Bob Barnard
After working the night shift for 10 years (coming home to a dark and quiet house as late as midnight), I am now waking up before dawn and quietly leaving my home and family to be part of the FOX 5 Morning team.
It's a fairly big change for me. I'm naturally a night owl. All those years reporting for the 10 and 11 p.m. newscasts seemed like the perfect fit. But man, I love the mornings! The people I'm working with and extended airtime are a surprising shot in the arm for somebody who's been doing this for a while.
You can now find me doing live reporting for our 6 a.m., 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. newscasts and for Good Day DC.
Being home in the afternoons and evenings has also improved the quality of my home life.
It's pathetic but true, as a native New Yorker, I had never been west of Pennsylvania before I got my first TV reporting job at the ABC station in Las Vegas. That was 1984. I was 22. It was a lucky break for a kid who'd spent only a little more than a year as a desk assistant at NBC News in New York City.
After college classes in the Bronx, I'd be hauling butt down the 3rd-floor hallway at 30 Rock in Manhattan with scripts in hand for the producers and directors in the control room - and Tom Brokaw on the set of Nightly News. When I wasn't "running for Broke," I'd help the adults in the newsroom keep track of all the camera crews and reporters covering stories in the U.S. and overseas. And this was before computers!
Needless to say, it was a great introduction to the TV news business. When I think back on that first on-air job in Vegas, I recall one of the saddest stories I've ever covered. It was late at night, my shift just completed, when we got word that a family of five had been swept up in raging floodwaters out in the desert south of the Strip. The dad had basically killed his family trying to cross a washed-out street in their truck during a rare and wicked rainstorm.
It was September 10, 1984. Out in the desert, as police searched on foot and by helicopter for the youngest child - a 13-week-old baby who'd been carried away in the flash flood - I walked up on the parents and two older children. They were just lying there dead. Lined up in a row. Looked like mud-caked, life-sized dolls there among the sand and rocks near the mangled pickup. I quickly realized the job of a TV news reporter can expose you to some of the most dreadful things imaginable.
It does, however, also take you to great places and introduces you to fascinating people. My next job was with the CBS TV station in Orlando. From its Daytona Beach bureau, I covered NASCAR and Spring Break. I got to fly with the Blue Angels, parachuted on the back of a veteran skydiver dressed as Santa, and invited viewers to watch as a tattoo artist named Snapper put Woodstock on my hip for life. That was in a temporary tattoo parlor set up for Bike Week in '88. Yes, all in the name of TV news.
From Orlando, I moved to the CBS station in Tampa. There I helped cover countless hurricanes, the U.S. military's efforts to feed starving refugees in Somalia, the Oklahoma City bombing, and O.J. Simpson's "not guilty" verdict from the streets of Los Angeles.
After nearly a dozen years in Florida, I moved to Washington in 1997 and have been here at WTTG FOX 5 ever since. Among the stories I've shared with our loyal viewers: the Beltway snipers' reign of terror and the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Of course, most of what we do is tell stories about people from the cities and towns close to home. Sadly, there's always enough madness and mayhem to keep us busy. But it's the stories of ordinary people doing good and interesting things that keep me coming back for more. Growing up on Long Island and watching New York City news, I knew at a fairly young age that I wanted to be a TV news reporter when I grew up. Not that I have ever grown up, but I can truly say I enjoy going to work every day. For that, I consider myself a fortunate guy.
The latest from Bob Barnard
Woman suing Fairfax County middle school over alleged mishandling of 2012 sexual harrassment, rape case
A former middle school student is suing a number of her former teachers and school administrators, alleging they were negligent in handling sexual assault claims.
Parents frustrated with DC school after 6-year-old hospitalized for apparent allergic reaction
A little girl is in the hospital this afternoon recovering from what appears to be an allergic reaction to dairy that she had at her elementary school.
'A kind soul': Relative of Laurel recording studio shooting victim speaks out; search for suspect continues
Police in Laurel have now identified the two people shot and killed inside a recording studio early Monday but they say the killer has yet to be captured.
Mayor Bowser signs Secure DC crime bill into law
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser signed into law Monday the new Secure D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024.
Starbucks in downtown Silver Spring closing at end of March
Tough news for coffee lovers in downtown Silver Spring.
Virginia senator boasts about blocking budget for Monumental Sports move to Potomac Yard
The Virginia State senator single-handedly responsible for blocking the deal to build a new pro-sports arena in Alexandria spoke out about the plan Thursday. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin did too, as it appears the plan is hitting the dirt.
House passes bill that gives DC control over RFK Stadium site
The House voted Wednesday in favor of giving the D.C. government full control over the old RFK Stadium site and surrounding land.
Mayor Bowser unveils $400M plan to revitalize Downtown DC - with or without Capitals, Wizards
Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled a $400 million plan Monday she hopes will help revitalize Downtown D.C.
Workers union is latest roadblock for Monumental Sports move to Potomac Yard
Another roadblock has come up in the plans to build a new home for the Capitals and Wizards in northern Virginia. This time, it's labor unions crying foul.
Overnight sex assault under investigation in Alexandria
For the second time this month, police in Alexandria are investigating a late-night sexual assault with a woman being attacked by a stranger.