Laura Emerson and Shaun Hegarty are used to delivering important information to Toledoans on a nightly basis on FOX Toledo. The co-anchors have different job on the Make-A-Wish Foundation “Holiday Wishes” CD, however — sharing the tale of “Jack Frost.”

“Michael Miller came to us, and had a really good idea, really something interesting to do for the holidays, something unique,” Hegarty said in an interview with Toledo Free Press. “And I really didn’t even give it a second thought — I was on board right away.”

Emerson was right alongside her broadcast partner, though she was surprised by the scope of the CD project.

Laura Emerson and Shaun Hegarty

“At first, I was curious about what this was going to be. And the more I heard about it, the bigger it sounded. And by the end, listening to it, I was just amazed — ‘Wow! They wanted little old us to read a poem on this impressive album? I can’t believe we’re included in such an amazing cast of people,” she said.

Neither was familiar with “Jack Frost” before the recording — Hegarty had never encountered it before, Emerson had heard it once years ago — but both brought great energy to their performance. Once both of them had the time and the voice to do it with, that is.

“As everything is in the newsroom, it’s always finding a moment where you can stop and get something done —there’s so much going on at once,” Emerson said. “So we decided, ‘OK, this time of day, this day, we’re going to record this.’ And I was getting over a cold, so I had a little scratchy voice, so we waited until I sounded like I normally do. Then we went into our little audio booth and recorded it on a little laptop with our professional microphones.”

In the end, both said they are tremendously happy with their track, and Hegarty said he hoped listeners would embrace the opportunity “Holiday Wishes” represents.

“It’s really nice to hear local voices on songs or poems that we may have heard a million times before, and hear a different spin, a different tone, a different kind of voice on them,” Hegarty said. “Any holiday season, you’re gonna hear this kind of music all the time, but this is a nice, unique twist on it you’re gonna get from this album.”

Tags: FOX Toledo, Holiday Wishes, Laura Emerson, Make-A-Wish, Shaun Hegarty, Toledo Free Press

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under Community, Make-A-Wish.
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