More people showed up. The rest of the morning and early afternoon was filled with introductions and chit chat, even Kellen came by and joined in. Ian was pleased that the mysterious blonde had finally been introduced to everyone, and Kellen seemed happy to finally be a part of the neighbor clan, Ralphie having long since been a staple.
Stomachs finally satiated, and cliques merged, remerged and reformed finally leading to the office team seated on various devices around one end of the pool. Someone brought up the morning program and someone asked a newcomer for an opinion.
Without a beat, the man said, “Too boxed in.”
Without Ian’s prompting someone ‘encouraged’…”Explain”
Another person said, “It’s like having someone read the newspaper to you.”
“And they are sleepier than you!” Another chimed in to chuckles.
“What about the anchors?” Ian asked.
“The guy’s kind of like your Granddad, but the woman she’s kind of…of…”
“Severe!”
“Yeah, that’s the word. She’s young-ish but she makes me think I’ll get smacked if I don’t eat all my gruel.”
“Hmmm…” Ian said, “Maybe we have more of a problem than I thought.”
Daryn’s boyfriend piped in, “Now I don’t need to see cleavage and red lipstick during my news, but it would be nice to watch someone who looked they there were enjoying delivering it to me.”
“Make it just a little more exciting.” Blake’s new boyfriend chirped in. “And once and a while could it just make me feel good…without making me feel dumb?”
Pearce asked, “What do you mean by that?”
“Well, I think that news people, and politicians, try to be so extremely intelligent they forget that I don’t always want my mind expanded first thing in the morning. Hell, I just want to ease into it when I can and not have run to my dictionary.”
“Yeah, when they do do a…what do you call it…a fluff piece, does is it have to be so condescending? It may make me smile for ninety seconds or so, but as soon as they cut back to the studio the looks on their faces makes me feel like my mama just caught me in the can with Daddy’s Playboy!”
“Do ya even need a regular anchor?” Tippy asked, “Maybe just a series of reporters for variety. That might keep it fresh.”
“I don’t know. It is nice to see familiar faces…”
“Yeah, when you turn on the TV you’re inviting someone into your home, and first thing in the morning you want to feel comfortable with the faces when you’re sitting on the commode and running around in your underwear.”
Pearce laughed out loud, “I suddenly have a whole new image of the audience in my head.” Everyone laughed. “What about a regular anchor reporting from different places without a permanent set?”
One of the women piped in, “Does it always have to be Darfour or in front of the latest terrorist attack? Couldn’t it be just regular places?”
Pearce was thinking, “You mean like a park in Arkansas or a State Fair somewhere?”
“Yeah. Like that, show me the real America while you are telling me about the world!”
“What about a regular anchor that travels around the country?” Wella thought. “Maybe staying a week in one place and using locals the help with the lighter stuff, like interviewing the librarian about the town’s history or helping the bake off winner make her recipe on the air?”
“Using unseasoned locals may be too risky.” Ian added.
Daryn had a bright idea, “What about scheduling affiliates and using the local anchors and promising college students? HRT gives a fortune in broadcasting scholarships, maybe choosing the best of those and using them in rotation.”
“Not bad” Ian said taking a sip from his tea, “Inexpensive and involving the affiliates guarantees huge ratings in the region, maybe even adding regular viewers if they like what they see.”
Billy even piped in, “What about even using the public occasionally, Mister You Tube?”
Ian blushed and everyone laughed.
“Actually that’s not a bad idea.” Came an unfamiliar voice from the doorway. Everyone turned to see a round woman in jeans and a conservative buttoned up shirt.
“Trish.” Ian smiled, “So glad you made it.”
“Looks like I got here just in time for the work part.”
“Yes, you did” Ian said, “You were saying?”
“Well, Al Gore and a partner have started a news service that allows the public to down load visual bites of news events as they happen. They can edit them together however they see fit and upload them back to the site where others can in turn watch them. The best of them get picked up for the on air feed and pay an anomaly of around fifty to one hundred and fifty bucks, more if picked up by other news services.”
“But wouldn’t that format be copy written?” Ian asked.
Blake knew that answer, “Can’t be, it’s the same principal behind You Tube, MySpace etcetera etcetera….”
Ian and Pearce exchanged looks. “We’d have to be careful about misinformation, anything used from an outside source would need to be heavily screened and fact checked.”
For the next hour ideas were brought up, cemented, abandoned and then brought back up. People joining in the foray and wandering back out as people cliqued off and conversed about various aspects they wanted to dwell on. More food was put out and children, the dog and the cat were chased around, the children in various states of undress.
By the time a pull-up less Charlie crawled in Ian’s lap and went to sleep a new “America Alive!”, one that hopefully lived up to its name, was born. The bulk of the broadcast would be done from various locations around the US giving the viewer’s an in depth look at the area it was broadcast from. Ian just now had to decide which of the two anchors already with the show remained.
Work was done, but the guests were just getting to know one another and there was so much more food. Ian offered Susan one of the downstairs bedrooms to let the boys have their nap. He noticed that small groups could occasionally be seen stepping back through the shrubs, probably to smoke or take Tippy up on her earlier offer of getting naked in the pool.
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