Round 4 Week 5
Wed. Bonus: 10 X 5 Pull-Ups
Thu.: P90X Yoga X+ Bonus

Early 1990's -- fresh out of college, following my major into a soft job market, right into the arms of WGAL-TV in Lancaster, PA. From an intern to... a paid intern, basically. Associate Producer. Nickname - "Ass Prod." Reality - Ass Prod. ;)

A few crazy fun, tough, exhausting, exceptionally underpaid years later, I emerged on the other side wiser, heavier, and ready to start up a fresh company willing to truly reward me for my efforts -- Classroom Connect.

But, I digress. WGAL was a fun, crazy way to take my work life from a newspaper to a TV station -- and one reason it was crazy and fun was one guy -- Jim O'Reilly. Jim dropped into town last night on a shoot for his production company, and we had a chance to catch up on 15 years of goings-on... (Wow. That's a long time!)

Back in the day, Jim was the guy in the front of the newsroom, a vast open space lined with desks. His was set up a few feet on a platform with a desk on front of him, a bank of 9? TV's behind him, and a few old PCs with Betacam recorders attached to control/record feeds coming off a few satellites. Almost forgot -- and a few police/fire scanners tuned to auto-scan, constantly blaring calls from personnel.

He's the guy answering the phones, coordinating multiple photographers (videographers) in the field, running interference with herded cats -- I mean news producers, interns, anchors -- and, in general, making sure we got the stories we wanted and keeping his fingers on the pulse of the freakin' universe.

Any sane person would be driven crazy by this always-on existence. And Jim indeed was and is insane. In a good way. He'd no sooner get off the phone having a heated conversation with someone than turning to give direction to a crew, then open a folder to plan a story later in the day/next week, without missing a beat.

He was both in and out of control all... the.. time.

Best nugget from the night -- his production company was the last to interview and shoot video of Dr. Robert C. Atkins, the originator of the famous Atkins Diet (no carbs) -- the day before he slipped and fell and died in NYC. So whenever you see video of Dr. Atkins on many TV shows, it's the video Jim shot... and Jim appears in it as well. Spurs more calls/emails of "hey, did I just see you on TV Jim?" than anything else he's done.

So Jim, great seeing you -- and Deb, I, and William WILL find a way to get up to Chicago, our favorite town, to see you and your beautiful daughter.