This Just In

by Yolanda Joe Narrated by Robin Miles, Donna Bailey, C. J. Critt

Overview

WKBA news in Chicago is reeling. Their ratings are the lowest in town, and company morale has plummeted. At the end of their ropes, five women band together to correct injustices and hopefully shoot WKBA up the ratings chart. Their ideas are inventive, and their convictions are infectious, but they'll need to crack the good-old-boys network before they ever get a chance to prove themselves. Through Yolanda Joe's sharp observations about this cutthroat industry, the cameras are reversed and the inequalities of big-time television news are exposed. An all-star cast of Recorded Books narrators helps each character shine, bringing the story completely to life.

Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble Guide to New Fiction

Joe's latest offers a delicious peep into the roles that gender issues and racial politics play in the lives of five women working in the cut-throat world of broadcast news. "I loved this book." "I found myself rooting for the well-developed characters as they faced their dark dilemmas." Others found it "fractured and frustrating" to read and a little too "preachy."

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gender issues and racial politics inflect a Chicago TV newsroom in Joe's (Bebe's By Golly Wow) fast-paced but didactic novel, a derivative Broadcast News or Murphy Brown with African-American protagonists. Poor morale and low ratings haunt WKBA's news division, but many of the ambitious black women who work there scramble for recognition and promotion while trying to stay true to their ethics. Fights between producers and writers, senior anchors and young hopeful reporters, studio bigwigs and technical workers, union-seeking employees and the management are all part of the multifaceted drama. Photographer Alex Harbor is tired of unending battles against racism and sexism, and writer Kenya Adams is at the end of her rope with a demanding schedule that threatens her family life. When the news director gets canned for low ratings, news manager Denise Mitzler sees an opportunity to move up the ladder, but she loses the job to a black male brought in from outside, Xavier "Glory" Helston, who wins over many with his interest in employee grievances. The feisty women try to control their destinies: Denise threatens to sue; Holly creates an emergency that allows her to anchor the news; Kenya recovers from an embarrassing gaffe at an important industry party; photographer Megan invests heavily in the stock market to finance her own company. Joe's novel is structured like a news broadcast, with chapter headings as preview "teasers," but the gimmick is awkward. Many of the characters sound alike, and with so many dramatic crises, the interchangeability of characters makes the plot stagger as if the TelePrompTer has gone awry. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170997237
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	10/08/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Headlines

Dateline: Chicago. March 1998.

Coming Up Next on WKBA-TV:

First:

Holly Johnston--

Reporter/Anchor. Twenty-five years old. California pretty. Black Bourgeois. Considered a lightweight. Holly wants to prove her journalism skills to the WKBA newsroom. But how?

Then:

Alexandra Harbor--

The only black woman photographer. Thirty-six years old. A Chicago native. She battles sexism and racism. This broadcast veteran is talented, burned out, and volatile. She struggles to stay focused and afloat at WKBA.

And:

Kenya Adams--

An uprooted small-town Southern girl. Twenty-six years old. A print reporter at heart, she struggles to make the tough transition to writing and producing TV news. Kenya's drive to succeed jeopardizes her home life with her med school husband and toddler son.

Also:

Megan Rippley--

Nickname: Beans. Forty-four years old. The first woman to become a photographer at WKBA. White. Working class. Chicagoan. Slight stutterer. Manages problem by talking in phrases. Beans is also considered a sort of troop leader to the other women in the newsroom. But there are racism struggles. Will those struggles damage her respect and friendship with the black women at WKBA?

Plus:

Denise Mitzler--

A trailblazer. One of the first black women managers working for a network-owned station in a top-five market. Forty-one years old. Denise is scrappy. Reared on the East Coast and college-educated. Her sights are set on reaching the top. But Denise fights to find balance. Should she correct years of racism at WKBA? Should Denise rock the boat? When does fairness endand reverse racism begin?

All Those Stories and More.

This Just In . . .

Starts Right Now.

Holly

Reporter/Anchor

All eyes were on me.

I walked through the WKBA newsroom. It was a whirling hub of activity. In the large oval-shaped space with rectangular metal desks, my new coworkers sat up, stopped what they were doing, and openly stared.

All eyes were on me.

In whispers, my new colleagues debated my existence and my worth as though I weren't there. Is that the new reporter? Yes that's her. Do you think she's pretty? In a common sort of way. Think she'll make it? Who knows? Who cares? How ironic; I felt visible yet invisible.

All eyes were on me.

I was following my new boss's executive secretary, Vera. She's fiftyish and petite. Vera has literally grown up at this station. Recently Vera celebrated her twenty-fifth year on the job. You could do that behind the scenes in a nondecision-making position, you could stay twenty to thirty years at one television station.

But it's not like that for reporters and anchors. For us, television stations have revolving doors. Broadcast news is a complicated game, it's a lot of stick and move.

I was coming from a tiny but well-respected station located in Palm Springs. In news, no one really tries to stay rooted at one particular station until they get to the big time--New York, Chicago, L.A. That's what WKBA/Chicago is--the big time. And I'm determined to stick.

I kept my diva face and accompanying strut going full throttle despite all the emotion churning inside of me. Who will my new friends be? Will I get off to a good start?

It wasn't that I hadn't been in WKBA's newsroom before. I had, actually, for a final interview with Kal Jimper, the vice president/general manager. He's the number-one guy.

I met with the news director too--Mitch Saleen. He's the number-two guy, responsible for the overall daily operations within the newsroom.

Then I was briefly introduced to Garth Ingalls, the executive producer, a tall man with steel blue eyes and a whiskey voice. I met Denise Mitzler too. She's managing editor. Denise is a classy sister with a no-nonsense demeanor.

But Kal Jimper and Mitch Saleen were the ones I had to win over. And I did win them over so here I am.

"You'll like Chicago," Vera chatted as we walked. "There's so much to do! Blues. Jazz. Theater. Great summer festivals in Grant Park. I've lived here all my life and I love it."

"You never thought about moving?"

"Once," she said. "My husband is a car salesman. He thought he could do better in Dallas. At the time my twin boys were babies. But we thought since my family is here, and his family is here, it wasn't worth going to a new place where we didn't know anyone."

I nodded--I was now in a strange new place where I didn't know anyone.

"Plus," Vera chatted on, "I ended up getting a better job at 'KBA. At first I was in the mailroom. I got to know everyone in the building. When people heard that I was thinking about leaving, the news director gave me a job as his secretary. That convinced us to stay."

"I hope I like it here as much as you do."

"You will." Vera smiled pleasantly. Now we had reached the last desk on the third row. "Well, Holly, here's your spot. I sit right around the corner there," Vera pointed, "outside Mitch's door. Holler if you need help."

"Thanks."

"That's good advice!" someone complimented as she walked away. "Vera's number one around here!"

"Rerack your tape, baby," a voice jackknifed through the air. "Hazel Morriette is the top bitch around here and don't you forget it!"

I turned to look at the woman who spoke with such cutting pride. Hazel Morriette was sitting across from my work space with her right arm draped across the back of her plaid desk chair. She gnawed at me with a hungry gaze that made me both uneasy and guarded. Hazel seductively snapped her wrists as she whipped the telephone chord around and around in the air. With a sly smile, she cooed, "My dear, you are in the presence of greatness. I am Hazel Morriette, senior anchor at WKBA."

Lucky me. Hazel was on vacation during my final interview at WKBA but I'd heard about her. Oh yes. I'd heard that Hazel was like radiation--the less exposure the better. Her story is a lesson in Journalism 101. Who: Hazel Morriette. What: 10 p.m. anchor. When: Since 1987. Where: WKBA Chicago. Why: Solid audience recognition and tight with network brass.

Hazel has glossy black hair that flows past her shoulders. A streak of gray adorns the sides of each temple. Hazel has stunning bone structure, from her sculpted eyes to a dimple that centers in her chin. But age has forced a heavy hand when it comes to Hazel's makeup. She's camouflaging wrinkles and a splatter of age spots. Hazel had on a Donna Karan dress and Gucci shoes. Be friendly, I thought. After all, what had I done to her? So I smiled at Hazel Morriette.

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