RACINE - Racine will be in the "World News" spotlight tonight.

Charles Gibson is scheduled to anchor "ABC World News" live from Racine's Downtown Johnson Building, 555 Main St., tonight at 5:30.

Why Racine? "The flip answer is why not Racine?" said Stu Schutzman, the senior producer for "World News."

Schutzman cited Racine's location in a battleground state, less than four hours from two other stops on the trip, near the interstate and the fact that it is a smaller city as reasons why Racine made a great place for the "World News" tour.

Racine is part of the "World News" crew's "Great American Battleground Bus Tour," where they are stopping in seven cities in battleground states over the course of nine days. The tour started Oct. 2 in Orlando, Fla., and is scheduled to end Friday in Davenport, Iowa. The bus tour has also stopped in Georgia, Ohio and Indiana.

"It was places where there weren't blowouts," Schutzman said by telephone Tuesday. "We looked at the last two or three election cycles so we would have a reasonable chance to get people from both sides." He answered the telephone questions as he sat on the ABC tour bus in Bowling Green, Ohio, just hours before the second presidential debate.

The ABC bus tour has many advantages over flying around the county, Schutzman said.

"It's a way of bringing us close to people. It's being out on the road. It's driving through the small towns. It's stopping at the local diner or local coffee shop or hardware store, which you can't do in an airplane," Schutzman said. "If we see something along the road that we find interesting, we just stop and check it out."

As of Tuesday, Schutzman said the most interesting thing he has seen on the tour was a new turbine field outside of Bowling Green, Ohio, which showed renewable energy in action.

Schutzman took a road trip to Racine in May to check the city out, along with the other proposed tour sites, and the city got approval. ABC officials made the official announcement Sept. 24 that "World News" will be broadcast from Racine.

An advance team of satellite trucks and engineers are scheduled to arrive early this morning and start setting up, Schutzman said. The crew totals about 25 to 30 people and 15 people will be there in the morning, he said.

They have two satellite trucks, a generator truck, three camera crews and an editorial crew, he said. Fifth Street will be closed from Lake Avenue to Main Street most of the day to accommodate the equipment, according to Racine police.

They have already done some pre-shooting around town.

Schutzman would not disclose specifics of the broadcast, but he said they will probably mention something about Racine's economic conditions.

"What's been most prevalent in everywhere we've been so far is the economy. People are nervous. It's their 401(K)s, it's their college loans, it's small businesses not being able to get money," Schutzman said.

"So everybody is pretty intent on talking about economic conditions … We'll probably do something on that in Racine also."

The crew thought about staying in Racine tonight, Schutzman said. But because they need to be in Davenport early Friday morning, he said, they decided to travel halfway there at night.

The show will be broadcast from the fifth floor of the building and is not accessible to the general public. But people are welcome to watch the broadcast live on plasma televisions in the Johnson Building Commons Area. It is accessible through the Main Street entrance, just north of the Red Onion Café.