The Sunrise Lowdown

A New Feature is Here, News Nuggets!

UNLIKE THOSE CHICKEN NUGGETS YOU GET: that seem to have very mysterious contents, I hope this new feature will be all meat and no fillers!  I will focus on some smaller stories you might miss during our 2 hours of news on WIS Sunrise.  I understand many of you can’t be glued to your TV for 2 hours in the mornings, heck, I have a tough time sometimes paying attention for 2 straight hours!

NEWS NUGGET OF THE DAY: we’ll call this new feature.  Again, I will give you a fact from our newscast from a story that might not get top billing, but is equally as important.

2 NUGGETS FOR 1 DEAL TODAY: I was going to start this Thursday but got bogged down, so you can get 2 news nuggets today.  The first one is as follows, President Bush is asking for $190 billion dollars to fund the war in Iraq for 2008.  If approved it would be the most expensive year yet for war funding.  Also, in a Democratic Presidential debate, front-runners Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama and John Edwards all said they could not commit to pulling out all US troops in Iraq by even 2013, the end of the next presidential term.

A BONUS NUGGET: Ok, here’s one more to chew on since it’s the weekend.  Wal Mart says it will expand it’s $4.00 generic prescription drug program. The retail giant says it has saved consumers a whopping $613 million dollars since the program began just last fall. 

MY QUESTION TO YOU TODAY IS THIS, actually 2 questions, #1, what’s your reaction that the Democratic Presidential candidates seem to be backtracking from pulling out US troops in Iraq.  If you don’t like that one, how about a $613 million dollar savings for consumers in just 1 year for prescription drugs, do you think the big drug companies should be banned from making all those TV ads, which ultimately make brand-named drugs more expensive, unlike generic ones.

Sound off on the comments link below, thanks for stopping by my blog! – Brian.

AN ARMY VET STEPS UP TO HELP HIS FELLOW SOLDIERS

CONGRATS to Fred Bollenbach for his winning bid on the framed print by Columbia artist Suzy Shealy.  Mr. Bollenbach spent more than 20 years in the Army from 1954 to 1976, doing three tours in Vietnam.  He also was awarded a Purple Heart for his valor and wounding in Vietnam.  Now retired, Mr. Bollenbach shelled out $260.00 to win the print.  All of his money will be going directly to the Fisher House, a facility that houses families of military members who are undergoing medical treatment.  Way to go Fred, thanks for watching and bidding!

By the way, the fun part of my job is learning about people and places.  Fred told me he met his wife while stationed at Ft. Jackson.  On their first night out, he admits having a brew or two that night, then asking a woman to marry him.  30 days later the couple was wed and they’ve been married for more than 30 years now! 

HOW’S THIS FOR AN AMAZING STAT: In case you’re curious whether we actually pay attention during pre-taped stories running on Sunrise, I can truthfully say that probably 85% or higher I am carefully listening (the other 15% is spent either rubbing my eyes, yawning or doing other exercises to remain awake and alert)

Anyway, there was a story about the GM strike that just blew me away and I thought it was important to reiterate.  According to the national NBC story, in just the past 4 years, there have been 70,000 job cuts among the “Big Three” US automakers.  To put that number in more perspective, 70,000 would come close to filling up Williams-Brice Stadium (ok, about 10,000 short, but close enough for this argument)  One must wonder where all these jobs are going and what is happening to the folks who were told it’s time to find another job. 

IN CASE YOU ARE CURIOUS, what I do when the Sunrise show is over, here’s a hint….look busy…especially when the boss walks by!  Seriously, I have been given the task of doing our “Person To Count On” segments, where we take nominations from the wistv.com website and interview people making a difference in our community. The stories air in our 5:30pm newscasts Tues-Thurs. In addition, I will work setting up and shooting various other stories that can run on future days.

COMING SOON: I had a chance to fly up in News Hawk on Monday, and we will soon be giving ‘Da Hawk and pilot Mark Jackson their due here on the web!  My previous station in Raleigh, NC was in a larger TV market, but it did not have a helicopter.  I can’t tell you the number of times we would sit in the newsroom watching the other 2 stations beating us with breaking news because they had a helicopter.  So, since WIS is the only station in the Midlands with a helicopter, I suggested we make a special News Hawk page on our website.  Soon, you can click on a video link to take a ride on News Hawk and get airborne video of some of Columbia’s most recognizable landmarks.  We will also give you some interesting facts and figures about News Hawk, and hear why pilot Mark Jackson tells me he has “the best job in South Carolina.”  Hope the bosses don’t read that last line, they might ask him to work for free!!

AN OOPS: from me.  I incorrectly stated on our Wednesday morning Sunrise news that the Newberry Oktoberfest is this coming weekend.  A kind viewer emailed me to point out it's actually the weekend of October 6.  Thanks for the correction, I must have had brats and beer on my mind a little early!

TODAY'S QUESTION OF THE DAY IS THIS: I went to Munich, Germany last year to check out the real Oktoberfest (yes, that's how it's spelled)  Mrs. DeRoy and I love to travel and explore, tell me where I should take my vacation next fall, preferably overseas. Post your comments in the link below and describe your favorite spot!

TODAY'S

A Busy Weekend & Cajun Cravings!

AS PROMISED DURING WIS SUNRISE, here's the link to the Plex in Irmo.  http://new.plexindoorsports.com/irmoice/programs/view/public-skate

   Some Lexington doctors have ponied up to give the Midlands a great facility that you can take the family to and get a good workout at the same time.  Our Ben Tanner is forecasting a 91 degree high on Sunday,  so if the outdoor events aren't for you, the Plex has plenty of public skate times and even skate rental!

SPEAKING OF THE WEEKEND, with no football in town the area is stepping up with other events.  The Children's Theater is doing performances of Junie B. Jones this weekend and the following weekend.  Check out  www.columbiachildrenstheater.com for more info.   There's also the Lexington Fun Fest, Columbia Greek Fest and accompanying art fair, plus a whole lot more.  As a new comer, it is nice to see that a medium sized city is trying to offer events for a wide spectrum of people. 

HERE'S A COMPLETE LISTING OF THIS WEEKEND'S EVENTS: http://www.columbiacvb.com/calendar/

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: My collegue Hannah Horne confirms she'll be singing the national anthem at the Columbia Inferno's opening game, Friday October 26th.   The ECHL hockey team returns to the Carolina Coliseum. Rumor has it the team will have a special role for yours truly.  We'll work to get Ben and Lucas out to the game too. 

ONE FUN THING ABOUT DOING NEWS IN THE MORNING: is the fact we can be a hair bit looser than say the 6pm or 11pm news.  Chances are you won't be seeing USC's mascot Cocky or be hearing the college themes being played during our late newscasts.  But the folks in the big offices at WIS allow us some of that flexibility in the morning. (apparently you need a little personality mixed with news to awaken you)

  With that said, this morning one of our studio crew members, Lee Beniot (pronounced Ben-wah, he's from Louisiana) gave us a CD with some of his father's music.  The group is called Lee Benoit and the Bayou Stompers!  His dad even has a website, check it out www.leebenoit.com  They perform quite often in my favorite American city, New Orleans! 

If y'all know of any good places to hear live New Orleans-style music here in the Midlands, shoot me an email,  bderoy@wistv.com

EBAY AUCTION WRAPS UP, $260.00 RAISED FOR CHARITY!!

WE HAVE A WINNER: Thanks for an Ebayer from West Columbia who submitted the winning bid for a hand signed print from Columbia artist Suzy Shealy.  Mrs. Shealy’s son Joseph lost his life in 2005 while serving in Iraq.  The entire bid of $260.00 will soon be headed to the Fisher House, a facility that houses military families while their loved-ones are undergoing medical care.  Mrs. Shealy divides up the money she raises between the Fisher House and Columbia’s Ronald McDonald House.  But somehow, Ebay won’t let you divide up charity money to 2 or more groups.  Hey, their rules, not mine.

SOMETIMES WHEN READING A NEWS STORY: thoughts go through your mind about the given situation.  Such is true when presenting the Vinson Filyaw case.  This fellow is accused of abducting a 14 year old girl and shall we say, doing bad things to her in an underground bunker in Kershaw County last year.  Since I was still working in North Carolina when this initially happened, I have just recently heard about this situation.  Anyway, when doing this story this morning, I was simply amazed when reporting the allegations against Mr. Filyaw.  The tough part on a story like this is to play it straight, and leave any sound of outrage up to you folks at home.  Now before the station legal team interjects, let’s just remember this fellow is still presumed innocent until a jury convicts him. 

OK, MORE BRITNEY ON TODAY: As I’m writing this, NBC’s Today show is taking valuable network TV time at 7:35 AM to tell us more about Bitney Spears.  This time they’re telling us about her custody battle with her formal pal, Kevin Federline.  Not only did they give us a 2 minute pre-taped piece, but then Today is giving us a live interview with attorney and TV gadfly, Gloria Allred.  Come on NBC, is this really news?  What do you folks think, click on the comments link below.  I will again try to keep this high pledge, that WIS Sunrise will remain a Britney-Free Zone as long as I have any say over it!

I CHECKED OUT MY FIRST USC GAME THIS PAST WEEKEND, and I have to say I was impressed with many aspects.  First off, despite people spending hours of tailgating before the game, it appeared that the folks I came across were not overly rowdy or drunken.  Also, y’all seemed to support the home team, given the fact there were few empty seats for a non-conference game.  But one question, what’s with all these renegade parking lots and the little semblance of order trying to find a spot?  I saw one lot that claimed to be “charity parking” that was asking $50.00 a spot!  Hopefully you can at least claim a tax write off for the 50 clams.  Here’s a question, I didn’t see any public transportation to the game whatsoever!  Perhaps the traffic tie-ups could be easily lessened with a little foresight.

REMEMBER, HOCKEY SEASON IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER: I had a great lunch last week with some folks from the Columbia Inferno Hockey team. Yes sports fan, we have an ECHL hockey team in town and it’s good and cheap entertainment.  For less than a pay-per-view football game, you can take the whole family to an actual live event. The Inferno start the season Oct. 26 at the Columbia Coliseum and I hope to see you there!  Since this is a news blog, let me tell you that my sources say there could be an announcement about a new arena going up in Lexington County very soon!

Not to give anything away too early, but hopefully we’ll have some fun things planned with the Sunrise news team and the Inferno.  Since I grew up in the hinterland of Minnesota, I’ll take myself out of this one, but I want you to click the comment link on this question: WHO WOULD BE A BETTER ICE SKATER, HANNAH HORNE, BEN TANNER OR LUCAS MCFADDEN?

Come on folks, I get up a little after 3am everyday and probably get a whole lot less sleep than you, so I gotta have some fun every now and then!

Less Than 2 Days Left For Signed Print Charity Auction

http://cgi.ebay.com/Signed-Print-Army-Moms-Charity-Auction_W0QQitemZ280150171458QQihZ018QQcategoryZ20149QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

WIS SUNRISE: A BRITNEY FREE ZONE! Are you like me, sickened to death by all this hub-bub over the so-called “performance” by so-called “singer” Britney Spears on the MTV Video Awards Show recently?  This topic really alarmed me when watching NBC’s Today Show at exactly 7:20am on Monday, they gave us a liveshot of a reporter in Las Vegas who did a pre-taped story about the fiasco.  Think about it, NBC spent big bucks and used a good portion of the Today show to tell us about this?  Meanwhile, Osama Bin Laden is still on the loose, the US mortgage market is in crisis, oil prices are at record highs, air travel delays are also at record highs…I think you get the drift.  Serious news stories should dominate the first hour of the Today show, not just Britney Spears.  To quantify NBC’s coverage, sending a reporter to Las Vegas on late notice has got to cost at least $1,000 in airfare alone.  The networks also send a couple of crew people, so toss in a few grand there.  Then the network rents a satellite truck, that’s another grand!  Oh, satellite time isn’t fee, so we’ll add in a couple of hundred bucks too!  So grand total, NBC wasted my time as a viewer and also doled out easily $5-grand just to tell us about Britney on the Today Show!

DOING SOME RESEARCH: I found at least 35 references to Ms. Spears in just a 2 day time period on WIS-TV.  Most of this coverage came from the network and syndicated shows like Extra, and those other gossip shows that this journalist has no time for.

BUT THERE’S SOME GOOD NEWS: At no time did our WIS Sunrise newscast do any coverage on Britney’s lousy performance.  The goal of a local news program is to do just that, provide local news.  I credit our producer, Blake Clancy, for resisting the temptation of putting a Spears story into our newscast.  Perhaps he knew either myself or Hannah would demand the story not be included in our show.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, HEY MATT, LOSE THE SHADES: Just a quick observation while writing this, the Today show is on in the background and Matt Lauer is doing a liveshot in Iran.  While it’s sunny where he is, Lauer is wearing sunglasses.  Hey Matt, the viewers want to see you, the sunglasses are only for rock stars or pro boxers right after a big match!

BACK TO BRITNEY, I wonder what she’ll be doing 40 years from now?  The Rolling Stones have been playing for 40 years now, still selling out football-sized stadiums around the world.  So, my question to you loyal WIS Sunrise viewers today is this, WHAT WILL BRITNEY SPEARS BE DOING 40 YEARS FROM NOW? (We do award extra points for creativity!)

REMEMBER TO BID ON CHARITABLE PRINT!!!

ONE WEEK LEFT, HERE'S THE EBAY LINK:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Signed-Print-Army-Moms-Charity-Auction_W0QQitemZ280150171458QQihZ018QQcategoryZ20149QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

FROM EBAY, WE TRANSITION TO BAD TOYS...

WITH ALL THESE TOY RECALLS, I bet a lot of you are wondering if there’s anything still safe out there?  The tough part about TV is we can’t take the time to list the entire amount of toys that are currently being recalled.  Such a list would fill up our whole first 10 minutes, and we know you want a bigger variety of news in the morning that just a giant scrolling list of shoddy toys made primarily in China and other far flung places.  But it’s getting almost comical these days the amount of bad products we have to warn people about.

HOW’S THIS FOR AN IDEA? Even when I was a youth, toys were made in China or other places far, far away.  For a refresher for our younger viewers, my favorite toys included my Lionel train (which actually was made in America), Nerf Football, and my Atari (kids, do a google search; adults you can wax poetic now!)  So I got to thinking Wednesday morning when reading the toy recall story, how about we just made toys in America by Americans for Americans?  Ok, this is probably a crazy idea, but what the heck, the internet is filled with crazy blogs and stuff like that, so why not go on a limb and suggest we make things in America once again!

YOUR TIME TO SOUND OFF, I want to know WOULD YOU PAY MORE FOR YOUR TOYS IF THEY WERE MADE IN AMERICA AND WERE SAFE?

IT'S YOUR TIME TO STEP UP AND BID FOR FALLEN SOLDIER'S MOM'S HAND SIGNED PRINT!!!

DON’T JUST TALK ABOUT THE WAR IN IRAQ: how about putting your wallet on the line.  No matter how you feel about the war, there are plenty of men and women wearing the US uniform who are in harm’s way and many families on the homefront who are enduring this tough time.  I have covered numerous deployments and returns during my past 6 years in North Carolina and saw first-hand how dedicated these folks are.

HERE’S YOUR CHANCE TO OWN AN ORIGINAL, HAND-SIGNED PRINT, by Columbia artist Suzy Shealy. Mrs. Shealy’s son was a decorated Army Military Police officer who lost his life by an Iraqi’s sniper’s bullet in 2005. Half of the winning bid will be going to the Ronald McDonald House, with the other half going to the Fisher House, a facility for families of military members undergoing medical treatment.  www.fisherhouse.org

CLICK THIS EBAY LINK AND BID HIGH!!!!   

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280150171458

If you’re an opponent to the war, let us know by outbidding everyone else.  If you support the war, same deal, let your cash do the talking and help out some worthy causes!!  We’ll let you know on this blog who wins and how much $$ is raised.

A Local Woman Pays Tribute To Her Son & Other US Troops

During my 10 years as a news reporter I have had the chance to see and do a lot of different things.  I have also met a lot of interesting people.  Perhaps the toughest part of my job is interviewing people in emotional situations.  The part you don’t see on TV is the initial conversation with someone, usually done by phone.  It is not enjoyable calling someone and asking them something to the affect of “you’ve been a ____insert situation here (ie: crime victim, family member of deceased person, etc) can we talk with you about this?  Then when you reveal the interview will include lights and a camera often people get a little nervous.  Well, this reporter has a tough feeling doing this as well.

OFTEN THESE INTERVIEWS TURN OUT WELL: One of my most memorable tough interviews was about one year after the September 11 terrorist attacks.  I was able to convince a woman who lost her brother to do an interview.  She was squeamish over the process on the phone, and I tried to smooth things by saying something to the affect like “we’ll make it quick and easy.”  Well, long story short, the interview went well and afterward she said something to me I’ll always remember, “Thank you, I feel better about the situation now after talking to you about it.”

SUZY SHEALY IS A COURAGEOUS PERSON: who also decided to chat about a tough situation in her life.  Her son, Joseph, was a National Guard member who decided to join the Army shortly after 9/11.  We did not have enough time in our TV story to point out that her son was due to return home in October 2005 for a two week leave.  He never made it out of Iraq alive, a sniper’s bullet took the Army MP’s life in September 2005.

SUZY’S ARTWORK: in her words, “came from above.”  She had dabbled in painting before, but got the motivation shortly after her son’s death.  With very little formal training, Suzy started painting images from Joseph’s digital camera card.  She had more than 600 pictures to choose from.   Suzy decided to paint and subsequently sell her paintings and use the profits to help support Columbia’s Ronald McDonald House and the Fisher House, a facility for military families to stay where wounded troops are rehabbing.  She says her faith has kept her strong during such a tough time in her life.  In addition, the artwork is a way for her to remember what her son saw during his time in Iraq. 

SUZY’S SON WITNESSED HISTORY during his time in Iraq.  His MP battalion was part of the force that worked when Saddam was captured.  In fact, Suzy said Joseph was nearly an arm’s length away when Saddam was hauled off.

A WIS TIP OF THE HAT goes to the US Patriot store in Columbia, for displaying Suzy’s artwork and accepting no profit in return.  The store manager, Paul Paterson is a 24 year Army Vet and knows firsthand the pain that many military families are going through these days.  Here’s a link to the store’s artwork.  http://www.uspatriotstore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=SHEALY1

STAY TUNED: Suzy gave me a personalized signed framed print called “No Greater Love,” it’s an image of her son’s memorial service.  I’m figuring out how to either sell or auction it and donate all the proceeds to Suzy’s 2 charities, the Ronald McDonald House and the Fisher House.  The good thing about doing stories on tough topics is being able to make a positive out of it.