Tag: WMC

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1380

Going Down

WMC’s excitable news reporter Jason Miles gets to the bottom of things. And sometimes he gets on top of things. Over the years, Fly on the Wall has shared images of Miles crawling under a car. And we’ve shared images of him crawling under a car recreated in icing on top of a birthday cake. When LEGO Jason Miles was introduced, we even shared a photo of him crawling under a car. Now, because we are completists, here’s a photo of Jason Miles crawling under a building.

It’s interesting to note how Miles’ legs appear to bend backwards, which is most likely an evolved trait allowing the reporter to scamper about while under things.

Listed!

Last Wednesday, the website RentApplication.com published a list of America’s hotspots for sexually transmitted diseases (STD) based on data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Memphis makes the top 30 but is outdone by West Memphis, Arkansas, which clocks in at number three, just behind Montgomery, Alabama and St. Louis, Missouri. Given that most STD hotspots are located inside the Bible Belt, some consideration should be given to changing their designation to “Abstinence Transmitted Diseases.”

Wiped Out

File under weird crime. Three Memphis men were arrested in Sikeston, Missouri last week after stealing a semi-trailer loaded with $70,000 worth of toilet paper. The trio is destined to be the butt of many jokes.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1369

Bye Felicia

Fly on the Wall has shared many images of WMC reporter and trendsetter Jason Miles crawling under a car to illustrate his story. Now, for the sake of symmetry, here’s a picture of Miles’ colleague Felicia Bolton standing on top of a car.

“I’m standing on a car that’s not moving right now,” Bolton said, in a brave report from the station’s Union Avenue WMC parking lot, where the journalist never once shied away from the fact that she was, in fact, standing on the roof of a silver, four-door compact like a crazy person. Bolton was narrating a story that had taken place at Mud Island’s Greenbelt Park, where an 8-year-old fell from the roof of a moving car. Bolton’s own vehicle remained safely parked near the news van, and at no point was she flung to the asphalt.

Happy “Carjacker”

A Memphis security guard has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of indecent exposure. Todd Albritton was arrested last week after being identified as the man caught on cell phone videos, while driving around Memphis naked. According to various, extremely awkward news reports, Albritton was also “pleasuring himself.” To be fair, the alleged self-pleasuring “carjacker” was never completely naked. He was always seen wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses. And a smirk.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1364

Verbatim

Memphis experienced a mass knicker twist last week when University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari used his Hall of Fame induction speech to take a shot at his former employer. Calipari compared previous coaching gigs, including his infamous stint in Memphis, to eating Thanksgiving dinner “at the little table,” adding a line about how, “You had plastic forks and plates.” But nobody’s knickers twisted harder than those belonging to Fox 13 weather guy Joey Sulipeck, who either called Coach Cal out to a rumble or a picnic. “Say you’re at the kid table with plastic utensils?” the meteorologist taunted, “Give me a plastic utensil and walk by me, Calipari. You don’t demean an entire program and say it’s the kid table and plastic utensils, got history like the Memphis program. Come on.”

Whoa Nelly!

Hip-hop artist Nelly was apparently “riding Hazard like a Duke boy” in Putnam County, Tennessee this week. The “Country Grammar” rapper was arrested on felony drug charges after a state trooper stopped his bus on I-40 and smelled marijuana.

Anchorman 3

One of this past week’s most dubious news reports found WMC anchorman Joe Birch reading lines like a comic-book Geraldo: “A fight! People run over! Crashes! A video so shocking WMC Action News 5’s Jerry Askin searched for some answers.” Askin asked random people what they thought about a YouTube video of something that might have happened in Memphis. The clip in question seemed to show a fight and people being intentionally hit by cars. And then, of course, there’s the headline.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1352

Verbatim

“The only people at the park on Mud Island at 4 a.m. were Memphis police and the media.” — from The Commercial Appeal‘s report about how media and police were punked by a mysterious group calling itself the “Black Revolutionary Organization.” Earlier reports suggested that a protest would shut down traffic on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge at 4 a.m.

Listed

Mandatory.com, AOL’s man-brand site, made a list of America’s sluttiest states. Mandatory used Centers for Disease Control numbers related to “the three loveliest sounding STDs — chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis” to determine the likelihood that “you will catch something when you bring someone home from the bar.” By this standard, Tennessee turns out to be America’s 11th sluttiest state while Mississippi takes the pole position.

“So Much Money”

“‘I’m very sad to see Juicy J go,’ [Kayce Myers] said, wiping tears from her eyes. ‘We’ve been enjoying the last two days together. I gave him a bath, water to drink, and hay to eat, then let him lay around and be happy.'” So reported The Sentinel, a daily newspaper based out of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, when Myers’ 1,320-pound junior beef steer won the grand championship at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. Juicy the steer, named for Memphis rapper and producer Juicy J, sold for $15,000.

Hell on Wheels

Last week, Fly on the Wall commented on a WMC story about a woman who was outraged because local school bus brake lights remind her of an upside down pentagram.The ridiculous story spread far and wide, as ridiculous stories will. Wonkette’s story was headlined, “It’s the Black Magic School Bus,” while The Huffington Post claimed “Satan’s School Bus Makes Mom Mad as Hell.” It even made MSNBC’s “This Week in God” segment, where it was described as the week’s most “off the wall religion story.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1350

What the Fox?

A FOX-13 news story misleadingly slugged “Memphians Support, Criticize Ban On Hoodies” found reporter Greg Coy questioning Memphians about a piece of Oklahoma legislation that, if passed, would ban the public wearing of hooded sweatshirts in the Panhandle State. The segment produced exactly zero supporters, because it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that when hoodies are outlawed, only law-abiding citizens will have constitutionally protected hoodies made of guns. Duh.

News Trailer

December 28th was a dark day for Memphis, according to the lead story on the WMC-TV website, which trumped the tragic news, “Trailer Stolen in Shelby County.” It’s true. According to WMC, the trailer had been missing for a week already, but deputies of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office were on the lookout and armed with an understanding that the uniquely designed hand rails and ramp should make the trailer “easy to response,” whatever that means. Commenters on the story provided valuable insight with questions like, “Where’s the live crew?” and “Has an Amber Alert been issued yet?”

Neverending Elvis

File this one under “Ew!” As Elvis Presley’s birthday week is being celebrated in Memphis, your Fly Team would be remiss if we didn’t report that an Ohio man is still attempting to sell what he alleges to be a 49-year-old sample of the King’s pubic hair.

“All you Elvis collectors, lookie here. I have a real pubic hair from Elvis Presley plucked by my ex-wife Billie Jean Flurt from Elvis crotch in 1965. I hate to part with it. But it can be yours for Christmas for $5,000.00. Comes with letter of authenticity signed by Colonel Parker. I guarantee its real!”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1342

My Memphis

Never have five words broadcast by a TV news outlet said so much about Memphis TV news. “It’s about some hot wings,” Louis Primer, told WREG in a segment titled, “Argument Over Hot Wings Leads to Brawl at Birthday Party.” Primer was explaining why 45-year-old Angel Murphy was in jail and their 13-year-old daughter was headed to juvie. The altercation, which began as a fight between siblings, started after the daughter asked if there were more hot wings and was told there weren’t. Doesn’t that make you nostalgic for the days when newsmen reported stories about total strangers fighting over important things like karaoke? But that was October, and this is now.

Hot Wheels

Speaking of Memphis news guys, we’re not sure what to make of a segment about drag racing in which WMC reporter Nick Kenny reclines provocatively and plays with Hot Wheels cars to set up the punchline, “What could happen is anything but child’s play.” It sure looked like fun. Well, creepy uncle fun, anyway.

Neverending Elvis

Elvis fans marked the 60th anniversary of the singer’s commercial for Southern Maid Donuts recorded for the Louisiana Hayride on

November 6, 1954. Okay, so maybe the world didn’t raise a Krispy Kreme in celebration, but isn’t it time to launch a global donut initiative? Also, it was announced that Kevin Spacey and Michael Shannon have been cast as Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley in a film about the spectacularly weird day when Presley dropped by Tricky Dick’s White House offering to help the president with drug-addicted, anti-American, Beatles-loving hippies.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall

Verbatim

Last week, WMC’s bulldog reporter Jason Miles was thrown a bone. (Dramatic pause). A human bone. (Dramatic pause). But the most memorable line was delivered by Memphis developer Garland Sullivan, who, according to reports, found the bone a year-and-a-half ago while collecting junk down by the river. “You find all kinds of things on the river,” said Sullivan, who had been storing the bone in his closet, like you do. “I’ve found fossils, now a bone. I found a goat skull. Lots of rock and good treasure like that.”

Memphis Moments

Not to be outdone by Miles’ bone story, WMC reporter Janice Broach filed a report slugged “Man named ‘Peg Leg’ arrested after karaoke fight” about a man named James “Peg Leg” Adams who was charged with attempted murder after a fight broke out in Barbie’s Sports Bar over who was the best karaoke singer. Linda Wyman and her friend Possum were singing the Kid Rock/Sheryl Crow song “Picture” when things got ugly. Wyman told Broach that she continued to sing but heard the victim hollering that he’d been stabbed and saw blood coming. “They were all drunk,” the witness was quoted as saying.

Neverending Elvis

The Huffington Post reports that some of Las Vegas’ Elvis-themed wedding chapels are embracing same-sex marriage while others have yet to comply with Nevada’s new laws. Huffpo spoke to an unidentified employee of the “world famous” A Elvis Chapel, where $275 buys the “Hound Dog” special. According to the Elvis-industry worker, “Our ministers are unable to do [same-sex unions] at this time, and we do not believe in that.” For an additional $150, you can get the “Show Girl” package.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1334

Live Wires

The thing about live TV is, well, it’s live. That’s the lesson WMC news reporter Jerica Phillips learned last week as she reported on heavy rains. Priscilla Lester, an angry Frayser resident, walked into the shot complaining — and rightfully so — that this marked the fourth or fifth time the “Motherf#$%&r” had flooded. The video went viral and became so popular that WMC returned to the scene to meet Lester, a 51-year-old mother of five adult children, who was sorry about cursing on TV, out of Kool cigarettes, and in need of a hug.

Assessing the Damage

Speaking of live TV, here’s a shot from a Fox 13 report about Mississippi Govorner Phil Bryant asking a federal agency to “asses” damage in Desoto County. What a difference an “s” makes.

Cheap Drugs

If you’ve ever had a black metal handle lodged in your eye, you know just how painful that can be. Thank goodness for $4 prescriptions at Kroger.

Categories
News The Fly-By

New Home Improvement Show Films in Memphis

It’s around 7 a.m. on a Friday morning, and two cameramen for Fix It & Finish It are sneaking through an East Memphis yard. They settle behind a bush, and the camera guys aim their lenses at the home’s front door.

Seconds later, the reality show’s hunky host Antonio Sobàto Jr. pulls up in a shiny black pick-up truck. Wearing a snug green ringer tee and crisp dark denim, Sobàto hops out and heads for the door. He rings the doorbell and is quickly greeted with an enthusiastic hug from homeowner Anna Beth Studdard.

Reality show host Antonio Sabàto Jr

“I’m so excited!” she screams. Her husband Daniel, positioned next to her, is grinning ear to ear.

“Why are you excited?” asks Sobàto, flashing a smile.

“Because we’re going to get a new backyard!” Anna Beth exclaims.

The Studdards are one of 10 Memphis families chosen for home (or yard) makeovers on Fix It & Finish It, a new reality show that began airing five days a week on WMC this past Monday.

“Antonio and his team of local designers and contractors ambush the chosen family in the morning, and we finish the entire project in one day,” said the show’s executive producer Colleen Snyder.

In the Studdards’ case, it’s a backyard project — cutting down tree limbs over the roof, installing new plants, and building an arbor-covered patio. Doing the bulk of the dirty work are local contractor Darin K. Halford and his crew and Memphis-based Summit Landscapes.

Anna Beth and Daniel Studdard

“We’ve never had this much rush in one day,” said Summit Landscapes owner Jason Budinsky, who brought 12 guys to help pull out and replant vegetation.

Anna Beth entered the casting call after seeing a mention on Reddit. Some of the show’s families have dealt with major hardship or loss, such as another episode’s subject, Beverly Shelley, the widow of a local contractor who was murdered last year. But Daniel, a chef at the Tower Room, says the main reason they need help with the backyard is due to the expense.

“We just don’t have the money to redo our backyard,” Daniel said.

“Working on a home is a hard job. It takes time, and some people just can’t get to it, whether it’s because of work, finances, a new baby. We’ve seen it all,” Sobàto said. “We did a bedroom for three boys who had taken turns trading off between one bed and the couch in Jackson, Mississippi. We gave them a new bedroom with a pirate design.”

Sobàto got his big break as an underwear model for Calvin Klein, and he later starred on General Hospital and Melrose Place, among other projects. This week, Sobàto began juggling both daily Fix It & Finish It shoots and practicing for his role on Dancing with the Stars, which will premiere on Monday, September 15th. Since he’ll be shooting more Fix It episodes in Memphis this week, he’s practicing for Dancing at a local studio.

“It’s a crazy schedule, but I’ve worked it out,” Sobàto said.

Once they leave Memphis, the Fix It crew will head to Louisville. They’re shooting 150 episodes in total.

Fix It & Finish It airs Monday through Friday on WMC at 11:30 a.m. and on Sundays at 6:30 a.m. Snyder said they do not know yet when the Memphis episodes will air.