WGN Morning News Blog

I took my first trip to New York City this week; for all of my 38 years I've had no interest, whatsoever, in spending any time there -- we Chicagoans can be very parochial. This year, I broke out of my shell because I'm a big baseball fan and I wanted to see Yankee Stadium before they blow it up.

So my wife and I spent a couple of days doing what the rest of the tourists do in NYC: pushing, shoving and stepping on each others feet trying to get to all of the obligatory tourist traps, Broadway shows, Statue of Liberty, Flash Dancers, acting like we had original vacation ideas.

Like a moth to a flame, being a TV news guy, we ended up going to see the Today Show on Rockefeller Plaza. We were staying just 2 blocks away, so why not? But if I was going to do that, I wanted to make sure to get in a plug for the number one morning show in Chicago (that's us, by the way). Plus, I wanted to see a show that, despite 100 times more resources, budget and staffing, loses in the ratings to the "Little Show That Could" for the last ten years.

So we found a piece of cardboard and wrote a couple of messages for the competition. I had to walk thru security with my sign. The security guard asked to read my sign. No problem. I showed him the front. It read: "Al Rocks Larry's World". Benign enough, and a reference no one except devout WGN Morning Show viewers would even get. Then he asked to see the other side. This is where I thought I'd get turned away. To my surprise, he read it and let me in.

Watch the video carefully -- first you'll see a couple of slow motion shots of me, way in the background with the "Larry's World" message on the front of the sign. Later, I flipped it over to launch my covert attack in enemy territory. If you can't make it out, it says "WGN Rules Chicago." Yes, my big chance to punk the competition in front of a worldwide audience and that's all I could come up with! Like some graffiti you'd write in grade school in the bathroom stall.

My wife snapped a couple of pictures of Matt and Meredith with sort of funny looks on their faces and I thought we could do a caption contest. (no prizes-- but keep them clean and maybe we'll show some of the clever ones on the Morning Show.)

Mike Wilder
Producer, WGN Morning News