CHICO ENTERPRISE-RECORD -- He got his start after transferring from Butte College — where his father Mark McKinnon taught English for many years — to San Francisco State, with the intention to join the music recording industry. But a chance encounter in a class there pushed him into the world of broadcast journalism, when what he called a “random conversation” got him a contact with the Golden State Warriors and an internship.
”I started being a camera operator’s assistant at the beginning,” he said.
He then advanced to work as a video engineer, later specializing in technical aspects of cameras and ”making them look good for television broadcasts.”
”All of a sudden I went from growing up in the foothills of Paradise, to being in the NBA court and watching my heroes 10 feet away from me. I got addicted to that feeling; I felt I was able to be doing something bigger than I was able to.”