In my line of work, when you are reporting or anchoring for the morning show, you can expect to be tired. All the time. It’s just the way it is. But to be honest with you, I’m actually used to it. Granted by 7pm, I can be pretty cranky (my apologies to the wife and kids), but you take the good with the bad. The good? I get home at 1pm and get to spend the rest of the day with my family. I can coach my sons’ baseball teams. I can go to all their events. I can work out. The bad?
I’m tired. All the time.
The question I get asked the most is, “What time do you wake up?”
I love the look on their faces when I say, “Three a-m.”
Some of my friends don’t even go to bed until then. They picture their alarm clock going off at such an hour and how they would handle waking up so early (or late, depending on your perspective). Then, inevitably, comes the next question. “What time do you go to bed?”
9:30 or so. I get about five hours of sleep each night. Not a lot, but thankfully God created caffeine, and someone harnessed this wonderful stimulant in the form of coffee and diet Coke. It’s the only way I can stay awake at such a God forsaken hour. I drink two cups of coffee and then go to the soda pop.
(As an aside, how the heck did we ever come to nickname soda pop? I laugh every time my friends from the south call it Coke. All of it. As in, “Do you want a Coke?” “Sure, bring me a Sprite.” Huh? Why not call it all Pepsi? How did Coke come to be a universal term for pop?)
Anyways, when I walk into the Fox 4 newsroom, our producers have already decided what story they want me to cover for the morning shows. I jump on the computer to get all my facts straight and then head out the door for live shots. Our news vans have the equipment that allows us to raise a tall pole, called a mast, and beam a signal to our tower at 31st and Broadway, which is then transmitted to your television sets via our station. I wear an earpiece to hear when the anchors toss to me. I then tell my story, toss back to them, then go back to the truck and wait. Thirty minutes later, I do it all over again. When the news ends, I usually get assigned a different story for the noon and I write that before going live again. When I finish my live shots, I get to go home.
I helps to work with great photographers. They get the visuals to match my words, plus they can make five hours sitting in the truck fly by with interesting conversation. I love the crusty photogs the best. The ones who have an opinion on everything. It makes it fun to debate the issues and see how quickly you can frustrate them. Which usually doesn’t take long.
So that’s it! That’s the life of a morning news reporter. See you tomorrow on the telly!
Matt Stewart
matt.stewart@wdaftv4.com