Brian Williams' whirlwind trip through St. Louis
By Gail Pennington
POST-DISPATCH TELEVISION CRITIC
08/30/2006
Brian Williams left New York when the sun was barely up last Wednesday, with four newspapers in his briefcase and a day's agenda that included shaking a lot of hands, shooting a lot of promos, writing in his blog and - oh, yeah - putting out an edition of "NBC Nightly News" with a St. Louis dateline.
It wasn't like covering a war or reporting on earthshaking political events. But Williams makes you believe it when he says he loves getting out and getting to know his colleagues across the country, like those who lined up to meet him over a buffet lunch at KSDK (Channel 5).
"And the people here - these are our customers," he says, relaxing for a few minutes with his feet up on a table in a vacant office. "I want to know what they think. I find out a lot when I go to Costco on Saturday mornings or when I talk to my brother in San Antonio, or when I make trips like this. These are my own focus groups."
Williams flew in from New York for the day, arriving in midmorning and leaving for the airport just after 6 p.m. But he made the most of the day, checking out how St. Louis had changed since he was here last and asking hundreds of questions about everything from downtown architecture to KSDK's high-definition cameras to the status of Plaza Frontenac, where he remembers shopping.
"In college" - he attended Georgetown University and the Catholic University of America in Washington - "I fell in with some people from St. Louis," he explains.
"I remember St. Louis when World News in Clayton was the only place in town to buy a New York Times. I feel perfectly at home here. I stayed with a family in Ladue, and once I had a beer at Busch's Grove and saw Augie Busch, which was great.
"But now, wow. The explosion of development downtown is just amazing. You're actually getting people to move back downtown. Do you know how many cities would like to do that?"
After turning off the room's three TV sets, Williams, 47, who appears to be interested in anything and everything, chats on a wide range of subjects: the challenges and joys of the Internet; the line between news and opinion; even his own sense of humor, a well-kept secret to those who see him only on "Nightly News."
"People ask me why they don't see more of my personality," he says. "I wish I did have more light moments, but that's usually not appropriate. So I go on 'The Daily Show' or Jay Leno and joke around. That gets it out of my system."
Next, the tight schedule calls for Williams to join NBC News' regular afternoon conference call to firm up the lineup for that night's newscast. He also has slotted some "quiet time," which he uses to write in the NBC News blog (
www.dailynightly.msnbc.com).
Then it's midafternoon and time to turn out some promos for KSDK, with NBC "promo guy" Frank Radice calling the shots.
The studio, built when KSDK's newscasts went high-definition, is packed with people, 16 by one count, some waiting their turn to be featured, others trying to stay out of the way.
General manager Lynn Beall and anchor Karen Foss watch part of the activity from the interview set, where Foss and co-anchor Mike Bush will talk with Williams later. Cindy Preszler and John Fuller slip into the back of the room from the weather center.
"Cameras, roll and keep rolling. Don't stop till I say cut," Radice says.
And most of the time, the cameras do keep rolling. Except for once when Williams misses his cue by half a beat ("I wasn't paying attention"), he is perfect, take after take.
He also keeps the atmosphere light, ad-libbing "St. Louis is crowded" after one shot with what seems to be half the on-air staff lined up on either side of him.
"Damn it, Karen," he says, getting a big laugh after she has been moved twice to keep her head out of his close-up.
Radice says afterward: "No one else does it like Brian. I've never worked with anyone as good as he is."
It's after 4 p.m., and Williams still has to write his script for "Nightly News," which goes on in less than 90 minutes. Even more urgently, KSDK has a 5 p.m. newscast to put on.
"You're thinking about your 5 and not my 5:30," Williams accuses them before rushing to his computer.
In a conference room, senior producer Maralyn Gelefsky is on the phone, planning a trek to New Orleans to mark the Hurricane Katrina anniversary. Her challenge: making sure the engineers get a hot meal in the evening.
Gelefsky has been with NBC 25 years and has planned hundreds of trips, big and small. She was on the Berlin Wall, in Tiananmen Square, and now she's in St. Louis, where she chose the location atop KSDK's building on Market Street for the "Nightly News" remote, despite a storm that had drenched her during a scouting trip.
"We took a chance with the weather, but it worked out," she says of last Wednesday's blue sky and light breeze.
On the roof, with the Old Courthouse and Arch over his shoulder, Williams is again flawless, using a prompter but never sounding as if he's reading. During breaks, he sometimes chats, but more often he watches the taped pieces roll on a monitor.
Then, after a quick picture with Beall and news director Mike Shipley, he's off, down the stairs and into a waiting car. On the way home, he'll read a stack of articles he pulled out of those four newspapers and saved for later. He'll probably also chat with people who recognize and approach him.
"They're our constituents," he says. "We have constituents in all 50 states, and I'm glad of it."
