Send your memories to tvnewser@mediabistro.com or drop them in the tip box…
> “You may (or may not) remember that at its start, MSNBC had a group of 30 or so on-air commentators it called the ‘friends,’ smarties who would wander on set and comment on this or that as the day went by. It would be fun to dig up a list of who they were (Omar Wasow was one) and then see where they are today, ten years later.” Does anyone have that list?…
> “MSNBC was interesting when it first came out. I loved the news music, it was catchy. The news studio looked like a Starbucks in San Francisco (still does in some ways today). What was interesting was the alliance that MSNBC had with NBC News when it first started… I think MSNBC started the rebirth of cable news as FNC started four months later. I wonder what FNC has in store for the 10th birthday in October.”
> “Right after MSNBC went on the air, TWA 800 went down off Long Island. Until then, you either waited for the networks to cover a crash or you watched CNN. But MSNBC was a new alternative with two advantages — the great Bob Hager, who got to spread his wings beyond the reports he did for NBC Nightly News and Brian Williams, who it turned out was an aviation buff. For those of us who’ve covered the airlines or grew up in them it was a dream come true. The graphics as I recall weren’t all that great, and if I remember correctly they had to rely on a local news feed but I was impressed at how they handled it given how new they were.”
> “I wish we could bring back ‘The News with Brian Williams.’ That was back when Williams had the leeway to be his dry, deadpan self… and do an actual hour long newscast in primetime. What great TV news that was. Does anybody even do an actual primetime *news*cast anymore?”
> “Sometimes I wonder if MSNBC would have been better off in Manhattan, no matter the price. I’ve appeared a few times, and let me tell you, the drive to Secaucus from the city is a royal pain.”
> “I remember that sometime in the first year during a Jodi Applegate hour they had a German oom-pah-pah band on, and Jodi led dozens of crew members in a wild chicken dance while the famous ceiling-track camera zoomed around overhead. Someone must have the video. I bet Fox would love to have the video!”
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