No Show, But The Show Must Go On

We've lived in this area well over 30 years now, and have always watched the local ABC station WLS, Channel 7 in the mornings and evenings.  So, we're pretty familiar with the comings and goings of the various anchor people, weather people and street reporters.  Just a few days ago, one of my favorite weekend morning anchors bit the dust.

No, he didn't die.  He was fired.  Apparently, Kevin Roy just didn't have the heart anymore to read the news and do all the silly spots so often required of local morning anchors, particularly on the weekends.  So last Sunday morning, he just didn't show up for his allotted 6 a.m. broadcast.  I guess most people could understand missing a routine show once, but this was the third time in as many months that Roy had pulled the same stunt.  So, WLS sent him packing yesterday morning.

When it was apparent that Roy was AWOL last Sunday morning, on again/off again staff reporter Michelle Gallardo was yanked off the street and thrown unceremoniously into his seat, where she managed to read the news without fucking up too bad.  Twittering furiously afterwards Gallardo wrote "Why do these things have to happen on a day that I didn't blow-dry my hair!  Lol!"

Lol indeed.  After reading about Roy's suicidal career decision, I wondered what level of panic the producer was in when he/she realized that they were about to turn the cameras on a newscast featuring the Invisible Man?  I realize that they deal with all sorts of problems like showing the wrong graphics or film clips, or the occasional marauding robotic floor camera that takes in everything but its intended target, but no smiley/serious anchor to open the newscast?

Do you show all of the commercials allotted for the hour in one big dollup?  Do you go to a silent shot of the Sears (sorry ... Willis) Tower skycam panning the Chicago landscape?  Or do you run willy-nilly into the street looking for the first person walking by wearing a suit and tie on a Sunday morning at 6:00 and keelhaul him?

Contacted shortly after being shown the door, Roy said "To those who might speculate on the reason, be assured that my problem is one of physical exhaustion only."

Any questions?  No?  Okay then, let's all move on ... nothing to see here.  Mr. Roy, 41,  walks away (with a little encouragement) after 12 years with WLS, one of the premier television stations in the U.S.  Previously, he had worked at KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon and at two other low wattage outlets in Louisville and Cedar Rapids.

Geez, I wonder how you gussie-up your resume after that titanic boner.  Tuscaloosa, here he comes.

Aye Roy, me boy, I'll miss ye laddie ...