Tazewell Today

     This week we’re having a lot of fun playing “guess the shoe” with NBC’s Jay Gray…Live from the Beijing Olympics.

     Just about everyday he holds up a shoe and asks us to guess the sport that shoe is used in.  See if you can guess today’s shoe.  Good luck!

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    While you were more than likely fast asleep, snuggled up in your sheets on 4th of July morning…Donald, Bill and I were going through our normal routine of waking up to the sound of an alarm clock at 2 am…driving into work with hardly a car in sight…then once at the studio preparing to anchor the morning news. 

     At 5 am on the dot…our floor director Rhiannon instructs “stand by.”  I take one last glance in the mirror to make sure my hair isn’t sticking out and one more sip of coffee.  Donald glances down to make sure he’s standing behind the piece of tape marking where he’s to stand.  Bill is feverishly typing up his weather graphics for the show.  “In three, two, one.”  The show open is potted up.  We’re on.  “Hi there, thanks for joining us for NBC17 Today.”   That was just the beginning my friends of a wild and crazy ride.  Keep in mind it was a Friday morning and at that point we were already on our second cup of highly caffeinated, dark coffee (not Bill, he doesn’t drink coffee) AND it was a HOLIDAY!  The madness started early.  Trust me, commercial breaks are ALWAYS “interesting.”  Here are some behind the scenes pics courtesy of Erica Bustamonte. 

     Check out the pic below.  Bill and I were just having a normal conversation (as I use the word normal loosely), but little did we know Donald was giving us bunny ears. 

     And, how about my co-anchor Donald Jones’ tap dancing?  When he was a child he wanted to learn how to tap dance, but never took classes.  To this day, ever so often he’ll grace us with his wanna-be-moves (smile).  Take a look.  Oh, make sure to check out the facial expression of our floor director Rhiannon.  Also, check out Donalds socks!  After you watch the video I’ll explain why he was wearing those.

     Not bad, huh?  It almost sounded as though he was wearing tap shoes.  As for the socks, on a regular workday he wears dress socks, but after the newscast he was heading out to a cycling race.  You can read more about it on his blog Donalds Daily Draft.

    
Here’s kind of a serious moment.  Bill is at the weather wall during the newscast.  In the next picture Donald and I are waiting our turn.  If you look closely at the third monitor behind our heads you’ll see Bill on TV.  Then, Bill joins us at the anchor desk so we can chat about the weather before we toss to traffic.  Ah, just another day at NBC17 Today.  What a great job!

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     Yesterday evening I had the honor of representing NBC17 at the Rolesville Chamber of Commerce Business Expo.   Embarq hosted the event held at The Factory in Wake Forest.  Along with help from my fellow co-workers we showed off NBC17’s new rolesville.MyNc.com website channel to community  members.  I met so many wonderful people and after mingling through the expo I learned a lot about different businesses in Rolesville.

     BTW…be sure to watch the Tony Awards Sunday evening at 8.  My very talented brother-in-law Paul Tazewell (an amazing costume designer) received his 3rd Tony nomination.  This year it’s for  Best Costume Design of a Musical for Broadways “In the Heights.”  Last year he was nominated for The Color Purple…and prior to that Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk.  Good luck Paul!  We love you and are so proud of you!!

http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/nominees/index.html

http://ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=25200

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     I tell ya, what a pleasure it was meeting so many wonderful NBC17 viewers at last weekends NBC17 Health and Fitness Event.  They truly made my day!  Everyone from the Wrights in Fuquay Varina to Jennifer from Raleigh….and everyone else inbetween.

     We even convinced several people to yell a “WAKE UP CALL” which airs on our morning show!  Look out for those.   http://blogs.wncn.info/wakeupcalls/

     Donald and I started the day with the ribbon cutting, pretaped a couple of introductions and tags for the evening news and even grabbed a couple of jump ropes and skipped behind Peter Kunish during one of the morning show live shots!  We probably weren’t suppose to do that, but Donald and I get a little wacky sometimes and felt the urge to show it on air.  Peter was really shocked when we started skip roping in front of him.  He didn’t miss a beat!  Kudos to Peter for putting up with our impromptu, sporadic moments.

    If you missed the story shot by NBC17’s photojournalist Rod Baker, here it is.  We look forward to next year and we hope to see you there! 

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