Happy Thursday!  Paul and I had fun this morning talking about our first jobs and how much money we made.  It all started after I read a story about a rise in the minimum wage.  The minimum wage is up 70 cents now and stands at $6.55 an hour.

Paul talked about his days at the Burger Chef in Huntington when he made just over 2 dollars an hour.  The benefits included those lovely brown and orange polyester uniforms, complete with the paper hats.  He also reminded me of how far the fast food industry has advanced.  When he worked the drive-thru, workers didn’t have head-sets.  When someone placed an order, you had to repeat it to the person preparing the food.  Now fast food workers have better, more advanced ways of communicating with the rest of the staff.  (And thanks to concerns about childhood obesity and the health of adults as well, we now have more healthy choices when we stop by the drive-thru.)

Many advances in technology are to be applauded and definitely make our lives easier.  I guess one of the things I regret is when computers replace people.  We used to have a camera operator and a floor director in the studio with us during Good Morning Indiana.  We also had a very nice guy named Steve who ran the audio board.  Now, we don’t have any of those positions.  Everything runs through a computer.  I understand the “advances” but I miss the people.  Thankfully, those people don’t miss their paychecks.  They’ve all moved on to bigger and better things.

As my career has advanced, there’s one thing I’ve held on to all of these years.  I still have a  dollar bill I earned from my first paycheck at a radio station in Orange, Texas.  It still holds some sentimental value to me.  My friend, penny-pincher Paul told me I need to spend it or put it in the bank.  I can always bank on Paul to put the value of a few cents over any sentiment.

Well, Tuesday the Good Morning Indiana team was finally reunited.  Our reunion, however, will be short lived.  Tomorrow and Friday I will be the solo anchor of the show.  Dan is first on call this week.  We have a nightside reporter who is taking some time off, so Dan will be reporting nightside on Thursday and Friday.

While I know Dan will do a great job, it’s going to be quite a shift change for his body clock.  I remember a few years ago, I filled in on the anchor desk on a Saturday.  The 6 p.m. was hard enough.  By 11, it took all my energy just to keep my eyes open.  I’m sure other reporters feel the same way when they fill in on Good Morning Indiana.

During the summer months, scheduling can get a little tricky.  A lot of people are on vacation.  If other people have family emergencies or get sick, watch out.  It’s like playing musical chairs to get all of the shifts filled.  I’m sure the managers would love nothing more than to have more reporters and anchors to fill in all the gaps.  Unfortunately, we’re also a business.  When the economy heads south, we head back to the budget to find ways to cut costs.  We rely on advertisers to make our money.  If companies are making less money and spending less on advertising, we have less money coming in.   And so, like many Hoosier households, we try to find ways to do more with less.

And so, you’ll see fewer faces on Good Morning Indiana Thursday and Friday.  Thankfully, Paul and Tom will still be here to keep me in line.  (Or isn’t it usually the other way around?? )

Happy Tuesday everyone!  It was great to have the gang back together this morning.  Dan and Paul tell me they enjoyed their 3-day weekends.  Now it’s back to the routine for all of us.

As many of you know, we’ll be converting to HDTV in October.  All televisions will go HDTV in February 2009.   We’re already gearing up for the changes here at RTV-6.  We have the new cameras in the studios right now, in addition to the cameras we’re currently using for the news.  Poor Paul is constantly dodging cables and wires to get to and from his computers.  Even so, our favorite morning weather guy doesn’t let the mess change is sunny disposition.

Next week we begin shooting new news opens in HD.  As many of you know, HD is supposed to give everyone a clear picture and show everything… every line… every wrinkle… every hair out of place.  Wow… I can’t wait.

Just yesterday I heard one of our reporters talking about HTDV.  He said he recently saw Ellen Degeneres in HDTV and she had a lot of wrinkles.  I know vanity is nothing to be proud of, but I have a confession to make.  (That’s supposed to be good for the soul, right?)  At any rate, I care about my appearance and how I’m going to look when we make the switch to HDTV.  I can’t help but laugh about the irony of it all.

You see, when I tried to get my first job in television, I had a heck of a time.  I can’t tell you the number of news directors who said, “you look so young”… “you look like a teenager”… “you like you’re right out of college.”  Well, I was right out of college!  Talk about frustrating.  Even when I got the job here in Indy, a photographer from another station approached me while I was on an assignment.  He asked me how long I had been an intern at Channel Six.  All I can say is I’m thankful to my first news director who gave me a shot despite my youthful appearance.  I guess he thought my home-grown roots in Texas outweighed the fact that I didn’t have any gray roots.

Now, all these years later, technology has come up with a way to show everyone how t-v types are aging.  I still refuse to try botox or anything like it.  (If you’ve found success with botox, that’s great.  It’s just not for me.)  I guess when it comes to HDTV, I’ll just grin and bear it.  Just bear in mind, you’ll probably see a few lines on my face when I grin. 

Hello everyone!  It’s great to be back with you again!!  After more than a week off, it’s time to get back in the routine.

My family and I had a wonderful vacation.  I can’t tell you the number of times my kids said, “Mommy and Daddy are here.”  I can tell it meant a lot to have the entire family together for an extended period of time.

We packed up the kids and headed to Ohio and Kings Island/Great Wolf Lodge.  The kids had a wonderful time.  As soon as we got home, the kids proclaimed they wanted to go back to the hotel.  At the same time, they all slept in our first morning back home.  Even my four-year-old son, who is a human alarm clock, slept in an entire hour.  As fun as vacations are, we sometimes need a little rest to recover from our time off.

It was kind of funny to return to work, only to discover that two of “my guys” had taken the day off.  Dan and Paul will be back tomorrow.  I look forward to the team being together again.

I hope you’re having a great summer.  Hopefully you’ve found a little time to take a vacation… and then a little more time to relax from your busy vacation.

Well, it’s not very often that Dan and I get to interview someone in the national spotlight.  We did interview Barack Obama, but that interview was via satellite.  This morning, the Reverend Jesse Jackson joined us on set.  Reverend Jackson is in town to help kick off the Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration.  No one could have guessed that the day before his visit to Indianapolis, another story would develop and make national headlines.

As most of you know by now, Reverend Jackson made some comments about Senator Obama when he thought his microphone was off.  So, while I’m sure the Reverend would have preferred focusing only on Black Expo and all of the positives surrounding such a wonderful event, Dan and I had to ask him about the controversy.

The awkward part for me was the so-called, interview set-up.  Reverend Jackson was sitting right next to me while I read the story about what happened yesterday.  We ran the clip of what Jackson said.  Now, of course we had to run the soundbite.  I must admit, however, it was a little uncomfortable to have the Reverend sitting less than a foot away from me at the time.  Oh well.  It’s my job to report the news and that’s what I did.

There’s no doubt this is a story a lot of people are talking about.  Many people have questioned how someone can be sitting in a television studio, with a microphone on, and make a comment not meant for everyone’s ears.  There have been times when stories have been on the air and I am chatting with Paul or Dan about something totally different, only to have the producer tell me “hey… your microphone is still hot!” 

Well, if you’re not careful, you can find yourself in a hot mess when a microphone is nearby.  So, here’s some unsoliticted advice from the GMI crew.  If you’re anywhere near a microphone, always assume it’s hot and don’t say anything that could put you on the hot seat.