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.

39 thoughts on “A Busy Day At Work And I’m Not Even Working Yet!”

  1. Interesting – I’ve been impressed with the news on Fox 61 since I started watching regularly after my former favorite station became unwatchable a few months ago. They do a more thorough job of covering the shoreline, and I like the Courant connection – that’s always been a good paper. Plus Fox 61 recognized a good hire when they saw it – can’t wait til you’re on regularly! Any predictions on how often your stories will air on the 4 pm show?

  2. Geoff,

    Congratulation on your new position! I think it is a match made in heaven, for sure. Don’t think for a minute that you lucked into this position. Your hard work over the past twenty plus years earned you this spot! Even though I moved out to California several years ago, I still spend lots of time on the shoreline in CT. I look forward to seeing you on Fox CT, and will definitely check the forecast on the website when I need it! Congrats again!

  3. Proof is in the pudding….when one door closes another opens. God works in mysterious way and he knew that you were not in the proper environment to grow. Best of everything to you and your family! So glad your on Fox.

  4. Congratulations. I am now a fan of Fox 61. I just can not get used to the replacement on WTNH. I guess your shoes were just to big to fill.

  5. Mazel Tov! I hope Channel 8 now realizes what they gave up. Missed you and looking forward to Monday. See you after Seder! Happy Passover to you and your family.

  6. This is the second time this week I’ve been reminded about how when things seem to be going wrong, they are actually going right! God DOES work in mysterious ways! Best of luck to you at Fox…watched them for the first time tonight (Have been watching CH 30 at 11). It’s been a Loooooooong winter without you… welcome back!

  7. This is a win win for all concerned. Fox 61 gets high profile talent that can increase its ratings, Geoff gets to work in a state of the art facility and WTNH well…I’m sure they got what they wanted.

  8. This was meant to be. What is that saying??? When one door closes another door opens. Now you are one step up on that ladder to continued success! I couldn’t be happier for you and your family. I look forward to watching you on FOX.

  9. I bet you are like a kid in a candy store with all the new equipment and technology. Congratulations and HAVE FUN!!

  10. My Best Wishes to you. WE (YOUR FAN CLUB) are SO Happy for you. Fox 61 is SHARP ! Eat your heart out News 8………”YOUR REPUTATION WILL ALWAYS PRECEDE YOU” Sincerely, Joan

  11. Can’t wait to see the 4pm and 11pm news and weather on Fox Monday. Your charisma,enthusiasm and superior knowledge have been missing for too long.
    This really IS front page news! Fox has made many. many people very happy. Yeah: Fox on Fox. What a great promo.

  12. Best news I’ve heard in awhile! I look forward to watching you ,once again, on the news on Fox , which as of now, is my favorite station to watch!

  13. HOOOOO RAAAAY!!!! Good for you Geoff (Jeff to some)!!! I have been wtching Fox news since you “left” WTNH and found it to be a great news source. Now I have to admit Rachel is a lot easier on the eyes than you, (sorry but it is true) and together with Joe and Dan I believe Fox will hit the top of the leader board with a forecasters dream team. Lots of luck and looking forward to Mondays telecast.

  14. Happy for you man…been a fan since i was in high school. Dont watch WTNH news anymore after what they did to you. Glad to have you back

    Congrats to you and your family!

  15. We are very happy for you and our DVR has already been set for Monday to record FoxCT news. We were loyal fans of your other network, then stopped watching. We are more than happy to follow you at your new home on Fox!!!

  16. Congratulations Geoff.
    We left WTNH in January – now we have a new home for our news and weather. We have been wandering in the desert…..

  17. Yea!!!!

    Glad your on the Fox team, I’ve switched over to them and found that Rachel Frank, gave some good reasonable explanations about the “why weather”, but not as much information as you did on WTNH. She was a good surrogate to get me though, until you found a new home.

    Now your working together, Fox-CT just got better, incredible!!

    -paul

  18. Congratulations!!! I guess we will be watching Fox-CT. I have always believed when one door closes another one opens.
    Best Wishes…

  19. That’s great news Geoff. BTW, I have done business with Channel 8 this year and the “control the bleeding” attitude is very evident. Will be watching Fox on Fox!

  20. Congratulations and good luck with the new position. You have been sorely missed on the air ( but fun to follow on your blog!)Now we all can go to sleep with confidence . Glad you ae back!

  21. Congratulations!! Happy to switch to FOX-61, the other two channels hadn’t really done much for me so had stopped getting local news from TV altogether.

  22. One more cliche to add: Everything happens for a reason. Looking forward to seeing you “live” on Monday. Wear something grand!

  23. Geoff – What great news! Can’t wait ’til Monday. It’s been a dry season! There’s a ton of us going over with you!

  24. good for you can’t wait to see you again channel 8 except for dr mel is awful i’ve been watching 61 for a long time they are the best now their weather will be the best

  25. Obviously, Fox knows (and hires) talent….
    Wonderful news Geoff – CONGRATULATIONS! I’ll definitely be watching!

  26. Everything happens for reason…When i watched channel 8 it was only to catch the weather, I’ve been a long time fan of Fox 61 now it all comes together!

  27. I was so happy to see you on the air on Fox at 4 pm, Monday, (actually, I DVR’d the show since I wasn’t home). I was having a bad day and when I saw you (again, but not in a long time) on the air, I felt a sense of normal come about. I’ve watched you for the 26 years prior, and seeing you again made things normal again. It made it right. GREAT JOB!!! I missed you! Thank you :)I do have a question… why do I hear background noise during broadcasts on Fox?? Do the mics not have a noise reducing feature? Is this suppose to be part of the live experience? It distracts me. I did sometimes watch this new program before & always noticed this so never became a regular viewer because of it. Now I’ll be watching a lot more (for you) so I want to bring it up.

  28. Hi Geoff, congratulations, so glad you are back on the air. I haven’t watched that “other” station since they… well, I’ll just say since they behaved so poorly.

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