Today's News 12.30.09

Time Warner Cable rates going up [WTEN]

THE DECADE FROM HELL [WRGB]

Soldiers sue over alleged toxic exposure [NBC Nightly News]

Did the digital decade make us impatient? [NBC Nightly News]

A Local Look Back at the Decade That Was Pt.1 [WRGB]

A Local Look Back at the Decade That Was Pt.2 [WRGB]

Toll Hikes for the New Year [WRGB]

Promising new job outlook for 2010 [WNYT]

Today's News: 12.29.09

Baby & mom brought back from death [KOAA]

Saved By The Badge [NBC NEWS]

Moving Movie Seats [NBC NEWS]

The Wildest and Wackiest pictures of the year [NBC NEWS]

Local entrepreneur introduces NEWS10 to her award-winning hot sauce [WTEN]

Audio of Obama's speech [MSNBC]

Pine Hills burglars break in during school break [WTEN]

What are you saying 'Good Riddance' to in 2009? [WRGB]

Obama blames 'systemic failure' for bomb attempt [NBC Nightly News]

Security turns air travel into space odyssey [NBC Nightly News]

Lake Champlain Bridge demolished: The Lake Champlain Bridge has been demolished [Capital News 9]

Afghanistan army flunks Pentagon report card
[NBC Nightly News]

A fond farewell: Notable deaths of 2009 [NBC Nightly News]

Christmas Day TV

This Friday is Christmas, and nothing says Merry Christmas more then watching television, with –or without your family. Here’s a look at what’s airing on local Capital Region channels, as well as what movies will be airing on cable.

Local Channels:
WRGB/CBS6 will be airing Melodies of Christmas at noon and 5pm, meaning there will only be a local 6:30pm newscast on CBS6. At 1:30 CBS6 will be airing An All Dogs Christmas Carol.

On WTEN, The Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade will be seen at 10am. There will be no local evening news on WTEN, because of basketball, starting at 2:00pm with the Boston Celtics at Orlando. Then at 5pm the Cleveland Cavaliers will play the Los Angeles Lakers. World News will air at 7:30pm. ABC will be airing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at 8pm.

On WNYT there will be no morning newscasts, which is smart because who is up at 5am Christmas morning. Scratch that, who is up at 5am to watch the news. At 5am WNYT will air Christmas Mass from the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. At 6am WNYT will air Happy Holidays America. There will be no newscast or Friends on WNYT, as the Northway Fellowship Church Special will air starting at noon. Starting at 3pm, NBC will air a Skating Special: Improv On Ice. Oprah will air at 5pm, which means there will be no 5pm newscast; only a half hour 6pm newscast on WNYT. At 8pm NBC will air SNL Presents A Very Gilly Christmas.

On WCWN, the Capital Region’s CW will air the Northway Fellowship Church Special at 8am and noon. The CW has CBS6 News scheduled at 9am, however I have a feeling that my not be a live newscast, but a re-air of Jerry Gretzinger‘s Take A Break Special that aired on Thanksgiving. At 9:30am and 6:30pm Melodies of Christmas will air. The Holiday River Parade will air at 11am. At 9pm the CW will air Grandma got Run over by a Reindeer.

(The above listings come from online guides, and are subject to change.)

Christmas Movies: The following is just a sampling of what Christmas movies will air Christmas night.

TBS:
A Christmas Story Marathon will air all day.

AMC:
5:45pm: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

FX:
7:30pm: Home Alone
9:30: Deck the Halls

USA:
8pm: Elf

Disney Channel:
6:45pm: Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas
8:05pm: Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas
ABC Family:
4:00pm: Miracle on 34th Street

In Case you missed it: Christmas Edition...

Christmas is one week away, and already there have been some great storiesand I wanted to make sure you didn't miss any of them.

Wierd:
A deer with lights tangled in his antlers, a drunken Santa and even a drunk 4 year old, that stole presents (story here from NewsChannel 9 ) are just some odd stories making the rounds this Christmas season.

Keep Christ in Christmas!
First this, from Ashland Oregon. A school takes a Christmas Tree down and replaces it with snowmen, thinking they are doing the 'right' thing, only to have the parents complain...forcing them to put the tree back up. NewsWatch12, kdrv.com has the story.

Now to Kokomo Indian, where there's no sign of a baby Jesus, but plenty of dinosaurs, whales and fire trucks. The Indy Channel has more here, as does FOX59 here.

Deck the Halls!
NBC DFW has the story of a women who starts to decorate her house for Christmas as early as July. Take a look at some pictures here, or watch the story here.

Then there's this, from NBC Houston, a women has turned her car into a snow globe, yes a snow globe. Watch the story here.

The Capital Region's News Leader is....

The ratings for the Albany, NY television market came out yesterday. And, WNYT, who is arguing the ratings results, is apparently being pushed down a cliff by High Definition, Lydia Kulbida, and advocacy journalism. The ratings only represent one month –November, and because of that it’s important not to look too much into them.

It is not as clear cut, to me, as who exactly won the November ratings. WTEN won the (what is to me) the biggest, most important time -6pm. But, WRGB won 5:00, 5:30 and 11:00 news times. There are some reasons that people, including myself, have pointed to; to explain why WRGB is doing so much better then WNYT.

First, CBS is the most watched television network. Fact. And WRGB is a CBS affiliate. Because of this they have a better lead in then the mess that is Jay Leno at 10pm on NBC/WNYT. Every NBC station seems to be hurting because of Jay Leno. Back to WRGB, they have decided to broadcast in High Definition; which, according to many of the comments on the Times Union Business Blog, is the sole reason why some people watch CBS6 News. Another reason WRGB may have won at 5:00 and not 6:00 is because of the anchors. Liz Bishop is a staple in the Capital Region, and Dori Marlin is not. The fact that WRGB hired Dori and put her at 6:00, and moved Liz to 5:00, may be the reason people are turning away from CBS6 at 6:00.

Comments on the Times Union Business Blog also talk about the lead-ins for the 5:00pm newscasts. While I do not know who exactly is winning –Oprah or Ellen– at 4:00, it would appear that people are sick of Oprah, and are turning to the always exciting Ellen at 4:00, this maybe another reason CBS6 winning at 5:00.

The fact that WTEN won at 6:00 is still quit befalling. Because, I thought, many people got air sickness from the flight of the anchors, from Elisa at the desk, Steve at the monitor, and Christina in the newsroom. However, maybe people watching are getting use to it. Or maybe it has something to do with Lydia Kulbida working at WTEN. While she does not host the 6pm newscast, she does report for it. Another factor could be that WTEN has the region's best meteorologist, Steve Caporizzo.

So why did WNYT do so badly? Well we’ve already blamed Jay Leno, and the fact that Lydia Kulbida was fired. But, perhaps it’s the stale newscasts? Yes, the set that WNYT has had sense the 90s, the fact that they don’t dig deeper like CBS6 does, and the overabundance of national –not to mention world news on a supposed local newscast. These reasons along with the poor Leno-lead in and Kulbida’s firing have undoubtedly lead to WNYT’s demise.

Again, it’s only one ratings period. So things may change. And they probably will. Oprah is leaving daytime TV, leading who to lead into “Live at 5,” Sarah Palin? Perhaps, now that Comcast has bought NBC, the channel will start to resemble more of its cable channels (USA, SyFy, etc), get ride of leno at 10 and become a stronger network for WNYT.

Christmas Eve TV

This Thursday is Christmas Eve, and nothing says Merry Christmas more then watching television, with –or without your family. Here’s a look at what’s airing on local Capital Region channels, as well as what movies will be airing on cable.

In Albany, you can enjoy the first airing of Melodies of Christmas, at 5pm, then again at 7:30pm on WRGB. At 8pm you can catch an airing of the classic It’s A Wonderful Life, on WNYT. Or catch Disney’s made for ABC 30-minute animated movie Prep and Landing. If you haven’t watched enough parades this Christmas season then WNYA (MY4-Channel 4) is where you’ll want to be at 8pm; they are airing the Hollywood Christmas Parade, which was held on November 29th in Los Angeles.

After the late local news (at 11:35pm), WNYT and WRGB will air Christmas mass. WNYT will air Christmas Eve at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. And, WRGB will air Christmas at the Cathedral Beacon of Hope.

Christmas Eve on Cable has some great Christmas movies! Here is just some of what’s on:

FX:
4:30pm Christmas with the Kranks

AMC:
A White Christmas (all day starting at 9am)

TBS:
8pm: A Christmas Story (24 hour marathon)

The Disney Channel:
4:00pm: Santa Claus I
5:50pm: Santa Claus II
7:45pm: Santa Claus III

ABC Family: Movies all day. For more information, click here.

Updated: Let the Christmas specials begin

This week is the first week of December, and that means tons of Christmas specials. There are three things that should be brought to your attention. First, ABC had scheduled two specials set to air this Tuesday night, but President Obama is making a major speech about Afghanistan, and ABC will pre-empt those Christmas specials, but ABC will air those Specials ('Charlie Brown Christmas' and 'Disney Prep & Landing') next Tuesday December 8th. Also, ABC’s 25 Days of Christmas officially starts this Tuesday the 1st –despite the fact the have been airing Christmas specials counting down to the “25-Days of Christmas.” And, this Wednesday, December 2nd the Rockefeller Christmas tree is getting light. That’s on NBC at 8pm.

The following list is just a selection of some of the better Christmas specials. For a complete list, I suggest you check this link out.

Monday Night:
8pm:
How the Grinch Stole Christmas, ABC

8:30pm
Shrek the Halls, ABC

9pm:
Naughty or Nice, ABC Family
___________________________________________________________
Tuesday Night:
7pm:
Year Without a Santa Claus, ABC Family

8pm:
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, ABC Family
___________________________________________________________
Wednesday Night:
8pm:
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, CBS
Christmas in Rockefeller Center, NBC
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, AMC
___________________________________________________________
Thursday Night:
6pm:
Christmas With the Kranks, FX
The Polar Express, ABC Family

8pm:
Home for the Holidays, MyNetwork
Deck the Halls, FX
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, AMC
___________________________________________________________
Friday Night:
7pm:
Home Alone, FX
Frosty's Winter Wonderland, ABC Family

8pm:
Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, NBC
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, AMC

9pm:
Christmas With the Kranks, FX
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, CW
___________________________________________________________
Saturday Night:
7pm:
The Santa Clause 2, Disney Channel
Christmas With the Kranks, FX

8pm:
White Christmas, AMC

9pm:
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Disney Channel
Deck the Halls, FX

Thanksgiving Television Specials

Thanksgiving is next week, and turkey day means more than just football on TV. Here’s a look at how Albany’s local channels will change their television lineup and some of the Holiday Specials airing on television Thanksgiving Day.

Local Channels:
WRGB/CBS6 will be airing the Thanksgiving Day Parade, at 9am. There will be no soap operas on CBS; however there will be a noon newscast (paid programming at 12:30). Because of football; at 1pm Dr. Phil will air, followed by a 2pm airing of Ellen –both Re-runs. Then at 3pm CBS6 will produce a newscast; followed by “The NFL Today” and the Oakland/Dallas game.

WTEN’s daytime schedule will not change at all, however ABC is airing a lot of primetime specials. At, 8pm A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will air, followed by Beyonce: I Am ... Yours at 9 and Paul McCartney: Good Evening New York City at 10pm.

WNYT/NewsChannel 13 will be airing a lot of special programming. Today’s Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer, along with Al Roker will host the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, starting at 9am. As always, it will be followed by the National Dog Show Presented by Purina at Noon. Then at 2pm NBC will be airing: Dr. Dolittle, which will run until 4pm; which is when WNYT’s regular schedule will resume. Thanksgiving Night at 9pm, Matt Lauer will be hosting NBC’s People of the Year.

WXXA/FOX23 will be airing football, starting with the ‘NFL on FOX Pre-game show’ and the Packers/Lions game, followed by Figure Skating and no 5pm newscast. Thanksgiving Night, FOX will be airing Night at the Museum at 8pm.

WMHT/PBS will air Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Ghosts of Christmas Eve at 10pm.

Holiday Specials:
USA, FX, Disney Channel and ABC Family (amongst other cable channels) will be airing some holiday specials. Here’s a list of what’s on Thanksgiving Night:

ABC Family has Holiday shows all throughout the day. Highlights include Miracle on 34th Street (1994).

USA will air ELF at 9pm.

FX will be airing Home Alone starting at Noon on Thanksgiving; every 2 hours.

Disney Channel has movies all throughout the day.

All schedules/information from titantv.com

In case you missed it...

After NJ picked a winner, a little boy was picking something else. ABC30 has the story here.

And, 1,000 pieces of luggage go missing...how? Police say a couple stole all the luggage...who would want all that underwear? Here's the Today Show's report on it.

And this past Summer, the movie "Salt" was filmed in Albany. The Times Union has the trailer, and info here.

Then there's this---a women called the cops to report someone driving drunk, the funny this is, it was here!

Always online, on Facebook and Twitter

Now more then ever it seems news organizations are jumping on the social media bandwagon, which is a good thing. It helps viewers realized there are actual people behind the news stories. It also allows viewers to interact with reporters, and perhaps suggest stories. Between Twitter, Facebook and their internet sites each station in the Capital Region is doing a fairly good job of adapting to the always changing media forms.

Twitter All of the news stations in Albany are using twitter, some better than others. Fox23 up until recently was only using twitter feed, and Capital News 9 is still mainly using twitter feed. Setting up a twitter account with only twitter feed doesn’t mean you are using twitter (as far as I see it).

CBS6 and NewsChannel 13 use twitter feed –but also use it to talk about stories they are working on, what stories are coming up in their newscasts, or get reaction from viewers. This mix of twitter feed and real people tweeting can be both good and bad. Instead of going to one of these news organizations websites and looking for a story, they are all right there on twitter. But, at the same time so many stories coming at you can be a little overwhelming.

News10 seems to be real tweets from real people. Whether it’s where Steve went to get coffee or posting the latest John McLoughlin story, their twitter seems to be the most real. Fox23’s twitter seems to be all business. Just teasing stories and talking about what stories a reporter is working on, or breaking stories. Lately, Capital News 9 has been using their twitter to report traffic problems, which makes me wonder why not make a separate twitter page for Capital Region Traffic?

Individual reporters and anchors are also on twitter. I like the idea of individual people being on twitter. You know who you are tweeting to, as apposed to tweeting to a news organization. And, it also helps when suggesting a story idea, or just to tell them how great they are at what they do!

Facebook NewsChannel 13, News10, CBS6 and Fox 23 News all are on Facebook. NewsChannel 13 and CBS6 seem to use it to post stories, so people can comment on a story. News10 seems to be using it to post weather, information about pet connection, and the News10 at 4 viral video. Like twitter, Facebook also has individual anchors on it. CBS6 has set up accounts for Liz Bishop, Marci Natale, Jerry Gretzinger and Meteorologist Steve LaPointe

Web Only Only one news station has video blogs and exclusive online content –CBS6 News. Morning anchor Ed O’Brien files a daily “Ed’s Head” and Assignment Editor Shane Mahar lets viewers know what CBS6 will be covering that day on “From The Desk.” CBS6 also has exclusive video reports by Ken Screven, Steve Flamisch and Jerry Gretzinger.

FOX23 News is adding a new feature to its newscasts, “The Rant.” This is a great idea, and I think it will be a great addition to their newscasts. CBS6 also uses viewer’s twitter and Facebook comments on stories they cover during their 5:30 newscast. News10 has also been taking advantage of the comment section of their website, by reading people’s comments on their newscasts. And, during their Presidential Visit coverage NewsChannel 13 read people’s twitter comments on the air.

Everything you need, no --want, to know about Balloon Boy

First the Facts:
1. His family was on ABC's wife swap.

2. He barfed on "Good Morning America" and the "Today" show.

3. As of 1:30 pm (10.16.09), 89% of people who took TV Guide's online poll thinks the whole thing was a hoax.


Breaking News, as it happens: Thursday, October 15, around 11:00am, local time, KUSA (NBC station in Denver) and the local cops got a call from the Balloon Boy's dad, reports B&C. That basically began the non-stop coverage of the Balloon Crisis. Even WTEN, the local ABC station in Albany, NY simulcasted CNN's coverage during the afternoon. Denver Post TV Critic, Joanne Ostrow, has this write up about how local channels covered the Balloon Crisis, adding this:

Terrific visuals of what looked like a flying Mylar muffin kept viewers glued to screens through a day of frantic coverage centered on 6-year-old Falcon Heene and the family's loosed balloon

This whole thing gave KUSA's website a major boost, number wise; here's what KUSA general manager Mark Cornetta had to say:

To put things in perspective, our normal traffic on a day without any major breaking news or weather is usually anywhere from 750,000 to a million page views a day, and about 150,000 unique visitors. Yesterday, we had 4.6 million page views and 939,000 visitors. And between the hours of 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. alone, we had 722,000 unique visitors and 3.8 million page views.

Finally, at 6:07pm ET, the boy was found hiding in a box (nope, in a press conference taking place as I type this the police officer says he wasn't in a box) in the attic. This is when people knew that it was ok to start poking fun at the boy's adventure (because he was safe), and some people began to question if it a publicity stunt for the father (he says it wasn't), or the family's Wife Swap appearance. A DJ from, 96.1 Kiss FM, Scott Ehrenberger tweeted this:

Yo Balloon Boy, Ima let you finish, but Anne Frank had the best attic hideout of all time

There's also this webpage with some funny images on it, about the whole Balloon Crisis. We also learned more about the father, CBS6 reports:

He also happens to be one-half of a weather-investigative team with a former on-air weather personality at CBS 6.

That part of the story here.

Later Thursday, the family gave an interview with CNN's Wolfe Blitzer, in which the Balloon Boy was quoted as saying this: "we did this for the show", which raised many questions.

Want some Barf with that cereal?
Then, this morning on TV the family went on all three morning shows, but only barfed during two of the interviews. I still don't know how the family was in three places at once!

Now, TMZ (the most trusted name in news, I know...JK) has the 911 call, listen to it here.

The cops don't think it was a hoax And, around 2pm ET, Friday afternoon, a press conference began with Jim Alderden, Sheriff of Larimer County in Colorado. Addressing the aspect of it being a hoax, the sheriff had this to say:

It's very evident that this boy is very hyperactive, to say the least, and, you know, the suggestion to us that perhaps this boy had been coached or coaxed by his parents to hide and remain still in this attic for five hours during the duration of this event, just seems inconceivable

Did WTEN just re-air a three month old story, no ABC did

Last night I was watching News10 at 11, on WTEN, the local ABC station in Albany, NY, when a story about Hidden fees came on. It was done by ABC News reporter Bill Weir. Immediately I realized I had seen the story someplace in the past and I jumped to the conclusion that News10 re-aired the piece.

The story was originally done for a story on the July 15, 2009 Nightline. I thought it was odd that they were re-airing, a story from Nightline on News10 at 11, for two reasons. One, why re-air a story so many moths later, but two; stories on Nightline usually run around 3-5 minutes, as the show typically only has 3 stories from reporters, and a story so long on a local newscast is almost unheard of.

So, this morning I looked into it a little more, and found this out. On Monday night's ABC World News they aired the Bill Weir piece (which aired later on NEWS10 at 11). But, it was a much shorter piece then the original nightline story, from a 5 minute and 45 second story, on Nightline in July; to a 3 minute story on Monday night's World News. This is when I realized that News10 must have just used the report from ABC, seeing how WTEN is affiliated with ABC they have access to all of their stoires. Therefore it was ABC, not News10 that re-used and edited the story . My thought is that it could have had something to do with Monday being a holiday and the lack of news, that ABC News decided to re-air the piece; but shame on them.

NEWS10 was first to report, but should they have been?

{Here's the video link, if the video player above does not show up.}

Last night, News10 -the ABC station in Albany- was first to report a plot to kidnap, torture and kill former Rensselaer County District Attorney Trish DeAngelis. News10, as news stations typically do, billed this as an "Exclusive" story, which from what I can tell at the time it was. However, the story was based off of three anonymous, sources. A news story is based off of anonymous sources can be sketchy, and some people will say it is a practice of bad journalism, like some comments on this Times Union Blog. To me, this is investigative journalism, as WTEN was the first media outlet to report this story (from what I can tell). How did Anya Tucker get a hold of this info? Who knows? But, I feel (and hope) that she, and WTEN (actually, any news organization), would only report on a story if they had solid facts, which despite the anonymity, it appears WTEN had. So News10 was the first to report on this story, last night.

By tonight's news it was not "Exclusive." Reporter Steve Flamisch covered this story for CBS6. Flmaisch mentioned WTEN, in his print and video story, something that the decision makers at WRGB, undoubtedly had to debate over doing or not doing. I thought this was very interesting that another news organization would site another news organization (normally competitors). But, the article/story on cbs6albany.com does not shed a nice light on WTEN.

Regarding WTEN, McNally said he could subpoena the reporter and anyone else with knowledge of the claims. He said, however, that he currently has no plans to do so.

NewsChannel 13 and the Times Union also covered this story

How this story was covered raises some questions, for me at least. Was it right for News10 to air this story last night, a story based off of three unnamed sources? Does anyone care about this story? Is this quality journalism?

PETA's Protest.

{NOTE: The video will start playing immediately, because of that I will delete this blog post in about a week.}

Yesterday, I told you that PETA was going to protest, by dumping milk in front of an Albany grocery store. Fox23 News did a story on it here it is:

My Duh moment of the day

Everyday I say things I sometimes regret, today I questioned, on twitter, whether or not News10 reporter Anya Tucker is pregnant or not; she is.

But earlier today, in my History class, somehow the teacher got on the topic of Voodoo Dolls, and someone in the class said they were related to witch doctors. So, I whispered to my friend sitting next to me, "wasn't there a song about that in the Chipmunks movie?" Well, the teacher said, "Michael, do you know?" Seeing as I had no time to come up with a BS answer, I said, "well I know the chipmunks sang a song about it, in the movie." The whole class cracked up!

Afternoon Update: Wednesday October 7th 2009

Yes, it's only Wednesday. There have been some really interesting stories around the area lately.

First in Albany, at the Achievement Academy, Two teachers have quite after saying they were secretly videotaped. For some reason FOX23 wasted the talents of Jeff Saperstone on this story, but here's his report and the Times Union Schools blog has more here.

There's this major trial going on in the area, now that tapes of the interview with the father (Adrian Thomas) and police have been released; the TV coverage has ramped up. Here's CBS6's coverage from last night at 5, the video is very compelling -including the police praying with Thomas. More of this video will get played today in court, according to various news organizations, so we'll see what happens.

Happening Today, as they say. While you are not suppose to cry over spilt milk, I think this protest is just dumb. This from a news release from PETA:

Dressed as a cow, a PETA supporter will dump gallons of "milk" outside a grocery store in Albany as part of a protest against cruel factory dairy farms.

Here's the full news release, seems like a waste of milk to me.


In today's Times Union there is this article that says Kate, from John & Kate might get her own talk show, I know who cares....I'm just saying.

Also in today's Times Union is part of this associated press story about how David Letterman's ratings have been going up --because he keeps talking!

This tweet from News10's Steve A. explains that Diane Lee (formally of FOX23 News) will be leaving the ABC station in Albany, to take a job down south.



Also, it appears John Craig, who literally has reported for every capital region news station is back on NewsChannel 13.

I saw him on "NewsChannel 13 Today" this morning with this report about the ongoing Adrian Thomas Trial. When I tweeted NewsChannel 13 to ask if it was in fact John Craig, they tweeted me back telling me it was John Craig.

They also tweeted me this:

Media Notes

Tonight's BIG STORY...
Locally, while today's big story is yet another fire, last nights was the announcement of the City of Schenectady's budget. All of our local news channels covered the announcement, some better than others. CBS6 News's Randy Simons, a very talented reporter filed this report, which included interesting visuals. Another great political reporter, Jeff Saperstone filed this report for Fox23 News. News10 had Diane Lee cover the story. And, News Channel 13's Jessica Layton covered the story. Also Capital News 9, Time Warner Cable's 24 hour news channel in the region, had Curtis Schick on the story, with this report. All in all, the reporters who covered this story are some of the best reporters this market has.

In other news...
Lydia Kulbia blogs about the Federal Trade Commission’s blogger endorsements rule.

The Times Union's Kristi Gustafson has a great blog post about the David Letterman Disaster on her blog, here.

All Over Albany had this great blog post about yesterday's late afternoon rainbows in the Albany area.

Also, is Nancy Grace the new Judge Judy -god I hope not! Here's an article from B&C talking about the possibility of her new show.

News10 at 4 -a different kind of local news

Just over two weeks ago WTEN, Albany’s local ABC affiliate, started a new 4pm newscast. It is way too early to judge what the masses will think of News10 at 4. People in the region seem to a) not like change and b) hate seeing the same story three times (not that I’m saying News10 at 4 does that). However the concept of News10 at 4 intrigues me, for many reasons. First off Lydia and Elisa seem to be focusing on different type of stories; stories about the community. New segments include “Making a Difference,” “4 your health,” “4 your money,” and amongst others, and my personal favorite “Annie on the Job.”

News10 at 4 is just a local example of how many television stations across the nation are adding local newscasts, despite the economic climate of media industry. GM’s of these local stations will probably tell you something like “we’re committed to our viewer,” and that may be true, but the simple fact is this: it costs a station less to air a live-local news program then airing a syndicated show, like Ellen or Oprah. WTEN isn’t the only station to expand their newscasts, to “non traditional” times, or “non-traditional” formats.

Local Mornings:
Here in the capital region two channels have local news from 7-8am, FOX23 and the Capital Region CW (produced by sister station CBS6). It’s quite obvious that these two stations don’t put much stock into these early morning local newscasts, as they do with their evening newscasts.

FOX23 fired (from what I can tell) the one anchor that arguably made that morning newscast interesting, Diane Lee (now freelancing at WTEN). She has been described as “the one bright light on low rated morning show” by a viewer on this Times Union blog. The morning news program at FOX23 also use to have a morning live reporter, and a morning traffic reporter; Kaitlyn Barto. In the morning, it seems, the more anchors the better. This shows the viewer that as a news station you are committed to the idea of morning news and want your viewers to be as committed to watch you. And having a live morning reporter brings a feeling of urgency to the stories, and keeps the newscast fresh.

As for CBS6 News on the Capital Region’s CW, the morning newscast seems to be nothing more than local anchors introducing national CBS stories, not to say that they have no local stories, they do.

Both stations have unique opportunities to capitalize on “live-local” morning newscasts, but aren’t doing a very good job of this. Most owned and operated Fox stations have local morning news from 5-9am, some until 10am. Because this is such a huge amount of time for local news, stations are becoming creative with interesting morning content. Good Day Tampa Bay lets you submit your child’s first birthday, for them to announce on air. Another Fox station, Fox 7 in Austin, has a segment on their morning newscast devoted to local musicians. The local CW station in Sacramento, CW31, airs a morning news program seven days a week. Good Day Sacramento even has its own webpage. According to their webpage, “Each week, the Good Day cast brings you the best that Sacramento has to offer. Whether it's lifestyle, (5 a.m. Club, Prego Posse, Momtrepreneurs), entertainment (Mark on Movies, The Vault), recreation (Nick's Joints) or news-related (News of the Weird), Good Day has it.” Now this seems like it would be a very interesting newscast to watch while getting ready for my day. Another example of a different style newscast is on WSFL, a CW station in Florida. Their morning newscast takes a much more laid back approach when it comes to the news, mainly because the show seems like it is not focused solely on news. The show less then a year old, utilizes the Internet –to stream live and twitter.

Lifestyle shows
While some Lifestyle shows, such as WNBC's 5pm "LX TV" can be unwanted by viewers, others seem interesting. The ABC station in St. Paul/Minneapolis, owned by the same company that owns WNYT, airs a local lifestyle show called “Twin Cities Live.” Looking on their website, the story about how the station picked who would host the show is very interesting. Another afternoon local lifestyle show, on ABC-7: San Francisco is called “View from the Bay.” What makes these local programs interesting is that both, “Twin Cities Live,” and “View from the Bay” are taped in front of live studio audiences. While these shows air in the afternoon, some stations have locally produced morning lifestyle programs. In Milwaukee, NBC station TMJ-4, airs a 9am lifestyle program called “The Morning Blend.” And in Houston, if you turn on KHOU Channel 11, you will find “Great Day Huston.” All of the lifestyle shows typically have cooking segments, interviews, as well as relationship advice and stories about what is happening in the local communities.

News Magazines:
These shows typically are on each night, either at 7 or 7:30pm. They focus more on what is going on in their community, and less on the news of the day. There aren’t many shows like this in America. One such example is on the ABC station in Boston, WCVB. The Chronicle, according to the station’s website is “the nation’s longest running locally produced nightly newsmagazine.” King 5, the NBC station in Seattle has a new magazine fittingly called “Evening Magazine.” According to the station’s website, “Evening Magazine remains a local favorite highlighting the people, places and events that make the Northwest so special.” Both of these news magazines have anchors and reporters that focus solely on their evening news magazine program.

Keeping it Local!
Two other unique types of newscasts can be found on the west cost –both in Portland. The NBC station, KGW, has a 7pm local newscast; but not just any 7pm newscast. “Live at 7” is a very different approach to news. Both the host and producer are on twitter and viewers can watch the show online live –with both the producer and anchor’s mics left, as they say –HOT! The show also features in depth interviews, all done from the “studio on the square,” a-la the Today Show’s Rockefeller Plaza. The CBS station, KOIN, just started a 4pm newscast, “Keep it Local,” according to the station's website the program is “Produced on location every day, Keep It Local goes wherever the day’s biggest story takes us.”

So, back to the capital region. Where does News10 at 4 fit in to the various types of local news programs being produced around the country? It seems to be half lifestyle, half news. So, why not just commit to one or the other? Also, why not just push it back to 5pm –make it an hour -so it can compete with other channels –or maybe being the only local program at 4 is just what WTEN wanted. It seems WTEN’s content is stronger during this 4pm newscast, then the “harder” evening newscasts.

The bigger question is when will local capital region news channels start listening to what viewers want? Only time will tell what impact News10 at 4 has on local Capital Region news. Maybe local news channels need to realize that there simply is not enough news for 5 separate news channels. Second off, we probably do not need 90 minutes of evening news. Local Channels need to also realize that they need to stop with the national/wire/AP stories on focus on local content -and if it means less news on the air so be it. OR, hire more reporters to do “special assignment stories,” I am sure there are so many local stories that we hear about on the news, done simply with an anchor voice over, that actually having a reporter to tell the story would make a newscast more interesting (and it appears in this respect, News10 at 4 is listening). Finally, why does it seem that local news channels don’t interview people? Capital Tonight on Capital News9 does a great job of interviewing people.

Local TV News is NOT dead, it just has to adjust with the times, and 90% of our local channels are NOT doing that -presumably because it will hurt their bottom line!

A week ago Monday, Obama's visit and how the local stations covered it

A week ago this Monday, the President of the United States of America came to the Capital Region. And all of our local news channels covered it live, breaking into normal daytime programming –something that is rarely done in this region.

So, I had all three major network affiliates taped from 11am to 1pm. Only the major three, because they are typically the channels people in the Capital Region turn to, to receive their information. It is important to point out I had all intentions of taping FOX23 News’ coverage, however Sunday, not Monday, was taped from 11am to 1pm (because of human error). It is also important to note that my critiques are strictly from 11am on, so if the coverage started before 11am, which they all did, it was note taped, so I will not be critiquing it. And finally, my notes are strictly from the live coverage, not the evening newscasts or online coverage of the President’s visit.


CBS6 News:
CBS6 had their 5pm anchors Liz Bishop and Jerry Gretzinger anchor the coverage live from their Niskayuna studios, with many reporters live on location throughout the region. At the airport, CBS6 morning anchor Teresa Priolo was doing live reports, as the President arrived.

Also live in studio, before the President spoke, Jerry and Liz were joined by Jeff Lawrance, from the Center for Economic Growth. This was smart of channel 6, because they knew they would have to fill time while the President was getting a tour of an HVCC classroom. Their conversation with Lawarnce was focused more on the economic side of it (obviously), and less the political side. During this waiting period, they also used a report that CBS 6 reporter Randy Simons filed earlier in which he gauged peoples’ reaction about the President’s visit. Also, Ashe Reardon’s report (which was re-used from the Sunday night newscasts) was used in this waiting period, to help explain what it took, logistically, for the president’s trip to go off smoothly. Thankfully, CBS6 had all of these reports and guests ready before the speech, seeing as how the President didn’t speech until closer to noon.

Greg Floyd, along with Marci Natale, stationed inside HVCC, talked about politics (amongst other things) while showing a live picture of the Governor, Andrew Cuomo and other politicians. Greg also brought up the fact that NYS’s two senators weren’t there, saying maybe it was because they wanted to shine the light on Scott Murphy and Paul Tonko. Greg, Liz and Jerry also spoke about reports that were leaked about Obama’s supposed discouragement of Governor Patterson’s run at the 2010 NYS gubernatorial race.

While watching CBS6’s coverage, around 11:48am, Jim Kambrich from NewsChannel 13 was in the view of channel 6’s camera, and was actually on channel 6; which I thought was interesting, eventually this blooper was realized and the camera got tighter on Greg Floyd.

A little before noon, Jill Biden came onto the podium to introduce Obama, who then gave his speech. After the speech, around 12: 32 Jerry, alongside Liz, talked about how great it was to cover the President’s visit on channel 6 and then CBS6 went back to regular programming, which I didn’t think was a good idea, and never came back on until the 5pm newscasts, not covering the President’s departure live on air. Because they did this, CBS6 came in last, in my opinion, of how they covered Obama’s visit, on air. It is important to note that for the hour plus CBS6 was on air, their coverage was very comprehensive.

News10
(NOTE: unfortunately WTEN doesn’t have the time associated with their lower right hand corner logo, so, because I was watching it on tape, I can’t compare WTEN’s coverage with the other stations –based on the time)

News10’s Elisa Streeter and Annie Scholz, (who has been at WTEN, and presumably in the Capital Region, for less than a year –she started at WTEN in May, according to her online bio) were anchoring the coverage live from their Northern Blvd. studios.

Also on air live during the special report was evening anchor, Steve Ammerman; he was stationed at the airport (here it should be noted that the quality of the mic Steve had was very poor).

He narrated the arrival of the president, including Obama/Patterson’s awkward handshake and hug. Of course, Monday was Lydia Kulbida’s first day at WTEN; she was at HVCC.

News10’s coverage basically consisted of Lydia, Annie, and Elisa having conversations live on News10, they also had no reporter at the motorcade, like WNYT did, they did have live video; as did all of the other stations. For most of their coverage, News10 used a two box/split screen format, with Annie and Elisa in a big box, and the live picture of the events in the smaller box. WTEN, unlike WRGB & WNYT had no ‘experts’ in their studio. Interestingly, News10 inserted a taped interview with Joe Bruno into their coverage before the President's speech; they also noted that is currently under investigation. They also re-aired the landing of air force one, before the speech, in case someone missed it; however, the should have put a “moments ago” graphic up because if someone really was just tuning in they may have been confused about why there were two boxes with video on the screen. Like WRGB, WTEN also had interviews of HVCC students in the time leading up to the President’s speech.

During the speech, like NewsChannel 13, News10 also put quotes from the President on their lower 3rds during the speech. After the speech News10 didn’t really have an analysis from any ‘experts,’ but Elisa and company re-capped what Obama said in his speech. They also spoke about how Joe Bruno and NYS’s two senators were noticeably absent. John McLoughlin was not a part of WTEN’s live coverage, but was on News10’s evening newscasts. After Elisa, Lydia, and Annie were done re-capping the speech, they went to Steve Ammerman back at the airport and then they stopped their special report and went back to regular programming. Unlike CBS6, News10 did come back to cover Obama’s departure from the Albany International Airport, again, with Steve Ammerman. This time with major mic issues, so much so that they had to leave Steve, but he did come back on air with an apology as soon as the issue was fixed.

The constant talking between the three (very talented) ladies was a little boring, and awkward because sometimes they would talk over each other. While ‘The News Stations’ live coverage was a little lax, they sort of made up for it on the latter newscasts; though one had to wonder if it was more important to have better coverage at 4pm or during the live special coverage? Also while watching, I wondered what it must have been like for Lydia to be working so close to her former co-anchor Jim Kambrich, still at NewsChannel 13 –because all of the media were corralled (as it seemed) into one area at HVCC.

NewsChannel 13

NewsChannel 13 did something I thought was very interesting, and not in a good way, they only had one anchor, Benita Zahn, in the studio. While that didn’t work, what did work was the thee in-studio ‘experts’- Joe Bruno; Dr. Edward Cupoli, Prof of Nanoeconomics, from UAlbany; and Hugh Johnson. NewsChannel 13 also had a fleet of reporters scattered throughout the Capital Region.

Abigail Bleck was along the motorcade route (NewsChannel 13 was the only station that had a reporter stationed in such a location). Jessica Layton, ‘Live at 11’ co-anchor, was stationed at the airport. Inside HVCC, Jim Kambrich. Outside of HVCC, in the parking lot, NewsChannel 13’s Sabrina Dhammi was stationed. When all of these reporters were on air, the reports were very shot and to the point, which was good because it is better then listening to reporters blab about nothing.

Because there was down time before the President spoke, Benita Zahn talked about every and anything related to the President’s visit with her three studio guests. She talked about the unemployment numbers with Hugh Johnson. She also asked Joe Bruno what he would talk about/ask the President, which I thought was a great question. She also asked Hugh Johnson about what he thought Obama had to say, dealing with the economic side of the speech. Then, 11:41am Benita Zahn asked the question “Why HVCC?”, she then explained with a sound bite and more details about HVCC, with aid of a graphic.

One of the best parts of NewsChannel 13’s coverage was their use of Twitter. The only other station do anything like this is CBS6; they use people’s comments from Liz and Jerry’s Facebook pages, during their 5:30pm newscast. I was really impressed with NewsChannel 13’s use of Twitter during their live, special report.

At 11:54am, Jill Biden introduced Obama, who then spoke. During Obama’s speech NewsChannel 13’s lower 3rds had quotes of what Obama said; which was a good idea.

After the speech, while CBS6 left coverage Sabrina Dhammi had live interviews with Ron Canestrari (D - Cohoes) Congressmen Paul Tonko (D - Amsterdam) in her HVCC parking lot location. They also went back to Jim K. in HVCC, and had more tweets from viewers. Interestingly, while the President was visiting, another major story broke. And at 12:43, NewsChannel 13 reported the breaking news, that three people were arrested in connection to Richard Bailey’s murder (News10 also reported this breaking news, I just can not give an exact time). A little before one, NewsChannel 13 Education reporter, Elaine Houston did a report about Obama’s tour of the campus. NewsChannel 13 also covered Obama’s departure, which CBS6 did not, live on air. Jessica Layton was stationed at the airport. Showing that she grew up in the Capital Region, Jess talked about how impressed she was that Obama mentioned Schenectady and all of the industries associated with the electric city.

Overall, NewsChannel 13 had the best coverage of the three affiliates, despite that fact that the set up of NewsChannel 13’s coverage, only one anchor, the odd arrangement of the ‘experts’ on the set; was a definite fail, yet the fact they had so many reporters and ‘experts’ was a win, and that’s more important then lousy camera angles.

So, what channel did you watch, and what did you think of the coverage of the President's visit? Or, did you only watch online? Or were you not able to watch at all?

When the President comes, you should change-up your graphics....right?

Here's a look at some of the graphics local channels used while President Obama was speaking at HVCC. They are screen caps from the TV, which explains the quality:
From top to bottom: CBS6, FOX23, CapitalNews9, News10, Newschannel 13:

Story of The Year: The president is coming

In case you haven't heard; President Obama is coming to the Capital Region on Monday. This hands-down is the biggest story of the year; for our region. And because of that, come Monday, there will be a lot of 'special reports' on the five main news channels in the Capital Region.

Of course speculation of his arrival began last week, when news outlets reported that Obama may visit Malta. Now we know he is giving an invite-only speech at HVCC, in Troy. Local news stations -and newspapers, are going all out to cover the president’s visit.

He's Coming!
Each station has had a reporter file a "here's where he will stand" report. They also have all interviewed the President of HVCC, as well as Rep. Murphy, Senator Schumer, and Congressmen Tonko.

On air & Online!
Twitter and other different types of social media will definitely be a major player in how the local media outlets cover Obama's visit.

First off, almost every media outlet (including the HVCC website) will be streaming their coverage/the President’s speech live on their websites.

The regions major paper, The Times Union, is also using a cover it live feature on a special report section of the website.

This is a Special Report
It appears that all five local TV stations will be in and out of coverage all day Monday, when the President arrives at the airport, speaks at HVCC, and leaves to go to NYC (He's on Letterman Monday Night).

WNYT: Here is Newchannel 13's Benita Zahn talking about her station's coverage.
Also WNYT, NewsChannel 13, is urging its viewers to tweet them using the hashtag "#ObamaHVCC"




WXXA: Fox23 News has their coverage plan here, interesting note they will be airing, a "Special extended edition of FOX23 News at 5 with John Gray and Ann Hughes."




WTEN: Interestingly enough 'The News Station,' News10 is debuting a new half hour of news on Monday; 'News10 at 4' With Lydia Kulbida and Elisa Streeter. Being on air a half-hour before everyone else could work toward their advantage, also working to its advantage is the very experenced John McLoughlin.

WRGB: CBS6 News, has alerted their viewers of their online 'non-stop coverage' -with commercials. CBS6 says they will have crews at the airport, at HVCC, along the motorcade route. And they will be doing live reports and skyping. The coverage will begin on cbs6albany.com very early, at 6:00am. CBS6 will also have live reports during the morning show, including the 7am CW hour. CBS6 has done a great job of setting up all of the info that anyone caring about this event needs to know, you can find that here.



Capitalnews9: According to a tweet by Capital News 9 morning reporter Kaitlyn Ross:

listening to our live coverage plan for Obama's visit- HOLY TAMOLE, this is going to be UNREAL- tune in Monday!!!

So, because a majority of us won't be able to be there, what channel will you watch, or will you rely on twitter updates. Possibly you will watch his speech online? No matter what this is going to be a very historic -and crazy day in New York's Capital Region.