For more than two decades, I was part of a wonderful secret known as LI News Tonight. It's a nightly television newscast produced on the campus of the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, New York and it's one of the few places in the region where college interns can cover news and feature events alongside reporters and photographers from professional news stations and have their work seen on our nightly newscast. LI News Tonight has the potential to reach more than three-quarters of a million Long Island homes with cable TV and a selection of some of our more recent packages can be seen by viewers around the world via You Tube.
I call it a secret because the program is never advertised. Yet, former students have jobs ranging from entry level reporters and photogs to anchors of national news programs and syndicated shows to upper-echelon management positions on the network level.
But it's a long road from our newsroom to the top and each ride is a distinctive journey.
This page will contain a series of reminiscences about the many people who have been part of LI News Tonight and have made the ride an interesting one.
1990's
I remember the time I watched President Bill Clinton's first State of the Union address with an intern and she outlined what each subsequent part of the speech would include with undeniable accuracy. I looked at her in disbelief and asked, "How do you know this?" She told me her college major had been political rhetoric and that speeches were formulaic.
That was in the early 90's. She's now an MSNBC anchor.
1990's
I remember the time we were celebrating our 10th anniversary and we had a big party at a Long Island country club. The turnout was fantastic. There was a lot of networking and "schmoozing" and the event was a complete success. That is, until they wheeled our our anniversary cake. Across the top of our giant sheet cake it said: "Happy 10th Anniversary LI News Today. One of our reporters shrieked, "Oh my God, it says 'Today' on it." The wait staff removed the cake and someone in the kitchen smeared out the errent 'Today' and replaced it with 'Tonight.'"
It was one of those imperfections that gives an event character.
1990's
I remember the time we had a holiday party in a nearby classroom and everyone who attended brought something to the table - whether it was hot food, beverages, chips or desserts. There must have been close to 40 people there and a lot of food was centrally located on a round table that had folding legs. I know I screamed, "Oh, No!" but did nothing else to stop it when I saw the table legs start to collapse under the sheer weight of the food. It appeared to happen in slow motion. All the food went crashing to the floor and the only thing that survived was a bowl of Swedish Meatballs that slid right off the table like a skier and skittered across the floor, remaining upright the entire time. All the interns pitched in to help clean up including one reporter who was wearing a fur coat while she swept the debris into a pile.
We lost a lot of food, but we gained a memory we would never forget.
1980's
Gary Licker remembers the time the Islanders hockey team made it into the playoffs and our reporter was able to get inside the locker room where everyone was celebrating. The reporter decided to do his standup there, and on his first take, there were plenty of high fives and hugging and flowing champagne in the background. But he messed up. And he messed up all the standups that followed until take 26, when the only activity in the background was a janitor vacuuming the locker room.
That reporter really believed the phrase, "Once is not enough."
1980's
I remember the time we were hanging out in the newsroom after the show and Ray Lambiase brought out his guitar and started strumming. Bill Badger, who was serving as both our anchor and assignment editor at the time, started singing the blues, although wailing might be a more appropriate word, making up the words as he went along. Only a few of us were there to witness a truly astonishing performance. It was wonderful.
It humanized a man that until then, I had strictly thought of as only an authority figure and it made me realize it's okay to kick back and perform when the mood hits you.
2000's
I remember the time we were hanging out in the newsroom after the show and Ray Lambiase brought out his guitar and started strumming. Bill Badger, who was serving as both our anchor and assignment editor at the time, started singing the blues, although wailing might be a more appropriate word, making up the words as he went along. Only a few of us were there to witness a truly astonishing performance. It was wonderful.
It humanized a man that until then, I had strictly thought of as only an authority figure and it made me realize it's okay to kick back and perform when the mood hits you.
2000's
I remember the day LI News Tonight had its own Jack-in-the-box, although it should really be called a Monique-in-the-box. It started with the delivery of a large piece of equipment. The leftover box wasn't as oversized as the type used for home appliances, but was definitely big. And Lord knows what motivated Monique - one of our reporters, but she crawled inside the box and pulled the flaps down over her. And waited. It was close to show-time and people started bringing tapes into the control room. After what must have been several minutes, Monique popped out of the box. Our Program Manager, who witness the "POP" (and whom I believe was an earlier victim), calls it a "Yahaddabethere" kind of event.
He says the priceless look of confusion on the victim's face after being startled made it a memorable moment.
1990's
Gary Licker remembers the time an "unnamed" reporter decided to do her standup at the entrance to an auditorium. The only problem was, there was a ballet performance in progress on the stage. A public relations representative approached our reporter and asked her to stop shooting because the camera light distracted the dancers. But our reporter was intent on doing her standup with the performance in the background. Somehow, this incident escalated into a shoving match between the reporter and the PR rep. and a few choice words were uttered. How do we know? The cameraperson who was shooting the standup was rolling the entire time, and the dustup was caught on tape.
The video wasn't blue but the audio certainly was.
1990's
I remember the time we were trying to cover the Avianca plane crash in Oyster Bay Cove. We sent our production coordinator (who was the only person in the newsroom who had a press pass) as the cameraman, but the reporter and deck operator didn't have media credentials, because they were only interns. Our camera-man was told he could go in and shoot, but the other two would have to stay behind. He told security that he would drop the rest of the crew off in the village and would return. And he did drop-off the deck op, but the reporter hid in the trunk until the car got past security and parked. They came back with the story (and the deck op). But they said they ran into the same security guard who had refused to allow the crew access to the crash site while they were still at the scene, and there was our reporter, whom security had turned away, doing his interviews.
Some people think outside the envelope. Others think inside the trunk.
1990's
I remember the time when the newsroom was affected by a number of power outages, because the old, underground lines supplying our electricity were starting to show their age. At one point, we’d had three major outages in one month, preventing us from doing our newscast on each of those nights. Many of our reporters only came in one day a week, and one of them complained that we always seemed to lose power on her day in the newsroom. I told her I was amazed that each time we had a blackout - I was wearing the same outfit. I remember her telling me not to wear that outfit anymore, and I made a point of not wearing it on the days she came in.
1990's
I've been told about the time when we interviewed a circus clown and gave him a graphic that said "Boss Clown." Unfortunately we forgot to change it the next day when we interviewed the Chief of Detectives, so it identified him as "Boss Clown," as well.
No comment.
1980's
I remember the time one of our reporters had a Halloween Party and one of our photogs was there - dressed as an ENG camera. He wore a huge carton shaped like a camera that was attached to his shoulders by straps. (Was he wearing tights under that)? And the camera light was a silver colored funnel he wore on his head. I think he had a wrapping paper tube covered with foam rubber as a microphone. Too bad I can't remember what the lens was made out of. But while his costume was original, it was also pretty bulky. So every time he turned around, he literally bumped into several people.
1980's
I remember the time when we came up with an innovative solution to the perplexing problem of purloined pens in the newsroom. Pens always seemed to be at a premium. We couldn't leave them unattended on our desk because they would disappear before we got back. So we started tying them to long pieces of string - wherever we needed them. Our desks had pens tied to drawer handles. The bulletin board had a pen tied to a support post so crew members could sign up for LI News Tonight jackets and caps. Even the assignment board had a marker tied to it. They were everywhere. And the strings they were attached to were long enough to give us the ability to use each pen in a variety of places. This lasted for months. Then, one day, we walked into the newsroom to find all the pens and markers had been pulled from their various corners into the middle of the room and tied together in one big knot. It was like an industrial strength spider web and we had to cut them all down to get into the room. Needless to say, we abandoned the idea. So even now, we sometimes have trouble finding a pen when we need one.
2000's
I remember the time one of our reporters interviewed a housekeeper who was calling for strong state laws to protect domestic workers, and another reporter saw the video and exclaimed: “That’s my housekeeper!”