This was my fourth Halloween at KING 5 in Seattle and once again the annual Halloween costume contest did not disappoint. In true KING 5 tradition, all employees are encouraged to come to work dressed in their creative Halloween best and compete for the best costume in two categories: Best Group Costume and Best Costume. This year the prizes included a pair of round trip airfare tickets on Kenmore Airlines for the Best Costume and Movie tickets for the Best Group costume. Everyone celebrates as we sit around our “KINGS Table” enjoying the many pizzas that are provided to feed this creative and hungry crew of Halloween misfits.
This year the winners were as follows…Best Group costume went to Yuna Nishimoto and Bob Steele, both in the sales department, for their creative DIY of “Saying Goodbye to the Seattle Viaduct“, one of the most talked about local news stories of the year. And Best Costume went to Suzie Wiley, a producer for our morning talk show New Day Northwest, who came as the Costco Sample Lady. What was her secret to sealing the deal? She told us all the story of how she actually talked a Costco employee, who shall not be named, to make her an authentic looking badge. I think just maybe Suzie has a future in the sales department! LOL
That Yuna, I tell you, she’s a tough one to beat. My group included Megan Wotherspoon, our Marketing Strategist in the sales department and Libby Sundgren, our Director of Community Relations. Libby and I both come from non-TV backgrounds. The first few years we were here we learned first hand how much focus and attention goes into “Sweeps” in the news and local programming departments with incredible assistance from the marketing, digital, and social media teams, which happens in November, February, and May of each year. With a desire to “be on brand”, the three of us started joking that we should be sweeps for Halloween earlier in the year and the idea just stuck. Megan would be the broom, I would be the NBC Peacock, and Libby would be the dustpan full of ratings and TV shows like Jimmy Fallon, This is Us, The Voice, the 5th Quarter, Take 5, Evening, Dateline, SNL, our local news programs and so many more!
If you watched the video, then you probably noticed how many smiling faces work at KING 5, most being behind the scenes in various departments compared to the on-air anchors and talent that the community is familiar with. The last I heard, our headcount was hovering around 225 and every single person has an important role that contributes in some way to producing the 14 hours of local content we produce each day, Monday through Friday. It’s nice to know that companies like KING 5, a TEGNA company, take time to celebrate our hard work and enjoy each others company. And in October, the way we do that is with pizza and costumes.
Want to check out previous years? 2018 and 2017 are recapped here. Want to work here? We’re hiring and we might have a spot just for you!
KING 5 Halloween Costume Contest 2019
