WIRKA TO BROADCAST ELECTION RESULTS

Dana professor tapped to lead KFAB coverage

The races will be statewide and national, but the voice on Omaha radio station KFAB will have a "Dana connection" with Vern Wirka as the news anchor on election night.

KFAB chose Wirka, according to Gary Sadlemyer, programming director, because of his broadcast experience and "smooth sounding voice." Wirka has worked election coverage over a span of many years, well before he came to Dana College as Instructor of Communication.

Clear Communications of San Antonio, Tex., owns the station, found at 1110 on the AM dial.

It will be a quick turnaround on Nov. 2. Wirka finishes up his afternoon teaching duties at Dana and heads back into Omaha to the station. Although no results can be released on the air until 8:01 p.m., after polls close, work that night begins much earlier with setting the coverage team up and getting ready to go.

"KFAB will have people out at the campaign headquarters for local candidates, ready to feed back stories," Wirka said.

Sadlemyer said the source for most of the local results will be direct ties into the election commissions in Douglas, Sarpy and Lancaster counties. National results come in through ABC television, and the Associated Press is also a source for local and regional information for the station.

Wirka said that automated ballot scanning in most of Nebraska’s counties makes the election night process go much quicker than his earlier days of broadcasting.

"Back then, before computers and cell phones, we could work as late as 4 a.m. before the races were reported and decided," Wirka said. Since all of Nebraska and Iowa votes during the same time span (mountain-time polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in western Nebraska), no information has to be held back once it’s announced locally.

With the hotly contested gambling issue on the ballot, plus high interest in the District One and District Two congressional races and the presidential race, Sadlemyer said the work could go later into the evening than on a normal general election night.

"We have a team set up and will be having planning meetings soon," Sadlemyer said. "It will be a little like a big wheel with Vern at the center of the spoke, keeping things running smoothly in the studio."

Sadlemeyer also expects the hot issues to bring a large number of listeners to tune into his station. "Almost anyone who can’t be near a television will be dialing us in," he said.

Nebraska’s voter registrations have been coming in at a record pace. Wirka believes the close contests and the big issues will probably pull voters into the polls this year.

Wirka said his news director makes the ultimate calls on what hits the air first. Despite the pressures of the evening, the Dana instructor said he’s looking forward to being in the middle of things on election night.

"I like to follow the issues and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else," he said. "There can always be some surprises on election night, even to having candidates show up at the studio ready to talk about the results."

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For more information contact:

Sarah Cavanah
Communications Coordinator
Dana College
(402) 426-7216
scavanah@dana.edu