Ed Edwards anchors "KRAP Action News."

In 2004, we produced a video project to satirize local TV news.  It was called “KRAP Action News.”

The roots date back to the late 1990s, when I started a Web site called KRAP4.com.  It was a fake news site, with stories similar to those of “The Onion,” presented in the wrapper of a fake local TV station, KRAP-TV.  The station’s slogan: “Working Harder to Suck Less.”

The site promoted Super-Duper Doppler 40000 radar and the news helicopter, NewsBuzzard 4.   It enjoyed a few minutes in the spotlight in 1998, when a few TV columnists around the country wrote about it.  “Broadcasting & Cable” magazine mentioned it in a column.  I still have a stack of e-mail from people around the country who enjoyed KRAP.

I was a college kid back then, working part-time at WRAL-TV.  To their credit, I never heard a complaint from the then-management.  My site was a spoof of the most absurd aspects of the business, not of any particular station, and certainly not of WRAL.  But in retrospect, creating a parody of your own business is kind of a stupid thing to do, and I’m grateful that I kept my job.

Generating funny material and updating the site while working in TV news and going to school full time was tough, and KRAP4.com went away.  It was fun while it lasted, and it must have left an impression of some kind.  I enjoyed reading a post on Lostremote.com last year, in which a couple of strangers wrote some nice things about KRAP4.com.

Well, in 2004, I decided it was time to create a video version of “KRAP Action News.”  I created the graphics, the animations, the spots in the commercial breaks, wrote most of the script, anchored the show as legendary broadcaster Ed Edwards and edited it together.  I was proud of how it turned out.  DVD copies went to friends for Christmas 2004, and all but one person who has seen it reported that they loved it.  We’re told the one holdout has no sense of humor, so I think it speaks well of the project.

A couple of years later, I posted the “Action News” video on the Web.  It made the rounds through my former employers.  It picked up some other fans along the way.  I was prepared to make another episode.

By 2005, I was working for a local TV station (the one owned by Disney), and management saw the video on the Web.  Now, I want to make it clear that I was working for this station’s Web site — thoroughly behind the scenes.  No one knew who I was.  I was not a public figure in any way.  But the Mouse advised me to remove the video.  I like income, so I took it down.

Later, when I rejoined WRAL in a high-profile on-air role, it was obvious that my KRAP days were over and the video will remain private.  Friends still enjoy it and show the DVD to their friends.  I’m grateful to be at the center of underground entertainment.

In the cloud of several other projects over the past couple of years, I haven’t thought much about “KRAP Action News.”  But someone requested a DVD copy this week, and I watched it again.  There are some spots from the commercial breaks that I feel comfortable sharing.  Click here to watch these videos.