Billy's New Venture

Hi all,

I know I have been off the map for a while now, but I have started a new company called Traveling Pixel. I have partnered up with Steve Powell, and between the two of us, we have more than 10 awards for Writing and Video Editing. Please check out our website at http://www.travelingpixel.com If there is anything we can do for you or your business, please feel free to contact us!

Thank you for your continued support!
Billy Cannon

Times, They Are 'A Changin'

Well, I regret to inform that I have been let go by KATV in a corporate-wide Staff reduction. I enjoyed all my adventures, and hope there will be more in the future. It has been a great run and I have loved every minute of it. I want to thank you all for stopping by and for the emails I have received. Times are tough for us all, but we will all come out better and stronger than we were before. I have plans for the future and you will hear from me again!

Thanks for stopping by!
God Bless!

My email

B-)

Purple Hull Pea Festival Picture Slide Show

Flooding & Tornado Damage Pictures

Due to space restrictions on the KATV website, I have to post a lot of my pictures here on this blog page. These pictures are in no particular order of any kind. I have just randomly selected the best ones of the bunch. You can click on them to make them bigger.

Hurricane Creek Mobile Home Park behind Newstar

Lil' Pard along Hwy 36 that was underwater the same time the next day.

A farm that is underwater near Georgetown, AR

If you look closely, you can see the moon setting behind Newstar.



Newstar with flood waters all around



These ducks kept coming to me and I shared my breakfast bar with them. I had to take a picture of them. This and the next few pictures are from Island Harbor near Pine Bluff on the Arkansas River.



The Island Harbor Fire Trucks had to park on higher ground because as you can see in the picture below, their fire station was in about a foot of water.



The Island Harbor Fire Station.

March 08 Dallas/Snow Pictures

A gorgeous sunset over the clouds from London, AR

Heather Crawford and Photographer Ray Hamilton

Heather ready to report during the 6pm News

Close-up of snow at my parents' house in McKinney, TX

Newstar outside the Four Seasons Resort in Irving, TX

Mike Huckabee doing an interview with Fox News Channel

Newstar and other news trucks at the Four Seasons Resort in Irving, TX

The newstrucks were lined up all the way down the street by the end of the day

Snowy Pictures

Washington D.C. 08 Pictures

More Cool Pictures from the Dallas Trip (Click on picture to embiggen)

All About Arkansas Promo

The "Coach Watch" is over!

Well, finally, we have a new football coach! Read the story here. Up next (scheduled) The big "D" for the Cotton Bowl!

B-)

"Coach Watch"

We are still on "Coach Watch"! We haven't been anywhere but to Fayetteville this past week, so I have not posted anything new, as there has been nothing new to post. Keep tuning in as at any moment, we could have a new coach! Plus, the weather is getting very very strange! I say, bring on the snow! I know it is not in the forecast yet, but one can always hope :)! More to come as things happen!

B-)

"Mr. & Mrs. Trucker"

I normally don't do this, but I just had to. Anne Pressly asked me a few weeks ago to help her with a story. I asked her what it was about, and she told me quote "Oh, you will love it". She told me it was about Ms. Arkansas 2005, Eudora Mosby Evans and her husband becoming truck drivers. Well, I did love the idea, so I jumped at the opportunity to edit it. I also posted it below because I must say, we are very proud of it! I can relate to Eudora in the story, because it took me 3 tries as well to pass the CDL test! It happens to the best of us! Enjoy!

B-))

Oxford, Mississippi

We went down to Oxford, Ms for the Houston Nutt Press Conference announcing his new gig. The drive was not bad, but Memphis traffic is interesting to say the least! I have posted pics below of Newstar at the Ford Performing Arts Center on the Ole Miss campus. I also posted pictures of other trucks around us. Enjoy! We are now on Coach Watch! Good Luck to us all!!!



B-)

WOW!!

Wow, that is all I can say about that awesome game on Friday. I got 3 phone calls after the game and that is all they could say as well. We arrived in Baton Rouge at about 3:00 Thursday afternoon. It was not a bad drive down at all. We did live shots with Beau McCastlain at 5, 6 and 10. Then we were right back out there for Friday morning Daybreak. I am so glad I was at the stadium instead of at the local Circuit City or Best Buy! A lot less people and a lot more fun! I then went back to the hotel to rest because I had to drive us from Baton Rouge to Fayetteville Friday night. I returned to the stadium around 4:00. I had a chance to walk in and watch the last half of the 4th quarter, then headed back to the truck to watch the overtimes. WOW, when they won, I heard a roar from the Arkansas TV trucks parked near us. It was really cool! We then did feeds for about an hour then finally got away from LSU at around 8:15. When we arrived in Fayetteville at 7:40am Saturday, it was cloudy, windy and 33 degrees. It was chilly in Baton Rouge as well. It was truly an adventure that I will never forget! For those of you that know me, I am a HUGE snow fan. When we were driving through North Little Rock at 4:30am Saturday, it was snowing, not too bad and it was above freezing, but it was still really neat to be driving through snow! I have posted pictures below of Newstar at Tiger Stadium and other pictures from our adventure to Baton Rouge, LA!

B-)

Sandy King, Stephen McElrath, and Newstar in front of Tiger Stadium


Mike the Tiger (sorry about the poor picture, we were crammed in trying to get a good one)


The field from the Press floor.


Another view of the field from the press floor.


Tiger Stadium has floor to ceiling windows that face the west, I was able to take this really gorgeous sunset shot from the inside. Pretty cool!


Newstar is in there somewhere. To the right of the picture are the CBS trucks.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Sorry, not much time lately for posts. We are currently in Baton Rouge, Louisiana covering the Hogs vs LSU. I will post more and even pictures when I get time. Thanks for keeping up with us!

B-)

Now, This is what I call an ADVENTURE!!!

We started this morning by heading to Glen Rose High School. It was a lot of fun! We had to have had about 200 people show up for this morning's Daybreak Spirit Rally. Once again, we had a very warm welcome from the great people at Glen Rose. After Daybreak, we headed to what I had looked forward to since Wednesday, but I had no idea what was in store for us. When we arrived at ORVPark in Hot Springs, my mouth just dropped. I have always loved to go four-wheeling, but this is extreme four wheeling. I took some pictures from the site where we were shooting, but I was too afraid to take my camera on the ride with me because as clumsy as I am, I thought I might drop it and break it. :) I had good reason. After our live shots, some club members took Jason Harper and I on a ride through a class 4 out of 5 trail. It started smooth, then about a mile into the trail, I saw a HUGE hill of big boulders. I'm talking 4 feet high boulders. We then proceeded to climb these rocks in these jeeps. I had the ride of my life. It is like going on a roller coaster at 2 mph. We "crawled" up the hill at a snail's pace climbing boulder after boulder. Good thing we were buckled in, because we were very near a roll over situation many times. It is really cool to be sitting in a jeep looking straight ahead and you see the trees that are above you. VERY VERY VERY COOL!!!! OK, I could go on about this for a long time, but this was by far one of the best adventures yet! The main reason we were there was to talk about the Wounded Warrior Project. Just go to their website for info. They are giving away an $80,000 Jeep Wrangler JK. I have posted pictures below of both adventures today. Enjoy!

B-))

Newstar in front of the Glen Rose Sports Arena

A Big crowd at 6:00 in the morning!

Taking Newstar off-road.... If Only!!

Jason Harper with the Arkansas Crawlers Club

My ride up the mountain. SWEEEEEET!!! :)))

The group before we head to the trail.

"The Great American Lane Swap"

I will explain the title in a second. On Thursday I had the opportunity to drive to Washington D.C. It was a GORGEOUS drive! The leaves are gorgeous in the higher elevations of the Smokies and the Appalachians. The reason I had to go was to return a truck (pictured below) to our sister station WJLA TV in Washington. I love road trips, that is why I took this job, but Little Rock to D.C. in two days is quite a drive, especially when the truck only goes 65 down hill. It was a total blast despite the long drive. I spent Thursday night in a town called Wytheville, Virginia, which is about 130 miles west of Lynchburg. I awoke to a beautiful sunrise in the hotel window over the Appalachians. (also pictured below)

The reason for the title is because when I started getting close to the D.C. Metro area, the freeway widened to 5 lanes across and every car around me was lane swapping like you wouldn't believe. It almost looked like a poorly choreographed ballet dance. I have driven in Dallas Traffic and I thought that was bad! Anyway, I made it to WJLA at about 1:30pm eastern time. At about 3 when I was finished, I had time to go to the World War II Memorial to see my Grand Father and Step Grandfather's names. It was very moving just standing there watching veterans getting very emotional over the memorial. I then walked the 3 blocks to the White House. It's amazing how much history is in just a small area. I put several pictures below of my Washington D.C. adventure. I know you may have seen most of these things before, but I had never traveled east of Memphis before this, so it was truly an adventure for me! I then got on a plane at 7:30 pm Friday night and flew home. It was a short, yet loooooong trip, BUT, I enjoyed every minute of it!

B-)

A frosty Morning in Whytheville, Va. The trailer is not mine. It was a frosty morning with a balmy temp of 28.

A Gorgeous Sunrise over the Appalachian Mountains.

A foggy, yet pretty drive ahead.

The Great American Lane Swap ahead!

World War II memorial. There are 4,048 stars here. Each star represents 100 Americans who died during World War II. Info courtesy Wikipedia.

Arkansas' World War II Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial behind the WWII Waterfall.

The Flags at the WWII Memorial

You can't go to D.C. without seeing the White House!

Don't Mess with Texas!

I have been so busy that posting has been an afterthought, but I should get back to a normal posting schedule soon. Last week, I took Newstar to Kilgore, TX. It is a small town about 50 miles east of Tyler in Northeast Texas. Don't worry, it was not for anything news worthy. We had a new Satellite Dish Controller installed that will make life much easier for all. The drive down was very very foggy. I left early Tuesday morning and sometimes the fog was so thick, that I could barely see off the nose of the truck. Needless to say, it was a long drive to Kilgore, especially in the dark. I did get to make the short hop up to Dallas to visit my parents for a day, so the trip ended up being a lot of fun. I was not able to take any pictures in Kilgore of the truck because where it was, they do a lot of military work and frown on pictures being taken there.

More adventures are headed our way! Some very exciting things coming up, so keep checking back!

B-)

Almost......

Well, the Hogs' defense played really well against Auburn Saturday, but still no win. I had fun though, I walked around and got to know the area as this was my first trip to Fayetteville and to Reynold's Razorback Stadium. I took some pictures and posted a few below. ENJOY!


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Fair Time Again!

It is my very favorite time of the year. The leaves are turning, and the cool, dry fall air is GREAT! We broadcast Good Morning Arkansas live from the State Fair on Friday. It was a lot of fun being at the fair and driving Newstar up the midway. It was a very tight fit! When we left, it was an even tighter fit as we drove back down the midway, but we made it just fine. The show went well and was a lot of fun! I have posted a few pictures that I took below. I am trying to get as many pictures as I can, but I am finding it difficult to take pictures as I am working as well, but what I take, I will post.

B-)

Steve Powell and Melinda Mayo

Llama Fun

Look closely, Steve and Melinda are on the Ferris Wheel

GO BEARS!!!

This afternoon we went to Conway to the campus of UCA. Tonight, their football game is being broadcast on Fox Sports Southwest. The crowd was awesome and it was a sea of purple as the students and faculty were getting in to the spirit of the game. A very nice trip indeed. Tomorrow, we are at the Arkansas State Fair for Good Morning Arkansas. After the show, we head up the hill for the Razorback game on Saturday. I left my camera at home, so I had to take a picture of Newstar with my cell phone. Not a bad picture, but it could be better. Have Fun!

B-)

1st Little Rock Hog Game

We had the first of two Little Rock Hog games Saturday against UT Chattanooga. UTC played really well against the Hogs being that the final score was UTC 15, Hogs 34. I met a lot of really nice people that came up to us at the truck to say hi. I got a chance to watch some of the game from the sidelines. If you ever get the opportunity to see a football game from the sidelines, that is the BEST way to do it! Next up (scheduled) is the State Fair on Friday, then we head up to Fayetteville for the Auburn game. Below are a few pictures that I had time to take on Saturday during the game. Enjoy!

B-)

Scott Inman and ARSN on location Engineer Lee Francis

War Memorial Stadium looking very nice for the game.

Barton, Arkansas

We headed off to Barton on Wednesday afternoon for a story on the Barton High School Football season being cancelled because they did not have enough students to play. (Here's the Story) We arrived to Barton, which is about 10 miles east of West Helena, to a very warm welcome. They decided to reinstate the program during a meeting in the school cafeteria. (Read More) The residents seemed very happy as they left the meeting and thanked us for being there. It was very nice to meet several of the parents and students of Barton High School. Next, we are off to War Memorial Stadium for the Razorback game on Saturday! It will be another adventure and I hope to add pictures of cast and crew as we cover the game from every angle on Saturday!

B-)

Russellville Apartment Fire

Well, as much fun as we have in Newstar, there are also some sad stories we have to cover as well. We were called up to Russellville Tuesday night for an apartment fire at the Shadow Lake Apartment Complex. (Click here for the story) Two young children died in the fire and even though all of the emergency personnel had left for the evening, just seeing the dark apartment and smelling the burnt furniture was very moving. As I said, our Newstar adventures involve lots of fun, however, there is some sad stories involved as well.

-B

Central High Special #2

Tuesday, we had the second Central High School special. It was really cool once again witnessing history in the making. There were several dignitaries there, including President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton. I also saw Jesse Jackson there as well. I will post pictures from the event very soon as I get time to post them.

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Central High Special #1

Tonight, we did the first of two Central High School specials. It was a live show from the school that ran from 7 - 8pm. We had a blast (as usual) with very few if any problems. Our on-site crew involved a Director, an Audio person, 3 Camera people, 3 Engineers, 3 Reporters, and 2 Anchors. That does not include the crew back at the station that helped us get bring the show to you. Below are some pictures we took before and during the show. Enjoy! Check back soon for more adventures!

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Newstar In front of Central High School as we set-up for the show

Scott Inman and Pamela Smith anchoring the show as
Mark Olson and Tim Hamilton "man the cameras".

A cool picture of Newstar and the crew during the show.

Central High School looking very beautiful
for the upcoming celebrations.

Newstar as we are setting up for the show.

I Finally Did It!

I have passed the CDL test finally! It was sort of a struggle, but as they say, if it were easy, EVERYBODY would do it! Coming up later this week, and next week, we will be doing a couple of specials at Central High School celebrating their 50 years of integration. I will post pictures soon after of Newstar at the event. Check back often.... Sit back... Hold on.... The adventures are about to begin!

B-)

Leaving on the short bus you came in on...

Sorry I have not posted in a while. I have been staying very busy at work doing both my old audio job and working in the truck, so I have had very little time to sit at a computer to check my e-mail, much less update this blog. That will change soon, hopefully! (on the blogging part)

The picture above is not of Newstar's new paint job, however it is very funny looking though. The short bus above comes from the movie "Dumb and Dumberer, when Harry met Lloyd" and I think it is the funniest thing I have ever seen! As for the movie, I give it 2 out of 5 stars. :)

Keep checking back for more fun stuff and I will be adding more pictrues as we take them!

B-)

More Practice

Well, we (Stephen McElrath and myself) took Newstar out today and practiced. When I say practice, I mean I practiced maneuvering it around obstacles. I want to thank Tom Brock at Geyer Springs First Baptist Church for allowing us to come there and practice on the HUGE parking lot. We are only about a week from football season! I will soon be posting new pictures of the truck and our crew from numerous events we cover. Keep checking back!

B-)

A Few More Pictures, Older, but Still COOL!!!!

A few pictures

Here are a few pictures for you all to enjoy! Be ware, these first few are BIG files, so give them a minute to load. I will be uploading more pictures when the adventure truly begins in about 2 weeks! "Stay Tuned"

B-)

I'm Still Here!

I have not been neglecting the blog, but we have been re-wiring the truck as we have new equipment that has been installed. I have not been on any adventures in Newstar except for learning how to drive it, doing test shots and such. It is a monster, but it handles very well, and is a dream to drive. Just like a big pick-up truck, a REALLY BIG pick-up truck. Keep checking back as I will be posting very soon on a regular basis. Football season starts very soon and you will see pictures of Newstar and fellow crew members as we travel following the HOGS!

Day #1 of Learning

Well, I got out today and drove the truck for the first time. It was quite an experince being that I have never driven anything that large before. We took the truck to War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock to practice on their parking lot. It was rather full and all I could practice was going forward and stopping and the simple stuff like that. But I did not hit anything, so that is a big plus!

Welcome!

Welcome to my Newstar Adventures blog. In the coming weeks I will be blogging on my adventures in this beautiful Satellite truck through the towns of Arkansas and beyond. Please check back often for updates on my Newstar Adventures!