Live from the Newsroom
Jun. 10th, 2008 09:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogRight. Yesterday. In addition to continuing my LiveJournal series on how to recognise different types of trees from quite a long way away, I had another mouthful of dental work done, drove around on the hottest day of the year in our oldest car with a history of overheating, and, for about 20 seconds, had my ugly mug on Rochester television. This was the day of my "ask-the-expert" call-in appearance on the station they now call 13-WHAM (it's a local thing, nothing to do with George Michael) but which I will forever remember as WOKR.
I always was a Channel 13 kinda guy when we lived there. I'd gone to Cornell with Kevin Williams, who started out as the weekend weatherman there before working his way around to the other two network affiliates; a high school friend of mine was a UR friend of his girlfriend (and now wife), so we kept in touch through most of my Rochester years. I never made it to the station, though, until yesterday.
I'd also never had a clue that its suburban 60s building started out life as a bowling alley. That explains why it's the size of an C-130 hangar but all on one floor. There's a youtube out there by some newsguy giving you a tour of the building in the early 90s. It takes a few minutes before it really gets fun. This older promo shows you about as much in under a minute:
::HORRIBLE 70S BAD HAIR WARNING::
Note the resemblance to Anchorman throughout, but especially at the 10-second mark. That particular leisure suit contains the now-legendary Don Alhart, who I also got to meet last night. Don's getting on in years; he does a live stand-up shot from the newsroom to tease the 6:00 top stories, and the teleprompter has a big sign on the bottom: "DON: DON'T FORGET YOUR MICROPHONE."
Hey. I lost my cell phone twice yesterday. Who am I to make fun?
----
We were "on" from 5 to 6. Me, my financial planner friend, three counselors from the local Consumer Credit operation, and an RIT professor who has made a career out of educating people about the dangers of debt.
From the ways the phones were ringing, there are a lot of them.
People with no income other than disability being harassed by collection agencies threatening to garnish their disability checks. (They can't.) People getting sued over loans from more than a decade ago. (They can't be, unless payments were made.) Lots of questions about credit reports and refinances. A world of hurt. And these are just the ones who got through.
----
I never got interviewed- Don and the other reporter made their live-mike passes while I was busy on the phone- but they did show our six-phone "bank" live on the air a few times. If anybody youtubed it, I will copy it, then seek a restraining order.
The Consumer Credit types were at a small table in front of us. Annie, the RIT guy, and I got put on a riser probably big enough for a sixth-grade trumpet player and his music stand, but not big enough for a table and a folding chair. Ray fall down and go boom more than once (not on the air, far as I know).
At the stroke of 6, they pulled the plugs on our phones and sent us on our ways. Only the RIT guy was still working patiently with a caller when I left. And I never did figure out where the pinsetting machine was.
I always was a Channel 13 kinda guy when we lived there. I'd gone to Cornell with Kevin Williams, who started out as the weekend weatherman there before working his way around to the other two network affiliates; a high school friend of mine was a UR friend of his girlfriend (and now wife), so we kept in touch through most of my Rochester years. I never made it to the station, though, until yesterday.
I'd also never had a clue that its suburban 60s building started out life as a bowling alley. That explains why it's the size of an C-130 hangar but all on one floor. There's a youtube out there by some newsguy giving you a tour of the building in the early 90s. It takes a few minutes before it really gets fun. This older promo shows you about as much in under a minute:
::HORRIBLE 70S BAD HAIR WARNING::
Note the resemblance to Anchorman throughout, but especially at the 10-second mark. That particular leisure suit contains the now-legendary Don Alhart, who I also got to meet last night. Don's getting on in years; he does a live stand-up shot from the newsroom to tease the 6:00 top stories, and the teleprompter has a big sign on the bottom: "DON: DON'T FORGET YOUR MICROPHONE."
Hey. I lost my cell phone twice yesterday. Who am I to make fun?
----
We were "on" from 5 to 6. Me, my financial planner friend, three counselors from the local Consumer Credit operation, and an RIT professor who has made a career out of educating people about the dangers of debt.
From the ways the phones were ringing, there are a lot of them.
People with no income other than disability being harassed by collection agencies threatening to garnish their disability checks. (They can't.) People getting sued over loans from more than a decade ago. (They can't be, unless payments were made.) Lots of questions about credit reports and refinances. A world of hurt. And these are just the ones who got through.
----
I never got interviewed- Don and the other reporter made their live-mike passes while I was busy on the phone- but they did show our six-phone "bank" live on the air a few times. If anybody youtubed it, I will copy it, then seek a restraining order.
The Consumer Credit types were at a small table in front of us. Annie, the RIT guy, and I got put on a riser probably big enough for a sixth-grade trumpet player and his music stand, but not big enough for a table and a folding chair. Ray fall down and go boom more than once (not on the air, far as I know).
At the stroke of 6, they pulled the plugs on our phones and sent us on our ways. Only the RIT guy was still working patiently with a caller when I left. And I never did figure out where the pinsetting machine was.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-10 03:11 pm (UTC)One of our local stations is in a former Catholic school and Knights of Columbus club. Before they built a new studio in the back, they used the gym as a studio (they still use it for telethons and such), and there was a swimming pool in the basement that later became a bowling alley. They ripped it out a few years ago and put an expanded newsroom down there.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-10 09:19 pm (UTC)and i LOVE it that you did this! people are terrified of the law, i have come to understand. they see legal process as a daunting, horrific maze wherein everyone is a monster and out to get them. simplifying things and helping people is a wonderful thing to do. i have a friend who volunteers at a legal clinic for low income folks and it makes me so happy to know there are attorneys out there who are like y'all. giving back is a nice thing.
(my attorney is yelling at some poor bastard at citibank, as we speak.)
no subject
Date: 2008-06-11 01:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-11 02:01 am (UTC)Now Ginny Ryan, on the other hand, is as drop-dead gawgis as in the days she and Kevin did the early-early morning show we used to wake up to. Also as nice in person as I remember her from the one or two times I met her downtown.
And the weekend of our wedding? Glenn Johnson was the third-string weekend weatherman for them, and he was moonlighting as the desk clerk at the Holidome when we were checking in my mother and sisters. I saw him in passing a couple of times last night but never got to share that memory with him.