Tag: Fox61

A Busy Day At Work And I’m Not Even Working Yet!

I love my friends back in New Haven, but only now do I see what we were missing.

I’m suffering jet lag without leaving the state! Up very early (for me–not real people) the last two days I’m in some sort of blurry stupor. One more early day to come Friday. I’ll be on with Chaz and AJ on WPLR 99.1 at 8:00 AM then Colin McEnroe on Connecticut Public Radio (www.wnpr.org) at 1:00 PM. I hope the car knows the way home on its own!

I was at work by 10:00 AM to join the celebration of FoxCT receiving three dozen Emmy nominations and to be officially announced as a new hire. Three dozen Emmy nominations at one station is a pretty big deal.

The rest of the next few hours were taken up shooting photos with the weather team and taping pieces of promos which begin airing this weekend.

I want to try and explain the differences between FoxCT and WTNH. The most obvious is size!

With both newspaper (Hartford Courant) and TV station sharing a large newsroom there’s an obvious focus on news gathering. Desks were populated. Folks were on the phone working stories. The assignment desk was buzzing.

The whole place is orders of magnitude bigger than where I’ve been working. In New Haven we had around 100 employees (maybe less by now?). In Hartford there are over 600. There are departments of people the economies of scale wouldn’t allow at the old place. It shows in how the vehicles and equipment are maintained.

I love my friends back in New Haven, but only now do I see what we were missing.

More than anything the attitude is different. At FoxCT people seem to feel they’re working with a viable product and the business can be grown. Back on Elm Street it often felt the main goal was to control the bleeding.

Maybe this sounds like sour grapes? I’m the first to admit I’d still be driving to Elm Street had I been offered continuing employment. On the other hand I wouldn’t have known any of this had I not lucked into this situation.

I’ve Got TV Visitation Rights

I wasn’t in the building five minutes when I ran into MaryEllen Fillo. This evening her Java blog proclaims: Geoff Fox Visits Fox CT Newsroom.”

Back when I was gainfully employed I seldom visited other TV stations. Now it’s different. I drove up to Hartford to see some friends at the Courant and FoxCT. It’s a very impressive place!

Both the TV station and newspaper are located in a state-of-the-art building on Broad Street at the edge of downtown. They share a common newsroom which meant lots of busy people. I miss that electricity.

I saw lots of old friends–all smiling.

I wasn’t in the building five minutes when I ran into MaryEllen Fillo. This evening her Java blog proclaims: “Geoff Fox Visits Fox CT Newsroom.”

Guilty as charged! However, as of tonight I have nothing to report… except they misspelled my name.

My Dinner With Rachel

She’s a Penn State grad. They are known for having a very strong meteorology department–one of the best

I went to dinner with Rachel Frank tonight. She is the nighttime meteorologist at Fox61. We’d traded emails, but never met… in fact we’d never even spoken until I called just a few steps from the parking garage. I was a little lost.

Since Rachel was between shows I let her choose the location. We had Mexican at Besito in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square. The restaurant is dark and stylish with a tall wall of candlelit lamps.

I am mostly a ‘downstate’ boy so most of what I know about Blue Back Square I learned while watching TV news (while sitting in the studio). It’s very impressive with a West Coast open air feel.

That wasn’t perfect for tonight’s rainy chill, but it was still cool to walk around the area (while lost, not wearing a jacket and with my umbrella safely sitting in the car — some weatherman I!).

I had Enchiladas Langosta Y Jaiba: lobster & crab escabeche baked in a roasted yellow tomato salsa, with pico de gallo and pasilla chile. Who knew lobster and crab was Mexican? I think they’ve taken liberties!

Rachel had Enchiladas Suizas: Swiss style enchiladas with shredded chicken baked in a tomatillo cream sauce with melted cheese, onions and cilantro. She also order a side of plantains which we shared.

God I wish I had her metabolism! She is thin, but not shy of food!

She’s a Penn State grad. They’ve always had a very strong meteorology department–one of the best. We talked about weather and being on TV. It’s definitely an interesting combination.

She enjoys her work. I like that.

At one point a woman made her way to our table to say hello and ask me for an autograph. Rachel and I had been talking about viewer recognition earlier and… voilà! It was a made-for-TV moment in a place I didn’t expect.