Drive 55? No Can Do.

Seriously.  Today I had one of the Best. Birthdays. Ever.

I can live with being 55.  Double nickles.  The speed limit.

Birthdays that end in 0 or 5  are more momentous than the rest..  When I turned 50, I was unemployed. OMG!

I was fresh off of an eight-year-plus stint at WMC-TV in Memphis.  Legacy station.  Long time number one.  Ratings leader.

Some background.  I was hired in at WMC in 1998 by Bill Applegate, one of the most brilliant minds in the business. He moved on to Cleveland and was replaced by Howard Meagle.

Howard and I had a difficult beginning, to say the least.  We learned to appreciate each other.

I was invited to leave (fired) after the November book in 2006.  Not that it was a surprise.  Howard was dispatched in July, 2006 and when the new I-want-my-own-puppet GM arrived, I knew my days were numbered.  I lasted four months before hearing the words..."we need/want to make a change....blah blah blah."

Two weeks after a great 50th birthday celebration (January, 2007) in SD I traded in my beloved Mustang convertible for a Ford 500 (I am still driving the white Beast) and headed to Syracuse for a job at WSTM.  Fifteen months later John and I moved slightly south to the Scripps station in Baltimore, WMAR.  Forty-nine weeks later...west to Kansas City and KSHB.

I have now been at NBC Action News for two years, eight months.  Learned some things.  Hard things.  Survived another general manager change.  Learned to appreciate my strengths and to fix some of my weaknesses.

I let go of Memphis.  I began to appreciate Kansas City.  We bought a house here.

Most of all, though, I recognize the competitive spirit of the folks at 4720 Oak.  Today, I saw evidence of a high-functioning newsroom.  There have been glimpses before.  Today, I saw it clearly.

It was a great birthday present.

We can be winners.  I know it.  I believe it.

And I'm now 55 years old.  Wow.

I'm a Believer in Miracles

I've enjoyed, so much, today's retrospectives on the 1980 Olympic hockey team.  Back then I was a much thinner, younger, cuter girl.  Not yet married, I had an apartment in Reno with my pal Cindy Scripps (yes, that Scripps) but being the South Dakota corn pone that I was, I had no idea of her heritage...or that I would eventually work (twice) for the company that bears her name.

We both worked for KTVN, the CBS affiliate, but not in news...we were in the traffic department (not that there's anything wrong with that).  Here's how I remember it--we spent our days entering endless series of numbers into a computer that would eventually spit out a log used by master control so they would know which spots to run and when.  A real fun job.  Real fun.  Now I realize how difficult it really is but back then, I was clueless.

Cindy had a white 13-inch color TV that sat on our coffee table in the living room and that's where I saw the replays of "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!"

So three decades later, how FINE is it that the USA-Canada hockey game ended with the Americans winning?

Jack Harry just called me a few minutes ago.  Apparently his email and Twitter accounts are burning up with angry folks...mad as hell because tonight's hockey game was showed on MSNBC in analog rather than on NBC in HD clarity.

Jack wanted to know how to respond...and it's not hard to figure--the shirts at NBC made this decision weeks or months ago, based on the odds...that Team USA would not prevail against the favored Canada skaters.

I told Jack to remind viewers that these decisions are not made in Kansas City.  Because sometimes, boys and girls, network executives make mistakes.

I know, I know.  The men (women?) at the top have incredible resources at their command...research, ratings, history, focus groups...but still, they stumble at times.  Those of us way, way down the food chain suffer the consequences.

Buh-bye Leno Lead-in?

The NYTimes reports that Leno will soon be moved to after the late news -- a story that is the best yet of 2010!