Fire scanner traffic: Box alarm to 1333 Lakeside

Flashbacks boldly flooded the memory bank to the time in the old building when we had a pretty bad fire--DURING the news!

Those memories all came rushing back Tuesday night as half a dozen fire units converged on the wkyc news complex shortly after the 11pm news for a call of smoke in the newsroom.

The smell began shortly before the 11pm news but everyone thought it was one of the many lights illuminated during our broadcasts. One is stationed at the turntable and 2 more back in sports.

After the news and Bob the engineer turned all the lights off, the smoke did not dissipate. In fact, the smoke began pouring out of a vent stationed in old web world near the News Director's office.

Our sports guys, who were SMOKIN' during the newscast with THE BEST CSU win coverage, actually spotted it first.

Bruce, the audio man, ran downstairs to the area directly under web world to see if something was on fire in the basement.

Our security guard called the fire department....was checking the area....and contacted the head engineer on duty.

Our cleaning guy also made checks around the building while other staffers did the same.

Producer Dan and I contacted our news director to pull her into the loop on what was happening......we told her of the problem....everyone was ok but we were suggesting they vacate the premises until we know the origin and extent.....

Dan and I waited out front as one by one, fire truck after fire truck, rolled up to the building. Over a dozen firefighters in full garb unloaded off of the trucks. As they entered the building, they all divided up --some going into the newsroom to the vent in question, while others went downstairs and yet others went upstairs.

There were a handful of firemen who remained outside until they heard otherwise from their battalion chief.

About 20 minutes into the mission, 2 trucks were released but the bulk of the men stayed on site.

There was not a sense of urgency and I went back inside to get an update and see how the overnight staffers were dealing with this dilemma.

The newsroom still smelled awful, yet no smoke or fire or anything. But, it was eerie because the floor felt very warm and the temperature in the newsroom (which is usually freezing) was quite elevated.

As of this writing I am told a fan motor burned up or malfunctioned and has since been removed. There is no more smoke in the newsroom and the morning show MUST GO ON!! I'm not sure if that is the definitive cause, yet I'm told this may have been the culprit causing quite the uproar in a portion of the building.

When I know more, you will know more. At this time, quite a big stink for what appears to be a minor incident, but you never know.

Thank you very much to all the Cleveland Firefighters and the Cleveland Fire Department for their swift response and assessment of the problem.

The story of my life: surrounded by dozens of firemen and their focus has to be elsewhere!!!!!

Gearing up for Station project

If you've seen the current promo airing on Channel 3, then you have an idea of the fervent atmosphere engulfing the newsroom, and really the entire station, the last number of weeks.

It's been exciting to assist in this project which involves all employees working together on one, single story.

I've actually done extensive leg work for this project and have submitted quite a bit of input --probably invisible to most, but all working toward the final result of this mammoth project.

A big thank you to all of my Facebook friends who REALLY came through! Thank you everyone for your invaluable input!!!!


Stay tuned, everyone, and join us Thursday during every newscast for priceless information that could save your life or the life of someone you know!

We bowled a spare

Living the previous 4 days, I had no idea what to expect.

It was Friday.

It was dress down day and I was going to dress down.

And something rare for me, I was actually chiming 'thank God it's Friday.' I never say that. I usually never have a week that wears me do so much I am counting the hours until quitting time.

Davon Crawford was still at large so I knew the day would be busy, action-packed, grueling, and maybe even at times, nerve wracking.

Driving home yesterday was quite eerie. Knowing a mass murderer was out there, I skedaddled into the house and quickly locked everything up. Chills up and down. It truly felt like a city on guard.

Little did I know, only an hour after my shift began today, the craziness would continue! It did. This was the day Davon Crawford would be found, take his own life and the 24-hour manhunt would come to an end.

Having more is not necessarily better.

Thursday night, we had (when all was said and done) 14 staffers working the shooting story (in the building and in the field) and 4 more available if needed, but honestly, those 4 contributed nothing to the progress of the shooting story, never touched it. Our impeccable communication chain helped us win!

Friday when I walked into the building, there were 24 people physically in the newsroom and editing and another 12-14 in the field. 38 people total. Honestly, at crunch time, having more staffers and more chiefs caused a bit of chaos. Multiple people were leading the charge calling crews in the field, calling reporters in the field. Literally running around the newsroom.

It's times like these when I have a plan, and it's usually very good, but I lay low because frankly, it's not worth contributing to the craziness and communication frenzy. I don't want to fight city hall!!

I made sure I personally kept in contact with my crews in the field so that I WAS IN THE LOOP!

I kept the usual doors of communication open with my producers, ej and sigac, and the control room while we were prepping for cut-ins.

I received a number of updates on the Davon Crawford case and disseminated them to the masses.

The ONLY good thing about having extra staffers (videographers mainly) was having the luxury to deploy them --Mike Greene & George Payamgis--with SWAT and the US Marshals. They were in the neighborhood when the raid went down and were on site within minutes. Both crews said they were 1st on the scene.

I'm proud to say the momentum on the story we absolutely owned Thursday night continued Friday afternoon and evening.....

It's quite conflicting getting 'excited' so to speak about such a tragic story. But being in the business we are in, the adrenalin flows as the action escalates. It's the nature of what we do. We have to report the news. We must gather facts, try to get them first, share the details before anyone else on air, web, and phone and do it all IMMEDIATELY.

I think we won this story. But again, using the term 'won' is inappropriate when 7 people were shot and 6 of them died.

This story is far from over and I certainly hope we do not drop it. There are at least 2 young children out there who must live with and deal with this horrific memory.

This was definitely a rough week. It began disastrously on Monday, but in the end I think we charged full steam ahead, rebounded, and wound up 'bowling a spare.'

Paradoxical day

This is the first chance I have had to sit down, take a deep breath, and recollect the events of Thursday, March 5, 2009.

Now, if I were a daily beat reporter for a paper....yea, my article would have been filed with minutes to spare!!

If you read my entry for last Monday, you know how my week began. Unfortunately, I must report it did not get much better.

Picture it, Cleveland, 2009. In the midst of a 'crappy week' (and remember, I am the glass totally full girl, so you know it must have been bad!).

I pull into work--the parking garage has cars triple parked in all directions. I go back out to the front lot, and our on-site manager says he has been told to save room for 30 clients. The lot only holds 15 or so. I double park out there, with his blessing.

What is happening?

I walk inside and feel like a stranger in a strange land. The green room has been transformed, cloaked and blocked off. I am being watched wherever I go and forbidden in some parts of the building.

Much to my surprise, Conan O'Brien is in the house.

Best kept secret. I had no clue. But I was not alone. Most night shift workers I asked were clueless as well as other fellow employees from various departments.

The standing joke in television, not just at Channel 3 and not just in Cleveland but all over America is, "for being in the communications business, television people are the WORST communicators" --and I just proved exhibit A!

It's really too bad all staffers were not informed. I work on a show that leads right into Conan's new gig and it would have been a thrill to meet him or at least get a glimpse of him.

Now, those fortunate to meet the man, the legend were walking on cloud nine. Good for them! But that jubilation would soon turn to horror.


I really did not have time for the bitterness to sink in and manifest itself.


Being the queen of 'spot news,' we hit the mother load Thursday night.

I've been doing this long enough to know when something is happening even if NOTHING is coming over the scanners. That's one of the biggest signs. When emergency personnel go over to their sneaky channel, you know it's big.

I heard one line--a 12-year-old child flagged down a passerby and told him what his step-father just did. The way it was said, the lack of other details, and a feeling in the pit of my stomach tipped off that I had a HUGE news story.

I will continue covering spot news--substantial spot news. Earlier in the week, a few staffers/producers did not think the Lorain County triple fatal accident was newsworthy. They said, fatal accidents happen every day. I'm not sure about that, but nonetheless, I'm sure glad we covered it and followed up on it for the 11pm news.

And now, more horrific spot news. I started mobilizing my crews. I initially sent a camera crew to the scene....I told Producer Dan what I "thought" had happened by the bits and pieces I was gleaning off the scanners....

My other crews and reporters were out but easily accessible and easily available to head out at a moments notice...

A plus on our side --great communication lines and coordination between me, the producer, our room 1 supervisor, sigac, and the web producer so we were all operating on the same page...

It was also great to know that we were first on scene. Simultaneously as my crew pulled up to the scene, a police dispatcher chimed on the scanners that 'the media had just arrived!'

From that moment on, non-stop, grueling work to not only get the story, win the story, and do the very best, but to keep emotions out of it for the time being.

One moment bringing levity to the situation is when my pal from the coroner's office called me to tell me they were rolling out to the scene.....and asked ME for the address! Now I know he had it, but we go way back and he knows I would never steer him wrong and my information is usually spot on!

It's good to be on a first name basis with my contacts. I instantly dialed up the chief's PIO, the coroner's PIO, and was able to touch base with the hospital's media relations supervisor.

Once I heard back from my initial guy, no brainer --EVERYONE on deck for this tragedy.

The next day, my news director and a reporter both said to me, 'great job scrambling last night.' I'm not quite sure why they used the term 'scrambling' because we did not scramble. We don't scramble at night. We know how to cover breaking news and do it very well. We may not have as many people but excel at breaking news and get the job done!


And that's what we did. All hands on deck. It was a well-oiled machine from the crews in the field back to the station. Even to the point where my live truck operator kept his live signal going and CNN and NewsChannel both cherry-picked the video we were feeding back and monitored our live pictures. I also emailed Tracy at Newschannel still pictures and the suspect's mug shot as soon as we received it. They were much appreciative!

In an instant like this, you can't get caught up at what has happened....though every update that another child had died was like getting sucker punched for all 5 of us sitting in the newsroom.

I believe we were first to report on our web that 6 people had been shot while others were still reporting 3 shot....and we were first with the suspect's mug shot and pictures from the scene. That's what we do!

The crews in the field all did a MARVELOUS job. At one point, Dave Summers and his truck operator Brian Johnson veered off the beaten path to the train tracks where the suspect may have been spotted......did not pan out, so they high-tailed it back to the the hospital. The gods were smiling on us because when their live slot came up on the show, they were ready (with much help from sigac operator Chris!!).

Watching the competition at 10pm, they both triple-teamed it, and ya know, they had nothing more than we had with less staffers. In fact, we had more. Dave Summers had background on the perp and Eric Mansfield spoke to family members.

At 11:35pm, the news was over but the story still very much alive. My crews were all raring to go to take this breaking news to higher levels for our morning show. We do have a no-overtime edict, but that was rescinded for this breaking news. This is a story you can not just walk away from in the midst. And we never did....

WHAT I thought happened at 8pm Thursday night IS what happened. We were on the mark all night long......and when all was said and done, all gave a great effort.

Hidden Gems taking a week off

In light of Thursday night's tragedy on Cleveland's westside.....and the fact that I (and all of my hard working crews) worked into Friday morning covering this awful story, my Thursday Weekly Feature, Hidden Gems, is taking a week off. I'll have it back next week, folks.

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!!!

His golden voice has been silenced

Radio legend Paul Harvey dead at 90 years old.

I can remember listening to Harvey my entire life, literally, because he has been a radio news broadcaster for longer than I have been alive!

Before I was even in 'the news business,' I was drawn to his broadcasts while flipping channels on the radio dial.

His golden tones sounded of vintage news radio.

And somehow, his news instinct was spot on. He always knew what was important, what would interest the listener, was in front of most news stories, kept you coming back for his intriguing commentary, and had humor in his broadcasts.

The news business, the radio format, and his millions of fans and listeners will surely miss this radio legend and his trademark 'The Rest of the Story...'