bicycle all over town and feel completely safe,” said Brinkley. “I did not realize until I was an adult how good the schools are there. Our teachers were very dedicated to our success and I wish I had thanked them all.” And, with a verbal wink, Brinkley added, “And God loves the Briar Jumpers!” Many of Brinkley’s family members are familiar faces around town. His uncle Smith Vanhook served as Mayor of Somerset, and cousin Mark Wilson is the newly-named principal at Pulaski County High School. Brinkley has two children and a foster child with wife Jennifer, and finds great support in his family. He even found a way to get inspired about the big-city medium of television in this idyllic small-town environment. “I loved KET and everything about public television,” he said. “One of my early thrills was getting to meet Roger Tremaine, the audio engineer who used to say, ‘You are watching WKSO Channel 29 Somerset and translator 12-AY Barbourville.’ It may sound weird, but I was just fascinated with all things technically related to television. He even had the opportunity to run cameras in the First Baptist Church sanctuary while in junior high when the pace of worship began filming its services. However, similar opportunities were few and far between in the area. “I have always wished that Somerset had more media outlets,” he said. “The Commonwealth Journal, WSFC/WSEK, and TV-8 were pretty much it when I was growing up. Things have changed a bit but it is still a small media market. It is a shame that most of the television news comes out of Lexington, although there have been some efforts to include more stories from the area. “Thankfully, there is still a local paper,” he continued. “If a significant local media presence is not maintained, then everyone suffers in the long run. A personal goal of mine is to help facilitate more coverage for this area that is so dear to me.”