SNN’s first news meeting today is held at 10 a.m., exactly 12 hours before the debut of the new live show. At first it seems a terrible day to premiere anything. The news will be on opposite the Florida-Ohio State football game, and as Linda admits, everybody will be watching the game. But that’s part of her strategy. Every rehearsal they’ve had has presented a new problem. She knows the show will need a shake-down period, like out-of-town tryouts for a Broadway play. “It’s a process, not an event,” she says.

            Everybody shows up for the meeting, spilling out of the conference room and into the hall. These 15 or so people, both on camera and off, will have to come together and put on an hour of live TV. The on-camera people are instantly recognizable to many Sarasotans: anchors Adrienne Stein and Drew Smith, weatherman Tom Burse, and Antawan Smith, the genial sports guy with the bald head and the easy laugh. Charles Brown, who does general on-camera reporting and interviews, is there, too, along with Bruce Asbury, who specializes in features that require a lighter touch. He’s the class clown of the newsroom, even during editorial meetings, with a touch of insult comedy that he somehow manages to get away with. When Linda stresses the need to focus the show on Drew and Adrienne, saying, “I’d like to give Sarasota a really good anchor team,” Bruce says, under his breath, “I can’t wait ‘til we find one.” Drew and Adrienne laugh harder than anyone.

            If the football game will steal their audience, it is also giving the day a strong news focus. With so many Gators in town, plus all the Ohio transplants, it’s one of the biggest football days of the year. All sorts of stories are discussed. Antawan will do a “package” on the two Riverview High graduates who will be playing for Florida. Someone else will go to a sports shop at the mall for a story on merchandising for the game. Bruce will go to a sports bar live and watch the game with the fans.

And he may do his “Someone You Should Know” segment on Betty Schoenbaum, the 89-year-old widow of Alex Schoenbaum, the founder of Shoney’s restaurant chain and an Ohio State player from the late 1930s. Betty is one of the great old ladies of Sarasota, and Bill Wagy fills everyone in on the details—her fabulous penthouse downtown, her many philanthropic endeavors, the outfit she wears each year to watch the game.

But there are problems. Betty may or may not be going to the NARSAD gala at the Van Wezel, where Bill will be photographing philanthropist Virginia Toulmin getting an award from NARSAD founder Lee Peterson. If Betty is going, she certainly won’t be wearing her Ohio State outfit, which means she’ll have to be interviewed earlier, which means it will conflict with another story Bill has to do. Various plans are discussed and rejected, and things are finally left undecided, but it’s agreed that there must be a way to photograph Betty in her outfit—there simply must.

            The rest of the news is selected rather like a menu in a Chinese restaurant. The local news is the foundation, of course. Tonight’s second biggest story will be a follow-up on the Coralrose Fullwood murder case in North Port. And since a truck will be down there filming, perhaps a stop at the North Port City Commission meeting might be in order. Linda is always on the lookout for stories in Venice and North Port. But the commission meeting “could be a snore,” as someone points out.