[BC] Last Stands

[Rich Wood]

------ At 11:14 PM 1/6/2006, Xen Scott wrote: -------

>Once, back in the 1970's while working for a TV station in Philadelphia, I had
>the experience of having a bunch of animal rights protesters force 
>their way into
>a studio where a show was in progress.  They chained themselves to 
>the TV cameras
>and stopped the show.  Fortunately the show was going to tape so the 
>incident never
>got on the air but it could easily have been the live local news 
>which aired later in
>the day.

A good promotion department would have put them on the air. I've 
hired protesters in the past and got more publicity than I could ever 
hoped to have paid for. When WOR hired Bob Grant we had all the usual 
suspects parading in front of cameras on Broadway. Jesse Jackson was 
there. Al Sharpton was there. They left as soon as the cameras did, 
but it brought us a series of terrific rating books.

>Some years ago at ABC News/Washington, a mentally disturbed man with 
>a gun entered the
>lobby area and demanded to see a senior news manager.  As it 
>happened, Peter Jennings
>was in the building, preparing to anchor World New Tonight.  A 
>security guard took the
>gunman to an unused floor with empty offices.  The security guard 
>was able to stall the
>gunman long enough for a SWAT team to arrive and take care of the threat.

That was a serious matter. Remember when the guy shot the Today Show 
tech in New York? There are times when you don't take chances. When I 
was at ABC we'd throw out any food sent by people we didn't know.

Rich


Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-303-9084
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