Wednesday, September 07, 2005

On the Lighter Side



I told you the sad part of the New Orleans trip so I thought I would share a funny moment. Last Thursday, after a long, hard, sweaty day, Davis took a shower and put on clean clothes. Next thing I know, he is out of the rv doing what Davis does best, constantly looking for ways to help people. As usual, it didn't take Davis long to find someone in need of help. One of the ABC affiliate crews got their car stuck in the mud so Davis tried to keep innocent bystanders clean by blocking the mud splatter with his body .
He came back to the rv and told us what had happened and we all had a much needed laugh.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey - just found out via the Nashville Scene that we hired Mike Kilbaine from 4 to be the new assigment editor. I'm glad I'm hearing about our new employees through other media outlets, but then again this is nothing new at WKRN.

Todd, as much as many of us appreciate your upbeat attitude - we also feel you're feeding people a load of b.s. when it comes to this vj concept.

To portray everything is running smoothly at the station is simply not true. We just lost a very talented photographer, and are probably just a few days away from losing another one to a competing station in town. The packages we put on the air make my college tape look like 60 Minutes.

And then there's the incompetancy of our managers - specifically our GM and News Director - who obviously did very little planning before diving head first into a project that could very well sink this news operation permantly.

When it's all said and done, WKRN will spend close to $1 million to fully implement a model that has A) reduced our quality tremendously, B) ran off several talented members of our staff, C) sunk moral to new lows that make even the dark Vicki Montet era seem bearable, and D)done NOTHING to improve ratings.

I've always took pride in the fact that although I work at a 3rd place station, we never acted like one. The product we put on the air didn't reflect it. Now it does.

Although I do see some positives to the vj concept, and have nothing but respect for the Michael Rosenblum and his training staff, I feel the way we are currently operating is destined for failure.

Until our "fearless leaders" can put together a well thought out plan THAT INCLUDES INPUT FROM PEOPLE IN THE NEWSROOM, as opposed to their "eenie-meanie-miney-mo" method of doing things, the situation at WKRN will only get worse. Hopefully I won't be around to see what happens.

In short - anyone who thinks that putting Bob Ivy - I mean "Robert Thomas" on our air to report is a good idea - really needs to sit down and take a close look at how far we've fallen.

We now continue the rose-colored glasses portion of this blog.

Todd Dunn said...

I have zero respect for anyone who uses this form to slam any of my friends which is just childish. It's one thing to critique me since I have made myself a target with a blog and expect a certain amount of abuse but to hide behind anonymity and say this stuff is just wrong. I think you should be ashamed of yourself, Anonymous. I have been open with my thoughts and concerns and have invited others to share their own opinions on my rose colored blog.

I heard about the hiring of Michael Kilbaine in the morning meeting on Tuesday. Maybe if you weren’t so busy being negative you would have heard as well. I’ve been able to include my input every day on the stories I’m working on and both Steve and Mark have open door policies.

If you aren’t here much longer, oh well! Hopefully you will be replaced with someone who has a positive attitude.

Todd Dunn

Anonymous said...

TODD, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, BOTH AS A DETERMINED VIDEO-JOURNALIST AND A BLOGGER. YOU HAVE SET THE STANDARD FOR THE REST OF US TO FOLLOW. AS ALMOST EVERYONE ON STAFF KNOWS, WRITING HAS BEEN THE HARDEST PART FOR ME... I DID NOT DO A VJ STORY THIS WEEK, INSTEAD WORKING WITH FELLOW VJ'S ON KATRINA LOCAL STORIES, SOME LIVE AND SOME JUST PKGS FOR VARIOUS NEWSCAST. I TOOK HE OPPORTUNITY TO STUDY HOW SOME OF OUR BEST WRITERS(REPORTERS)COMPOSED THE STORY. I THINK THIS WEEK HAS BEEN A VALUABLE LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR ME. I THANK YOU FOR FOR YOUR CONTINUED HELP AND SUPPORT!
KEN