Tuesday, June 23, 2009

From pulling teeth to kicking butt!

Let me preface this post by saying this blog is about life in a newsroom on a news desk. Hopefully interesting and entertaining and truthful to everyone and anyone who chooses to read it.

Everyday can not be sunshine and roses and dancing and singing.

No one's job, life, or surroundings are like that 24/7.

So as not to get ambushed by anyone saying, "there goes Danielle with a salty attitude!" For the record, having a salty attitude is not in my vocabulary nor in my actions.

I LOVE what I do, where I do it and frankly give 200 percent every single minute of every single day whether anyone wants to truly admit how much I contribute or not!

I report the facts and respect the truth.

And honestly, the start of today's work day was like pulling teeth. I don't want to lie to you. I kept a smile on my face and my chin up and morale in the newsroom buzzing along! I was humming and singing! But, let me set the stage. At least a dozen times, I had to 'find' someone. Trying to 'locate' staff members took away from my first 2 hours doing what I really needed to do.

Now, normally when I come to work, I come to work --to work!

Thank God I had Sarah the intern. She was able to log the competition, answer phones and type up fact sheets while I tracked down those trying to elude the desk!

So, yes, I won't lie. The 1st couple hours were a bit exasperating.

But, with my attitude and take charge mentality, I was not gonna let that get me down one bit. We kicked a little booty.

Mobilized crews as best we could on the best stories of the day.

Honestly, having an intern for part of my shift, I was able to assist the web folks on attaching video to the web and writing stories throughout my entire shift. Great feeling!

Then, Dick Russ, being the Fugitive of the Week guru, received the big call that the Mansfield sex offender who took 4-year-old Haylee had been caught in San Diego. We were all over this story. We were in contact with San Diego. Dick Russ wrote the web story from home. And CNN managed to get a sat truck to the press conference with U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott, which we took in live for our news broadcasts...great start to, what should prove to be, a big story over the next few days!

We always strive to get more than the competition and that little niche that others may not effort. We were able to get some good video for Sports Anchor extraordinaire, Jim Donovan, of Asdrubal Cabrera playing for the Akron Aeros as well as Aaron Laffey pitching for Akron. It's those little stories and added effort that puts us a step ahead of the others.....Comparing Jim's sportscast to all the other stations --no comparison!

And then Senior Political Reporter, Tom Beres, and his crew Mark Smilor were all over the Recall Election of Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic. Web Reporter Kim Wendel was updating the web as fast as Tom was calling in the results.....

A great team effort from everyone Tuesday! And, it showed in the live broadcast.

Again, when the day does not begin on a good note, never let it get you down. I find it always works itself out and usually winds up being one heck of a blockbuster day!!!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Dani,
Thank you so much for your efforts with the Haylee/Fugitive of the Week story. The sound from that press conference was crucial tot he story and everone else was on it, too. So thank you thank you!! And seeing someone with a positive attitude in a frustrating work enviroment is so refreshing and a great reminder to stay true to yourself.
Have a great morning and thanks for helping us start ours off right!

Erin~