John_Schwada's Blog

THURSDAY, 9 am to noon: I spend the first few hours at work trying to wrap up an investigative piece on telemarketing scams (tele-scam). Part of the morning futilely spent trying to get a booking photo from authorities in Arizona of Robyn Mayhan, a central figure in this story (Mayhan’s $20 million scam involved over-the-phone sales of consumer products, the proceeds allegedly benefiting U.S. Blind Services and Helping Hands of Hope, two “charity” groups); another hour spent re-writing parts of story per managing editor Larry Croner; half-hour or so shuttling copies of finished piece to Fox attorney Lisa Rafferty, to get her sign-off (required for these kinds of pieces). More than a soupcon of anxiety because tele-scam is scheduled to air tonight, and it is only now going to the (video) editor. Not good! KTTV news director Jose Rios is a stickler for wanting to preview investigative pieces (the final product) a day or two before they air. So producer Dan Leighton and I are tiptoeing around the newsroom hoping to avoid Jose and his censure (when he’s mad, Jose gets you in his office, pushes a button and his door shuts behind you; very dramatic, very intimidating - the only thing missing is the soundtrack from some film noir movie of a prison door clanking shut).

THURSDAY, 1-6 pm: As the video editor slowly stitches the piece together, Dan and I completely take leave of our senses and race off to Woodland Hills to see if we can, finally, find and confront Tracy Ballard, the Woodland Hills woman sued in mid-October by the Federal Trade Commission for running an illegal credit repair company (Success Credit Services); Ballard is another central figure in our tele-scam story (she and Robyn Mayhan are running totally separate businesses – both allegedly illegal). If we get Ballard on camera, she’ll probably run or slam a door in our face; supposedly she’s got a temper. Whatever. It’d make good video. (Her attorney has already blown us off completely, refusing to return my phone calls for comment). There are no videographers around so Dan grabs a small video camera, and we go to the Woodland Hills office where Ballard’s father is a realtor. We had a tip Ballard might be there. But there’s no sign of her. At 4 pm we head back to the office (no pages or phone calls from Jose, thank God); we’ve got to take a look at what editor Mark Tickell has wrought. We slip into the station, take the backstairs, see Tickell’s work, tell him it’s great but he needs to finish up. Pronto. “How much time do I have,” he asks. Forty-five minutes; the piece has to be on Jose’s desk by 5:30 pm, or, for sure, Dan and I will get the prison door treatment. Long story short, the piece is finished and on Jose’s desk; he approves it, and it’s ready to be aired tonight, at 10 pm.

THURSDAY, 6-10 pm: God’s got monkeywrenches and a wacky sense of humor, and on this night he deals from the bottom of the deck pulls out a joker (does that sound a little like some dimestore mystery writer’s line?). At about 6 pm, a firestorm sweeps down from the hills, swamping Montecito in flames, dozens of homes are devastated in the first few hours. Dozens more are on the grill, roasting. The piece with Ballard is blown out – held; the newscast is monopolized by fire. Okay, I can handle that. It’s better to be blown out by a real story than by a freeway pursuit that usually ends with some jackalope (you’ve seen the postcards of the jackalope if you ever visited truck stops – a half rabbit, half antelope creature) meekly throwing up his hands and being marched off to jail.