Here on the WKYC Weekend Morning Show blog, we bring our viewers unique insight behind the scenes of our show, with written posts, candid photos, live webchats, live streaming web cameras and exclusive video shot by the staff that brings you the news each and every Saturday and Sunday morning at 9am on Channel 3.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Matt's Contribution to Kim's Garden
As Kim has requested, here are a couple of images from my yard.
Here are two pictures of our weeping cherry tree in full bloom. The first, on the left, includes the neighbor's dog, Harley, and below is a closeup shot so you can see the blooms in more detail. I do have to say that it is by far the best looking tree on the street.
To the left is a shot of our Bradford Pear in full bloom. It's too bad that these trees don't look like this all summer long. Oh well, that's what you get in northeast Ohio.
I worked at a garden center in Elyria for 4 years and was able to learn quite a bit about trees, shrubs and bushes. It's fun to take what I've learned and apply it to my own yard. I will admit however, that I know next to nothing about annuals and perennials, "the little stuff" as I call it, but I'm learning. I usually just let my wife take care of that stuff.
I hope you enjoy these pictures of my yard, and I hope that you will get involved and send us pictures of your yard as well.
So, last week I had video of my garden. Click to see Kim's GardenMy husband thinks it looks more like a "dirt garden" at this point! Jeff even made fun of it, claiming his looks just as nice as mine. But really, I promise in the last week, it has just taken off. My creeping phlox is in full bloom, and my catmint is coming along, too. This weekend, we put new mulch out so it's all coming together. It's the best time of the year.
Now, we want to see photos from viewers of their gardens, their favorite flowers, and any gardening tips. So email us and we'll put them on the weekend morning show.
To submit your own photos: CLICK HERE To submit you own video: CLICK HERE Please put "Kim's Garden" in the description.
We had some big fun shows this weekend. Sunday we were in Little Italy on remote reminding folks to buy local products at the I Buy NEO street festival. What a great day for it. Thanks Bruce for the most accurate forecast in town!
We also had a beautiful dog on the show who needs a home. I also was able to route some of the Progressive Field cameras into the switcher so we could get a close up look inside the ballpark. Next week I hope Jeff brings in some photos of his grandchildren to share with the viewers...and how about Kim's garden! It's coming along nicely!
Starr Sightings: Inside Studio A - "Producer Caitlin"
Producer Dave's last day was yesterday, and today producer Caitlin Kollar joined us and put together a great show. Caitlin often produces Channel 3 News Midday during the week and sometimes the 7pm news. She also writes for the weekend news on occasion but will now be joining us on the weekend morning show for awhile. We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Caitlin more.
Just back from a week in the Valley of the Sun, the Phoenix area, visiting our daughter Beth, son-in-law Bobby and five grandchildren.
People often ask me their names, and say they like them, so here goes, Chloe Autumn, age 9; Jade Summer, age 7; Cooper Blue, age 5; Juniper Spring, age 19 months and Juliet Winter, 5 months.
Spring is a great time to visit the desert--wall-to-wall sunshine and high temperatures in the 80's. In a month or two it will turn into Hades with daily highs of 110 or higher. It takes some getting used to for those of us from northeast Ohio's climate.
We've been visiting our family in Phoenix for eight years now.
Activities we've enjoyed include the Phoenix Zoo; Rawhide, the western theme park; Mesa Children's Museum; shopping in Tempe and Scotsdale and road trips to the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff and Sedona. Prescott is an enjoyable small town to the north, I think because it reminds us of small towns back home.
All these side trips are north of Phoenix. We've never driven south to Tucson or to Mexico. Probably because we're always there in summer and that time of year valley residents always drive north to get away from the heat.
During our visit Chloe had her first overnight school field trip--all the fourth grade classes at her school left late at night on chartered busses and woke up the next morning at the Grand Canyon. After spending the day at "that great big hole", they returned the next night.
My wife stayed an extra week. She has the pictures which I'll post next weekend so those interested can see how these youngins' are growing up.
10:30 a.m. So that's today's show, thanks for joining us. We were a little tight there at the end, but we were able to squeeze in Bruce's trivia. We were all guessing here in the control and Dawn guessed right! Have a great Sunday and we'll see you back here next Saturday!
10:15 a.m. So we are into Between the Lines right now. This segment takes up most of this half hour. When we come back Bruce will give us a final look at the forecast! The temperatures are dropping.
9:55 a.m. We just had Deborah Workman on, from the Sanctuary for Senior Dogs. She brought with her Ruby, a very sweet Dobermann. Ruby was very well behaved. If you want to meet Ruby or any other dogs from the Sanctuary, they are having an adoption event this afternoon at 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The Sanctuary is located at 4681 Broadview Road, Cleveland, OH 44109. The phone number is 216-485-9233.
9:15 a.m. Here's another Del's Folks Classic. This is a longer one, almost 4 minutes! But it's all about wedding cake, and I don't know about you, but I love looking at the decorations and of course it all looks delicious. Up next... Bruce's forecast!
9:10 a.m. So we are off and running and so far so good. In this block we are going live to Little Italy where they are having a street festival. The festival is going on from noon to 5 p.m. today. The festival is meant to promote buying from local businesses as part of the I Buy NEO program, sponsored by COSE (Council of Smaller Enterprises.) There will a lot of great food and fun activities for the kids and families.
8:57 a.m.
Good morning everyone! This is Caitlin Kollar. I'm going to be producing the weekend morning show for the next few weeks. Thanks for checking in with us. We are about 2 minutes out from the show. To give you an idea of what we're doing today, we're live in Little Italy where they are preparing for today's street festival. We also have a guest who will speak about a fundraiser for the victims of the E. 87 fire from 2005. Hope you enjoy and there is more to come.
Today, we have a terrible accident that happened overnight to report. Two fatalities from a "wrong way" incident on I-480. Every time we have a death to report, whether it's an accident or shooting or fire, I just can't imagine what those families are going through. After more than 20 years of being a TV reporter and anchor, reporting tragedies never gets any easier.
On a more positive note, we will be going live to one of our most treasured neighborhoods in the city...Little Italy. They are having a street fair and encouraging residents to buy locally. In this economy, so many neighborhood businesses are struggling.
And how about those Indians!! We will have highlights from their game with the Yankees, always love when they beat the Yankees. Eric Wedge was also thrown out in the 8th, so can't wait to hear what he says. This is the Indians 5th consecutive win. See you at 9am! Kim
This is why Jeff is so much fun to work with, you never know what he's going to say or do for that matter! We did a story on a guy in West Virginia riding his horse to work, instead of driving a car. I thought we might talk about the latest gas prices we saw on the way to work, but no....Jeff got hung up on the plural of hoof! So, we had to discuss it on the show. I thought it was "hooves." So, I had to look it up after the show, and here's the answer...for anyone who cares! You can either say "hoofs" or "hooves." It is kind of a running joke with him. For instance, every year we have parachutists probably in Nashville, dressed up like Elvis. So....after 12 years sitting next to Jeff...every time he ponders...the plural of Elvis!!! That one I don't think I can find in the dictionary. Have a great weekend, Kim
Starr Sightings: Inside Studio A - "Saturday, April 26th"
Saturday's morning show was rather calm. We had quite a few guests today. We expected one guest for an interview and found out at the last minute that we had two guests joining Kim for the interview. We hustled and got an extra chair on set and we were in the clear. That was a close one!
Jeff and Kim were stumped by Bruce's trivia question. It involved math so I zoned out right away. There was no way I was going to figure it out! I couldn't if I wanted to. Jeff and Kim continued to try and figure out the answer on commercial breaks. I saw Jeff writing a lot... and I knew it was a great attempt at the question. In the end, none of us in the studio were right and Jeff joked that those of us in this business are not very good at math. I can't speak for anyone else, but I am certainly lacking in the math skills department!
Today, Dave produced his last morning show at WKYC. While we are sorry to see him go, we wish him the best of luck in his new and exciting career adventure. Thanks for always printing scripts on time, buddy. I'll miss working with you!
10:27 We've reached the end of the road for this show and for me. I am moving on to produce a health show for the Cleveland Clinic. I hope you enjoy the weekend morning show and the blog in the future. Thanks for letting us in to your homes every weekend.
10:24 It was good to see Mike D'Amato in Del's piece today. He's a good guy who spent a lot of years in this business.
10:18 I have just confirmed that there is a real answer to Bruce's trivia question. This is by far the trickiest one he's come up with.
10:12 By the way, the Diversity walk is next Saturday at 8am. Channel 3's Romona Robinson will be there. It's a great family event. If you go, don't forget to check out the weekend morning blog when you get home.
9:50 Today's trivia question is tough. I think everyone is guessing today. 9:35 The Diversity Walk interview turned out to be two people. I thought it was only one. Jess and Raleigh had to hustle to get an extra chair out there. Good work.
9:15 I will take the blame on the "hoofs" talk. I love it when Jeff locks in on something. I wrote the "talk about hoofing it" line about the guy who rides his horse to work, now Jeff is having lots of fun with it. You never know what will stick with him. Today it's the hoof.
9:13 Producer panic moment. Whenever I have an actor or actress on the show I get a little nervous that they will show up on time. I am already considering my backup plan. Mariette Hartley is our guest at 9:23 and I have not seen her out there yet. We'll see what happens.
9:11 Today is a little different in that we are only going to do two live on the scene interviews (talkbacks) today. That gave me a little more room in the last half-hour of the show to get more stories in. There are a few good ones in there (I think).
9:09 We are off and running. We all got a laugh out of Jeff and his "hoof" comments.
8:54 It's producer Dave Grendzynski in the control about five minutes before the show. So far, so good. Jeff is back and in place. Greg Klinc is directing today for Matt, who is off.
Greg has worked on the show for a long time and knows it well.
We just had a momentary panic about our live shot. It suddenly went to black, but we came to find out that Chris did that on his own on scene.
Producer Dave Grendzynski and Director Greg Klinc, who is filling in this weekend for our regular director Matt Babb, let you know what you can expect to see on today's show.
Each week Del tapes a fresh intro for his "Del's Folks Classics", and then the director rolls the feature as if we were doing the show live. The next clip is Director Al Wohl getting into the first feature.
Del is cued by floor director Bethany Fox for his first tag.
A view from the control room as Del tapes another tag.
Del ends the behind the scenes tour with a personal message.
Make sure to tune in to the weekend morning show starting at 9am on WKYC to see Del's features. This weekend he will visit with a local cartoonist and with a wedding cake baker.To check out Del's Facebook profile: CLICK HERE
Terry Pitak, 9, and Max, 3, helping mom with our home video!
This is our backyard. It doesn't really start filling out until late spring or summer, but it's on the way. The kids love to play in their playhouse together. I can't believe my husband built this from scratch.
Pansies are my favorite, my grandmother used to have them, and my creeping phlox is looking great. The phlox is great this time of year.
This is our little Thailand corner, our Buddha statue under a Hydrangea tree, that is not blooming yet.
Our outdoor room...peaceful little corner.
My Peace Pole, it was a Mother's Day gift. My husband ordered the signs in English/Thai and then built the pole and the finials that go with it.
Happy Spring!
Can't wait until everything is in full bloom.
I'll be spending a lot of time here this summer, another garden tour coming in the next few months! Happy Planting, Kim
How can we top this past weekend?? Jeff is back this weekend, which always means expect the unexpected! He is back from visiting his grandchildren in Arizona, so I'm sure we will have some new photos and interesting vacation ideas from Jeff if you are planning a visit.
Those who know me know I love to garden, and I will take a digital video camera home with me this week and show you how my garden is doing. Gardening is my escape, for me there is nothing more peaceful or relaxing. My mother-in-law taught me all about gardening and we have done all of our landscaping.
My husband is very handy and he built a playhouse for the boys that looks just like our house! One thing is different this year, my little 3 year old Max has discovered worms and a shovel...so my flowers may not last for long this year!
I would like to thank all of the folks involved with making the debut of our new "Weekend Morning Show" blog a success! Now we just need to spread the word that it's available.
Thanks to Kim Wheeler for taking part and ad-libbing a couple of great promos for the site. Thanks to Dave Grendzynski for his great word adaptation of what was going on behind the scenes during both Saturday and Sunday's shows. They really made for a fun read. Thanks to Bethany Fox for her great behind the scenes photos taken with her cell phone. (Let me know what I owe you for sending those picture messages) I'd also like to thank Dawn Ermler-Fischer for all of her help as well.
We all had a really great time doing it, and you can definitely expect more fun and exciting things on the brand new "Weekend Morning Show" blog in the weeks to come!
Lots of animal stories today! Pig on the highway, big goldfish, snakes, adopt some dogs and we were at the zoo for Earth Day! Stay tuned for next weeks "Big Fun Show"! Jeff will be back to tell us stories about his grandchildren, Kim will tell us about how her garden is coming along and Bruce will give us another trivia question and the most accurate weather forecast in town.
10:27 Matt just said we are in for a comfortable landing. That means we won't run out of time. Nice way to end the show. Another one is in the books. Look for our behind the scenes video later today. Thanks to Matt, Dawn, Bethany, Jose, Jerry, Julie, Torris and Chris for another great weekend!
This was our first shot at the blog. We will live and learn each week. Feel free to comment on anything you read or see. Thanks for playing.
10:22 The one thing that always seems to happen on Sunday is that we get a little tight at the end. Bruce has to get the forecast and the answer to trivia answer in, so we always seem to run out of time. Let's see what happens this week.
10:16 Behind the scenes note. The producer is the person who keeps track of the time during the show, but when I went out to the studio to do our website feature, the job fell into Matt's hands. He multi-tasked his way through that segment. I gave him our target times and he kept Bruce right on time.
10:06 This is where things are a little different for us on Sunday. Between The Lines is usually taped, so there is not much for us to do during this segment but watch. Tom usually tapes on Thursday. I help him get his segment set for the director, but he decides the content on his own. This is Tom's baby. I like it. We hope you do too.
What I do during the little break is finish preparations on the noon show, which I also have to do, or go out to the assignment desk to see if there is anything happening.
It is nice to get a little breather. We don't get that on Saturdays.
10:04 Another Del classic.
9:59 I just watched the behind the scenes look at getting a guest. Sorry about the extended ceiling shot. I was trying NOT to step on the dogs.
9:55 By the way, I was surprised Greg had two dogs this morning. Sometimes it's hard enough to control one. I have to give him credit today.
9:54 So our little experiment was a success! When we showed the website on the air, I was clicking and scrolling live on the air. We hope that makes it easier for everyone to find the blog.
9:44 Just took Greg Willey into the studio and taped it all for you to see. We just wanted to give you an idea of what happens during a break when a guest segment is coming up.
9:36 I just got back to the control room. I went out to the studio to explain to Kim what we are planning after the dog segment. We will post that video later too. You can see exactly what happened during the break.
9:31 We are going to try something this morning. We are going to put our website up "live" on the air and try to show those who may not know, how to find our blog.
9:26 A funny little moment before we talked with Steve Taylor at the zoo. I kept giving him a "stand by" cue every time I thought Bruce was wrapping up. It took three or four, but we finally got there.
9:23 Bruce just revealed the trivia question and I have to admit that I already know the answer. I heard him telling someone earlier today. I can't play and Matt Babb is out too.
9:18 It's never over until it's over. I just spent the last five minutes adding a script to the next half-hour. You will see it after Bruce does this week's dog segment. I still have to go out to the set and explain to Kim what we are going to do. We are going to change that block of news. There is a lot of "drop and add" during a newscast.
9:11 Mike Solomon is here and ready to go. He's one of our legal analysts and he will be talking about online medical records today. Mike does a good job of finding topical stories to talk about each week. It's my job to take his script and add the video and the graphics that you see when the segment airs.
9:07 I just shot some video of our Director Matt Babb and Technical Director Dawn Ermler. I want you to see what they're doing during a typical block of news. We'll post it after the show.
9:03 Sunday shows are a little different because we have "Between The Lines" at 10:10 A.M. That makes my job a little more difficult because I have less time to get everything I want you to see in the show.
9:01 It's Dave in the control room. Sunday morning's show is off and running.
Producer Dave Grendzynski here! I just want to let you know what you'll see this morning on Channel 3 News Today.
We'll have the latest on the food poisoning incident at Chipotle in Kent. The number of sick people grew once again. Plus, highlights from the Cavs big win yesterday and we'll hear from the Wizards Brendon Haywood about his little skirmish with LeBron James. What was that about?
Today's law segment will detail online medical records. How safe is this, really? We'll be live at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo for the "Earthfest 2008". It ties in with "Earthday", which is Tuesday. There will be lots of things for the family to do out there today.
And of course, in the 10am half-hour, it's "Between The Lines" with Tom Beres. The changes at Continental Airlines and the closing of the Third District police station are just two of the topics that will be discussed.
Plus- 1,200 young women show up to the beach WITHOUT their bikinis.
It all starts at 9am with Kim Wheeler and Bruce Kalinowski. See you then.
Check out the brand new "WKYC Channel 3 News StreamCenter" on Facebook.
The WKYC Channel 3 StreamCenter is your one stop shop in Facebook to access streaming video from wkyc.com. Watch the latest investigations from Tom Meyer, a live feed of Channel 3's Weather Plus, consumer, political, education, health reports and more! You'll find links to all our regular on-line video features-Investigative, Weather Plus, Education, Health, Politics, Consumer, CommuterCast, and Sports.
Today, when I got into work I had an email from Bruce Kalinowski's sister-in-law, telling me to remind him of his 34th wedding anniversary today. So on the air I told him that I had been told today was a special day for his family....and he didn't know what I was talking about. Then, with more prompting, he remembered it was his anniversary. Very funny! In the meantime, I even know what he's having for dinner tonight and a special guest is arriving. I don't want to spoil the surprise though!
It was a fun newscast today. The turnout at St. Augustine's was amazing, as they collected donations for the homeless. They had dozens of young people there, too. Our young people are incredible in this city, and it too often goes unnoticed. That's the best part of my job, I get to meet so many children and teenagers who have wonderful hearts. I always tell people that there are far more kids doing the right thing, than people realize.
Tomorrow, we will be heading to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo for Earth Day. Join us bright and early at 9am. See you then, Kim
10:28 We've reached the end of the show. We hope you like the blog idea. Keep coming back and look for the play by play each weekend. We had a great show today! In the tv business we call this one "clean". Hope you enjoyed it too.
10:23 We're doing our last (what we call in television)"talkback" with Lisa Umina at St. Augustine's. This is where I tell you about Chris Kunz, the photographer who does those shots for us every weekend. Chris does a great job for us. He's a pro.
10:20 A big thank you to our Technical Director, Dawn Ermler. She is great at whipping up a graphic when we need one, like our blog graphic today. Also, good try Julie. Julie Ocepek (our aforementioned assigment editor) went to the blog and answered the trivia question. She was the only one to play. I won't tell you if she got it right. Keep it in mind next week though. You can submit your answer online.
By the way. Jeff, Kim, and the crew... we never know what Bruce is going to ask, so we play along, just like you do. Bruce comes up with some crazy ones. The whole trivia thing started with AJ Colby when he did weekend mornings. Bruce has not missed a beat.
10:14 So we're coming up to Del Donahoo's segment- "The Del's Folks Classic". I have to say I love Del. He is such an interesting person to talk to. I love his stories about the "old days" of television. He once took a job because the station had a hot plate. Unfortunately, when he arrived there for his first day, the hot plate was gone! It seemed like it worked out for him though. I still think that some of these stories, which are close to 30 years old, are timeless and I like them alot. I hope you do too.
10:10 Here's another inside tv note. The interview goes shorter than you planned, so you have to fill the time somehow. How? Call Bruce and tell him he just picked up 30 seconds. That's why he was a little late getting to the set just now. He was adding graphics to his weather segment because of me. Sorry Bruce.
10:05 In the seconds before the Josh Taylor interview started I was working fast to get the graphic that you see behind the interview set to work. We had a little problem, but we fixed it. I call this the "Producer Olympics". Situations producers get into, then must get out of, in record time.
10:03 Josh Taylor from the Downtown Cleveland Alliance is here to talk about tomorrow's "I Love Downtown" trolley tour. For 20 bucks you can hop on a trolley and tour a lot of places to live in Downtown Cleveland. They'll also make stops at a couple of restaurants too. It sounds like a great idea and the "Alliance" is working hard to do their part to get and keep people downtown.
9:57 More behind the scenes. Bethany Fox is floor directing today and we had her run up the stairs into web world and get the blog page up on the computer up there, so we can show it all to you on tv. Gotta go get a guest. Be right back.
9:48 The glory of television. I just sprinted across the newsroom to grab some information for Kim, then sprinted out to the set to get it to her before the
Here are two pictures of our weeping cherry tree in full bloom. The first, on the left, includes the neighbor's dog, Harley, and below is a closeup shot so you can see the blooms in more detail. I do have to say that it is by far the best looking tree on the street.
To the left is a shot of our Bradford Pear in full bloom. It's too bad that these trees don't look like this all summer long. Oh well, that's what you get in northeast Ohio.
