I'm Really Close to Having to Change My Blogsite

Log-in issues have become a royal pain for me at this website and I'm really close to having change my blogsite so I can just access it. If I disappear for a while or you post a comment and it doesn't appear for a few days it's because of these log-in issues. If I can't get these resolved, I will be attempting to migrate to another website. I will attempt to post a forwarding site on this blog but don't know if I will have any luck. It's really annoying so far. I just wanted to make anyone who reads this blog aware of what's going on.
Regards,
Joe Larkins

Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

I think it's safe to say that few people consider a trip to the dentist to be a fun thing. I don't think many would consider it to be in their top ten things to do.
So I went in for the six month check-up and had just settled into the chair for my cleaning. (An aside here. My dentist is a really cool guy and his staff is top-notch. They also have the little TVs positioned on the ceiling over the dentist chair so the patient can be distracted. The TVs usually run some tranquil setting such as ocean waves lapping against the shore or something else equally soothing.) Not this time. It was tuned to Fox News. (Not the local version, the cable channel.)
Now I will admit Fox News is not my source for news. I choose for myself what is "fair and balanced" and find that usually when someone uses that as a slogan, they aren't.
So there I am, sitting in a chair having my teeth scraped with a metal pick, watching a program I didn't want to see. Could it get worse? Yes. I had been in the chair for about two minutes when Fox returned to its coverage of the Anna Nicole Smith court case. I would have asked for nitrous oxide to knock me out or perhaps just had the dental hygienist to just shoot me
but the dental person had both her hands in my mouth and I couldn't speak if I wanted to.
Trust me, it was a long, long 40 minutes in that chair.
I think the really sad thing about the massive coverage of ANS and Britney Spears' meltdown is how so many people apparently would rather see how the mighty (and I use that term loosely) have fallen instead of stuff like what's going on around the world that will actually have an impact on them and their kids. Maybe it's an effort to escape from the reality that's facing us. I don't know but I find it rather reprehensible that one woman's claim to fame is basically based on two bags of a silicone type substance sewn into her body. Yah, she posed in Playboy, managed to make some wealthy old geezer very happy, and has a tragic life with the death of a son and now her own death. But to hear or see news programs refer to her as "America's Rose". Jeez. Give me a break. At least Marilyn Monroe made some decent movies after her Playboy gig. Yah, she played the blonde bimbo, but she was famous more for than just being famous.
And I think the whole Britney Spears thing reminds me that one should be careful of what they wish for as they just might get it. Her parents must have figured getting BS on the track of fame and fortune would be a gravy train and it has. But at what price? I actually feel sorry for BS. She has no tools for making adult decisions or being adult. She never got to be a normal kid and now it's caught up with her. Now the American public is constantly bombarded with this train wreck as it continues to play out and I wish it would all just go away. I don't there is not going to be a happy ending to this in any form or fashion. For now anyway, she has the money to help pay for her therapy. I hope the money lasts. Meanwhile, the media is waiting for the next celebrity meltdown. Why? It's like a fire. It's easy to cover, you don't need any special skills to cover it and it fills time on the tube.
And finally, I like clever writing in news. I find that on a regular basis when I watch Countdown with Keith Olbermann. I consider KO to be one of the sharpest, most well-read and "quick" on-air people gracing the Tube these days. He has clever writing and the viewer sometimes has to be on his toes to catch some of the references he makes. Just as clever are the "banners" displayed for the various stories covered in his newscast. The banner for the story concerning the fallout from the British departure from Basrah in the south of Iraq: Southern Discomfort. When the focus turned to British Prime Minister Tony Blair's announcement of the British troop withdrawal from Iraq: The Blair Ditch Project. Some writing experts will tell you to stay away from clever things. I say be clever, but don't go overboard.
Okay, my rant is done. I'll get off my soapbox.

Some On-Air Changes Taking Place at Your NewsChannel 3

I just read about some on-air changes taking place at NewsChannel 3. You know, the one owned by the NYTimes . Something about the traffic person quitting and an interim news director making some changes. Oh wait, what's this. Oh, it's the NYTimes station in Norfolk, VA! I'm sorry. I hope no one minded that I hyped a non-local, non-story here on my blog. After all, it is February and I'm just trying to drive up my hits on this website.
Seriously, the article from VARTV.com specifically mentioned a change ordered by the interim news director at WTKR. Nancy Nydam who has some big market experience (not sure in what capacity and am too lazy right now to look it up) replaces ND Jeff Parsons who left to work on internet broadcasting in Minnesota. Anyway, Ms. Nydam's first order of business: She axes the awkward sounding "Live in the (community) mobile news room and replaces it with just "Live".
I don't know if they still do that silliness here in the Memphis market. I bet when the former ND at WREG implemented catch phrases such as "mobile news room" and "breaking news center" and "flying mobile breaking news center" (okay, I made that last one up) that consultants were giggling and buying each other drinks over the fact that they had helped change the face of news. Those catch phrases rolled off the tongue like peanut butter. Anyway, it's nice to see that someone saw the light and put a stop to the nonsense. I guess the really funny part is that five or ten or twenty years down the road, news people will look back and admit it was a silly notion. They will have finally caught on to what the rest of us already think about those catch phrases.

A Man Who Had a Great Influence on How I Watch TV has Died

Robert Adler may not be a household name but I can safely say he's had a tremendous impact on how I watch TV. It's safe to say his work has had a ripple effect on how everyone watches TV from shows on the network to local news. Robert Adler was the co-inventor of the TV remote control. He died this past week at the age of 93. Thanks to this device, a commercial break means the viewer could click over to something else (in pre-TIVO days) without the exertion of getting out of your easy chair or off the sofa. If the show was slow plot-wise or you needed to see how some local story was being covered on another station, all you had to do was hit the remote. With a remote in the hand and a quick thumb or forefinger on the trigger, it changed viewing habits and created headaches for anyone involved in trying to keep an audience tuned in to a particular channel.
These days it's hard to find even a cheap TV that doesn't come with a remote control. Granted, that remote may not do much more than change channels but it still is a remote control. I can remember the first time I ever saw a TV remote control. It was at the home of a wealthy relative I was visiting back in the late 60s. First, it was to a large console type color TV in the master bedroom. At a time when I was living in a home with seven kids and two adults we had
just one TV. It was a 19 inch color TV. Meanwhile, these relatives had three TVs including this 19 inch color job in the bedroom. The remote was a large boxy affair about 4 inches square and about an inch or so thick. It seemed to me that it operated with a loud "click" sound when you hit the button and the channels would only change in one direction from channel 2 to channel 13. Still, it was a remote control.
Many years later I remember buying a 19-inch TV with a remote control and I was so proud of it. I remember seeing some TVs and a number of VHS machines that had wired remote controls. These were remote controls attached to the devices with a thin wire. It worked okay but people were forever tripping over the wire. That was the downside. The upside was that you never lost the remote. All you had to do was start at the TV or VCR and follow the wire to the remote.
Now, I find it hard to fathom watching TV without the remote. As a matter of fact, I keep the remote close by when I watch any program. That's because I generally give anything I'm watching about ten minutes and if I don't feel it's worth my while, I flip to something else. Yes, I'm a typical viewer and have developed the habits that drive programmers and managers crazy.
Yes, I could use the exercise of simply getting off my rear end and walking the two steps to the TV to change the channel. But thanks to Mr. Adler, I can give my thumb a good workout on the remote while letting my posterior grow to "lard-butt" proportions. Isn't it great to live in America?

Excuse Me, What Did You Say?

When I speak, I may not sound like I grew up in rural Western Kentucky. I did. When I was young, I never really thought much about how I might sound until I was a senior in high school and traveled to San Francisco for a school related function. My best friend and I were asking directions to a nearby hotel for this convention and the person we had asked wanted to know "where the heck you guys are from".
I began to lose my regional dialect in college. My first room mate was from Buffalo, NY, the second from Mt. Carmel, IL, the third from northern Kentucky and the last one was from Cedar Rapids, IA. Those room mates plus a concerted effort on my part to not sound like I was from Western Kentucky helped me lose my regional sound. Being exposed to a variety of dialects also helped me when it came to understanding what others were saying and how they said it.

I share this background because of a show I saw on the National Geographic channel about moonshine (the liquor not the reflected light). I was curious about this topic on a variety of levels. I wanted to see how it was shot and edited, I wanted to see how the producers approached this multi-faceted topic and on a personal level I knew one of my grandfathers used to make 'shine to help make ends meet during the Great Depression.

Most of the action in this NG video took place in Virginia. As one would expect, you had some good old boys making "corn squeezings" and they looked like stereotypical moonshiners. What caught my attention was the fact that when these folks spoke, sub-titles were placed on screen to clarify what they were saying. Granted, some of these folks sounded like they'd been into the corn liquor before the cameras showed up for the interview. But for the most part I could understand what they were saying. For the most part. I caught myself trying to decide if it was funny or sad that the producers felt they needed to sub-title the comments. In retrospect, I agree with the decision to sub-title the comments.

The reality is there are some folks who need what they say translated. I ran into this on a regular basis covering news. No matter how much of an event a person was eye-witness to, if you can't understand what they said, it does no good to have them on the air. And in the case of the National Geo report I understood what these good old boys were saying but I have an advantage over some. After all, I'm still fluent in "red-neck".

This Bucket of Cold Water Could Take Some of the Passion from the Weathergasms

How many times have you seen it. Team coverage with weather folks breathlessly sharing information about the acts of nature descending upon the viewing area. They show the Sooper-Dooper Gonad Storm Seeking Tracker Gajillion Watt Radar with the Fuzzy Dice add-on and they show how it can zoom down past street level to crack-in-the-sidewalk level. The screen is split into various windows with the Storm Team Trooper Weather Gang of three, five or four or however many bodies they can round up jumping around like someone gave them the hot-foot. At the bottom of the screen is the weather ticker sliding from right to left with additional information.
So recapping what we got: Eye catching weather graphics, folks telling you what's going on, weather ticker at the bottom of the screen; that should cover everything shouldn't it? Not according to what some folks claim in Southwest Florida and more importantly the FCC agreed with.
Here's what happened according to a story in Shoptalk: WINK-TV, long a powerhouse operation in the Ft. Myers area, got hit with a 16-thousand dollar fine because some local hearing-impaired people said they didn't get enough information back in August 2004 when Hurricane Charley came ashore. As with many smaller market stations, the weathercast was NOT closed captioned. At larger operations, a stenographer type person is busy translating what is said into the closed caption system so people who need to read it or want to read it can. If you've ever watched one of the network news shows that have a lot of live interviews you can see that some of these stenographers have a tough time keeping up. But I digress.
The station was going wall-to-wall with hurricane coverage and the fast-changing details from the weather folks and others weren't getting on the air in the closed caption section. That, according to the article, violates federal law. So, in addition to paying the fine, the station agreed to add "real-time" captioning to all its major newscasts. And it wasn't just WINK-TV. The NBC affiliate and the ABC affiliate (I think both are run from the same building) were hit with 24-thousand dollar fines. Their cases are still pending.
Now the Memphis area stations may already have real time captioning going on during their weather-casts, I don't know. Perhaps somebody can share that bit of knowledge. If not, I'd think that all it will take is somebody to file a complaint wit the FCC during the next weathergasm. Of course if no weather operations in Memphis have the "real time" captioning, what better way to show they care about the community than to be the FIRST, THE FIRST I SAY to feature CLOSED CAPTIONING for WEATHER. I just hope it's not in the form of a very early Saturday Night Live News Update. Some of you old farts may remember Garret Morris was shown in a caption window over the anchor's shoulder shouting as loud as he could about the "top story tonight". The bottom line: the various stations take turns bragging about what they do for the viewers. Let's see how serious they really are. I won't bother holding my breath.

A Black Man who is Not Black Enough and We've Overdosed on Anna Nicole Smith Already!

So, just when is a person black enough to run for political office in the U-S and expect support from within the black community? When I first heard this on Comedy Channel's Colbert Report, I thought this was a joke. But when author and columnist Debra Dickerson sat down for the interview, I realized she was serious. She was talking about how U-S Senator Barack Obama is NOT a black American since he is not a descendant of African slaves. She went on to say he had not lived the "black experience" and that may affect his support in the black community. I initially thought she was indicating that B.O. had not faced the prejudice that people of color face...until now and ironically that comes from within the black community. Dickerson went on to say that B.O. was not African-American but African African-American. This issue was also addressed on 60-Minutes Sunday night in a report by Steve Kroft. I can think of many reasons a candidate won't get the support of somebody. Not being conservative enough, not being liberal enough, not being moderate enough. IMHO, this particular issue doesn't seem to be a good argument for not supporting someone for office.

So, is there anyone who hasn't heard everything he or she needs to know about Anna Nicole Smith already. If you need to hear more, please take my portion. Please, I beg you. I got tired of this story the day it happened and it was on every newscast. ANS is yet another person who is famous for being famous and I'm tired of all the cameras that have been trained on this human car-wreck. Yes, I feel sorry for her in the loss of her son last summer and now she's died and left an infant child behind. But everybody has claimed to be the baby's daddy except me and my oldest brother and I'm not sure about my oldest brother. Please. I think I'd rather go back to flogging the astronaut woman for a a couple of days. The astronaut's lawyers have to be thanking ANS for taking over the headlines though. Of course I should be careful what I wish for in asking for change of headlines. Paris Hilton may realize that nobody is paying attention to her and do something outrageous just so she can recapture her top spot in non-news.

So, What was the Deal with the HDTV Broadcast of the Superbowl

I've admitted it before and will say it again. I've never been on the cutting edge of consumerism when it comes to high tech. I'm a middle of the road kind of guy most of the time and wait until the technology makes some advances and the prices come down on things such as CD players, DVD players and TIVO devices. I don't have a High Def TV because I'm waiting until the prices drop to what I'm willing to pay which I predict should be in the next two years.
Having said that, I was somewhat surprised when a reader of this blog asked me what was up with the HD broadcast of the Superbowl on WREG. The poster said while he didn't have a HD TV several of his friends did and they were quite disappointed they couldn't get HD from 3. The question was raised about whether WREG had issues with their transmitter or even carried the game in HD. A check of the WREG website showed they had HD listed on the programming schedule. for WREG DT Then I saw a couple of letters to the editor in the Commercial Appeal taking WREG to task for issues with the game not being made available in HD to Direct TV viewers. I don't know what the deal is there. Maybe WREG is holding out for more money.
I did check around a couple of places on the internet and found where some other folks (don't know which market) had complained about the game being shown on CBS as well and how the High Def looked terrible. One person said part of the problem was that the rain, which we managed to ignore in Standard Def, was a problem in High Def. If that is indeed the case, can you imagine what kind of headache that could create for not only ballgames played outside in bad weather but also when newsrooms eventually switch to HD cameras in the field. Those routine shots of some yahoo doing a stand-up in a hurricane or even a driving rain will theoretically look like crap.
But I'm not sure when that will be cause for concern in the Memphis market. I haven't heard any talk of just when HD cameras will hit the streets locally. I would have bet that WREG would have unveiled the first HD local news but that was before they were put on the block. But with the costs associated with it, now it could be anybody's guess.

A Man Who Once Dominated Memphis News Pulls the Plug on Himself

Mason Granger apparently has decided he's had his fill of the TV business, at least in New Orleans. A posting on ShopTalk's Watercooler says he's leaving WDSU. News Blues had a headline about the GM at WDSU in New Orleans abruptly resigning. I don't know the particulars and don't know what he was like to work for but the few times our paths crossed in Memphis, I liked him. He even sent me a nice rejection letter when I applied for a position in the WMC newsroom back in the early 80s. It was gracious enough that I still wanted to work for him.
For years Mason Granger was the undisputed King of the male News Anchors in Memphis. WMC dominated when he and Brenda Wood worked together and still ran strong when Brenda left and Kim Hindrew arrived. I did find that IFB (ear piece) he used for some time to be quite annoying because audio tube seemed to stick straight out from his ear in a big loop. But he was well known in the community and the region. It seems he was very involved in the community. His dominance of the airwaves helped pave the way for Joe Birch, whom he groomed, to rule supreme for years as well.
My wife worked with Mason briefly in the late 70's as a news producer and she always spoke highly of him.
I've not heard where Mason is going now whether he will stay in NO, move back to Memphis or head to the Big Apple. If he's looking for things to do, there might be an opening in Memphis after the NYTimes completes the sale of the Broadcast Group.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Outside

For those folks tired of weathergasms whenever nasty looking clouds roll into the MidSouth, you might as well suck it up. Just in time for the February sweeps we've had the equivalent of gasoline thrown on the meteorological fire. I ran across this item regarding tornadoes in the Memphis Flyer.
The article basically says that Memphis is in the top 20 when it comes to cities in America prone to be hit by tornadoes during the month of February. Memphis came in at 18th, ahead of Coral Springs, Florida and Oklahoma City. The Number One spot was claimed by St. Louis. Nashville and Little Rock came in at number Five and Eight respectively.
Don't get me wrong, I think timely dissemination of severe weather information is important and can save lives. Plus, if a tornado is touching down in your general direction, you want to know where things are happening. But we just seem to have a reached a point where the weather folks are whipping out their big old radars and their weather team members to show us what all they do right down to street level. Sometimes I feel I'm back in a grade school locker room where the boys are bragging about what they can do if they're given a chance.
There has to be a better way of doing things in covering the weather. I don't know what the answer is but I do know so many people I've talked with feel that watching TV weather folks in Memphis when clouds blow up is very similar to listening to someone crying "Wolf!" Viewers have become desensitized in the same way that every car fire or traffic stop has earned the title of "Breaking News". I'm not sure if people in the business even remember what "breaking news" is anymore. And it's not just Memphis TV folks who do it. It's just that Memphis happens to be where I reside.
There is one saving grace though. At least I don't live in St. Louis.

A New News Director is Named at WMC and Somebody Please Separate the Producers and the Videographers!

If you're going to do battle then it helps to have some leaders you know and trust. Such must be the case for the GM at WMC. This GM who has a background in news came to WMC last year after helping establish the Raycom station in Huntsville, AL as the Numero Uno in that market. Speculation began when he came to Memphis that he would bring the ND from that station with him. The rumor was fueled by the fact that the ND had put her house in Huntsville on the market. I guess she wanted to get her newsroom through the February book before she left. Either that or it's a slow housing market in Huntsville or things didn't move as fast as some thought. Anyway, Tracey Rogers is scheduled to take over the helm of the WMC newsroom Feb. 19th. We've had a couple of folks post on her at this blog. I have heard some good things about her when she was in Nashville and she also spent some time in the Paducah market. She shows up at a good time at least when it comes to WREG. I'm told folks down on the river are still waiting to see what will happen when the new owners take over there. And Rogers may crank up the weathergasms in this market a notch or two if that's possible. Maybe we will see five weather folks at Five as well. Anyway, give her a year and we'll see where everything stands then. Let the games begin.

And it turns out that some folks aren't feeling the love between those in the newsroom and those out trying to gather the news in the field. Check out some of the comments regarding last Monday's post. Everybody remember to play nice. A sure fire way to unite both of those sides is to have an anchor with an attitude step in to mediate. They'll unite very quickly to hate the anchor.

And one final note, if during the next week you post a response to anything you have read here and you don't see it appear right away it's probably because Blogger is getting cranky. I think the good folks who run this are trying to do this big changover to the new Google Blogospshere and they are having some technical issues. I find I can only sign on about half the time which is probably twice as much as I should anyway.

Kick Off Black History Month with Whitey Gras?

I learned a long time ago that one has to tread softly in the Memphis area when talking about race. Specifically white people have to tread softly. In the past, I've raised the question about whether we need Black History Month. Afterall, why should Black History be relegated to just one month. Make it a year round celebration.
Then Wednesday night, I caught an episode of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart which featured comedian Larry Wilmore doing a report on the pending arrival of Black History Month. If you haven't see it, check it out.
Wilmore is a funny guy and I thought he made a great argument. He questioned whether Black History Month was necessary. Paraphrasing now: Hundreds of years of oppression made up for by 28-days of trivia. I'd rather have a casino. He went on to say he'd rather do what the Catholics do: The real celebration should be Black History Month Eve, a kind of Whitey Gras. A big party leading up to the start of Black History Month (kind of like Lent)
Now, I know there will be a knee jerk reaction by some who will post that I'm a racist or relating racist comments and it will be by some people who won't even bother watching the video.
Some will watch it and still give me grief. But, the point is, don't trivialize Black History and try to boil it down to one month. Make it year round.
For too many years it seems only black reporters will be assigned to cover events that occur during Black History month. And they'll touch on the same folks every year from Harriet Tubbman to George Washington Carver to the Tuskeegee Airmen. Yes, all these folks made great contributions for black people but they also made great contributions for everybody.
Let's celebrate those contributions year round.

Hey Joe, Where You Going With That Blog in Your Hand

I love things when they work and hate it when they don't. I haven't been able to post lately because of issues with Blogger. Some of you may remember a few months ago my blog disappeared altogether for about a week. I made the mistake then of trying to upgrade the blog site. Now it appears I may have no choice as Blogger is pushing the "new and improved" version. If I disappear for a while it's through no fault of my own, at least this time.
I had lunch Monday with a former colleague who now works in a major market as a weekend morning show producer. This person is very good at what he does. Unfortunately I think he has become a victim of his own success which can happen all too often in the news business. Anyone who has ever worked a morning news show understands how the schedule can suck the life out of you. Some like the schedule and get used to it. Many more don't. I liked it for the first eight or nine years that I did it at WREG. I actually didn't mind the hours at first. But after a while, I found the sleep deprivation to be cumulative. Once you get tired, it seems you're always tired. If the numbers look good on the show, then you end up pigeonholed. It makes sense that no one wants to break up a winning combination and this is whether you work in front of the camera or behind the scenes. So, when opportunities come for advancement, some managers will hire from outside the company. Those managers find it's a whole lot easier to hire people to work normal hours than it is to find qualified people who work the overnight or early morning hours. That creates frustration among those folks who were told to work hard and it will "pay off". The misguided managers end up creating disgruntled employees and no amount of "rah-rah" sessions that mornings are the new power slots will overcome those feelings of resentment. I hope my former colleague is able to move off the weekend mornings. He's got too much on the ball as a news producer to keep getting dumped on.
Speaking of getting dumped on, I hear rumblings from DOTR that some producers are s0 tired of the double shows that it could get ugly. The NYTimes Broadcast Group has been trying to keep costs in check as they prepared for the big sale taking place around June so news producers have been doubling up on the shows they do. And when one producer takes time off for vacation or sick days that means more work for everybody else. Some might say the work isn't hard. Others will disagree. I think the big fear among producers is that some of the long-timers who know the daily drill will leave for good and those remaining will have to pick up the slack even more. The reality is that anybody these days who has a job that has even marginal health benefits doesn't want to lose those benefits, especially if they have children. They can't afford it. And up until now, the NYTimes had very generous health benefits. If or when those go away, you may find some folks really searching for other jobs.

Speaking of children, the phone rang around 7:30 Wednesday morning at our house. An early morning phone call is usually not a good thing. I know when I was working the early morning shift DOTR and the phone rang in the middle of the night, I jumped out of bed and headed for the shower because it meant I'd overslept. That only happened once (me oversleeping) but if someone called in the middle of the night I would sit up in bed, even on weekends.
I was already awake when the phone rang Wednesday morning but let the answering machine pick it up. It seems I was needed to pinch-hit as an emcee for an event sponsored by Memphis City Beautiful that morning involving several hundred school kids. The person who was scheduled to emcee (a local weather guy) was needed to monitor the winter weather headed for the MidSouth. I don't get too many calls these days from women who indicate they really need me. Besides chivalry is not dead in our household so I called her back and told her I would help her out.
At the function I ran into some videographers I used to work with and chatted with them briefly. I wished I could say I did the job the original emcee would have done. I'm not sure that I did. He's very good at this. But I did the best I could and I think everybody went home happy. At least nobody threw anything at me.