Election night is always a crazy frantic event for newsies. Ten years of working in this business has taught me a lot. The biggest lesson? Expect the unexpected. And so...the saga begins.

      Our coverage on My Z basically went off without a hitch. This is amazing considering that we had 7 different reporters in various parts of the region doing live shots.  I was really proud when we were done and felt a huge sigh of relief.

      The real drama didn't start until we kicked off the live coverage at 11 on WSAZ. Things were moving along steadily for the first few minutes and then BAM! Our station took a power hit and everything went to black. On TV this lasted for about 10-15 seconds. In reality it felt like an hour.  Tim and I looked at each other and I remember saying "Oh Nooooooooo!" It felt like one of those nightmares where everything moves in slow motion.  This might not sound so bad to the average viewer but TV and radio people know that a major power hit and a chunk of dead air is one bad scenario. 

     When the lights came on and we were back on the air we still had big problems. We couldn't see what was being broadcast and had no way to give election results because we couldn't see the numbers. Basically, we were flying blind. This is where our ad-lib skills were put to the test (:   Eventually  we got back on track and took it from there.

      The reason I'm sharing this with you is because I have a great picture taken in the seconds after the power hit. Michael Wooten just happened to be in the studio snapping shots of us when it happened. The look he caught on Tim Irr's face is priceless. Around here we call it "good stuff."

Enjoy!