Here's a nice writeup from the front page of the Globe Gazette ....
"Early Show" celebrity works the crowd
By Bob Fenske, For The Globe Gazette
FOREST CITY "” Dave Price, the weatherman for CBS News' "The Early Show," sure knows how to work a crowd.
Price and a production crew conducted live broadcasts Tuesday morning from the Winnebago-Itasca Travelers Grand National Rally in Forest City.
In between spots, Price chatted up the spectators "” asking a girl who carried a sign announcing it was her 17th birthday if "she got a Winnebago for her birthday"; finding a couple from Erie, Pa., where he once worked; and joking with scores of others.
Not bad for a guy who had to learn to be a morning person.
"I was never one of those people. Just ask anyone who lived with me," he said with a laugh. "But once I got adjusted to this schedule "” it was like, ˜you want me to get up at what time?' "” it's been wonderful to see people come alive and get on with their day."
Price and his crew were in Forest City as part of "The Early Show's" "Early on the Road" program that has partnered with Winnebago for the past three years, during which time Price says he has become a big fan of the RV lifestyle.
"We started with a View," he said of Winnebago's most fuel-efficient model, "and they keep giving us bigger and bigger models.
"The more and more we get out, I've come to love being with this culture, with this group of people. It's a great lifestyle, I can tell you that right now."
As he chatted, someone in the crowd asked him if he ever drove the big units, and his answer was quick.
"They let me drive it once," he said with a laugh, "and then they called security. I'm a rider, not a driver."
For Winnebago Industries, the national exposure garnered from Tuesday's live reports was "” to steal a phrase from a popular commercial "” priceless.
"We cannot buy this type of advertising for Winnebago and our industry," Winnebago Chairman and CEO Bob Olson said as he watched Price prepare to go to live. "It shows the nation that you can't take away this lifestyle. ...
"It's not only that they're right here at Winnebago but, more importantly it shows that people still embrace this life and they're not going to let fuel prices keep them from their vacations and weekends."
Almost on cue, Price began a spot in which scores of motor home enthusiasts followed him down a row of motor homes.
Then while his crew set up for the next shot, Price, talked with the crowd and gave them an update on his own busy travel schedule.
He was in Tampa, Fla., on Friday and in Chicago on Monday before coming to Forest City later that day. As soon as he was done shooting on the rally grounds, he was off to Texas to cover what is expected to turn into Hurricane Dolly. From Houston he will head to Cheyenne, Wyo.
But Price said he would have it no other way.
"I love being our ambassador," he said. "To get out and see the country, to meet people like this ... I know I'm a lucky guy."
Bob Fenske is the editor of the Forest City Summit, a Lee Enterprises newspaper.