'Real' dress rehearsal

March has not disappointed! In a recent entry I sensed an exciting month ahead....and it's been absolutely nothing but action-packed!

On a personal note, I recently had a day off...yet work always seems to weave into the course of the day, even an off day.

During my day off, a very rainy day, I needed to drive over the Valleyview bridge not once, but twice! Holy cow. In light of the fatal accident just a few weeks ago, it is quite frightening driving over that bridge, let alone in a torrential rain storm. Even during off time, newsie events loom in the back of an assignment editor's mind!

I usually work every St. Patrick's Day --St. Pat's Day 2011 off the charts. OK, let me preface what I am about to say with this --I understand St. Paddy's Day can be crazy, zany, with thousands of obnoxious drunk people everywhere. But for some reason, 2011 stepped it up a few notches. I can not believe the constant calls on the scanners for public intoxication, people just laying in the streets passed out, broken limb calls, and then shortly before 6pm, a massive fight broke out in front of Tower City. A Cleveland Police officer broke his foot as patrol cars from everywhere zoomed to Public Square.

We were in the thick of things but honestly, it actually sounded much worse than it was....at the time, it seemed it could go either way and balloon into something much worse. After the fact, it was a typical St. Patrick's Day melee.

Closing out the week with a bang! OSU vs UTSA at Quicken Loans Arena! OSU blew the covers off this game winning 75-46. And with all of the NCAA festivities in town, wkyc took the Friday 11pm show on the road. Romona has been ill much of the week with an awful virus. (Sidebar --the news desk has been receiving call after call all week long asking where Ro is --she's just been sick everyone!! She will be back very soon!!)....

So the new 7pm team of Robin Swoboda, Chris Tye, Jim Donovan, and Betsy Kling had a 'real' dress rehearsal leading up to Monday's 7pm debut. Robin anchored from the studio as Chris Tye, Jim Donovan, and Jennifer Lindgren were all live outside Q Arena for various OSU /Sports stories. Add in Betsy and Maureen back in studio and you have a blockbuster show! The 11pm news rocked big time. It was so fun to watch and be a part of the entire production.

Perfect end to what has been a pretty perfect week so far......

Be sure you get outside this weekend to witness the Superbig Moon! A big end to what has been an enormously successful week!

Time to make the paczkis

Looking ahead into the wkyc crystal ball during the month of March and beyond should prove to be quite exciting!

Not only are we approaching March Madness, always an exhilarating time of the year, but I'm seeing more and more STO people roaming around the building as Spring Training winds down leading up to Cleveland Indians' Opening Day on April 1, 2011.

The time change always perks people up as the days begin getting longer and longer....

Spring is right around the corner.

And a transformation for our 7pm show as Robin Swoboda and Chris Tye take the helm with some wonderful new ideas and segments....

A few days ago many celebrated Fat Tuesday --a precursor for Ash Wednesday and the Lenten Season.

But Fat Tuesday also means something else: Paczkis!

Personally, I prefer the plain, empty paczkis (which I guess are more like fried dough!)....the authentic New Orleans beignets are magnificent!

In honor of Paczki Day, we sent Betsy Kling out to whip up some tasty treats.....and she came back with a whole slew of authentic eats she made with her own hands! Delicious!

W 83rd house explosion

Nothing gets the juices flowing and the heart pounding more than walking into work, tuning into the scanners for just a few minutes and hearing a house explode into a million pieces.

The only other thing may be swiping your entry key card and it has been CANCELLED!!

Thank God that has not happened yet!

So went the chaotic house explosion day. A house had exploded on West 83rd Street in Cleveland, Ohio. The main house in question was gone. There were numerous other houses and buildings affected in the neighborhood.

We were on it. Believe it or not, the emergency units called to the scene were not screaming or frazzled, at least not while speaking on the scanners.

But I heard where they were responding, sent Dave Summers and Mike Leonard...Dan Medsker in his live truck...and then Chris Tye and Chris Kunz to double team this breaking news story.

Dave Summers covered what we call the 'nuts and bolts' which means he attacked the story that was happening as it happened and continued gathering updated facts throughout the night.

Chris Tye, on the other hand, focused on the neighborhood and the people who were affected by this awful occurrence.

We had it up on the wkyc.com in not time, tweeted it, teased the heck out of it......we were on the top of our game from beginning to end.

Again, it's great to know your contacts so well that you can call them on their cell phones and get the skinny. That's what we did with the Fire PIO guy as well as the Media Rep from Dominion East Ohio.

It's nice when you know about something way before the viewer calls start rolling in.....when our viewers began asking what happened and where, I could tell them. Most of the viewers calling in either felt the boom or heard the noise.

I called my niece, who lives blocks and blocks away but you can never be too sure. She and the dogs were fine and nothing in her house was smashed, broken or destroyed.

This is the 2nd Monday in a row where we had breaking news right off the bat. Last Monday we had a plane crash in Lorain County. Today, a house explode. I'm ok with not having ANYTHING disastrous happen next Monday!

Not gonna let 'em get me down--EVER!

From the minute I awoke, the gods were not smiling on me.

Everyone was saying, 'it can't get any worse,' yet it did.

Usually on these days which have misfortune sprinkled about, I check my baggage at the door before I walk into work. Come on, no matter how awful my day, there is always someone else in Cleveland, in my family, in the building or in another part of the world who is having a much worse day.

My boss imparts wise words of wisdom: 'if you are up, everyone else will be up and if you are down, you bring down the room'--basically telling me to 'put on a happy face!'

And most days I do!


I am a very upbeat person. I'm the girl who leads the cheers, helps anyone who needs help, rallies the troops, comes up with solutions for impossible conundrums, and jokes when the tension is thickest. Most days I DO check my baggage at the gate.


Not today. It was an awful work day. And, what made it more frustrating is that NONE of the crap happened on my watch. I did not cause any of it. But, I had to handle it.

I made a call to make sure I could salvage a story. To make matters worse, the police dispatcher for this particular city (who shall remain nameless) was, well suffice it to say, NOT A VERY NICE PERSON!

I could not log on the computer.

I had one of those head aches that causes one to vomit. Sorry, I know that's graphic, but that's how I felt and what I did!

Once the computer made up its mind to let me in, the information center started rolling and never stopped....

There was quite a bit of "stuff" that got lopped on my lap the FIRST 10 minutes of my shift including:

• Westlake dashcam/audio tapes
• Parma Hts fatal fire
• Brunswick fire (turned out to be a truck into a store)
• tracking down Westlake shooting vigil details
• Bonna shooting arrest and mug shot disseminated
• Alliance dead body update
• FOW interview subject arriving in the front lobby to my surprise
• Jory Aebly family statement and Wall of Hope details
• Peyton Moodt developments
• staying up-to-date on the missing boaters /local survivor

This is my job. This is what I do. And I'm told I do it well, though there are many days and times I make mistakes. I'm not perfect. And, to boot, I LOVE doing it! I was cranking out information, putting pictures into avid pics, circulating updates, and so much more.

Ironically, a compliment only added fuel to the fire. On any other day, it would have been taken in the proper spirit. I received a very nice commendation from someone who congratulated me. He said, 'you are totally firing on all pistons today! Nice work!' Absolutely wonderful praise!

Sounds great, huh? It is a TREMENDOUS compliment. But, this is what I do everyday. THIS IS HOW I ROLL. I fire on all pistons every day. It's unfortunate that many tireless efforts sometimes get lost in the shuffle.

I am so blessed though. What I DO have going for me during my shift is a great group of co-workers who rock! I thank God for them every single day. We celebrate our great days, push each other to our limits on a daily basis, and help each other survive the dicey days. There are MANY and I do not mean to slight anyone by not mentioning someone....but the folks who really helped douse the flames TODAY included web folks Leigh and Marc.....editor Matt, the dynamic duo of Chris Tye and videographer Chris Kunz.....followed up by Dave Summers and videographer Mark Smilor......videographers Dan Medsker and Randy White.....Jess....fearless Director Frank.....Aaron the intern.....pinch-hitting Producer Carrie (in for the ailing Dan, who is a ROCK!)......and my MVP's who come through EVERY SINGLE DAY--Jim Donovan and Yak (thanks for the ice cream sandwich, you guys!!)....

My headache is gone, the other bodily unpleasantness spoken of before have ceased. Sounds of laughter began emanating throughout the room shortly after 730pm and we kicked a lot of booty! No matter what a struggle it was to get there, at the end of the day, I know the effort put forth by my peeps and really that is all that matters, isn't it!!!