June 1, 2012
Publicity is publicity, right? So I agreed to appear as the local history dude on Boston Fox25 TV. Each Friday in season they run a live Good Morning America-style show called a “Zip Trip.” The crew zips into town early, does a lot of advance work, and shoots some B-roll of a scenic town. Then they broadcast live from a popular location for a few hours in the morning, cutting back to the bad news in the studio while offering an uplifting peek at a weekend tourist haven. I got the request via email to show up at 6 am. I haven’t been up at that time in the morning since high school. I’m a night writer. But hey, I’ll take a bullet for Portsmouth anytime.
I get my news from Google and PBS, but Boston Fox 25 was an impressive set-up. In an era when broadcast and newspaper journalism is waning, these guys have all the toys. There was one big truck with lots of wires protruding and another truck with a massive corkscrew antenna. They had set up a series of tents on the quiet campus of Strawbery Banke across from an even quieter Prescott Park on the Piscataqua River. The museum isn’t open until 10 am, so it was mostly people walking their dogs and joggers. Someone brought a big white goat. I never figured out why.
A last-minute email said I could show up at 6:55 am and the show would last until 10 am. A busy producer told me I was on at 7:15 and would be off 15 minutes later. I would be subjected to a trivia quiz and no, they would not give me the questions in advance. The questions were supposed to be softballs, just funny stuff, but there was always the possibility that punchdrunk from lack of sleep, I might humiliate myself before tens of thousands of New Englanders.
I wandered over to a Dunkin’ Donuts tent where someone dressed as a cup of iced coffee was doing a happy dance. I don’t drink coffee, but I like watching giant coffee cups perform. Another costumed character reminded me of Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars. Petey, I learned, was the mascot for Canobie Lake Park in Salem. Petey held up two of his four fingers in a peace sign gesture. I waved back. I registered to win a free car and petted the white goat. The sun was just breaking through the clouds.
A couple of minutes before air time I was settled into a tall deck chair next to Doug VB Goudie. I hadn’t heard of him and he hadn’t heard of me. According to his Fox News bio, VB hosts a segment entitled “Let It Rip” where “his daily opinions push the boundaries of regular news.” His strong opinions on hot-button issues, the website read, may make you want to scream at your television set. I guess that’s why I watch PBS.
There was no prep, no make-up, no pep talk. Somebody just handed me a wireless microphone with instructions to turn the Fox25 logo toward the camera. At the cue from the producer, VB amped up his energy level, plugged in his broadcaster voice, and had at me.
The questions were pretty tough. I forget what I said, but managed not to disgrace myself. I was presented with a free tote bag full of items from Tedeschi Food Shops. Then I posed for PR shots with VB and the Tedeschi reps. Next up was philanthropist Jameson French who did a great job telling “the Portsmouth story.” Jameson got a plaque for being a local hero.
I was back home by 8 am. On TV, VB was doing a live interview with Chris Wallace in Washington, DC from his deck chair at Strawbery Banke. Impressive technology. They chatted about the trial of presidential candidate John Edwards who had been acquitted of mishandling secret campaign funds to keep his wife, who was dying of cancer, from finding out that he had fathered a child during an illicit love affair. The show featured a car crash, a murder, a robbery, and a lot of negative stuff about President Barack Obama– same-old same-old.
I hope a few new people who watch Fox News learned about Portsmouth for the first time. I hope they get in their cars and come up here to share the town we’ve built. I hope our town makes them happy. And I still don’t understand why people live anywhere else but here.
© 2012 by J. Dennis Robinson, edited 2025. All rights reserved
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