Lighting Director Passes Away

CBS 2's Kristine Johnson reported minutes ago that a lighting director for the station passed away yesterday. Pat Ryan, who worked on CBS 2's weekend morning newscasts as well as for the CBS network, "worked tirelessly to make sure that our anchors and studio guests looked great," Johnson said. The Giants and Mets fan leaves behind a wife and five-year-old son. He was 45 years old.

Megan Glaros tweeted about Ryan's passing earlier today:

So sad one of the crew guys on our weekend show passed away.

Jets' Road to Glory

The New York Jets are one game away from Super Bowl XLIV and CBS 2 News is prepared. All this week, stories on Jets fever have been airing under a "Road to Glory" brand. Saturday night at 7:00, the station will put together a live one-hour special with Sam Ryan and WFAN Sports Radio 66's Craig Carton. Otis Livingston and Hazel Sanchez will report from Indianapolis, where the Jets will face the Colts in the AFC Championship, which is on CBS Sunday afternoon.

Should the Jets pull off a win, expect CBS 2 to go even crazier with coverage, especially because it's CBS's turn to carry this year's Super Bowl.

Newsroom Renovations

For the past two weeks, staffers at CBS 2 News have been working out of a makeshift newsroom in the former "Guiding Light" studio, which is right next to CBS 2's Studio 46. That's because the current newsroom is being renovated. Here's what it looked like on January 6th, thanks to Kristine Johnson's TwitPic:

Assignment editors, producers, writers, reporters and website producers are among those working from the temporary newsroom. The offices of the news director, assistant news director and anchors are unaffected, as are the edit rooms.

While the construction is going on, CBS 2's flashcam position has been moved from the newsroom to master control and is being dubbed the "news desk." Fake monitors appear behind the window to make it look similar to the old newsroom shot.

We're told that the new newsroom should be ready in about five weeks.