The Best of Barney

Today Brad and I were brought into Huntsville to do two stories on the death of Don Knotts. Saturday from 7pm to 10pm the station will air a Best of Barney Marathon. People can go to whnt.com and pick their favorite from a choice of ten.

I was asked to pick the 10 episodes that people will choose from. It wasn't easy and I'm sure there will be people who aren't happy with my choices. My favorite, although it's not making the cut right now, is "A Black Day for Mayberry." It's the episode where a Gold shipment is coming through town. Barney blabs it to everyone, even though it's supposed to be a big secret. He ends up getting locked in the back of the gold truck. If you don't have a favorite, then go online and choose that one.

A Tough Story to Cover

Anytime you deal with death, it's always a very tough job. Of course no where near as tough as the family and friends of the person who has lost their life. Last night watching our 10pm news and the coverage of the two firemen in Lawrence County I also felt for Greg, Jerry and Amy. Also, Photographer Dion Hose, Sat Truck Operator Doug Southerland and producer Patrick Ary were behind the camera doing things that were also important.

I thought they did as good a job as you can do covering something so tragic. They were respectful by not showing anything morbid, but at the same time kept people informed. There were a lot of people watching our news last night, who weren't watching just to be watching. They became a part of it and I'm sure there were broken hearts in Fort Payne and Muscle Shoals, just like there were in Moulton.

That John Pearson is a funny guy

Tonight during sports, John says: This just in. No one is still not watching the Olympics.
Funny stuff.

It Depends on what the Defintion of Is, Is.

The defintion of Breaking News: Breaking or non-routine news is defined as hard, unplanned news that takes the newsroom by surprise, such as a plane crash or earthquake. Breaking news cannot be predicted. It is also news that is immediate, happening right now or within the past few minutes, up to an hour.

In the six years I've been at 19, I believe we've always used that as a general rule for breaking news. If there is a big story that happened several hours ago and we have new information we always say it's a developing story or there's new information. We would never take a story that happened in the early morning hours and still call it breaking news at 5pm that evening. What is breaking about it all those hours later? This July 20th, you might as well say, "Breaking News, man walked on the moon on this day in 1969."

Freezing in Ardmore

I got called into work yesterday. We went up to Ardmore to do a story on the weather and the lottery. It was about the coldest out there I've ever been. Just a bitter, down to the bone cold. Why can't we get a good snow? No ice. Who needs ice? Ice is to be put in your drink, not on the roads.

Montgomery

Tomorrow we go to Montgomery. It's an early day. We have to be there by 9am. So I'm not sure if I will have another update tomorrow or not.

It's the Most Depressing Time of the Year

January, February and March are just depressing months. I know that any month you're a live is a good time, but I think you know what I mean. These three months are so cold, barren and empty. Nothing happens in these months. The sun goes down early. You'd rather eat, than exercise. All the bills seem to come due this time of the year. It's just so much easier to get up and move during the other nine months of the year.

February is the shortest month, but for some reason it always seems the longest. It's just one of those months that drags and drags.

March is in some ways the worst month of the three. You are so close to warmer temperatures, but so far away. You'll get a nice warm day and then boom, that cold North wind comes roaring back to cut you down. I envy people who live near the equator during these times of the year.

April will be here soon though. I'll be glad to see her.

The Blog is Back

I'm going to be making every effort to update the blog everyday again. I will try to come up with more stuff. So check back soon.

These are pictures from outside my house on Brindlee Mountain. 

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Snow Coming Down

AM Radio

There is some strange stuff on the radio in the middle of the night. As I was driving to work this morning just before 4, I was scanning around on the AM dial. I came on some show where a woman was talking about the "UFO" that crashed in Roswell back in 1947. She was talking just like it was gospel fact that little alien men were pulled out of a craft there. Interesting stuff. I like AM radio.

No Snow, At Least Not This Morning

We were live this morning during the 6-8 show. Snow was expected to fall overnight and maybe create some problems in DeKalb and Jackson Counties. It didn't happen. Then later in the day the snow finally showed up. It must have snowed here at my house, but I didn't see it. I went outside and my car was covered. Snow can be sneaky.

Sorry

It's been so long since I updated the blog. I used to write something everyday. Now, just from time to time. It's a busy time right now. We are in ratings. When we are in a ratings month, it seems like things are always frantic. The good thing is that everyone is on staff.

I lost my voice over the weekend. I had to sit out Tuesday. I'm still not back to 100 percent, but I'm getting close.

Super Bowl in HD

I've heard that 31 is saying when they air the Superbowl in HD this Sunday it will be the first time the game has ever aired in HD to the Valley. That's interesting. I guess last year when Fox 54 aired the game in HD didn't count.

But to set the record straight, just in case it is true what I'm hearing, the Superbowl aired in HD to the valley for the first time on February 1, 2004 on WHNT. We were also the first commerical station in Huntsville to start broadcasting in HD in May of 2002.