What an historic night to be working.   At approximately 11:04 PM, Denise and I announced that Barack Obama had been elected the nation’s 44th president.   Normally, the networks would make that announcement, but since we were in local programming at the time, we got to make the announcement.

We had a full staff working and here is a glimpse into what went into our election coverage.

clockwise from the left:  Special Projects Producer Tracy Furey, 11PM producer Leah Viator, Executive Producer Kerrie Wudyka,  Anchor and Janitor Al Terzi, some woman who looks vaguely familiar, Associate Producer Brian Spyros, Associate Producer Scott McDonnell, Sports Director Joe Zone and editor Tom Zukowski.

Political analysts Duby McDowell and Brian Flaherty.   Sorry we didn’t get a picture of Brian applying Duby’s eyeliner.

A busy night for our web team of Stephanie Berning and Joshua Rafuse checking their Facebook accounts, I mean, updating vote totals.

Al recalling the first election he covered when Warren Harding beat James Cox.

Technical Producer Adam (Adam 12) Brooks and operations technician Joel Kosciak trying to make Al, Denise and me look younger.

News Director Dana Neves and Assistant Director Patience Hettrick making an important election night decision:  what kind of toppings to order on the pizzas.   Notice Dana is sitting….

that’s because as you can see in these standing shots, she is ready to give birth any day!     Here Dana is talking to our producer pod:  from the top center clockwise:  Executive Producer Kerrie Wudyka, producers Rob Polansky and Chris Hamm, associate producers Scott McDonnell and Kimberly Cornell, Assistant News Director Patience Hettrick and Associate Producer Brian Spyros.  Below:  Dana and Kimberly.     You’ll see chief meteorologist Bruce DePrest moping around with nothing really to do on this election night, but he is secretly hoping for a freak nor’easter.

Here Production Manager Marney Elliott and technicians Dario Muneton (on the right) and Kevin Deninger (left) tell Adam and Joel the only way to make the anchors look younger is to shoot as wide as possible and ask the viewers to squint.

Technicians Dave Chmielewski (the front) and Kyle Buchanan (the tail) operate the remote camera.  Let’s hope for Kyle’s sake Dave didn’t eat the three bean pizza (Al and Denise’s favorite.)

Assignment Manager Dave Ward announcing that Congressman Chris Shays is conceding.   That smile means there are no technical problems….at this particular moment.