20 minutes 'til the Gazette goes live

I know this is super dorky, but it's still kind of exciting to have the lights and cameras and everything in the newsroom. The first "live from the newsroom report" should be at 4:13 on News First Now (Comcast Channel 9).

I'd just like to note that Tom Roeder, the Gazette's military repoter, is one of three people in the newsroom who does, in fact, own a tie (it may be a clip-on - I can't vouch for him). Probably why they gave him first crack at the camera.

Oh, I suppose this is technically the big launch for KOAA's 4 p.m. newscast, too. But we know where the real excitement is coming from.

UPDATE: Speaking of the newscast itself... eh, it's OK. I was expecting something a little more conversational. The shooting at the governor's office might have necessitated a more serious take, but they still jumped right away to Mike Madson's weather report. I was thinking Laura Rojas and Madson would do more banter. I'm not opposed to features like the "Chef's Corner," but I think they work better done live on the set or maybe with more of a build-up, so it's not just thrown in. I'd like to have seen more of Madson doing his Madson thing - explaining how sweating cools you off or boiling an egg on the sidewalk or some such.

Poor Tom, he had to follow the moose photo. That's tough.Good thing he had the Special Forces in the prison story -- funniest story of the month. I was hoping he could get Rojas to crack a smile. She seemed a little nonplussed at Tom's wild-eyed tales of gun-toting secret soldiers.