It's been one heck of a week here in the News Channel Six newsroom.

• One of my main anchors has been out sick.
• My early morning anchor has had a family emergency to take care of and has been in and out all week.
• My chief photographer is finally getting some much needed vacation time.
• We also had three teachers from Petrolia, Seymour and Quanah in early in the week for a program put on by Vernon Regional College's Tech Prep School To Work.
• We have had training going on for a new computer system that has taken three members out of their regular schedules.
• We are in the beginning stages of installing another new newsroom computer system.
• My weekend producer is going to be out this weekend.
• And I have been on the phone, it seem like all week long, trying to get deals for myself and another staff member go go away for training next month on yet another computer system.
• All of this and not to mention being on the phone trying to fill two staff positions that are or will soon become vacant.

My point in telling you this is we have been shuffling schedules non-stop to keep every position covered. That's one of the headaches we constantly face in a small newsroom. I must have at least two reporters to cover local news, along with two photographers, producers, anchors, etc., etc., etc. on staff to get the job done and bring you our viewers quality newscasts and web coverage.

I must say, through all of this my staff has stepped up to the plate this week. I've managed to get all of the vacancies covered and all of the "extra" duties accomplished as well. I won't bore you with all of the details on who did what. If you watch our news regularly, you would have noticed faces poping up in places you don't normally see them in.

The next big chore for the week will involve dealing with the enevitable aftermath.... namely the overtime. Now, I really like my boss Kyle Williams, the General Manager for KAUZ, but he has this thing about O.T. He just doesn't like it! I think that's because the people over him up in the corporate office don't like it either. Whatever the case, it's part of doing business in a small newsroom.

One thing that stands out in all of this... everyone in the newsroom has been doing their jobs and more. Real team players, everyone. I think that's why we like this place and all work so hard to move the ratings meter. Probably more importantly, we are having a great time doing what we do. Bottom line, we are all passionate about the news business, regardless of what we have to put up with along the way.