Meet the producers of Wake Up!

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - News 4 is continuing our week long, behind-the-scenes tour of Wake Up.

It takes hours of work to get the shows ready to go on the air starting at 5 a.m.

Victoria, Joe, Mike, Jericka, and Melissa might be the faces of Wake-Up, but the unsung heroes of Wake-Up are definitely the producers.

Dan LaDelfa and Kelly Hayes, along with one rotating associate producer, are responsible for four hours of news content each morning.

They do it all while their bodies are telling them to sleep, because their day starts at midnight.

"The hardest part is getting up and getting here. Once you're here and you get going it's almost like any other shift. There's so much to do you just hit the ground running," said Dan.

Producers begin with sorting the daily folder of press releases and assignments.

Kelly said, "Dan and I, the other producer, go through the stories that are going to be happening that day and then decide what Jericka, our morning reporter, is going to cover."

That begins the process of building what we call the rundown, basically the lineup of stories.

"You're typing and you're writing, and you're selecting stories and going over things, and moving things around in the shows. And deciding, 'Oh I'm going to run this story here, I'm going to run this story here, Oh I don't have time for this story any more, I'm going to drop this story, I'm going to add this story,'" Dan explained.

But after doing all of that work, it can be thrown off by breaking news.

The producers are always listening to the half dozen scanners in the newsroom, and know all the scanner lingo.

"Buffalo Police, for example, when they call for the number 1275, that's a homicide detective," said Dan.

"When we hear something break on the scanner, we send our overnight photographer, Boe Baker," Kelly said.

Together the photographer and producers work to get the facts.

"Working overnight, it's hard to get in touch with different police or fire officials to get the information we need, so we count on Boe or other photographers that are out in the field to get us that information, so that we can have new stories in the morning," said Kelly.

Producers write all the scripts and then finish their day in the control room, talking in the ears of the anchors, and flying the show as we call it, making sure it doesn't crash and burn.

Clearly a team effort in the News 4 Newsroom to bring you all of the news that happened while you slept.

There are more than a dozen other people who work hard all night and morning, to get the news on the air.

Wednesday, Melissa will take you into the control room to meet our director Ty and the rest of the crew.