Latest / Johnny's World / Episode 23-News Anchor Melanie Christopher

Transcript

Episode 23-News Anchor Melanie Christopher · Johnny's World

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Coming to you live from the Johnny Packer Eyewear Studios in fabulous Dark Vegas, Mississippi, please welcome our co-host, the best iDoc this side of the Mississippi, BW.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And now, welcome a true hero, a CF warrior, whose favorite motto in life is just keep living.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Here's Johnny.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: How are you doing today, BW?
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'm doing pretty good.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: How about yourself, Johnny?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: Feeling like a national champion again, so that's always a good day.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Never get sold.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, this episode is broadcast, uh brought to you by uh Johnnypacker.com and Johnny Packer Iwear.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: So with saying that, Brandon, give us uh an update on the glasses.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Have you been selling any or what's the ladies for those?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we've been doing good.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: We're um we're about sold out of the Omaha.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think I've got one of those left.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: And the the Holly Springs, the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce, they they wanted us to make a pair, and they are down to one also.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Those have been really popular.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um had had a couple emails uh asking some questions about if we had anything that was kind of similar to uh sports frames like Oakleys and stuff like that.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately, that's that's a tougher thing to produce.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so I said, you know, we don't have anything like that, but our glasses are better for going to the game and riding in the car and and looking good, not so much for playing sports and hunting and fishing and stuff like that.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I always say you need two good pairs of sunglasses anyway, one for being real active, one for for cruising around town.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: So if anybody's kind of on the fence about that, um, you're still gonna get really good vision because you've got polarized lenses.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: So even if you are fishing, you're gonna be able to see great through the water.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be able to see the fish under the water.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: And when you're driving, it's gonna cut back on that glare and everything.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: So really, really well-built lenses.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: So don't hesitate to buy if you're concerned about that.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: But otherwise, we've got a little of the merch on the website still and sold a few of those, sold some of the tumblers and some t-shirts.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually got myself a sample and I got you one order too.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: I need to bring it down there to you, John Clark.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: We're uh we're planning to go to one of the games.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think the September 4th, maybe we're gonna go be down there.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll definitely bring them in if I don't see you before that.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really what's going on.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we've we've had a lot of people just reach out lately just via email telling me how much they've enjoyed the show and how much they appreciate the cause and everything.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we just appreciate everybody's support.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the only other thing I'll mention is I don't know if we brought this up or not, but our our uh podcast with Nick Fitzgerald, we really hit the big time on that one.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: We had more people listening to that one than any other episode, and it's still numbers are still rising on that.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: So we just appreciate everybody that's listening.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's uh that's awesome.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: That was that was a great uh great podcast.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: I'm glad I think that's kind of once uh once we shared that one and it kind of went all throughout all the message boards and all the Mississippi State people, they kind of it kind of took off.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then I've noticed since then our numbers have uh risen on all the different ones we've done.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: So that was uh that was really cool to see that kind of take off.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: So hopefully more people will listen and and by listening, then they'll know more about CF and spreading awareness of CF and buying glasses.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: And like I tell people, it's just a win-win deal all around.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: You get to hear good, good podcasts and a different story, hear something uh that you you might learn something that you didn't know before about a certain individual or certain industry or something like that.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: So uh really cool around all around.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: So uh you said the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce, and you I think you told me the new Albany one did too.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: So that's two different chamber of commerces have reached out.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, yep, they're they're both looking for us, so it's pretty cool.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's really cool.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: But um, oh, the other thing I'll mention too is we actually we're gonna have a new sponsor coming on board in August.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so the cool thing about that is they sell apparel, so national championship apparel and stuff like that.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so um when you go onto their website and you buy something from them, it's a whether it's a state shirt or whatever you want to buy from them, they are gonna donate a portion of that sale directly to us, and then that sale is gonna go directly to the CF Foundation.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: So um, we're just gonna donate 100% of that money from that sponsorship to them.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited about getting that off the ground in in uh August as well.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's gonna be really cool.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh I'm I'm so happy to to have people, friends of mine, and people that we know that that uh that help support the cause because that's what that's what it takes.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: It takes uh with fundraising, it takes from the ground up and and and the main thing is just getting the word out and letting people know know about it.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: So uh so yeah, really looking forward to that sponsorship and hopefully uh I've read today in the Starble paper where the uh the sales for national championship gear in Starble at all the different stores are just it's it's booming.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh but I've read somewhere where someone some stores sold over$400,000 worth of national championship shirts alone.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's just one store, and there's like plenty of them.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: So they're well over millions of dollars in sold just by national championships.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: So really cool time to uh to be a state fan and a Mississippian in general.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: We've got our guest wedding, so let's let's get started.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, let me uh let me introduce our guest.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: She is a uh a real good friend of mine, a family friend that I've known many, many years, and she's uh well known throughout the state of uh Mississippi and the Jackson area.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: If you watch WJTV uh channel 12 news, you'll you'll see her nightly.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: And uh she's all around a great person, and and she's helped us out at the children's hospital for many, many years for the telecon.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: She was actually the one of the first persons to ever interview me.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I credit her to uh my my career in in speaking in public and being public speaking.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: She uh she she helped me start that out.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: So uh so let me just introduce her and and uh we'll get her on board.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, Melanie Christopher.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh thanks for joining the show today, Melanie.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'm so delighted to be here.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for asking me.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: We're uh we're so thrilled that you you uh you came on today.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: So so just I guess uh my uh first thing is for the listeners out there, uh tell us about how you got into uh newscasting.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: What made you want to be a news anchor and tell us how that process started.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_03: Well, for me, it was really a um an odd situation.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's not how you go about getting if I were to advise people how to do it.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_03: I certainly wouldn't do it the way I did it.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: But uh I was an English major in college, and uh right after I graduated, I went to college in uh the state of Georgia, and uh right after I graduated, I came to work at Bellhaven College as the director of uh student activities and also a resident director in the senior women's dorm.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: And that was a wonderful experience.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_03: I began work on a master's in uh educational administration, and uh so that was great, but it didn't pay very much.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: And so I after two, well, I guess it was up close to two years, I said, gosh, I think I got to pick up something else part-time.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: So I looked in the Clarion Ledger and there was an ad for a talk show host uh for their um new news.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: They needed a noon talk show host and no television experience needed.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um, theater experience would be good, and I had that.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: I'd done a lot of theater in college and I had done theater in the Atlanta area.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I thought, well, you know, this might be perfect for me.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_03: So I uh sent my resume in.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't hear anything.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: So I called up and talked to the news director, and he said, honey, I've had over a hundred applications for that job, and I've picked who I'm interviewing, and you're not one.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Well, would you mind if I came in?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: I said, I'm here in Jackson.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: Could I come and uh talk to you?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, Okay.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_03: So we set up a time and I drove out to South Jackson to the TV station on TV Road.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: I've always loved that, it's on TV Road.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um so I drive out there and um Jack Holgate was the news director at the time, and Jack had lots of experience, and in fact, he had taught at LSU and at Ole Miss um journalism.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_03: And so um he met with me and we talked.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: So I think on an academic level, um I we hit it off beautifully.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but he said, uh tell you what, after about, I don't know, four of the time with me, he said, I'm gonna let you audition for me.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: I said, okay, oh great, wonderful.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, what I want you to do is just pick a story um and I'll be the other person that you're interviewing.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: You can you can just, I don't even want to know beforehand.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: You just come out there, I'll put you on the set, we'll talk, and that's how it'll work.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: So I said, fine.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, Oh, by the way, you know, for this business, you have to have a little more pizzazz.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I think pizzazz meant makeup because you know I wasn't much of a makeup person.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that's exactly what he meant by that.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: So I get home, I get back from that, I call my friend, uh, Mississippi State grad, Carol Jarvis, and I call Carol, the man said I needed more pizzazz.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: That means makeup.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_03: I need some makeup.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_03: Can you come and show me how to put this makeup on?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: So she came over and did my makeup and showed me what I needed.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: So the next day I go into the TV station.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: I have a little more pizzazz, not a lot, but I'm still trying to get that pizzazz, you know.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway, I uh I go into the TV station and I I decided then what had been in the news was that Mississippi um University for Women, Mississippi Um University for Women, was going to let the first man in.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know you know how long ago that was.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: They were going to, for the first time, let a man in, and they were gonna allow men to um to go to school there.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I threw that at him and uh I could tell he was very, I don't think that's what he expected, and he was very pleased with that.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: And so we chatted and I chatted, and then I uh turned to the camera and closed it out and gave a big smile and um he gave me the job.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: He gave me the job, and um he said, and I tell you what, I'll give you two thousand dollars more and make it full time if you'll do the morning cut-ins.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I thought, I don't know.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_03: First of all, I don't know what a morning cut-in is, but it sounded great.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_03: I knew when I walked in that newsroom and and I saw the people, the typewriters going, people smoking, you know, this is way back then.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_03: People yelling.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, they were getting right before a new show, the producers were screaming.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: I thought, oh, I gotta be in this, I gotta be here.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_03: This is like, oh yeah, I gotta be here.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: So I uh I resigned from Bellhaven and I started my career doing morning cut-ins.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_03: And morning cut-ins, I I know this is going on too long, but morning cut-ins back then, it consisted of me and somebody running the camera.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: That was it.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: And uh it was really uh, yeah, it was so I would go in three in the morning and I would get the, you know, look at the AP ticker, you know, and I would get that and I would write stuff and I would do a little weather thing, and um that that was it.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I had the nicest people watching me.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_03: I remember the first time I I had to say um Gaucher, and I called it Gaudier.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_03: But and this nice man called me, you know, like about 6 30 in the morning.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_03: He said, It's Gauche.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Oh, thank you so much.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I never I never said Gaudier again.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: But um, so that's one of those Mississippi names, you know, Cosiesco.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, yeah.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's not Natchez, it's not Belzoni, it's you know, I tell people all the time, the new ones that come in.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: Louisville.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: So anyway, that's how I got started in the business.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_03: And then the next year I did PM magazine for a year, and then the next year after that, I was on the six o'clock news, and the next year after that I had the six and ten.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: So I really began to um so I I've always been on the desk, but I also did medical reports and of course special events like our beloved um children's hospital telephonics.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, well, since you mentioned that, let's let's talk about that.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: How how did that relationship with channel 12 and bats come to be?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: And and we have so many good memories of telethons from from when I was little that I can remember just y'all did so much for Batson and can never think enough.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that was an interesting thing because um the the hospital was being built, and I was um, you know, at that point doing the medical stories, the hospital was being built, and um I went to our general manager um who at the time, Larry, I'm trying to think of his last name, very nice fella.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_03: I went to him and I said, Larry, I think we need to get in on this children's miracle network because they're building the children's hospital, and this would be a chance for us to really own this um this event.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, it's all gonna benefit the hospital.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's really gonna be great.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: And um, so so he thought about it and he um he came back to me and he said, I do think it's a good idea, but I think we ought to do it next year.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Larry, we can't do it next year because somebody else is gonna get it.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: Another station will pick this up.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, it's time now to do it this year.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I listed a whole, I gave them a whole running list of why we should do it and what we could do with it, and how it would benefit us, and how we would be a part of helping the children of Mississippi, and that it was a, you know, it was a huge accomplishment to get this hospital built.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: And you only had to see the old hospital to know that this was what we needed here in the state.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: And so he said, okay, and I think it was the best move that we ever made as a station because we took that and our production of those events, everybody was involved.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it it was great, John Clark.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: It was just great.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: It really was.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's just uh so many great memories of all the people, all the kids and the doctors, and just everyone that you meet throughout the years of doing this because it was kind of like a family reunion.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: Every, every, I think it was in June, every June, we either come to the station when we had at the station, or or sometimes y'all come to the hospital.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: And it was just uh it was really cool deal seeing everyone and and seeing kids grow, you know.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of the a lot of people like you, for instance, with me, you see me grow from little all the way up to big, and that happens with a lot of the news anchors become attached to some of the stories and the people uh part of the broadcast.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's just uh such a great, great deal.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_03: We really did, um, and and have, and you know, to think that um, you know, you were just a young kid.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you were just so adorable and still adorable.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but you were you were young and um, but you were so you had so much poise and charisma and and interviewing you when you grabbed that mic out of my hand um and took it over.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like you didn't grab it, I mean you just took the mic, like I well, give me the mic and I'm going to tell you.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: And you did.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_03: And it was um, you've always been just excellent um on telling your story and telling the story of Batson and the people there.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, my gosh, if anybody lived it, you've lived it.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: And um, I think it's it's never, and I think our other CF kids were always very dear to us.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_03: All of all the kids were, but the CF kids seemed to play a special um role.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: Tony Mastro and um, you know, we just became very attached to um our kids there, very much so, and followed them, yes.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I remember getting the uh getting the microphone, and I think you or someone said they're like, You're never supposed to give the give the microphone away.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I just took it and started talking and took a picture of it.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: It was all over the UMC News.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it uh yeah, it's just uh it's just been part of my life.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I I credit the me being able to speak in public and do things like this and tell my story and everything back to those days at Telton with you because it's just uh I remember when I was little, my mom, that was her thing.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: She goes, If if my kid can make it out of here alive, make it through this after suffering as I did those first eight months of my life.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: She said she would devote herself to to giving back to others.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: And and this was a big thing for her with the children's hospital.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: And so she would have me there ever since I was a little kid and put me in front of that camera and tell my story, and and ended up but being a career for me after college, getting to work at the hospital and promote it, and and we've helped raise so many, so many millions of dollars for the hospital and made it such a great place.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: And and uh it all goes back to the these telethons that you were part of to help start many, many years ago.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: So it's come a long way.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: We thank you so much, Monty, for being part of the ride.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_03: I it yeah, I wouldn't have traded it for the world.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: And your mother, just mentioning your mother, who was so instrumental in all of that.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and my gosh, if anyone should do uh, you know, a story on someone, it should be we should do your mother, because she is um she devoted everything to making you know life, of course, as you know, better for you, but better for so many people.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, she just when she takes on a cause, she takes it on, and she's she is a wonderful, wonderful woman.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_03: My gosh.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I wouldn't be here today without her, so very, very thankful.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: So without her and God in that hospital, I'm I'm not here.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: So very, very thankful and appreciative.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: And those wonderful grandparents of yours, yes, absolutely, wonderful, absolutely.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we we talked about my my granddad quite a good bit uh when when we went to Omaha.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: My mom and I, I we we got it was a whirlwind trip.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: We got in the car um on Tuesday night after we won that second game because my granddad told this story before.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: My as when my granddad was was dying in St.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: Dominic's and my mom called me down there.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: I was up here at Mississippi State, and she said that uh excuse me, your your granddad's about to go into coma.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: If you need to come down here, if you want to say something to him.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: So of course I did.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I go down there and and it was a very emotional time.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: And and uh so I get right up next to him and they say, if you want to say something, say something.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, all right, Dada, that's why I call him.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: Dada, when you when you die and get to heaven, please ask God.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: And they immediately were like, Oh, John Clark's gonna say, ask God for a cure for cystic fibrosis.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: But instead I said, When you die and get to heaven, will you please ask God for Mississippi State to win a national championship and something?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: Love that story.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: That kind of made the made the movie a little bit brighter, everybody laughed a little bit.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: So all these years we've come so close, I've always been like, all right, Dada, you're you're having that talk with God, and you got distracted.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: You saw so many news.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, so this year I was like, all right, both my grandparents are both up there, their friends are up there, we're gonna do it.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: So my mom and I got in that car and and drove for I drove 14 hours through the night to get there, to be there, because that was my goal to be in person to watch Michigan State win a national championship.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: And and sure enough, it happened.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: And a really cool story.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: I've I've said it before, but uh the guy sitting in front of me, I um I'm taking a selfie of my mom and I at the field.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: He looks at me and is like, hey man, can you take a picture of me and my two sons?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, sure.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: Take the picture.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: I hand the my camera back, I hand his camera back to his phone back to him, and he looks at me and goes, Hey, you're John Clark, aren't you?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Yeah.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: And he goes, Um, I'm I'm your cousin Chris, Chris Thomas.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't seen Chris Thomas in 35 years.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I we had our family reunions in Laurel on my granddad's side of the family uh when I was a little kid, and he was always there, a little bit older than me, and he was a big baseball player, and I followed him around everywhere.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: Just I was uh I was attached to him, and we were inseparable.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: And and I always looked up to him.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: And my he was my granddad's brother's grandson.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: So my granddad would always tell me, Hey, John Clark, you got to hear about Chris.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: He's gonna play baseball, he's gonna play college baseball.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's always baseball, baseball, baseball.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: With with my granddad talking to me about Chris, Chris was one of his favorites.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Haven't seen him in 35 years.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then he's sitting right in front of me at the national championship game.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: So when that happened, I looked at my mom.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, there's no way we're losing tonight.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I believe I believe God placed him right in front of me as a reminder of my granddad being there because he would want him right there.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: So it was uh absolutely and I love that on your Facebook you shared that picture of you when you were kids.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: You stand to him.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: That that to me just was just precious, really.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I went back and pulled out both photo albums and saw it.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: And but it's crazy 35 years later.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, it's that was a memorable, memorable night.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: Very uh, I'm I know my granddad, along with all the other state fans, have been waiting all these years for it to finally happen.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: Smiling down in heaven.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: We um we well, I've got several things to say about that.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: One is that of course we were we were there.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: We had um our our um our our uh sports director was there along with uh Justin Burks, our wonderful uh photog videographer, and um so so we had you know live shots from there the whole time, but but also we were there afterwards when the team came home, and then then we were there when the team had the parade.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so I remembered this.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_03: We were interviewing people in the stands, and there was this one very, in fact, it kind of reminded me of your grandfather, wasn't as tall as your grandfather, but he he was um a smaller man, but very well dressed, and he was there, and so they put the mic, they said, Well, sir, what do you what do you think about this?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, I've been waiting 60 years for this.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: So he was something years old, and he said, I've been waiting 60 years for this, and and it was just numbing.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: And then we got a little kid, and this little kid must have been about 10 years old, and he we interviewed him and he said, I didn't know if I'd ever see this in my life.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_03: A 10-year-old, okay, you know, he's heard that from family members saying, 'I never thought I'd live to see this day,' you know.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it was so cute.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: But just um day before yesterday, I was shooting a promo at the station, and um, it was about different things that I had covered in my career.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: And so I talked about going on the team plane to um with Mississippi State basket with the basketball team.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: I think that was '96 when they made it to the four.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: And we were going to New York and we actually got to fly, the photographer and I, on the team plane.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_03: And they let us get on first, like some little the plane was somewhere in Starkville.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_03: We got on the plane at the airport there.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_03: We got on the plane, and then the team got on.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_03: And as the team got on, I mean, I'm looking up, up, up, up.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: These are the tallest men I've ever seen.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_03: I've never been that close to them.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: You know how these small planes and their hands is huge, and I can just remember it.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm telling this story on uh for this promo, and I said, so I said, you know, we weren't fortunate.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, they made it to the Final Four, which was a very big deal.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_03: I said, but they didn't win that first game, so they weren't in the finals.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: I said, but for me, getting to watch Mississippi State just on television with the baseball team win that national championship, brought it all back.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: That how you know, they had never had a national championship and no one in the state, you know.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Oh my gosh, just watching that brought it full circle for me.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm so glad I I wish I'd been in Omaha, but watching it was the next best thing, and it was wonderful.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_03: That was just great.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: Just yeah, it was it was a it was a great time.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: So many, and it's great, like I said earlier, it's just great for uh obviously for state fans, but also for the entire state of Mississippi.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's something that everyone can embrace.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_03: I love all the sports, and of course, if Mississippi, it doesn't matter what school, if Mississippi is in it, particularly on a national level, um, you know, I am cheering for Mississippi.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_03: I am just uh, you know, it doesn't matter to me because, you know, I'm not uh not from here originally, and so I don't have a vested interest in, you know, I didn't graduate from these schools, but um but when you live here and um and if you like sports and I do, um you're just gonna, you know, you just want them to succeed.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you want that Mississippi school to just and then watching them now go in the draft for the first time, the um, you know, the baseball draft meant something to me.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: It meant, you know, I knew these names.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_03: I knew the names and I I knew the you know, I knew the Vanderbilt names too because they had taught so much.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_03: So it was just so good.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_03: And to see that, you know, we have so many.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I remember um Rafael Palmero and uh Will Clark, and uh, you know, I remember way back those names, and to have them come and be a um, you know, be a part of that was just fabulous.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's just wonderful seeing them out there.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it really was.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh yeah, the the the town, you know, when when Dak was here and we went to number one in football, it kind of took off.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm feeling that that's what's going on right now.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_02: You can feel the sense that it the town of Starfleet's just booming right now.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like that it'll just keep happening because of this.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: And it's uh it's really a cool, cool thing that the nursing home uh in town, or the well not nursing home, but the assisted living place called the uh Clayborne.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, one of my friends is there, and and uh before COVID, we would always go visit her and her husband a good fit.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: And and um, I saw them post on Facebook yesterday where Coach Lamonis brought the trophy to the assisted living place.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: And oh my gosh, that on the front page of the paper today is a 103-year-old woman there, and she has a baseball, and Coach Lamonis is signing the baseball for her.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it's just it's amazing.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: All the older people of that generation that are at the assisted living had never seen this happen before, and they brought the trophy there, and all the people got to meet the coach, and what a what a great, great, great thing.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_03: I wish you'd send me a snapshot of that and um to me so that maybe we can get permission from the paper to run that tonight.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_03: That would be great.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, yeah, I'll do that.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: That'd be wonderful.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I know it it has to have, you know, it just means so much.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_03: Sports is um, you know, sports is huge and and you know, here in the south, it's um, you know, it's even bigger.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I guess uh tell us a little bit.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if someone's out there and wanting to know what exactly is a news anchor's uh, what do they do?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: What's their routine?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: I guess tell us like if you're being an if you're aspiring to be a news anchor, what it what it's like on a day-to-day basis, what time you I guess it depends on obviously what what time you're on the on air, but tell us kind of go through what leads up to getting on camera to tell the news.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, I'll tell you um what my shift is like because I've worked nights now for um years and years and years.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_03: So the night shift uh really begins about two in the afternoon, is when you go in, unless there's something early to shoot or whatever.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_03: But on a typical basis, um, or a typical day rather, um two o'clock, I come in and um my first show is at four.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_03: I do the four to five.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: It's an hour show with Walt Grayson, and that's a new show for us.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we haven't had it that long, um, but it's um it's a lot of fun to do it with him.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um a lot of the news has is some of it is.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we have the news news, you know, the COVID numbers, and we have it and we um have our Washington Bureau with Next Our Media, and we often go to Washington for whatever is happening up there, comment on that.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_03: And um, so we do have news, but then we also have some fun stories in there too.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_03: And doing it with Walt is um, you know, he he doesn't um always stay on script.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_03: And so he will kind of ad lib and um and we laugh a lot.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_03: And um the other day we had the thing about space, and uh, I said, Well, would you go into space, Walt?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_03: And he goes, Well, I can't, I don't have that kind of money.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, what if it were free?
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: And he's well, or what if it were like two dollars?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_03: You got two dollars?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_03: So he gets out his wallet and he's looking for two dollars.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_03: And he's so anyway, I I I know that probably doesn't sound funny, but if you had watched it, it was um, it was and my expressions of him getting that wallet out and and uh yeah, you know, it was just funny.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: So um it's things like that.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_03: So that's good.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I go in and I read my scripts over and um and make any changes and scripts are still coming in.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, sometimes we get out there at four and not everything is in yet, but we have a lot of live shots of all our reporters.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_03: It's an early show, it's the early into the evening hour.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_03: So that's what we do.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: And then I stay on the desk and do the 5 to 5:30.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_03: And uh Byron joins me for that, Byron Brown.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_03: And then we at 5:30, we have a 30-minute break to go read the six o'clock news.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_03: Now, normally I don't really get the five o'clock read beforehand, so um, because I don't have any time really.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, so that's kind of learning to that takes, I would not suggest that for starting.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you need to read your scripts, it's better to read them and make the corrections and and just have a familiarity.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_03: You don't want to get hit with a name that you cannot pronounce, you don't want to say Gaudier instead of Gaucher.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_03: And and want to make sure you know it, the the names.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_03: And uh so anyway, I do that, and then we do the six o'clock, and that's our main evening start off news, uh, six to six thirty.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_03: And then we have a break, and we begin the well, we have a break, but it's not really a break, because now we have the evening reporters scripts coming in, and Byron and I um have to approve those evening scripts um from the reporters before they can cut them.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_03: So we get those.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_03: We often do some editing there um with the scripts, turning them around, making sure that it's the latest up-to-date stuff.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_03: It takes some time to do that, so that's not a um that's not a quick thing.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_03: But then we have a nine o'clock newscast on our CW station.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_03: So we do that.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes we call that our practice show because you know we get out the kinks before the 10 o'clock show.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_03: And uh then I do the 10.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, get home um by about 11:30 at night.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, but normally anchors are also reporters, and um, I it's very hard for me to do that now with doing all these shows.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_03: But Byron does a political show um called Inside.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_03: It runs at 10:30 on Sunday mornings, it's excellent.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it's all about us uh you know what's going on in the state, and we get a lot of lawmakers and other people to come in or zoom with us.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that and so that's a great addition to our um so he handles a lot of the legislative stuff on that end with that show, with that half hour show.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_03: So oftentimes anchors will get that too.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, I used to always do the medical stories and really enjoy that, but nowadays people have to know how to shoot a camera as well as um uh uh be out reporting.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_03: Our reporters are all um MMJs, which is multimedia journalists.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_03: They all can shoot a camera, many can run their own live shots.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_03: We have um actually many live shot um um equipment that they set up themselves.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_03: So it's completely different than when I started.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_03: I always had a photographer, and it's just been trimmed down to that.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_03: Digital is huge.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_03: They have to post to um post to the web and um you know social media such as Facebook and Twitter, uh, Instagram is all part of this now.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_03: So it's just a lot of it's a lot of work and it's you have to love to do it, um, particularly nowadays, because it's um I find them amazing that they can do all of these things and um and still get a um and still get a you know a piece on the air going live themselves out at night, you know.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_03: Last night with our our reporter, um Anna Farish, we had she had her story for the day.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_03: We had approved that it was ready, but then there was a shooting and um you know she's the nighttime person, so out she goes and sets up her own live shot.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_03: And um, you know, that can be you got to be careful out there at night.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_03: And uh there's just many things that go into it now that we that I didn't have to deal with.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, and Byron didn't either.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_03: No, we we're we're kind of old school that we don't have that, not kinda.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_03: I guess we are old school.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_03: Walt would say he's really old school, but right, but actually Walt shoots his stuff on his camera um with a camera or with his phone.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_03: So he actually does a lot of that himself because those are the kind of stories he, you know, he does, those really uh good Mississippi stories.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_03: So did that give you a taste of it?
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_03: I I I think it's um, you know, it's long hours and when there's weather, you know, we're of course we go in early and we stay late.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_03: Weather is weather is the number one reason people watch television news.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_03: And here in Mississippi, weather is so important because um, you know, when I moved here, you know, I was used to hurricanes um growing up in Florida, but a tornado I had never.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_03: I thought that was something out of the Wizard of Oz.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_03: And tornadoes back when I started, we didn't have all the the technology that we have now really can pinpoint what street it's on.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_03: We didn't have that.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_03: So they were very um, you know, it was very frightening and um they do a lot of damage.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_03: So it was um, so weather is is really number one reason why people watch.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_03: So we put a lot of emphasis on weather always.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_03: People get upset when their golf games get interrupted, but we have to say, you know, that's a FCC thing, and we have to do weather.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, if you're just that one person on that one road, it matters, your life matters.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_03: So that's why we break in and cover, and people say, Well, I'm not near there.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you may not be near there, but other people are, and we, you know, have to understand that.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll tell you what, I think I'll stick to being an eye doctor.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think that sounds a little bit like too much work to me.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it is fun.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_03: Every day is different, as John Clark said, you know, you never know.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's probably part of the the the reason we we um like it so much is that you go in, you kind of have a set pace, but it can all change in just a few seconds, you know?
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_03: And um that's what makes it so much um um exciting.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_03: It is exciting, I have to say.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_03: I'm never there and I don't want to be there.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_03: I want to be there.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think you do a great job.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and and even though you're from Florida, you you sound like you're from Mississippi now.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_03: So I think I mean I've lived in Mississippi much longer than anywhere else.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_03: And if people ask me how to run, I say I'm from Mississippi.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_03: And that's always good because they always want to know more.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_03: And then you get to tell them all these, you know, wonderful things that people don't know about this terrific state.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_03: So it's uh it's it's a lot of fun.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of fun.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, this has been great, Melanie, and and just you know, like you said, we're I feel like we're telling the story about a wonderful state with all of our um guests on the show here, and and you've been no exception.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: You've been great and um really, really proud to have you as a missiscipian and you know standing being there on in front of the camera for all of us.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_03: So well, thank you.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_03: It was uh just a real pleasure to be here.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Melanie, I can't thank you enough uh for doing this for us.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: We really appreciate it.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: I know this is gonna get gonna get a lot of got a got get a lot of downloads where people are gonna be able to listen to it and learn a lot, learn about the news, what it takes.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there are inspiring newscasters out there who are listening to this, that they'll learn a lot.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: And and uh and thank you from a personal standpoint, what you what you mean to me and and been part of my life for all these years.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: I can't thank you enough.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: Just love you so much.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_03: You and me, I love you and Mama so very much.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_03: And um, you've just been an inspiration.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, totally.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_03: Believe me so much inspiration.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you guys.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thanks for y'all have a good rest of your day.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_03: All right, bye.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_03: Bye-bye.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to the Johnny's World Podcast.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Please help us spread the message about CF and support our cause by going to Johnnypacker.com.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can also reach us at Johnny PackerIwear at gmail.com.