Newsroom Set

It was decided at one point that we should abandon the studio news set in favor of a newsroom set. The concept was that it would show the busy newsroom in the back. It was certainly more cramped back there for the cameras to move around. And it was a great deal noisier than the sound dampened studio walls. There was always a mess on everyone’s desk in the backroom and people tended to wander around in the background, unaware they were on air. Another problem was that there are many doors leading to the outdoors and to this day our studios are located near a woods and marsh. So it was not unusual to find insects or even snakes in the newsroom on occasion.

One night during an 11pm news Dick was on a center shot reading a story when a fly flew into his mouth. In horror everyone in the control room watched in shock as Dick swallowed the fly and kept reading. Dick was always having fun with us but he was also a professional. I never knew if he did this to be funny or if he was being a consummate professional by not “stopping the show.”