Behind the scenes on Wake Up!

BUFFALO, NY (WIVB) - Every morning, you invite us into your home to give you the latest news, weather and sports as you start your day.

All this week, Melissa Holmes is giving News 4 viewers a behind the scenes sneak peak at what happens when the Wake-Up cameras aren't rolling.

Today she starts with some of things you may not know about all the News 4 on-air talent.

Television news is a glamorous business... or is it?

When the cameras aren't rolling, news reporters and anchors are just a bunch of people trying to wake up and find some energy in the wee hours of the morning.

For Mike, Victoria, and Joe, the day usually starts at 3 am.

"My alarm is set for 2:57. I get up a little bit later than that. Get up, do my hair as fast as I can and usually get to work within a half hour," says Victoria Hong.

"Driving into work I'm usually looking at the sky. You don't want to drive behind me. Because I'm looking at the sky trying to figure out what the morning commute's going to be like for everyone," says Mike Cejka.

"I have to pull into the Tim Horton's line at 5:55 so I can walk into work at 6:00 with my large double double in my hand," says Melissa Holmes.

The first thing all of us do when we walk into the station is review the scripts of news stories already written by our overnight producers.

Next comes the make-up room.

Then we hit the set. When we're on the air it's all business but when the commercials are on, there's a lot of laughing on the set. Victoria does a lot of stretching and even reads.

"I do, on my breaks, read books. I won't tell you which ones. Some are good. Some are bad. Some are embarassing," she explains.

On his breaks, Joe goes for one of his many coffee breaks - two creams, one sweet and low. Melissa is constantly fixing my hair.

And Miks is always working.

"I think we figured out that we do about 32 weather hits between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. every morning. And also in addition to working on graphics and monitoring the weather conditions and the changes involved in that weather, during that time period I'm also doing a series of radio stations and updating the website," he says.

And no matter how cold it is outside, Joe wants it colder in the studio.

"You'll always see me fanning myself with my scripts because I get very hot very easily and that kind of annoys some people in the studio cause they like it warm. I like it cold," Joe says.

We all have our quirks, but we make it work and we enjoy waking up with each other, and helping you wake-up, too.