K'vegas Gets a Visit

The Piedmont Triad. It's the region in North Carolina made up of Winston-Salem to the Northwest, Greensboro to the Northeast and High Point to the south. Kernersville sits right in the middle. We affectionately call it K'vegas. When our country was in its infancy, Kernersville had a little visit from a very important person. George Washington made a stop for breakfast in this small town. Last week another George W made a little stop. Yep, George W. Bush came to the Deere-Hitachi plant to talk about the economy.

The call came late Friday night. It went something like this, "Kenny we need you to get the live truck in place by 6:30am Monday for the President's visit." My Assignment Manager went on, "Secret Service will do their sweep at 7:30 and you can get back inside at 10:30 when Brent will meet up with you."

So my day starts at 5:30 to get Live 4 loaded and make my short drive to Kernersville. Problem one of the day, not enough gas in Live 4. OK, stop and get some on the way, no big deal. Unfortunately, the battery that was just replaced only days before had run down again. (I told those mechanics the alternator was bad!) So in the pouring rain at 6am there aren't a lot of people pulling in to get gas. After a few phone calls to the station to see if anyone can make it to me in less than 30 minutes and finally a kind gentleman pulls in and says he can indeed jump start my live van. Problem 2 of the day solved.

I arrive at the Deere-Hitachi plant with plenty of time to spare and start a line of satellite trucks and live vans at a gate around back, not the place where we all thought we'd be and worries pop into my head about whether or not we can get a live shot out of this location. Oh well, go where Secret Service tells us. Now, I see that most of my competition not only has about 4 crew members to help pull cables, set up tripod, lights, camera, check mics, check cables, etc... but they also have support vehicles to take them away once they're set up. That's OK, I've pulled cable on longer runs than this and I don't mind sitting in the truck for a few hours, I could get some reading done. Less than an hour later, I've got a great spot and have video coming from the camera to the truck. No time to check the audio as Secret Service is running us out.

Three hours pass and it's time to get inside and meet up with Brent who's come in another vehicle and checked in through the media entrance around the front of the building. As I try to enter through the same door I'd come in and out of 20 times earlier that morning I'm stopped and told we can no longer come in this door, I have to go to the front of the building. How do I get there? You must walk around the building, in the cold, in the pouring rain. After explaining myself to every Kernersville cop, and Forsyth County deputy along the way, I finally make it to the media entrance at the front.

So, now that I've met up Brent I need to make sure all connections and cables are right with the live truck. Hmmmmm, that means I have to go out the door I was just told we couldn't go in and out of. I ask and am told that we can now go through the door with proper credentials. I have those. To the truck, dial in IFB, check the signal from the camera and the mic and take an extra audio cable for backup. As I head to the door I'm stopped by a Kernersville police officer who informs me that once I went outside a certain perimeter to get to my truck I now have to go around the building to the front! Well, this is pretty much unacceptable as I've got to be able to make trips back and forth to the live truck for systems checks. I get the attention of a Secret Service agent who says, yes, the patrol officer is correct but he'd make an exception this one time. OK, now that I'm back inside I can not go back out. A phone call to the our Assistant News Director and soon Chris Weaver is on his way to take over live truck duties. I think he was a little pleased he didn't have to stand in the rain with all the folks along the streets watching the president drive by.

The rest of the day was a series of live cut-ins before the president arrived at the plant and then live coverage of the entire 45 minute speech. A quick dash into the crowd to get some interviews after Mr. Bush left and we had our package shot. Now we just had to wait for Secret Service to open the doors to let us out so we could edit and go live again at the front of the plant. After jump starting the live truck again Brent and I were on our way to making TV for the five and six o'clock newscasts.


The packages and live shots went off without a hitch albeit in the freezing rain, and it was time to get loaded up and leave. Oh yea, one more jumpstart of live four and take it back to the bureau. I made it home about 7:30. Ah, the exciting life of television news all to see the leader of our country tell me he's brilliant for giving some tax cuts. Sorry W, tell it to someone who didn't have a 14 hour day.