Dozens of NBC News and MSNBC employees have have packed Bill’s Bar and Burger this afternoon for a Summer Kick-off. The party, just across the street from Rockefeller Center, is to celebrate the upcoming coverage of the London Olympic games. Everyone in attendance received an NBC London 2012 t-shirt. And we’re told that in addition to the usual burgers and fries, there was British fare like Shepherd’s Pie and fish & chips.
NBC News president Steve Capus and “Today” EP Jim Bell were featured in a video that played on the screens throughout the restaurant. Both talked about their first Olympics experiences. Capus, an MSNBC original, talked about covering the 1996 Atlanta games, when MSNBC was just 4 days old. Bell, a former NBC Sports staffer, worked his first games in Barcelona in 1992, where he met his wife, Angelique. Twenty years and four kids later, Bell will be running NBC’s Olympic telecasts in London.
The NBC News teams will start heading across the pond in a few weeks preparing for the opening ceremony July 27.