The Set :: Chicago Tonight

Andrew & Kevin :: Chicago Tonight

Andrew & Rachelle :: Chicago Tonight

Andrew, Kevin, Rachelle :: Chicago Tonight

Carol Marin Interviewing Forrest Claypool :: Chicago Tonight

Kevin Getting His Microphone :: Chicago Tonight

On February 7, I was on the local news program Chicago Tonight for a segment on local blogs. Andrew Huff from Gapers Block and Kevin O’Neil from CTA Tattler were also in the segment, for which I was greatful. i was nervous enough, but it helped to spread the attention aroud to two other people. The segment was only 7 minutes long, which also helped. Here are some of Andrew’s photos from the experience. These are my thoughts from the night:

• I’ve been on the news before, but never live, and never in the studio. This was a new experience for me. I tried not to freak out!
• Everyone was so nice. From Faith, who first contacted us, to Lauren, who took care of us, and the lady who did our makeup and Phil Ponce, the host and interviewer.
• I didn’t even really think about how we’d have to get TV makeup on. In fact, I’d left work early that day to go home and shower and make myself presentable. Guess that wasn’t really needed!
• The studio is located at 5400 North St. Louis. Everyone assumes it’s downtown somewhere, but this is far from the truth!
• When I went to get makeup on, the makeup lady was doing Phil Ponce’s makeup. To kill a few minutes Lauren showed me the studio. I asked if I could take a photo, because, you know, we’re bloggers and that’s what we do: We blog stuff. She had to check quick if it would be ok, because the image would be making an appearance on the internet. It was ok, so I snapped away.
• The makeup lady went to town putting on a ton of makeup and it only took her maybe like 5 minutes. She was also frustrated because Forrest Claypool and Tony Peraica weren’t there yet and they were going on before us and she was going to be rushed even more. Also, Andrew told me that she said Tony Peraica was always late and running in at the last minute and that it makes his face red, which makes her job hard.
• We had to sign a release saying that they could basically do whatever they wanted with the segment or use our name for promotion or whatever.
• We had to get mic’d up. I don’t know why I didn’t think about these things and then they felt odd when we had to do them. The microphone guy put the pack on my back, then I had to run it under my shirt, then he clipped it to my collar.
• Andrew and Kevin and I waited in this room that overlooked the studio. We could see Carol Marin interview Forrest Claypool and Tony Peraica and we could watch other segments on video monitors in the room. There was no snacks or water in the room. I wasn’t hungry, but Kevin was! I was just dying for a sip of water. While waiting we took photos of the studio and of ourselves and talked about the joys and frustrations of running a site and managing so many contributors.
• At one point, Phil Ponce came in and introduced himself and just chatted with us. It was nice because then we felt more comfortable with him for the interview. He asked me how to pronounce my last name and I told him. I also commended him on pronouncing my first name right. He said I had a great name. Later on when he introduced me on the air he called me Rachel. Grr. Everyone comments on the stink eye I gave him in the clip!
• While backstage Phil also asked us where we all lived. I said Roscoe Village and he said “You know, some people call it “Costco Village.” What? Phil Ponce is giving me shit! I said, “You know, Phil, I’ve never been to Costco.” and he thought I was kidding. He was all, “yeh, suuuuure you haven’t.” When I made the point that I don’t have a car and probably wasn’t about to carry a 24 pack of toilet paper home while walking, then he believed me. I found out that Phil lives just a couple blocks from Dallas’ old apartment in North Center.
• When it was our time, Lauren came and got us and took us down to the studio. We sat at a table and finally got a sip of water from some mugs set out for us. The lighting guys had us all look towards Phil while he adjusted the lighting on each of us. There was a segment on some guys who surf in Lake Michigan in the winter playing and we all watched it and made fun of them when they said they weren’t cold at all even though there were iciccles hanging off their faces.
• Our actual segment went by really fast. It was the fastest of any part of the experience. The first question was super easy. What’s your site, what’s it about. Easy. The second question was “What’s the buzz on your site right now? What’s a hot topic?” Kevin was answering about how “duh, the CTA is the buzz because duh, my site is the ctatattler.” Not in those words. Ok, maybe that’s just what I was thinking. No, wait, I forgot. I wasn’t thinking ANYTHING. My mind actually went blank and I couldn’t remember anything that we wrote about in the last day. I froze and my hands were sweating like crazy because I knew that any second Kevin would be done speaking and I’d be called on to answer the same question and I had NOTHING. Somehow I skated through by saying the CTA was a hot topic on our site too and that politics were always popular to write about. Phil said something about how they were talking about politics earlier in the show and I got the chance to tell him that we’d interviewed Forrest Claypool for Chicagoist too. The third question was easy – Why do people contribute to the site if you don’t pay them? I said it was a good creative outlet for people who don’t get to write about things their interested in for their “real job.” The fourth question was something like “Why do people read blogs?” I was all set for this one. I had a great answer. Andrew took his turn, then on to Kevin and I was right about to open my mouth to answer when Mr. Ponce said something like “And Rachelle, we’d love to hear what you have to say on the topic, but we’re out of time.” Ahhh! Pwned!
• After the taping you’re up and out, no hanging around to watch the rest of the show! That was fine with me. I picked Dallas up in a cab and we met his coworkers who were visiting from California and I got to drink off all my nervous energy.