No Football For Me

Tonight will be a first. I will not be a part of Football Friday. I've taken the day off. It will be the first time I've ever missed one. And that's over five seasons. You know I'm the senior Football Friday guy? That's kind of scary.

Day Two

Day two took us to the site of the very first meeting of Alabama and Auburn, February 22, 1893. It was then a park, it's now a parking lot in Birmingham.

Day One in T-Town

So we made our way down to Tuscaloosa to do Iron Bowl Stories. We'll be doing that the rest of the week, so you most likely won't see me on TV. Today, we stopped by my old apartment in Tuscaloosa. It's actually the place I lived the 5 months I worked at the station there. I should have knocked on the door, but didn't. I wonder if they ever fixed the deadbolt on that thing? It didn't work when I was there.

The other picture is at Coach Bryant's grave in Birmingham. We're going back to the grave tomorrow to finish up one of our stories. I'd never been there before. In fact, I've never seen a story done about his grave. I hope it turns out good. And the grave is very simple. No mention of him being the coach at Alabama. Just his name on a marker in a family plot.

Headed to Tuscaloosa

Brad Hood and myself are headed to Tuscaloosa tomorrow and Wednesday, possibily Thursday, to knock out some Iron Bowl stories so we don't have to worry about them in November. We plan on stopping in Birmingham and doing a story at Coach Bryant's grave. I've never seen anyone do a story about it and the people who come to visit.

And from the picture you can see it's true, if you're born in Alabama, you have to pick Bama or Auburn very early on.

Being a Reporter Has Some Perks

Some days you get to some half-way fun things. A plane crashed into Lake Guntersville this morning. The pilot's ok. The Alabama Marine Police took us out to get some video of the plane turned upside down. That's Rachel next to me in the picture. She works for another station. I believe it's in Tennessee or Kentucky or some place like that.

Another Dream

The night before last, I dreamed my cell phone was ringing. Last night I dreamed someone was knocking at my front door. Luckily this time when I woke up, I knew it was a dream. But what is my mind trying to tell me.? Why are things ringing? Why are there knocks at the door? I'm curious to see what tonight brings. Email?

Phone Calls in the Night

I'm sure like most of you, I hate it when the phone rings in the middle of the night. Because you can never go back to sleep afterward. Well it happened to me last night. I heard my cell phone ringing down stairs where it was on charge. I got out of bed, stumbled down the stairs. I walk over and no one had called. I dreamed my phone was ringing. That stinks.

Kids Count on the Road & in the Rearview Mirror

Kids Count On the Road on Sand Mountain is history. We had a very good turnout. It's always good to meet the people who are watching. To the woman who said she thought I would be taller, I'm sorry. I'm 6'2", but she said she just knew I was around 6'6'. She also said she named her son after me. Thanks.

I've included a picture of our news operations manager Keith Lowhorne. He says I never mention him on the blog, so there you go Keith.
There's also a picture of me with Dale Stallings from WQSB.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I talked on here awhile back about possibily joining the Air Force. Well, I now look like I've joined up. The woman who cuts my hair (I posted on here about her awhile back) is closed this weekend. But I needed a hair cut. So I had to go to Huntsville and get it cut. Well, she asked me how I wanted it cut. The truth is that I really don't know how my hair is cut. So I just said, well, I like it short. Well, lets just say, it is, as you can see. I don't like it. My hair looks like a mushroom.

Dentist

I had to go to the dentist this morning. It was just a cleaning, but that's never fun either. I've been having some pain between two teeth when I eat something sweet or drink something cold. The dentist thinks there's a small cavity in there, even though it won't show up on the x-rays.

So that means I've got to go back soon and go under the drill. Joy. Joy.

newschannelS 19???

I talked with my news director about this sometime back. But I got to thinking, maybe it's time for the name NewsChannel 19 to go away. Before I go on, I need to explain that changing a name is no easy task. It requires a lot of time and money.

But, in my opinion, NewsChannel 19 just doesn't say who we are anymore. WHNT is now much more than a Channel. In fact, we now have more than one Channel. We are on the internet. You can go online and read stories at your leisure. You can get the latest weather forecast, sports stories or read this blog. Or you can watch stories online. We now operate on two channels of the broadcast spectrum. Our analog channel is still on 19. Our digital channel is 59. And on that channel, you can see high defintion programming and also a 24-hour weather channel.

So maybe it's time we just become News 19. It's clear, it's simple and it says exactly who we are and what we do. News. But then again, people have gotten used to NewsChannel 19.

Sorry

It's been awhile since I've updated the blog. It's probably the longest I've gone with no new update. I'm afraid I might be running out of fresh material. Maybe I have writers block.

The stories we've been doing are predictable right now. They are hurricane connected. So there just hasn't been much work related things to tell.

I did produce the 5pm show on Tuesday. Reporting and producing are different. Producing the weekend, which I've done a good bit, is also different from producing on the weekdays. During the week you pretty much set the show up by putting the stories into the rundown. The reporters write most of the show. On the weekend, the producer usually writes the big chunk of the show.

I also had to booth produce the show. That basically means I'm in the control room during the show, making sure we stay on time and that everyone is where they're supposed to be, ready. I'm not sure how it happened, but Tuesday, just a few minutes into the show, we were already two minutes heavy. That's a bad thing. So I had to kill several stories and shorten weather to get us back on time. Somehow we managed to go out exactly right.

School Visit, Revisted

I found this picture in my email tonight. It was taken sometime in 2003. Brad and I had gone to speak to kids at Geraldine. One of the kids had asked me, what kind of shampoo I use.

The News Cycle-Not Exactly Round

News is a funny thing. I don't mean the content itself, just the process. What's big news one day, is nothing the next.

Right now hurricane stories are the dominate subject on local and national news. Do you remember what the big story was two weeks ago? It was Iraq. The national news was leading off their shows every night with the escalating violence in Iraq.

Did the violence suddenly stop? I don't know about you, but I've heard very little out of Iraq. There was the stampede that killed several hundred people. But what happened to the daily attacks. Are they still going on? I have no idea.

Oh, and what about all of those shark attacks. There was a period there when all we heard was shark attack this and shark attack that.

What about Natalie Holloway? The three guys her mom suspects were released from jail. It got almost no play.

Give it a another two weeks, and the hurricane will begin to start slipping from the front pages and the top story. It's all a part of the news cycle and our attention spans.

Too Little, or Too Much? Make Up Your Mind

All last week I heard how the Federal Government was too slow in getting enough troops into New Orleans. Not two minutes ago, I saw a story from NBC News with people complaining that there could be too many troops in New Orleans. They're afraid it could cause accidents.

That's the kind of reporting I hate. Reporters who try to dig up something negative no matter what's going on. Last week, not enough troops. This week, too many.

We sure are a fickle bunch aren't we? So hard to please.

Odds and Ends

I really don't have anything to talk about today. There's not much going on here locally. All of the attention is of course on the Hurricane damaged areas.

I have to work tomorrow on Labor Day. That's fine with me, because it means I can take that day some other time, at my choosing. Tuesday, I will be out of the reporting ranks. Instead, I will be producing our 5pm show. I've produced the 6 once, but never the weekday five. That will break the week up pretty good. Monday we will just have one early newscast, the 6, because of the MDA telethon.

Speaking of the telethon, I will probably go over tonight and be there when it starts at 8pm. I believe Jason Marks and I are going to help answer the phones. So give me a call and make a donation.

These are pictures of the trip I mention in the post below. We got to Jackson just after 1am. The unloading of the U-haul began. There was just about anything you can think of in that truck.

Scott Thigpen is on the right. He goes to Church at Christ United Methodist. He let Jason and me sleep at his house, in rooms normally used by his own children. That was pretty nice seeing as how we were both strangers. 

Gas was a major issue. There was almost none to be found in Jackson. The other Aderholt group had a few cans of gas. So Jason Harper, who I rode over with, put those in. We ended up parking the truck at a station we were pretty sure had gas. We left it there, then Mr. Thigpen took us back to the station at 5:30 in the morning. It opened at 6 and we were able to get gas.

A Trip to Miss, the State that Is.

Last night around 7pm, I got a call. The caller, Jason Harper from Congressman Robert Aderholts office, asked if I would like to ride with him to take hurricane relief supplies to Jackson, Mississippi. He along with another field representative, were taking u-hauls full of supplies to the capital city of the state.

So after thinking about it for a second, I decided to go. I didn't have to come into work until 1:30 this afternoon, so I said why not. You'll see pictures of the trip, tonight at 5.

More Insanity

I just saw on Fox News, where there are armed gangs roaming the streets of New Orleans at night. People are taking shelter in a convention center and last night three people were murdered there. People staying there were also robbed and raped.

Are People Insane???

I heard this morning that the evacuation of the Superdome had to be stopped, because someone was shooting at the helicopters. Why? Why do you shoot at helicopters evacuating people?
I've never been to New Orleans, so I don't know what the people are like there. But so far, I'm not impressed. I can't begin to imagine the grief and turmoil they're going through, but is that a reason to sink to the depths of using a hurricane as an excuse to steal TV's or shoot at helicopters?