Economic Guru in the HouseClark Howard

I think it was about a week ago that my second favorite Consumer Reporter, Melissa Painter, who I work with all the time told me about a special interview scheduled for today. I had to get this assignment. It may not be a once in a lifetime, but it was a must get and I put in my dibs and and was assigned to work with her to shoot this interview.

The interview was just happend to with my favorite Consumer Reporter(no offense MP), advocate, and personal finance wizard Clark Howard .



Clark has his own popular syndicated radio show, does TV Consumer Reporting, writes a column for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and has 3 books out and 1 on the way.

The interview with Clark was set up in conjunction with his visit to Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem for WZTK, the local radio station that he's on here in the Triad.



But my assignment with Clark got even cooler when he came to the station for the noon news. We interviewed him for our consumer segment after the noon segment and then we went over to Hanes Mall where he was going to sign books and do an hour of his radio show LIVE with an audience.



But before the stop at Hanes Mall, I actually had the pleasure of helping Clark save a little money. He mentioned that he wanted to get a pair of the popular new Starbury shoes. The only place to get them is as Steve and Barry's department store, which, from the station, is only a 4 mile drive, and on the way to Hanes Mall. Clark said there's no Steve and Barry's near Atlanta, so Clark followed me to Oak Hollow Mall and got himself a $9 pair of Starburys.



An hour or so later we met up with Clark again while he pre- signed more than a hundred books all while talking to anyone who wanted to chat.



He gave us great sound both during the studio interview and during the book signing.

But he came out of his seat and paused the book signings when another big fan of his came by to say hi! The man on the left in the picture below has also had his time on our airwaves, but only because of his own legendary status.



Recgonize him? Can you Guess Who? OK, so that was a word play. The man here is Garry Peterson, the drummer of legendary rock band "The Guess Who."

Garry lives in Greensboro and Bob Buckley did a Buckley Report on Peterson about a year ago.

Garry and Clark exchanged a few stories but Clark had a bunch of books to autograph and his executive producer Christa kept prodding him to get a move on.

With 30 second to live on the air Clark rushed down a back corridor of the mall and took the stage to a standing ovation from an audience of a couple of hundred eager, inquisitive fans of his consumer advocacy.

I have always been impressed with Clark as I knew him on the radio, but even more so after spending some time watching him work in person.

He offered to carry my sticks twice...
..I bought all three of his books!