Camped out in the parking lot at Jack Trice Stadium, WHO-TV, channel 13 in Ames, has been broadcasting from an RV all week leading up to Saturday’s Iowa State-Iowa football game.

“We shot some good stuff [and] we are proud of getting the student body involved here at Iowa State,” WHO sports reporter Andy Fales said. “The reason we do this is because it is a game of extraordinary magnitude. In 2001, during Thanksgiving weekend, it was a special game because the game was bumped to the end of the year and both teams needed a win to become bowl-eligible. It was just a huge hit so we have been forced to do it every year since.”

Tuesday night’s broadcast featured ISU men’s basketball player Jake Sullivan in a hot tub shooting at a nearby basket, surrounded by sections of the ISU marching band and flagline. Every time Sullivan — an 89 percent free throw shooter — sank a shot, the band would play the “First Down” riff.

“I probably shot over a hundred shots in the hot tub,” Sullivan said. “I think I was more nervous trying to make my first few shots for the camera than I am in a regular game.”

Students, coaches and fans are asked to attend the tapings, held around 10 p.m. just south of Jack Trice Stadium, and promote school spirit. One of the students who attended Tuesday was John Kauffman, senior in marketing and a Daily correspondent. The marching band drum major said he likes to showcase his school spirit.

“We were out here last year and as a surprise we ended up being on their Friday night newscast the whole time,” Kauffman said. “I want everyone to come out and support the Cyclones, we do our part to help build the atmosphere within the stadium, so we need that same support out here tonight to support the team.”

WHO sports director Keith Murphy said it is something everyone should experience.

“It’s fun, and that is all that we are trying to get across,” he said. “The best [part] of college athletics is the students and the fans who enjoy themselves and have fun. It really invigorates me because sometimes when I am in the studio, so much happens in sports that is negative, so to get out here and remember that it is supposed to be fun helps me believe again.”

But, Fales said, sometimes the fun can go too far.

“I was joking around one night on the air and made a comment on the Cyclones uniforms, saying something like they reminded me of pistachios,” he said. “Two of the biggest athletes on the football team, offensive linemen Marcel Howard and Lorenzo White of Iowa State, decided to put the scare on me and showed up at my RV a few years ago. I thought that they were really pissed, but they came in and hauled me out of my RV, lifted me over their head and tossed me into the hot tub. I had no idea it was coming.”

Asked who he thought would win the game Saturday, Fales replied that Dan McCarney has some sort of “black magic” that he is able to work up for these Iowa games.

“I think for the last two years, Iowa has had the more talented team,” Fales said. “Being down 24—7 last year in Iowa City at halftime; I don’t know what he said in the locker room, but he should have bottled it up and sold it.”

So which city has the better gameday atmosphere?

“I think the atmosphere is a little better here in Ames,” Murphy said. “A lot of students, coaches and athletes watch us on a regular basis, so they understand what we are all about.”

Monday was their first show, and WHO will broadcast live every night through gameday. On Saturday morning the station’s reporters will go around to tailgaters.