Day Three: Sacramento

Hwy 99 to 160 to 80 back to 99 and somehow
found my hotel in Sacramento.
Arrived with one hour to spare before driving over
to Fox40/KTXL.
Did i mention how much i love my GPS ? !
Governor Thomas Drayton arranged
for my 3pm visit in the middle of the newsroom and
even ran out for pizza.
We set up the Emmy statues and
NATAS brochures on his desk. Great turnout.

The biggest surprise was seeing Greg Saunders,
former Promotions Director at KGO,
now the Creative Services Director at KTXL.
The News Director and General Manager showed
up in the middle of their busy days to say hi.
NATAS clearly has a good reputation, probably
thanks to President Dave's visit last year.

There was a lot of questions about the DVD
rules and the mid-career grants. They jokingly
expressed concern that i'm running around to
other stations and spreading the word too far about
this little known grant.
Of course the newsroom already knew about the
Thomas F Drayton Minority Scholarship for Reporting.

Stacey Owen from the ABC station called my
cell sending her regrets for being too busy to
stop by. The only time her station had available
was the same 3pm slot taken by FOX40.

Back to the hotel for the free nacho snacks,
then on to Univision 19, KUVS, hosted by Governor
Alberto Garcia who ordered pizza.
Turns out someone else ordered pizza.
There was lots and lots of pizza.
The evening turned into a seminar on how to
win an emmy. One of the producers recently
transfered from Los Angeles where they routinely
win 7-8 Emmys. There is a lot of enthusiasm at
this station for this years Emmys. Two people
gave me membership checks and by the end of the
evening all the membership brochures were gone.

A couple of people asked if they need to produce
english translation dubs. It's a real burden that
isn't necessary with spanish speaking judges.
People took notes on the deadline, DVD rules,
and asked dozens of questions about everyting i
could think of to increase their chances of getting
an emmy. We watched about 6 News category
stories from the 2005/2006 Winners Reel.
As with the other Univision stations they all said
they would like to help judge spanish language entries.
Everyone now knows who Javier Valencia is.
And Samuel Belilty. Alberto will be responsible
for gathering all the Univision DVD entries.

A big thank you to Thomas for setting up all the
appointments and fielding all the local inquiries.
Stacey was clearly impressed getting a call from him.

I never want to see pizza again.












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