The Sunrise Lowdown

A Person To Count On Bonus Edition

EVERY TUESDAY-THURSDAY, I do a feature called "People To Count On," during our 5:30pm newscast.  I've interviewed pastors, teachers, landscapers and most anyone else in between.  You can add hospital administrator Shirley Myers to the list. She works at Palmetto Health Children's Hospital, handling all the paperwork and a whole lot more.  Viewers email us nomination forms, and Ms. Myers has the distinction of having the longest form I've ever seen.  Because we didn't have enough time to go through all of it on TV, here's the award-winning form, submitted from her colleague, Children's Hospital Director Fran Byrd.

She is affectionately known among the nurses as the "Bulldog" of Palmetto Health Children's Hospital, but to many families, Shirley Myers is the person who can help them with anything they need, no matter how big or small.

  One morning Shirley saw a young mother pacing nervously outside her child's room waiting on the doctor to come, the mother explained to Shirley, 'with my financial situation, I know my child can't stay in the hospital another day.'

  Shirley comforted the mother by assuring her that her child's health was all she should be concerned about. She explained that all children are treated at Palmetto Health Children's Hospital, regardless of the family's ability to pay. The child remained in the hospital for another week and the mother became one of many who consider administrative coordinator Shirley Myers the unsung hero of Children's Hospital.

   You might take your child to the pediatrician and find out that your child needs to be admitted to the hospital immediately, says Shirley.

  Sometimes parents arrive without a change of clothes, without personal care items and with no money for purchasing their own meals while their child is hospitalized. Shirley tries to watch out for families who might need something while they're here.

Shirley remembers meeting a mother whose child was allergic to laundry detergent. The mother was quietly trying to figure out a way to hand launder her child's sheets, towels and clothing in the hospital room sink. When she understood the mother's concerns, Shirley was able to procure a week's worth of sterile burn supply linens that wouldn't irritate the child's sensitive skin.

These small behind-the-scenes acts of kindness are inherent in Shirley's nature and they are what make families keep in touch with Shirley over the years, through multiple hospitalizations.

According to pediatric oncologist Kevin McRedmond, M.D., Shirley handles a number of complex administrative duties and is a huge help to the medical staff. Shirley is involved in scheduling, obtaining reports for the Administrative Medical Committee and many other time-consuming tasks, but she does it all with great cheer.

On Tuesdays and Fridays, Shirley feeds the fish in all three aquariums at Childrens Hospital. I leave my office door cracked so that I can listen for childrens voices at the fish tank. The highlight of a hospitalized child's day is being there to watch when the fish get fed, she says.

Despite her extensive list of administrative tasks, Shirley Myers makes time each day to check on families, especially those in the pediatric intensive care units. Every day is different, but I try to take time out each day to visit with children and families to see if there is someone I can help, she says.

   Shirley is the first to go out of her way to support the needs of our patients, their families, visitors, physicians, staff and personnel from other departments, not a day goes by that someone doesn't stop me to say what a treasure she is for Children's Hospital.

Sickness, Overexposure & TV Memories

HEY, PASS THE MENTHOL: This has been an interesting week at the mighty WIS, as my colleagues seem to be in need of some serious cough drops.  In the past week, most of our female on air folks have been sick at one point or another.  Dawndy Mercer, Judy Gatson, Kara Gormley and Jennifer Wilson have all succumb to some sort of sickness that seems to be floating around.   We’ve also had several “behind the scenes” folks unable to attend festivities, including even our boss, Tina Blacklocke (her title is News Director, essentially the person who has the final say on what you see on our newscasts,)  

For whatever reason, the men of WIS have not been hit by the bug nearly as bad and that’s a good thing.  My colleague on the morning show, Hannah Horne, had to fill in during the evening newscasts because of so many of the females were on “injured reserve” as we’d say in sports.  Doing double duty when working our shift isn’t exactly easy, since there’s no way either Hannah or myself get a full 8 hours sleep at any one point in time.  We compared schedules, and both Hannah and I try to take an afternoon nap and then go to bed at night anywhere from 9 to 11pm, depending on how tired we are.  Bottom line, like many other jobs, if a few people are out it can really throw a monkey wrench into things and TV news is no different.

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH THIS DREW PETERSON GUY ALWAYS ON TV?

This is the former Chicago-area cop who had been married 4 times now.  His 3^rd wife died somehow in a bathtub, and now his 4^th wife has turned up missing.  This guy seems to make more TV appearances than reported faintings at Barack Obama campaign appearances.  Here’s something you might now know, Today Show guests get wined and dined for being on the show.  I worked with a reporter who did a live-shot once for another network’s morning show, and to thank her they gave her a free trip to New York City and put her up in a fancy hotel.  Typically, NBC flies out folks like Mr. Peterson and puts them up in fancy NYC hotels. Guests also gets free food and they probably are even allowed to get room service too!  We don’t yet know if he’s involved in the disappearance of his 4^th wife, but if he is, maybe he’s enjoying all the free trips and free chow when he can. Just a theory.

80’s TV FLASHBACKS: The Today show has had TV reunions of mostly 80’s TV shows all this past week.  For whatever crazy reason, most of the shows they’re highlighting were aired on networks other than NBC.  No CHIPS, no A-Team, no Cosby Show, no old cast of the “Tonight Show” (wouldn’t it be great just to see Ed McMahon and Doc Severinsen chat about the old times) 

TELL ME YOUR FAVORITE 80’S TV SHOW?  There any many to choose from, but I’ll give one that aired in the 60’s, 70’s 80’s and even a couple of years in the 90’s…the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  A piece of Americana was lost when Carson bid us farewell on May 22, 1992.  Carson’s show exhibited class that is nowhere to be seen on TV today.  Here’s an interesting link about the show from Wikipedia.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_carson

Would you be happy winning the lottery?

HEY, YOU WANNA BE ON LIVE TV? During my 10+ years of reporting news, one of the toughest things is to get people to loosen up and feel comfortable to talk to us.  Think about it, if a newspaper reporter called you, they could just get your quotes over the phone and be done with it.  But if us TV folks call, we ultimately have to put you on TV for it to be fully useful.  If we didn’t come with our camera and microphone, the TV news would be nothing more than just graphics and maybe drawings..you get the drift, not very interesting. 

Ultimately chatting with a TV reporter shouldn’t be that hard, if a reporter makes the effort to make someone feel comfortable before the tape starts rolling and then asks questions than prompt a conversation instead of one word responses.  (Oh, we don’t even use videotape anymore, all  video you see on WIS-TV is from computer, our cameras have a card that capture all the video and we then download it into the computer at the station.  Neat huh!)

IF YOU WON 270 MILLION DOLLARS, WOULD YOU BE HAPPY? (click pic to make bigger)

YES, THESE FOLKS SURE LOOK THRILLED?? Tonya and Robert Harris appeared on NBC’s Today Show Monday in a live interview about their big lottery winnings.  The couple won $270 million bucks in the multi-state Mega Millions lottery.  But see how excited they look?  Well, they sounded equally as thrilled.  Most of their answers in the live interview were just a couple of word phrases.  They both really sounded like they were told their dog died and home had burned.  (neither of which really happened)  I just thought the picture was great. 

THE MEGA MILLIONS LOTTERY DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW THE ODDS: I wanted to see what the odds were to win the Mega Millions lottery (played in 12 states, the closest being Georgia) and nowhere on the megamillions.com website, do they tell you the odds.  I searched up and down, even on the FAQ section and nothing, zilch, zippo: no odds.  Granted the odds change a bit based on the number of players, but you would think the lottery would be up front with the chances of winning, or in most cases, losing.  Well, finally  I checked Gerorgia’s lottery website and it says your odds of winning the MegaMillions jackpot are 1 in 175-million. 

IN FAIRNESS, POWERBALL DOES TELL YOU THE ODDS: Powerball is the mult-state jackpot game that both South and North Carolina participate in.  According to the FAQ section of powerball.com, the odds of winning its big jackpot are 1 in 146-million!  But the overall chance of winning any sort of prize are 1 in 37.  Just reporting the facts here, if you choose to play the lottery go ahead or if you choose to not to, that’s  fine too.

HOW’S THIS FOR ODDS: Remember Uno, the lovable beagle who won the Westminster Dog Show a couple of weeks ago.  I was doing some checking and found that the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas had odds on the show.  (you could not actually bet money on it, it was just for fun)  Anyway, the odds of the beagle winning were 400 to 1.  That means if you would have bet just $1, you would have won $400 on Uno, if cash wagering were allowed.  Just thought it was an interesting nugget, or perhaps kibble or bit in this case!

WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH $270 MILLION BUCKS? Keep dreaming folks, the odds aren’t in our favor, but it’s fun to dream, right?  I think I would buy some property, travel and maybe even buy a TV station and/or minor league sports team with the cash. Click your responses below. 

Person To Count On Additional Info & Other Thoughts

I HAD THE CHANCE TO SPEAK WITH AN INSPIRATIONAL PERSON: who was featured during Tuesday's 5:30 newscast. Kim Neel is a breast cancer survivor and a WIS-TV Person To Count On.  She is very involved with the fight against breast cancer and has decided to help others who are diagnosed with cancer.  Neel started a business that helps folks to deal with the lingering affects of cancer.  There are a whole ton of things folks have to deal with and Neel is there to providing a supporting voice to people in a tough time.

BEACUSE WE ONLY GET SO MUCH TIME ON TV: the internet is a great way for us to give you more perspective and information about people and issues we feature on TV.

HERE'S A LINK TO NEEL'S COMPANY AND MORE ABOUT HER: http://www.alala.info/

SPEAKING OF BATTLING BREAST CANCER: my friends at the Columbia Inferno and the good group of fans all pitched in to make this past weekend's Pink in the Rink a success.  Though jersey auctions and raffles, the team raised close to $15,000 for the Palmetto Richland Foundation! For those who say things to the affect like 'no one cares about hockey around here," think again.  The team and its fans have raised more than $40,000 for the Palmetto Richland Foundation in the past two years.

    And how about this,  when you combine last year and this season, the Inferno is 4 and 0 when donning the pink jerseys.  Sure, the wins  on the ice are important, but money raised is even a bigger win!  My colleague Lucas McFadden and I were honored to help introduce a group of breast cancer survivors during Friday night's game.

Thanks to everyone who showed up to support the cause. 

THIS INSERTING PICTURES FROM TV THING IS FUN, HERE'S ANOTHER.... 

This has absolutely no newsworthy value whatsoever. I just thought it was entertaining to see 9am Today Show host Natalie Morales holding a rabbit about as big as her!  Wonder how many carrots that thing gobbles down each day (the rabbit, not Natalie, you smarties!!)

Pink In The Rink Tonight & Roger Clemens Observations

A QUICK REMINDER: to come out tonight and support both your local hockey team and the fight against breast cancer.  The Columbia Inferno will be wearing special pink jerseys tonight and then they'll be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to the Palmetto Health Foundation for breast cancer.  Folks, even if you're not a hockey fan it's a good idea to come out and show some support.  Last year, the team and the fans helped raise $25,000 for the effort.  Not bad for a sport that most folks tell me "no one cares about."

CONGRESS AND CLEMENS: Ok, it's been a couple of day to let the drama in Washington DC soak in, but I can't hold it in any loner about the Roger Clemens hearing before a congressional committee.  Let me get this straight, Osama Bin Laden is still on the run, but somehow the long arm of the US Governemnt has netted Roger Clemens? 

Or think about this, Social Security is going to bankrupt the country soon, the economy is a little shaky, the US is at war in Iraq and Afganistan, the US/Mexican border is as about as tight as the abs of a "Biggest Loser" contestant, and the list is even longer!  The approval level of Congress is pretty low these days, averaging 24%, according to various polls. Click the link to see for yourself.  http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/archive/?poll_id=18

SLY STALLONE HAS ADMITTED TO USING HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE, SAYING IT'S GOOD FOR HIM: Yes, the man who brought us Rocky and Rambo admits he's used HGH (the stuff Clemens is accused of using) One must wonder if HGH makes his recent movie any better? He says it's a good thing, read more in this link.  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/25/entertainment/e153640S09.DTL

http://boxing.about.com/b/2007/03/14/stallone-facing-hgh-charges.htm 

HOW MUCH MONEY IS THE CONGRESSIONAL CLEMENS' INQUIRY COSTING? Just wondering, I haven't heard a dollar amount anywhere, but remember, that's taxpayer dollars being used.

CHEATING IS WRONG, no doubt.  If Clemens cheated, he should first admit to it, and then be punished by Major League Baseball.  Clemens name is now forever tarnished and his Hall of Fame chances seem to be going down quick.  One must wonder if the ordeal he's gone through is enough already.

NOW YOU STEP UP TO THE PLATE, SHOULD CONGRESS BE GETTING INTO ROGER CLEMENS' AFFAIRS? Click on the link and throw me your best fastball!

Presidential Primary Rules & Person To Count On Info.

LET'S START WITH SOME INFORMATION FROM TUESDAY'S 5:30 PM NEWSCAST:  I interviewed Rachel Silver, a volunteer with the SC Foster Care Review Board.  She's one of our WIS Person's To Count On.  This group basically helps both foster children and the people that take care of the kids.  It's a group probably not many of us have heard of, but there's no doubt their work is important.  Because we only get 1 minute, 30 seconds for this feature, it's tough to get all the information in on TV. So, here are a couple of great links Ms. Silver wanted to make you aware of. 

www.scfpa.com    www.scheartgallery.org  www.oepp.sc.gov/fcrb

YOU DARN WELL NEED TO BE A MATH PROFESSOR: to figure out this Presidential primary race lately.  Hey, if you can’t figure out the math I can’t blame you.  Here are some questions to consider, why is it that the US has 50 states, but Democrats have nearly double the amount of delegates than do Republicans?  Why is it Democrats like to use the “proportonial” way of doling out delegates, while Republicans seem to use the “winner take all” concept more often?  And what’s the deal with the Washington primary this past weekend where all 100% of the Democratic vote was counted, but somehow Republican officials decided to stop counting with 87% of the vote in (John McCain was leading by 2 points over Mike Huckabee, and the Huckabee camp is asking all the votes be counted)

UH, OH, HERE COME THE SUPERDELEGATES: Now let’s really make this thing interesting, the Democrats have something called “Superdelegates.”  These are party big shots who apparently get a vote of their very own and they can choose whoever they please, even going against the state vote.  So there could be a cenario where Democratic candidate “A” has won more state delegates, but the superdelegates put candidate “B” in the overall lead. 

DON’T FORGET MICHIGAN AND FLORIDA: If you don’t have a headache already there the fact the Democratic National Committee yanked Michigan and Florida’s delegates, since both states moved up their primaries. This could be a big deal because Hillary Clinton won both states, and those two states have a lot of potential delegates that are stuck on the sidelines right now.  If things get close, don’t be surprised if the Clinton camp complains those voters voices haven’t been heard. 

HOW DO WE SETTLE THE DEMOCRATS DEADLOCK? Will Obama choose Hillary as VP?  How about Hillary choosing Obama?  Maybe both should just call it quits and let that former Alaska Senator run?  Then we’d really all be confused.  It appears the “proportonial” math makes a strong, 2 person race like Obama/Clinton not likely to be settled until late spring at the earliest.  Maybe we need to bring in Ross Perot and have a 3-person race in the fall and really make things interesting?

DOES THE SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE CHANGED? After the Tuesday “Potomac Primary” involving Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC, close to 20 states will not have even voted.  Some of those states are pretty important in the grand scheme of things, including Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania and South Dakota (ok, kidding on that last one, South Dakota has less than 1-million people and only 1 congressman who represents the entire state!  Although it’s a lovely state, where I started my local TV news career) Folks in North Carolina have to wait until May 6^th to vote, and their former Senator John Edwards is already out of the race.  So we ought to consider ourselves lucky here in South Carolina that we had a full list of candidates to choose from last month.

NOW YOUR TURN, IS THIS PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY SYSTEM FAIR?  Click on the comments section below.

An Inside look at NBC's Hockey Broadcasts

SPORTS ON TV IS A QUICK THINKING GAME: Think of it, when a sporting event is happening, there's a big group of folks working hard to make sure you see the action both live, and then via numerous replay angles.

I've sat inside sports TV production trucks for NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball games and it is amazing how quick the decisions are made.  Typically, there's a director who is watching a bank of monitors and decided which camera angle should be chosen.  In addition, there's a person called a "technical director" who actually pushes the buttons on the control panel that actually put those pictures on air.  People in audio and replay are also working together to bring you the action in a hurry and they coordinate with the director to decide what goes on air.

DID YOU KNOW NBC CARRIES NHL HOCKEY? Ok, I realize NHL hockey isn't a big deal in cities south of the Canadian border.  But, you might be interested to see how NBC televises NHL hockey.  Overall, in my opinion, there's nothing very different about a game on NBC compared with any other cable outlet.  Most often it's a budgetary decision as to why the network can't add fancy gimmicks in a telecast.  But, the man in charge of hockey on NBC tells me Gamecock and Tiger football fans should give hockey a chance. 

"If you watch the NHL on NBC in HD and listen to our talent the game is a lot more fun. There is harder hitting than football and no yellow flags on hard hits. Just trips to the sin bin," NBC's Coordinating Producer Sam Flood tells me.  (The Sin Bin is slang for the penalty box)  Flood played hockey in college and determines essentially how NBC presents the game, things like game storylines, camera placement and intermission features.

NBC'S NEXT GAME IS THIS SUNDAY AT 3:30, ANAHEIM AT DETROIT.

Here's a list of games NBC plans on showing (they pick 1 per week out of 3 choices)

http://www.nbcsports.com/portal/site/nbcsports/menuitem.6f806e473b4cb158fb00ec22493c2d04/?vgnextoid=7615ae3f90c37110VgnVCM10000075c1d240RCRD&vgnextchannel=9f23d5e59df02110VgnVCM100000dc032c03RCRD&vgnextfmt=default

HOW'S THIS FOR A TIP? A friend of a WIS staffer swears he saw former Texas Tech baseketball coach Bobby Knight inside the Columbia Airport earlier this week, just after he resigned from the Red Raiders. Obviously I don't have Knight's phone number, so there's no way of really knowing whether it's true or not.  Maybe he was coming to visit Lucas McFadden or Ben Tanner, who knows!   So how's this for a question, would you like to see USC sports have Steve Spurrier in football, and Bobby Knight coaching basketball?  What a collection of sound-bites that would be?

Super Tuesday & Super Bowl Betting Stats

THIS IS SHOCKING, VEGAS ACTUALLY LOST $$ ON THE SUPER BOWL: If you looked at my previous blog post, I predicted the Giants would not lose by 12.5 points, which was the Vegas point spread.  Although I wrongly predicted the Pats would pull it out, I got the spread right.  (disclaimer, I did not place any bets on this game)  Well, check this out, Vegas is reporting more than $92 million dollars was bet on the Super Bowl in Vegas, the third highest total ever.  And because a lot of other folks thought the Giants would keep it close, Vegas actually lost money, something that rarely happens.  Look at the size of the hotels on the strip and you'll quickly realize Vegas wins a whole lot more than they lose.

SUPER TUESDAY, I'M DIZZY:  Ok, my life isn't that exciting, I spent Tuesday night on the couch channel surfing on the various cable news networks, watching the Super Tuesday coverage.  Was it just me, or were CNN and FOX in a war to see who had the biggest plasma screen and which network could have more spinning grahpics.  Those sweeping camera shots and wild graphics, including reporters standing at touch screens making graphics go in and out, made me really dizzy.  If you were to be consuming an adult beverage during the Tuesday coverage, you'd be on the floor in a hurry with all that head-spinning fancy graphics.

HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED: perhaps the most thankless job in politics is being a spouse of a candidate, having to stand behind them while they speak to an adoring mob.

  Is it just me, or does Ann Romney, wife of Mitt Romney, also look grumpy when she's on stage with her husband.  Seriously, I've noticed this a lot. Perhaps it might have something to do with the fact Mitt is using much of his own fortune (NBC estimated it around $250 million) to run for president.  Judge for yourself, from the Today Show this morning.

  In case you wonder why John McCain's wife might look a little more happy, perhaps it's because of her day job.  Cindy McCain is the chairperson of her family's Anheuser-Busch distribution business.  So if you're in the Phoenix area and pop open a cold one, you might be supporting the McCain household and didn't even know it. Cheers!!

To be fair, you gotta think Michelle Obama is enjoying life these days too.  She's gone from being the wife of the junior Senator from Illinois, to now getting to pal around with folks like Caroline Kennedy, Maria Schriever and Oprah. 

I WANT YOUR THOUGHTS ON SUPER TUESDAY, CLICK THE COMMENTS LINK BELOW.