Ken prepares an egg for a cooking challenge at WSPA-TV.

The sub sandwich clerk asked me a question she must say hundreds of times each day.

"What kind of bread do you want?"

For me, the answer was, whole wheat, but the question took me back to memories of a newsroom.

In the news business, sometimes TV stations do something called, "a trade out" with advertisers. In this process, an advertiser gets a commercial for free, in exchange for some kind of goods or services. It's a way a station can save some money. But you need to make sure that everything is spelled out in the deal.

Watch out pancakes, here comes Ken.

On Election Night, my station had arranged to give the sponsorship for all of our nightly updates to a local supermarket chain. So whenever we'd go to five-minute update about the evening's results, you'd hear the announcer say, "This Election Update brought to you by XYZ Supermarket." In return, the grocery store agreed to provide dinner for all of the station's staff. It seemed like a good deal because there were more than 20 people to feed. We were promised, "loose meat sandwiches."

On Election Night, all of the news crews were ready to go out. We all noticed a lot of food in the conference room but before long we found ourselves in a culinary crisis.

There was an impressive spread of food but something was missing: the bread for the sandwiches.

Trying not to talk with his mouth full, Ken conducts a breakfast interview.

Management soon put out a call to the supermarket. We could hear our boss saying, "Why would we do this deal if it didn't include bread!"

We could hear the clerk arguing through the speakerphone saying, "Sir, the order does not call for bread."

No amount of high-powered negotiating would change his mind. Eventually an intern was sent out with orders to come back with bread. But not before all of the crews had to leave the station. Picture all of us holding carefully rolled sandwiches of turkey, lettuce, and cheese, all balanced on our reporter's notebooks. Without bread, many were too afraid to try to conquer any condiments.

The lesson: Sometimes when you're trying to save some dough, you may end up without any bread.

Contact Ken Okel at (561) 909-9221 or email TVGuy@kenokel.com to reserve your program date or to find out more.