This :30 promo was airing in September, 1999, and in the part where I describe my lunchbox camera adventures, I'm standing in old Glenwood Cemetery, which sits alongside the playground of Webster School, the elementary and junior high school I attended in my hometown of Collinsville, Illinois. It was on that playground where I began my broadcast journalism career at about the age of 6 or 7, when I began playing "TV reporter" at recess. I'd hoist my heavy metal Batman or Superman lunchbox on my shoulder, usually with that heavy matching Thermos bottle inside, and with the other hand, pretend I was holding a microphone. I'd then walk around the playground, asking questions of the other kids like, "What are you doing?" and "How long have you been doing it?" Once, some girls playing jump rope took offense to my inquisitiveness, and told the playground monitor, Mrs. Marks, that I was pestering them. Without even asking for my side of the story, I remember her grabbing me by the shirt collar, pulling me along behind her, taking me to stand against one of the old school's brick walls as punishment. As she did that, I thrust my pretend microphone at her and demanded, "Why are you doing this to me? I have freedom of the Press!" On other days, I'd enlist my friend Johnny Gerdes to play TV with me, assigning him to lunchbox/camera duties, which would free me up to just concentrate on the reporting! One of the endearing memories for me of this particular promo shoot is that our then-three-year-old son, Will, was enlisted to play a six-year-old me! Will was used frequently in KOTV promos of the era, and in this one, Marketing producer Joanna Shelton had him standing in the street in front of our home, trying to encourage Will to hoist an old plaid lunchbox she'd found at a flea market onto his shoulder. Working with a three-year-old is not the easiest job, especially on a hot day when the Sun's hurting his eyes and he's quickly losing interest, but Joanna included a book inside the old plaid lunchbox as a reward, and to keep Will's interest from flagging until Marketing photographer Jeff Popkess could get the shots he needed. In the end, Will appeared for a couple of seconds at the beginning, and the finished product was made to look old with scratches, like old home movies. The best part is that I saved the tape of that day, as Joanna and Jeff are trying to keep Will interested, and I've been able to preserve it to a digital format. And the Emmy numbers are a bit off herein. I ended up with eight Emmy Awards and twenty-nine Emmy nominations from the Heartland Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for my work at KOTV in Tulsa. But who's counting?

• published: 07 Sep 2020
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