BARRINGTON — An unseasonably cold chill had set in across the region and a light rain was expected within the hour, which meant Jim Hummel’s “B-role” video shoot at the corner of Forbes Street and Route 114 in East Providence was going to be quick.

He set up the camera tripod, attached the camera, checked the settings and started rolling. About 10 minutes later the shoot was over. With footage in hand he retreated to the inside of his car and turned on the engine.

The Barrington resident, a longtime fixture in local television and print news, knows how to cover a story and not freeze to death in the process. He has been covering Rhode Island news for 27 years — the first 14 as a copy editor and reporter at the Providence Journal and the last 13 as a television reporter at Channel 6.

Mr. Hummel, who grew up in town, left television news a little more than a year ago over ethical differences, and this month he launched an ambitious new venture called the Hummel Report.

The project melds a number of different media, including video, radio and online print. But maybe most important to Mr. Hummel is the fact that this new business approach will allow him the opportunity to continue doing what he loves: Reporting the news.

“I like the chase,” he said. “I like being on the street and chasing the story. I never really wanted to be an anchor.”

Mr. Hummel said he has always enjoyed the pursuit of the story, and he promises that the Hummel Report will provide audiences completely unique news coverage.

“It’s going to be stuff you can’t get anywhere else,” he said.

His premier report featured a police office from Woonsocket who had been collecting paid leave for 13 years reportedly due to work-related high blood pressure. The paid leave, an accumulation of salary, benefits, litigation costs and tax breaks, had cost Woonsocket taxpayers nearly $1 million. The Hummel Report website offers the video report, which runs a little more than 4 minutes.

The video footage, which is supplemented by an online link to the police contract for Woonsocket, is being heavily promoted by the radio station 630 WPRO, which is partnering with Mr. Hummel and Ocean State Policy Research Institute on the project.

The idea for the Hummel Report was born a few months after Mr. Hummel parted ways with Channel 6, where he had helped establish the investigative feature “You Paid for It.” The segment exposed corruption and waste funded with public money. As years passed, and as management changed at the station, Mr. Hummel grew weary of the station’s shifting approach toward coverage.

He opted to walk away and considered contacting another television station after a 3-month non-compete time period passed, but recognized the sour economy and staff reductions throughout the market.

Mr. Hummel spoke with William Felkner, the founder and president of Ocean State Policy Research Institute (OSPRI), a nonprofit foundation that promotes “free-market ideals.” The two began brainstorming other ways for Mr. Hummel to continue covering corruption in this state from outside the regular media outlets.

While having lunch with another associate, Mr. Hummel began pulling all the pieces together. The idea was to do television journalism, following an approach similar to “You Paid for It,” with built-in on-air promotions from WPRO. The Hummel Report website is also linked from the radio station’s site, although they function completely separate from one another.

The funding component allowing it all to happen includes corporate sponsorships/donations and individual tax-free contributions to the non-profit organization. Mr. Hummel and his company, Beyond the Sound Productions, Inc., function as a contractor. Fellow Barrington resident John Hazen White, Jr., founder of Look Out RI, partnered with Mr. Hummel and provided some of the seed money to get the project underway.

Mr. Hummel said donations to support his work began rolling in shortly after the Hummel Report website launched.

“Someone asked me if I expected to survive,” Mr. Hummel said. “Survive? I expect to thrive. I’ve got to make this work. I’ve got a family to feed.”

Mr. Hummel said his family — wife Wendy and twin 12-year-olds — have been great through his year-plus “sabbatical,” and time away from a day-to-day job afforded the reporter other opportunities, like helping coach his daughter’s softball team last spring.

“My wife calls me the activities director,” he said.

Now Mr. Hummel is looking forward to his newest challenge. He said there are some great stories he has been waiting to cover and he regularly receives calls from people pitching new ideas. He said not all his stories will be about crime and corruption ... “but a lot of them will.”

“I’m a little nervous, but this is something that could be really, really good,” he said.

See the report online

Barrington resident and veteran journalist Jim Hummel recently struck out on his own with the Hummel Report, which is modeled loosely after his “You Paid for It” segments. For more information about the Hummel Report check out the website www.hummelreport.com

Deep roots in town

Jim Hummel was born in Illinois but moved to Barrington at a very young age. His late father was president of Barrington College, which later became Zion Bible Institute. Mr. Hummel attended Barrington Public Schools through the ninth grade, then his family moved to Massachusetts. He attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and after graduating returned to the Ocean State for a copy editing job at the Providence Journal.