EUGENE, Ore. - When you see news anchors on TV, you see just a piece of the work they do each day.

For some anchors, the day begins during what most of us would consider to be the middle of the night.

Outside, it's still dark when Shelley Kurtz and Al Peterson go to work in the newsroom and weather centers. The anchors prepare scripts for the 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. newscasts.

It's a blast," Peterson said. "It's a different kind of thing. Sort of a different dynamic."

Kurtz and Peterson are long-time anchors and reporters.

"You know we do the news, but it's a lot more relaxed because we have two hours and we can be conversational," Kurtz said. "We can bring in things that are something to talk about and maybe give a flavor for some stories people can talk about at the office or around the breakfast table."

Peterson plays a dual role as both a news and weather anchor.

"I like doing everything, I really do," he said. "I get a little stagnant if I just do one thing. So if I'm reporting, if I'm doing weather, if I'm doing news, sometimes producing.  It's a lot of fun. So I like that I really like that. I like the change of pace."

The time the anchor spends in front of the camera is only part of the job. In the newsroom, there are scripts to go over and stories to report.

Jennifer Winters works hard. Before she goes on camera for the evening news, Winters is in the field reporting or in the newsroom producing a newscast.

"My goal as an anchor is to tell you the same story I'd tell my grandma or my friend or if I saw you on the street," she said. "I want to connect with the viewers. I want them to understand the story, and if I have done that, I've done my job."

Sports anchor Tom Ward leads a department of four versatile people.

"I would equate one of our guys to about four people," Ward said. "You got a photographer, you got a producer, you got a reporter, and a lot of times, those guys anchor as well. We all do everything. We have four people that can do it all."

And in an area where sports is important to a lot of people, the team works hard - night and day.

"We focus on local sports and events," Ward said. "It's a fine line between informing people about what's going and also giving them feature-oriented material that they can actually feel good about and enjoy and feel like they actually know the athletes that we're talking about."

Weather is a very important part of every newscast, too.

"Basically, you're playing detective," chief meteorologist Tim Chuey said. "You're taking all this information and putting it together."

Viewers see Chuey in front of weather maps and graphics, but he' really standing in front of a very large, blank green screen.

The camera is made to be colorblind for that color green so it only sees me and nothing," Chuey said. "Then the control room superimposes over me whatever pictures we want behind me. Now that's only a problem if I wear something that color green. If I wore a green necktie you'd literally see a hole through my chest."