straight from the heart

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Growing up in East Tennessee, WBIR-Channel 10 was always on in our house. My memories go back to Doc Johnston, Rex Rainey and then Carl Williams. They were the people that first brought us the local news and weather.

WBIR has been one constant in my life, in part, because more than just covering the region's newsmakers, Channel 10 has chosen to put considerable effort into shining the light on just regular folks: common people doing uncommon things, or uncommon people doing common things. Doesn't matter, if they are interesting. While others focus on the dark side, 'BIR shines light on the lighter.

Particularly since adopting the Straight from the Heart philosophy, WBIR has turned its cameras on its neighbors: first with Steve Dean's The Heartland Series and then Live at Five (now at Four) and Positively Schwall and today features like Your Stores, Homegrown and Namesake. Over the course of the past thirty years I feel I've gotten to know everyone that lives anywhere nearby. And they're good folks.

They are pros at Channel 10 at making ordinary people seem extraordinary. WBIR could do a segment on an old brown shoe and make it seem like the most interesting old brown shoe you'd ever seen. Last week, they made this one feel like a Birkenstock. 

A straight from the heartfelt thank you to reporter Abby Ham and photo-journalist Jerry Owen for their most recent  Your Story, well, really it's my story. 

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