The Queen has posted a prompt that reminds me of my old days of working in TV. It looks like a piece of equipment on a live shot from a mobile unit. Unfortunately, sometimes the reporters on a live shot become news stories themselves due to the tragic consequences.
We now join Reporter Kelly and Engineer Dan on the scene where Kelly is trapped in the live truck.
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“No! Kelly, don’t!”
“I gotta get out of here!”
“That’s just it! A live wire’s tangled in the mast. Truck’s electrified, so are you! Step on the ground you’re DEAD!”
“Dan, that pole’s gonna crash down any second!”
“Listen, put both feet together, jump out, LAND on them together. Then, take TINY baby steps toward me.”
Kelly nodded and jumped. After ten steps, she fell into Dan’s arms as the pole crashed on top of the truck.
“You OK?”
Kelly nodded, panting. “The truck. What’ll we do now?”
He shrugged. “We thumb a ride and declare a slow news day.”
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wmqcolby 
That’s a different meaning to a LIVE TV truck. Also why I prefer to work in TV from behind the safety of a desk, I had enough of the live drama in my younger days on the trucks!
My sentiments exactly, Iain. I stayed in the studio the whole time. It was warmer in the winter as well.
News is what happens to other people, huh? I really like that
Yeah, it’s been known to happen. I remember, at least, two stories within a year of reporters being electrocuted by the mast in a similar situation. Like we say, “If it bleeds, it leads.”
Breathless from the activity. That’s a lot of story there.
Thank-you, Sandra. You know, both Rochelle and I agree that 100 word stories really helped us immensely with our writing. Less is definitely more and you really can pack a lot of story in there.
Close escape and I presume things like it happen more often than we know. My son has recntly started working in TV, I’ll tell him to watch out for these things.
Yeah? Very cool! What does he do exactly?
At the moment he’s a furloughed production runner on Brittania
I got furloughed in 2009. Got it all back at the end of the year. So, what does a production runner do and what is Brittania?
Britannia is a Sky TV series along the lines of Game of Thrones and a production runner has to do all the jobs no one else wants to do, making sure everything is organised and in place for filming, making sure the actors are molly-coddled with food and flowers etc.
haha! Yes, I have heard of that type of job. I was a camera operator for morning news and we would occasionally get fancy-type stuff to shoot like a demo or something. If he works his way up, he’ll do very well. Just don’t let him do it too long nor too often. He’ll get stuck doing it the rest of his career.
That was great, Kent! Slow news day… ummmm….
I’m big on the “iron” content (as in “ironic” — sounds like a Gracie Allen line) of endings. 😀 But, thanks, Dale, for reading it. Do you remember this story at all? I tweaked it some just because I think I could have told it better. I think it might have been before you joined us.
Right.
Oh. And here I thought you wrote an original – you make no note that it is a repeat.
I know. I published, then forgot to date it, but, hey. Whatever works. I mean, it’s STILL an original story, just a repeated one! Kind of like when John Wayne was asked if his hair was real. He said, “Yes, it is. It’s not mine, but it’s real.” 😀
Hmmm… yes, it is.
😉
Dear Cuzzin Kent,
I remember you telling me this story. Wow! Doesn’t sound like slow news day to me. Shocking.
Shalom,
Queen Shelley
Gotta admit, you posted a pretty cool picture and I thought, “Well, outer space or something else?” I did the”something else” because i think I post too many sci-fi as it is. But, yeah, I like that picture. Good call.
It was there. Had to snap it while I asked myself why someone would toss it by the side of the road.
Yeah, those are like moments you have to write down before you forget them.
whew! they almost became the news. occupational hazard i guess. 🙂
You have guessed correctly, Plaridel. And safety is ALWAYS a concern out in the field for that very reason.
Your tale travelled at a tremendous pace and then came that calming last line. Brilliant!
Thanks, Keith! It was fun to do, really.
Fast and furious! I’m glad reporter Kelly escaped unscathed.
People were expecting a love story after that. Eh, I doubt it. Thanks for reading, Penny!
Every night, the newscasters declare that this is a very busy day and there is a lot of news. Lately it’s been the same. Thanks for your nice story!
Thank-you, Nan! They’ll always find SOMETHING to report.
Well, at least their “live TV” didn’t fry them up to make them less “live” … 😉
Haha! True that! Thanks for reading, Na’ama
🙂
Nice blog
Thank-you, Saania. And thanks for reading.
My pleasure, followed you ☺️
Good job Dan knew a bit about electricity! When news goes really live…
Oh, yes. In fact, his instructions were straight out of an emergency manual for engineers in the field.