CLINTON VISITS MICHIGAN CITY

Photo/Lisa C. Schreiber

POSITIVE REACTION: Front-row spectators react with joy as they seePresident Clinton after his speech in Washington Park Wednesday.

Photo/Lisa C. Schreiber

WAITING FOR CLINTON: Michigan City High School band memberswait for the arrival of President Clinton Wednesday at Michigan City's Amtrakstop.

Michigan City invadedby national news media

By Stacey Manner

News-Dispatch staff writer

It's a scramble. A mad scramble to get the information out first, toget the right camera angle, to get the good comment, and to get as closeas possible to Bill Clinton.

Local, state and national media personnel invaded Michigan City Wednesdayto set up for the president's appearance in Washington Park.

With little time between when the stop was confirmed and the day of thespeech, media people quickly put together mobile crews and game plans.

Early Wednesday morning, news people lined up at tables to pick up presscredentials. Soon, Washington Park was turned into a maze of ropes thatsectioned off specific areas for the public, reporters and VIP personnel.

The beginning of Lake Shore Drive near the park was lined with networkmedia trucks, their satellite dishes open to the sunny sky.

Television correspondents and reporters stood by with microphones, filmingshort takes before Clinton arrived.

The Armory that normally houses the National Guard in Washington Parkwas transformed into a press filing center in a matter of hours.

The gymnasium inside the armory was covered with a cloth to serve asa carpet. Tables, chairs, speakers, televisions, monitors, fax lines, computersand miles of wires cluttered the rooms.

The tables were labeled for each network or press person -- CNN, ABC,NBC, AP, CBS and dozens of other acronyms representing the various out-of-townmedia groups.

"This station is mostly for the people coming in off the train,"said Don Wilczak from the armory's building services. "They'll getoff the press car and breeze through here in a couple of hours, sendingtheir stories wherever they need to go."

Wilczak pointed to a long, fat cable extending from the armory roof toa nearby telephone pole.

"That is for 100-plus phone lines," he said. Usually, the armoryhas about 25 phone lines.

Wilczak said federal agents came to town several days before Clinton'sspeech to stake out places to house the media filing station.

"They came in here, looked around and said, 'This is the place.'So we entered into a contractual agreement. They rent the building fromus," Wilczak said.

A local electrician was brought in to provide the necessary servicesand hook-ups that would supply the station with 200 amp service, Wilczaksaid.

Wilczak compared Wednesday's excitement at the armory to activity in1987, when the Pan American Games brought Michigan City into the internationalspotlight.

"The building was about the same, only for about two weeks insteadof two hours," Wilczak said. "They really set up camp here."

The media personnel who were granted "pool" passes Wednesdayeither traveled on the president's train and with his motorcade into thepark, or stood on a platform closer to the president than others.

Reporters and camera crews with pink passes stood on or near the longdeck of press risers colored red, white and blue.

The tall deck provided a head-on, central view of the president and supportersbehind him on the bandstand, but was farther away than where the pool reportersstood.

Television reporters were easily spotted in their business suits andtennis shoes. Correspondents stood on the crowded decks, their cameramensending them hand signals.

Well-known television personalities garnered stares and comments frombystanders behind the press deck.

Brit Hume from ABC in Washington stood on the sidelines talking withtechnical operators after his long ride on the train.

Chicago's Mary Ann Ahern from Channel 5 did her piece from the deck,talking back and forth by remote to the people on the truck and weedingher way through what seemed to be some technical difficulties.

While talking to her crew members, she admitted to being "flustered"while reporting under the hot sun on the crowded riser.

CBS's Paula Zahn also was wandering around the area, as were crews fromSouth Bend stations Channel 22 and Channel 16.

Newspaper reporters and photographers from all over the area carriedtheir cameras, notebooks and tape recorders.

Local media also buzzed.

Channel 27 correspondent Bart Lombard said he hoped the president wouldarrive on time so the station could send the speech live to Michigan Citycable viewers at home.

Lombard said the station will broadcast a special 90-minute show thisweekend to wrap up the president's trip to town.

Ron Miller, from local radio station WEFM, said his live broadcast wasjust like any other.

But Miller didn't have the visual advantages that other new people had.His station was set up on the ground behind the media platform.

"I guess I could try to crawl under the platform and get a glimpse,"Miller joked.