Rob Morrison, Anchor
The 2008 baseball season got underway in a big way in Studio 6B today. Our technical crew was kind enough to put the Red Sox opener from Japan (6 am EST) up on our massive digital display monitors. If you don’t immediately recognize the space, it’s the background of Chuck’s set for New York Nightly News. We’ll switch it back before he gets in this afternoon.
Photo Credit: Darlene Rodriguez
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By Dan Rice, Chopper 4
I, like many of you, welcome this mini warm spell that we are experiencing. Even if Central Park let us down yesterday by not breaking the record high temperature, it still felt great being outside in short sleeves, without a jacket. However, like all good things, this too is coming to an end.
When there is a big change in temperatures, rough weather moves into the area. These changes greatly affect the chopper and what we can do. And today was one of those strange days to be flying!
When there is heavy fog, low clouds, heavy snow or driving rain, there is no question that the helicopter is grounded. Then there are those days where the weather is not bad enough to ground us yet it is not the best weather to be flying in either. Those days drive me crazy. Today kind of fell into the latter category.
From the ground everything looked fine with just a little bit of wind blowing. However, when we got into the air, Lars and I could tell that the weather had the chance to go downhill quick.
Looking out to the east, we could see low lying fog coming in from Long Island and moving over Brooklyn and Queens. When we arrived for our first job, over the Queensboro Bridge, Lars brought the chopper into a hover at 2,000 feet facing kind of southwest, into the wind.
He then pointed to the Airspeed Indicator on the instrument panel, which showed 60 Knots, or roughly 69 miles per hour, and the chopper was in a perfect hover!
It is not all that unusual for the wind to be stronger up where we fly than it is on the ground. However, neither one of us remember seeing such a strong head wind. On top of that, the fog was still moving in. Usually high winds will blow the fog away. Not this time. You could see that with the bus accident we covered later in the morning.
When we arrived at Empire Boulevard and New York Avenue and went on air with the story, which you were the first to see it here, on “Today In New York,” the fog was close but not quite over the scene.
When we updated the story 15 minutes later, the fog had started to spread over the scene. What looked like smoke blowing over the accident was actually the fog. We had been planning to stay with the story for the 7:25 a.m. update, but the fog was too thick for us to be able to see anything on the ground.
There are days when the weather is so great that I know I have the best job anybody could want to have. And there are days when we fly in weather that makes me think to myself “Why didn’t I just go for a regular 9 to 5 job?”
Then there is today….a day where nature gives you all that she has and defies what you expect to happen. Fog covered the east while there was a beautiful start to the day looking to the south and ominous looking weather moving in from the West.
All of this while fighting an almost 70-mile-per-hour head wind as we flew back to Linden Airport. Did I mention the cars on the FDR Drive were going faster than us?
** I am not a meteorologist, nor do I pretend to be one. I am sure that Chris, Janice, John, SallyAnn and Joe, along with anybody with a 7th grade knowledge of the weather, will laugh at my attempts to discuss weather and weather patterns!!! I think I’ll stick to accident and fires!
My wife is not a sports fan. But she figured something was up when one of her best friends went to every one of the Yankee/Red Sox games over the weekend at Fenway. The YES cameras actually caught her on camera Friday night and the announcers wondered what she was eating? For the record, it was an orange.
I was on a Jet Blue flight Sunday night when the Red Sox hit four straight homers. I motioned to my wife in the next seat after the 2nd, third, and 4th homers. She found it mildly interesting as she glanced over from the Home and Garden Channel or whatever it was she was watching. She thinks decorating a bathroom at a discount is infinitely more interesting than baseball.
It wasn’t until a couple of hours later when I broke the news to her that the Red Sox swept the Yankees. Her question was a good one. “What does it mean?” My answer was “nothing.” After all the angst over Mariano Rivera blowing Friday nights save, and Sunday nights homer barrage, the truth of the matter is “its early.” Then again, the Yanks have major pitching issues and I was impressed with something the Red Sox did Saturday. Two straight bunt singles. When’s the last time the Yankees did that? Are we in for another season of the “Yankee All Stars” not bunting, not stealing, not moving the runner over, and not playing a team game? If so… I may check out that Home and Garden Channel myself.
Dan Rice, Chopper 4 Reporter
Editor’s note: Dan wrote this earlier this week after flying over the huge crowd of fans, but it’s still timely because tonight is Game Night. Go Rutgers.
We saw an extremely rare sight in Piscataway, N.J., this morning. On the Bush Campus sits a football stadium that, previous to this season, I thought very few people knew existed. It is Rutgers Stadium.
Outside of the stadium stood thousands of college students waiting in line, some camping out overnight, to get one of the free 10,500 tickets available to Rutgers students for Thursday night’s nationally televised game against nationally-ranked Louisville.
The 15th-ranked Scarlet Knights and 3rd-ranked Cardinals have identical 8-0 records and have each earned three wins against other Big East teams. Thursday’s winner gets sole possession of first place in the Big East and has a great shot at earning a BCS bowl bid. 
I have never gotten into college football because, quite frankly, there really has not been a team in this area that has created any excitement about the sport. Especially not lowly Rutgers.
Think about it, the first collegiate football game ever played happened at Rutgers 137 years ago. Since then the team has never played a ranked team while they have been ranked. Something seems very wrong there.
My beautiful wife Shannon is a Rutgers alum and has always been very proud of her school. She insists that our four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter will eventually go to school there. She was never a big fan of many team sports, but I tried to share my passion for football with her 10 years ago when we first started dating. I tried to bridge the sports gap between us using her beloved Rutgers football team, but even Shannon realized how bad they were and gave up on them by the second quarter.
I mentioned this morning that I use to report traffic for Rutgers football games about ten years ago. I worked for Metro Traffic. One of the jobs was to report traffic for WCTC-AM, where I met Shannon. I reported New Jersey traffic, including pre-game traffic for Rutgers games, from a very small Cessna 172. There were some games that did not have as many fans in the stands as there were students standing outside the West gate for tickets to Thursday’s Louisville-Rutgers game.
Back then there were variable message signs on Route 287 telling motorists which exits to take to get to the various parking lots for the stadium. Since Sunday these same signs are on the highway warning motorists about traffic for Thursday’s and advising people to take alternate routes. My how times have changed!
The Newark Star Ledger reported a few days ago that Rutgers coach Greg Schiano is the highest paid state employee in New Jersey. I would say that has been money well spent. He took a 1-11 team and has turned it into a big time winner. High school kids from New Jersey are actually looking at Rutgers instead of heading out of state. More importantly, he has done something that even Shannon was unable to do. I am finally taking Rutgers seriously!
Who knows? If they keep this up, I may become a college football fan yet. I just hope there’ll be room left on the Scarlet Knights bandwagon!
Jay DeDapper, Political Correspondent
Democrats have waited 12 years for last night, but their big wins were somewhat anti-climactic. The big Democratic party at the Sheraton seemed more like a convention of accountants than a celebration of two of the biggest wins by any party in the history of New York. Why? Because all those pre-election polls proved correct. Democrats rode a tsunami of voter anger to capture all three statewide elected offices for the first time since 1938.
Eliot Spitzer won by 40 points, easily breaking the landslide record set in 1986 by Mario Cuomo. He’ll have a post-election-let’s-get-on-with-the-transition news conference with Governor George Pataki at noon today and will be asked plenty of tough questions about the tough choices he faces. The state budget faces large shortfalls, school funding needs to be fixed, and taxes are already the highest in the nation. His biggest challenge will be figuring out how to get anything done with Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Republican State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno — Spitzer will now be one of the “three men in a room” that has come to symbolize all that is wrong with Albany. A forty-point win gives him some muscle along with recent court rulings increasing a Governor’s power in the triumverate. Still Spitzer has a steep hill to climb. He’ll need all of those six cups of coffee he says he drinks daily.
Hillary Clinton came close to matching Chuck Schumer’s record-shattering margin of victory in 2004 and she will be able to point to winning in every county but two as she begins to look at the Presidential contest in 2008. Will she run? She says she hasn’t decided and there’s no reason to doubt that. Will she spend most of the next year exploring it (the Iowa Caucuses are just 14 months away)? Absolutely. She has $10 million left over, a huge campaign apparatus now fully operational, and a big big win to get her started.
One other note: New York will benefit appreciably from the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives. Charlie Rangel will become the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee which will probably mean a sizable increase in the amount of Federal funds flowing to New York. New Yorkers like Jerry Nadler will also have important seats on the Transportation Committee so the MTA oughta be ready to get those requests in for big projects now — while the Dems remain in power.
Rob Morrison, Anchor
“The future’s here, we are it, we are on our own.” – Bob Weir
Exciting night in the WNBC newsroom last night. Brian Williams has pointed out that “there are only so many Election Nights in life, after all.” This one was extra special for many people (most of them behind the scenes) around here.
Typically, local news coverage of an election consists of a few, short “cut-ins” during prime time programming; followed by as much information as 30 minutes (minus commercials) will allow during the 11 pm.
Last night, thanks to hard work and technology, WNBC was able to provide much more coverage, including a one-hour special(commercial free) on our digital cable channels, which was also streamed live on our website WNBC.com. In all, we were dispensing the latest information using three mediums at once. Each working sparately and together.
I don’t pretend to know what all those “behind the scenes” people were doing, or what all those cables were connected to, but I do know they did it diligently and very well. Everything went off as planned. It was impressive to see firsthand.
And this is just the beginning. In the future you’ll see many more media outlets using different “platforms” to get their messages out. But, for the record, WNBC was the first New York news station to do it during “Election ’06.”
“It’s dizzying, the possibilities.” – Bob Weir
Erin Monteiro, Field Producer
And then there was one. One hope for the Republican party.
We just interviewed Chris Callaghan’s son John, who predicted his dad is going to win. The Comptroller hopeful is holed up in his hotel room, waiting on the results like the rest of the GOP.
The governor and Senate races in NY have all but been decided. We’re hearing gubernatorial candidate John Faso will be making his concession speech.
No one in the ballroom of the Crowne Plaza Hotel here in Albany is surprised. They’re eating cheese, drinking wine and grooving to Earth, Wind and Fire. Much like our crew right now. All waiting on Callaghan.
Erin Monteiro, Field Producer
I’m in a small ballroom in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany with WNBC reporter Tim Minton and crewmembers Jay Gluck and John Albertson. It’s not what I expected. Right now it’s being turned into GOP central with posters and tape.
Senate candidate and Hilary Clinton opponent John Spencer walked in, looking a little defeated, hands clasped behind his back. I’ve seen Sen. Clinton walk into a room twice before. Both times I vividly remember her charisma and toothy smile. She never would have gotten two feet into the room without people coming over to her. Spencer got ten. Maybe fifteen.
I called Tim to come down so we could get an interview. Down by about 40 points in the polls, the Republican and self-described “average New Yorker” said he had “no regrets.” I want to describe him as hopeful, but that adjective wouldn’t describe anyone in this room right now. But he didn’t play the blame game. Not with the GOP. Not with Pataki. Well, a little with how much money Sen. Clinton’s “rich friends” gave her. When his interview was done, he turned around and walked out. No music. No balloons. Not even a wave. I’ll keep you posted when the rest of the Republicans come later for the party they’re throwing here.
Soon after John Spencer walked in, Assembly Minority Leader Jim Dedisco came in the room. I asked him to join us at 9:30 tonight to talk about the future of the party (I know, I know, even though the Democrats will still overwhelmingly control the Assembly.) He said he’s not sure what we’ll know then. Then he quickly corrected himself and let out a little laugh, and said he’ll see us later. I think most Republicans tonight know what they’re getting, at least in this room, with many unknown candidates, and long and uphill campaigns coming to an end.
The Callaghan-Hevesi race is being watched here. Could be the only glimmer of hope in this room tonight. In fact, I’m about to meet Christopher Callaghan’s son, John, who has been on the campaign trail with the man with the bowtie the entire time. You’ll get to meet him, too — in our 9:00 hour. Stay tuned.
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