Friday, January 25, 2013

Moving On Up!

Hello, friends! I have very exciting news to share!  I am moving from weekend evenings to WEEKDAY MORNINGS! 
Photo courtesy of ESQ Photography

I feel so blessed for this new opportunity and cannot wait to join the already stellar morning crew of Ali, Kent and Britnee.  Please watch me at my new time from 4-7am on NewsChannel 4 and 7-9am on Freedom 43 TV's "Rise & Shine."  For those of you not familiar with "Rise & Shine" it's definitely a different type of news program!  Lance, Britnee and I have a lot of fun joking around and interacting with viewers. Please give it a try!  The new gig starts January 31st.

Goodbye Weekend Friends
My second week on air at KFOR-TV. Oh the memories!

No, that's not Russell Westbrook...it's Ed Doney!
I started out at KFOR-TV in December 2009 as the weekend morning meteorologist.  Approximately 4 months later Jonathan Conder left and I moved up to weekend evenings.  I started out with Bobbie Miller and then Joleen Chaney took her place after Bobbie left on Maternity leave (and then to Channel 9).  Joleen and I became close friends via fundraising for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through Team in Training (why I started this blog!).  We trained and successfully completed our first Half Ironman in September 2011 and thanks to great support from friends, family and viewers, raised $6,000 for LLS!  We coined our team "Team Jo & Em."  I will miss working alongside my buddy on the weekends but you will definitely see more of "Team Jo & Em" as we train for more events and raise money for various charities!  I'd also like to give a shout out to all of my fabulous weekend behind the scenes crew, my Sunday evening co-anchor, Ed Doney, and our weekend sports anchor, Brian Brinkley.  I will miss working with you all but I'm not going to lie...I will enjoy the perks...
I will miss these goofballs!

The Perks
Morning show ladies! 

For the first time in my career I will have weekends off! WOO HOO!  This means I can race or train in the mornings and actually REST the rest of the day!  I can go to friends' weddings and not have to take two vacation days!  And of course, during the week I get done with my shift by mid-morning and have the rest of the day to workout and do whatever I want!  But most importantly, I will be doing 5 hours straight of doing what I love...giving the weather!  And I get to have awesome and very experienced counterparts!  This will only help me improve and grow as a meteorologist.  I'm pumped.

The Downside

Waking up at 2AM.  Yikes. No one should get up that early.  I am a natural night owl.  I usually stay UP until 1:30 or 2 and LOVE to sleep in.  I'm not talking about 10AM sleep in. I'm talking about I-have-to-set-my-alarm-to-wake-up-at-2PM-sleep-in.  I guess I never grew out of that "teenage sleeping" phase.  This will be a challenge initially but I will have to experiment and see what works best routine-wise.  I know other morning show people in the biz either go to be really early (6PM) or take a nap when they come home after the show and go to bed a little bit later (9PM).  In order to have somewhat of a social life (dinner with friends, trainings), I will likely try the latter.  When I filled in a few weeks ago I was so foggy for the 4AM that I got up and worked out at 1:30 in the morning! Yes, I swam laps at 1:30 in the morning!  That was a first!  But it worked and got ride of some of the haze.  I will let you know how it goes!  But no matter what...mama needs her sleep.

Thank God for coffee!

Timing

Timing is everything.  I believe the Lord had his hand in this whole deal.  I feel so blessed than I even GOT a job at one of the best places to do experience and study weather on Earth. I never thought David Payne would leave but he did.  And he left right when my contract was about to expire. Crazy timing!  I feel blessed that my station's management and fellow employees support me 100% in my  new move to weekday mornings. 

Picture courtesy of ESQ Photography. This is my EXCITED FOR MORNINGS face!

I hope you will join me on this new adventure.  I start January 31st!  See you in the mornings!


10 comments:

  1. Emily, I know you will do great and regardless of whether you're working weekends or mornings, you are blessed to be working in (in my opinion) one of the best markets in the country outside of DFW, Atlanta or your home area of Chicago. God bless!

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  2. Confession time - KOCO has been my morning newscast of choice. I will be moving on January 31st to KFOR to see the best meteorologist in the metro!

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  3. Ahh crap. The 4am-7am Newscast will be typical weather news but Freedom 43 is like a reality show you have to watch all of or you miss something. Which means now I have to DVR it every morning in order to keep my job and not be late! So I have to keep my cable and set aside time each evening to watch. You're costing me TIME and MONEY!$ ;^) Congratulations though on the promotion and job security!

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  4. Congrats, Mike watch out! LOL

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  5. Congrats on the move up to more on-air time, albeit early in the A.M.

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  6. I'm glad to watch you in the morning! Such a pretty view! I'm really into Oklahoma Weather; created this caption contest recently: http://www.van-de-steeg.com/2013/01/30/oklahoma-storm-damage/

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  7. Good Job Emily, I wake up with you every morning....so to speak. Always a good idea to check the weather in Oklahoma before heading off to work!

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  8. I WAS CURIOUS does Lucas Ross do the :Donnie : commercials for fowler toyota

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  9. I think we could be distant cousins!My grandma was born a Sutton!

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  10. Emily, you are AMAZING, and we are so happy to have you as "our weather girl!" We trust you! You make us feel safe! Thank you again!!!

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