rkolsen

I imagine they have a subscription to TVEyes.

Soledad O'Brien will be taking over the hosting duties of Hearst's Matter of Fact starting next month. She will be replacing Fernando Espuelas. The show launched a little under a year ago. The show will continue to be taped at the Newseum and her production company will make specials for Hearst. In addition the show will be syndicated to stations covering 75% of the country.

Basically she's the anchor to cover news that doesn't involve the Olympics. I imagine she's also there as a "back up" in case the connection was lost.

Stephen Colbert is reportedly in talks wit CBS' sister network Showtime for an uncensored Election Night special promising some "curse words". Showtime' boss thinks it will happen. Additionally he will be live after two of the three presidential debates on the network. This definitely sounds like an interesting concept - he could combine comedy with reports from CBS News' correspondents. The correspondents could be a little more loose compared to what they'd be on the network - kind of like the discussions MSNBC had with their "road warriors" after midnight or 1AM during the conventions and some elections. I'd also like to see one of the networks do a like Sky News did during the 2015 general election. They showed the control room, correspondents getting ready, how calls are made and many other aspects of a broadcast.

Interesting article about KING/KONGs new digs at Home Plate Center. Definitely worth a read if your interested in the technical aspect. They produce 18 hours of content a day from the new facility using two control rooms running ELC automation which controls everything in the studio. Master control is located at the station pushing out five program feeds - two each for KING/KONG and one for NWCN. The transition of control to the new facility occurred during Late Night with Seth Meyers where it was seamless. The only thing noticeable was a slight morph of the picture for a second during the switchover. http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/96902/king-hits-a-grand-slam-at-home-plate-center/page/1

There's a press release from WMAQ / WSNS touting their new Doppler radar "Live Doppler 5" and "Storm Ranger 5" from NBCUMV. The press release states that their new radar is the first commercially licensed dual polarization radar by FCC to operate in the S-Band frequency in the country. Meanwhile back in March when WLS launched their dual polarized S-Band radar was also touted that it was the first to be licensed in that frequency. They both claim to be first licensed stations to use this technology - so which ones first? Was WLS on the air sooner, perhaps WMAQ got the first approval or is it all PR speak? Meanwhile the Tribune owned WHO is Des Moine has been using the S-Band frequency for four years albeit it's a single pole radar. One thing that confuses me is the amount of power both WLS and WMAQ mention in their press releases. The following is an apples to oranges comparison - WLS's radar is billed as 1 million watts (0.001 gigawatts) while WMAQ says that it has an effective radiated power of 10.4 gigawatts (10,400,000,000 watts or 10.4 billion watts). WMAQ seems to be using the ERP wattage just to claim that their radar is more powerful than WLS and they are counted on people assuming bigger is better and people not knowing the difference. I know ERP takes into account the transmitter output power, the loss in the line and the attenuation of the antenna. Does anyone know the specific ERP the WLS radar or the WMAQ transmit antenna power for a comparison? I just searched for the NWS nexrad specifications and one site said that their transmitted signal power level is 32 gigawatts (p 10) - would that be the same as ERP? Looks like they removed the old one and used a crane to life the radar that was already assembled along with another flight of stairs on top of the original tower. They then added the radome and viola.

Are they doing the midnight news update that they've done in years past during the Olympics?

I don't know but it could be something as simple as they don't want to have to staff a studio for two hours when probably less than 20 minutes of content will originate from New York. It's a lot cheaper to staff a robotic studio than one requiring a cameraman (unless Today's contract requires a cameraperson no matter what like CBS This Morning which has robotic pedestals). Also it appears they've changed their affiliate ticker space. Gone is the dead zone to the right of the time and temp. Now the entire thing is within the 4:3 safe zone with rounded edges. It looks like the changes required nothing done on the affiliate end as everything looks to be in the same space. [MEDIA=twitter]762616097178869760[/MEDIA] The ticker looks fine with the Olympic graphics but when they switch back to the regular news lower third it looks a bit odd.

I'm not sure whem this started (possibly during the conventions) but Way Too Early has been extended to an hour long starting at 5AM replacing First Look. Last week the show appeared to be singled headed but today it was double headed with Betty Nguyen and Louis Bergdorf. Betty appears to have broadcast from the glass cube in 3A and Louis came from the new newsroom in fourth floor. Betty has been the anchor for Early Today for two years and Louis Bergdorf's role has expanded over the years. Originally Louis was a producer who Joe and Mika referred to him as Male Model Louis since he appeared in one or two national advertisements. They started sending Louis to certain red carpet events to interview celebrities and most recently he has done some lighter segments during Way Too Early. I believe Louis also directed and produced some of Mornimg Joe's long form advertisements that are about two minutes long.

The bug that's used online isn't the same as what's used on air. They probably didn't get around to updating it. For example WBAL has the Olympic logo on air but they use the old version. The logo looks off.

He stirs up a lot of shit. A lot of the stories are just gossip or posting screw ups. He does break some industry news.

To be fair the guy that was hired wanted to blow up the entire show and get rid of most of the people except for Lauer and Hoda. Matt reportedly caught wind, stood up for his co anchors and helped get the guy fired (who also clashed with other staff and did a 180° from his pitch to the network). As for the infotainment issue their first hour seems to be much more newsy where they have been focusing on one big story for ten minutes and about the same on a second/third one that usually is related. I've noticed they don't really go to break until atleast 19 past the hour. As for Hoda appearing on Trending I think she's been there when they need an additional view from a woman's perspective or when ones out. She does a great job and if Savannah left would be a could fit.

I was on my Vimeo app and on the WNBC CSD profile feed they featured a Storm Ranger promo. Apparently NBC has three of them and they look to be based in Philadelphia, Dallas and Los Angeles. The ad links to a dead link: NBCNY.com/StormRanger

Because of the Brexit ITV PLC which owns the Channel 3 Franchises for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands has cut almost $33 million in overhead for their budget next year. It's honestly too early to tell whether or no Brexit will cause significant financial troubles. http://variety.com/2016/tv/global/u-k-broadcaster-itv-cut-costs-33-million-brexit-bites-1201824135/

Former WBAL and WBFF anchor Marianne Bannister's "Claire Marie Foundation" she created after her daughter died of adolescent melanoma got a PSA done by the cast of The Big Bang Theory. One of her relatives in California ran into their producers and they were touched with her story and decided to do something about it. You can view the PSA here: http://clairemariefoundation.org/

Looks like WCAU and WWSI are now simulcasting their primary signals. WCAU is broadcasting a 720p feed of Telemundo 62 on VC 62.3 (34.5) and WWSI is broadcasting a 720p feed of NBC 10 on VC 10.3 (49.5). This is a similar setup that's done in the Bay Area between KNTV and KSTS so that their signal broadcasts to a larger area. This seems to be beneficial to NBC antenna viewers who lost coverage when WMGM lost their affiliation as they now have access to a free HD signal.

Eat just meant that if the helicopters mapping system is so hi tech that it would automatically insert the correct line of scrimmage on screen.

Most of the hosts and guests at the table have their phones with them on desk for social media, texting family and producers during break. Probably 99% percent of the time they are good at silencing the phones but once in a while you will hear a text message or breaking news alert go through. I haven't heard a cell phone go off for a call in ages. Also around midnight MSNBC will have a special edition of SNL Weekend Update from the convention.

Oklahoma City's CBS affiliate KWTV has launched a new technology called StreetScope that allows them to overlay maps live onto their helicopters life feed in addition to some features such as creating maps to calculate space. I imagine they are using this CineFlex Geo+ technology for the overlays. I was wondering when and if a station would ever pick up this technology.

True but what I was getting at was that there are a lot of journalists who have closer relations to people in politics than simply being brothers.

I know I'll come across as being biased but those are his brothers. Jose has proven in past interviews he can equally go after republicans as much as democrats (I'm inclined to believe he's leftward leaning). It's not like he's the wife of NBC's Political Director Chuck Todd who is a communications consult and is the co founder of a marketing company that caters towards democratic candidates. Or is the husband of Savannah Guthrie who was the traveling chief of staff for the Gore Campaign in 2000. All the aforementioned examples in my view aren't as bad as George Stephanopoulos who is the chief anchor / political correspondent at ABC who worked as the White House Communications Director and Senior advisor for policy and strategy under Bill Clinton. The previous three examples show that there may be some perceived bias given their spouses professions but none come close to actually being the chief anchor who WORKED for the White House in a senior level position. I'm sure there are examples of republicans in the media who have family members that are active in the Republican Party but as I'm a democrat I don't pay attention to them.

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has photobombed Hallie Jackson's live shot on MSNBC. [MEDIA=twitter]755260192892280832[/MEDIA] [MEDIA=twitter]755260596883521536[/MEDIA]

Apparently a severe localized microburst knocked WTVM off air. The microburst knocked out all power to the building. http://www.wtvm.com/story/32473750/click-here-to-watch-the-news-at-10-and-11?clienttype=generic&utm_content=sf31233590&utm_medium=spredfast&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=WTVM&sf31233590=1

Also, I don't know how much social media interaction will play into this show but I hope it's not reliant on it to make it interesting. A question of the day may be fine but I'd be suprised at how many takers they will get for a show at 6PM. I frequently answer a question of the day on one show on BBC World News and I can't tell you how many times I have gotten my tweets and name shouted out on air simply because there were lack responses (but I will say I've had a bunch read because of my snarky/clever responses*). If a show that has world wide distribution (and gets significant viewership in the UK) for their time slot can only get one or two responses how many will a show from Denver get? *One of my responses that got the most laughs/snickers at the table was in response to the use of e-readers. I replied that I still prefer the old hardcover books but a kindle or iPad are awfully useful when your reading some more adult material that you don't want others to know your reading. The hosts added "especially when your in public". If Eat News is anything like I think he is his e reader is probably filled with all fifty two editions of Penthouse Letters.

I gotta wonder if it's aimed towards people who don't watch news how the hell are they going to get them to tune in?