Feb

7

The Great Anchor Shift

Filed Under Sunrise on KGMB9 

On Monday, just for grins, Keahi Tucker and Tannya Joaquin will anchor Hawaii News Now Sunrise, while Steve Uyehara and Grace Lee will anchor the evening newscasts where you usually see Keahi and Tannya.

Keahi really enjoys the occasional morning stint, though I suspect that a big factor in the fun quotient for him is knowing that he quickly returns to a shift that does not oblige him to get up at 2 a.m.

Tannya is fun to work with wherever she is scheduled but spent years co-anchoring with Kirk Matthews on Brand X (Tannya and I started on that show on the same day and had a blood pact to blame each other if the ratings went down) but after years of 2 a.m. starts I think she, too, is happy to be working afternoons.

Goodness knows what Steve and Grace will be like in the evening so you and I will just have to watch and see. It shouldn’t be altogether unfamiliar, inasmuch as Taizo Braden and I both work splits, which means we work live in the evenings as well as the mornings. Taizo returns to the studio while I do my evening reports from home while working on the next morning’s scripts.

Taizo’s father, visiting from Japan, told him, “You can handle it. You’re young.”

And then, after a pause: “How does Howard do it?”

Howard does it by sleeping in shifts, 9 p.m.-2 a.m. and noon-3 p.m., although this is an ideal schedule that I achieve perhaps once every three weeks.

For example, since I snore and it wakes up Bernadette from time to time, I sought an apppointment with an eye-ear-nose-throat-so-you-can-sleep doctor, and was told I would have to go to a sleep apnea class first in case I have it. The appointment is on the 16th – dead center in my afternoon sleep time.

Last night I dreamed I went to the class and got no help at all because the person handling it had never been trained to say anything to people who sleep in shifts but to stop doing it. I got up in a huff – I seem to be much angrier in my dreams than in real life – and stormed out.

I’ve always thought it’s easier to sleep in shifts on a regular basis than to get used to one sleep schedule and suddenly have to do another… like Keahi and Tannya will be doing Monday morning.

Comments

3 Responses to “The Great Anchor Shift”

  1. Capsun (@exbor) on February 7th, 2010 5:19 pm

    As a devoted viewer and reader of your reports and blogs, I thank you for the sacrifices you make to bring us entertaining business reports and some of the most information and explanation-packed blog posts.

  2. Reader on February 8th, 2010 8:00 am

    I agree! Please, don’t sacrifice your health, though.

  3. The News Director on February 8th, 2010 6:47 pm

    Howard, since you do the split shift, on second thought, I should have had you Skype from home in the morning and do your report live at 5pm. Oh, well, next time.

    [What have you done with the real news director? HMD]

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