Behind The Scenes: Changing Lights In The Studio

Tonight Mike Greene hopped on our motorized scissor lift to replace a backlight in the Weather Center.

I shot a little video in the studio tonight. We have dozens of high wattage lights ‘flown’ from a grid that floats below the ceiling. Lights burn out on a nearly constant basis.

Tonight Mike Greene hopped on our motorized scissor lift to replace a backlight in the Weather Center. Backlights are often used to add highlights and depth to the ‘talent’.

Playing in the background is Ray Stevens’ version of Misty.

Comcast, Allow Me To Kvetch About Your DVR

Nearly every operation on this DVR makes you think development stopped as soon as a feature worked. No one ever considered whether it worked well.

An admission before I start. I fully concede I’m about to kvetch because one of life’s little unnecessary luxuries isn’t luxurious enough. Guilty. Get over it.

We have a very nice HD TV in the family room. It is connected to a Comcast supplied Cisco RNG200 DVR. Notice I used nice for the TV, not the DVR.

Nearly every operation on this DVR makes you think development stopped as soon as a feature worked. No one ever considered whether it worked well.

With football season underway I’ve got two games on the TV at once. The Phils/Mets take up most of the screen with the Giants/Panthers in a small window.

If you were designing this system you’d put the smaller window in a corner. It’s much less likely to intrude if tucked away.

Not on the RNG200! The inset window is where the screen’s corner would be if I was watching old school 4:3 standard def not 16:9 high def. This might be understandable if not for the fact the RNG200 knows I’m watching in HD!

I use an HDMI cable between the TV and DVR. That’s a ‘smart’ system which sends data in both directions. The DVR sees where its signal goes and knows the screen resolution.

With this system the out-of-the-way window ends up being near the middle of the action blocking things I want to see.

This is just one in a long series of almost complete and poorly enabled features.

  • On-Demand is clumsy and excruciatingly slow.
  • Scheduling a recording can take dozens of button presses just to find a show.
  • The on screen program summary is often edited as if it isn’t meant to be read.
  • Standard def duplicates of high def channels clutter things up even though as mentioned earlier the box should know I’m not interested in seeing them in 4:3.

When you see what’s available with a TiVo or even my homebuilt MythTV this seems more-and-more unnecessarily irksome. How Comcast does this in light of the competition from U-verse and the satellite providers is beyond me.

Is The Future of Video Portable?

I am talking about watching live video on the iPhone, but any comparable device will work. The device must be fully portable.

I’m on the sofa. Just a few lights on down here. As I type on my laptop the Phillies are playing on the iPhone.

The image at the top of this entry is a real size screengrab off the iPhone. That’s how it looks. I think it’s pretty darn good on WiFi. 3G has less bandwidth so sometimes the picture gets a little blockier.

I’ve written about this before. Allow me one more shot. The portable media player is a very powerful platform.

A few definitions first.

I am talking about watching live video on the iPhone, but any comparable device will work. The device must be fully portable. I’m using my WiFi network at home, but the phone will effortlessly (though not smoothly) get its data through the cellular 3G network when needed.

What’s the right programming for these portable devices? Figure that out and win the prize. Nobody knows for sure. Sports works, but not when it’s also available on the big screen.

Portable needs content different from fixed. The standard thirty minute TV blocks don’t work here.

This would be narrowcasting as opposed to broadcasting–specialized programming to fit an occupation or hobby or locale. To thrive the programming must be short and compelling–compelling content. Production values aren’t as important when the viewer wants what’s in the show. That allows lower production costs.

I purchase a subscription to see the Phils. That’s a revenue stream legacy TV doesn’t get. Is advertiser supported also a viable option, or maybe a blend of both?

The real business model is still unwrtten.

How much of a problem is bandwidth and battery life? Video sucks batteries and bandwidth voraciously. It’s all problematic at best.

It’s just the more I use a mobile video platform the more powerful it seems. As soon as everyone else has the opportunity to use portable video this whole concept will explode.

This Isn’t Football!

Call me when the real season begins.

I’ve got football on. Hold a sec. Check that. Football off.

I like football. This is not football.

I’m sorry NBC I’m not picking on you. These games are missing all the excitement of football because they are not competitions.

Favre was pulled after one series. He went down under heavy defensive pressure. Grass stains on his tush!

If the game was tight and coming down to the wire would the starters go back in? Seriously? Why do I even use the word game?

It’s the summer. TV households are usually down. I’m sure it makes economic sense and there are people who want to watch (and certainly enough channels to set aside one), but this isn’t why I watch football.

Call me when the real season begins.

Bewitched And My Changing Perceptions

Larry Tate (played by David White), the guy with the white hair, was around ten years younger than I am now! Seriously, that’s worse than sobering.

Our sister station WCTX MyTV9 is running a slew of Bewitched episodes this afternoon. It was serendipity Helaine and I found them We’ve become hooked on watching. You don’t often get a chance to feast on 40-45 year old TV shows.

“Everyone we’re watching is dead,” I offered up. On TV they’re forever young. Life isn’t as forgiving.

It was a different TV landscape back then, I’ve yet to see my first black, Hispanic or Asian actor. I thought the sixties was the era of enlightenment? We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.

How old was the cast? In the mid-60s as I watched they were grown-ups. Some, like Darren’s boss Larry, seemed downright old. Perceptions change.

Larry Tate (played by David White), the guy with the grey hair, was around ten years younger than I am now! Seriously, that’s worse than sobering. He was cast specifically to be the old guy!

There were no serious issues raised. There were no contemporary social references. These sitcoms existed in their own walled garden without continuity from week-to-week and where a principal character like Darren could be re-cast without blinking an eye.

It’s still fun to watch.

Is The Daily Show The Real Inheritor Of The Tonight Show Legacy?

Is it possible Stewart and The Daily Show are the real inheritors of Tonight Show legacy and not the Jay Leno Tonight Show?

I am too young (a phrase seldom applicable to me nowadays) to remember Steve Allen’s version of the Tonight Show. I’ve seen clips/airchecks. Always surprising, groundreaking and topical it was a great show. I was thinking about that last night as I watched Jon Stewart.

Is it possible Stewart and The Daily Show are the real inheritors of Tonight Show legacy and not the Jay Leno Tonight Show?

Stewart doesn’t usually have musical guests. It’s not a variety show. However, he does have a cast of regulars and like Allen’s crew they are writer/performers. That’s the most memorable artifact from Allen’s show… Stewart’s too.

Tonight introduced a slew comedic talent of the sixties (Don Knotts, Louis Nye, Bill Dana, Tom Poston and Pat Harrington). The Daily Show does the same thing today (Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Rob Corddry, Ed Helms, Rob Riggle, John Hodgman, Wyatt Cenac).

Is there anyone reading this who watches Stewart and remembers Steve Allen’s Tonight Show? Am I right?

If Maury ran the DNA would Steve Allen be the ‘baby daddy’ for The Daily Show?

Why Channels?

I don’t know about your business, but mine is changing quickly. Media has been blown away by technology reshaping production, consumption and distribution.

I was just watching Jon Stewart. His interview was with Tea Party leader Dick Armey. Stewart readily advised as the show began the interview would not be finished in the alloted time slot and would be continued on the net.

Good use I think&#185.

A show becomes more special when its constraints are only artistic and not technical or process driven. Time is a luxury when you’re on-the-air.

It does make you wonder. Could a show like Stewart’s exist without a cable channel? Could it exist solely on the net? What is the purpose of a channel anymore anyway?

There’s an app on my iPhone from NPR. I can listen choosing from a list of either stations or shows. I choose shows. Content rules.

I don’t know about your business, but mine is changing quickly. Media has been blown away by technology reshaping production, consumption and distribution.

More changes to come. It’s scary. It’s exciting. It’s scary.

&#185 – It is almost 1:00 AM and Stewart’s website advises to “Check back later tonight or tomorrow.” That’s bad.

The Bunny Commercial

My wife has asked me to post the commercial with the bunnies. Hey, she’s my wife. Consider it done.

My wife has asked me to post the commercial with the bunnies. Hey, she’s my wife. Consider it done.

My Pat Trinkley Story: Weekends at TV2 Buffalo

“When you called my name on the air,” he began, “my mother heard it.”

Uh oh. This isn’t good.

At WGR (and then WGRZ), TV2 in Buffalo, I worked with a guy named Pat Trinkley. Pat was our weekend director. He was young and, as I remember a pretty good director.

Unfortunately it was the weekend!

In television… and most everything… weekends aren’t staffed as weekdays are. The crew was inexperienced and overwhelmed. Weather was when they regrouped.

For a director and crew weather is the easiest part of the newscast. The camera is stationary. The meteorologist or weathercaster is running his own graphics. You can almost sit back and let it happen.

In Buffalo Pat only had one cue to hear during my ‘cast.

After working a map I turned to the camera and said, “Let’s look at the current conditions.”

Pat was supposed to hit a button and switch from my weather graphics to a character generator which produced the “Currents” page.

Nothing.

I vamped a few seconds and then, again, called for “current conditions at Buffalo International.”

I was new at weather. I could ad lib, but I’d ridden into a box canyon. Once you’ve finished your narrative and called for the conditions you’re stuck.

I tried once more then having received no response took two steps forward and squarely faced the camera. I probably stooped just a little which I do when I make a close approach to the lens.

“Pat! I’m talking to you. May I have the currents?”

It was awkward. What options were there? It worked.

I was upset.

I was already stockpiling airchecks hoping to spring myself to a larger market. This tape wouldn’t make the cut and that was what had me the most ticked. Opportunity lost.

I steamed out to the parking lot, got in my car and drove home for dinner. A few hours later I was back for the eleven. The six o’clock broadcast was behind me now.

I was in the weather area when Pat walked in my direction. Now I was worried. I’d called him out on-the-air. Maybe he was angry with me?

“When you called my name on the air,” he began, “my mother heard it.”

Uh oh. This isn’t good.

“She really liked that!” And with that he smiled.

I mentioned his name when I could. He never missed a cue again.

Louis C.K.

The episode I saw followed Louie as he was picked up in a comedy club by a much younger, very attractive woman. She was increasingly aroused as he recounted the different criteria by which he could be judged old.

I knew the name: Louis C.K.

Comedian. I knew that too.

I didn’t know much more. I Didn’t want to. Probably the name.

God, I am shallow.

He was on a talkshow recently. I saw a clip from his show then watched a full episode. I am now a fan.

Louie, Louis C.K.’s vaguely autobiographical show on FX is set in Manhattan. A co-worker who’d seen his past work said, “Dark.” Yes. And the show has many, as viewer guidance would say, “adult situations.”

He is a not particularly attractive middle aged man. Balding. He smokes. He is single with two kids. His character is a comedian.

Like Seinfeld, Louis is a comedian when he’s at work and a more complex and less calculatingly funny guy at home.

The episode I saw followed Louie as he was picked up in a comedy club by a much younger, very attractive woman. She was increasingly aroused as he recounted the different criteria by which he could be judged old.

Louie: “I voted for Michael Dukakis.
She: “Who?”
Louie: “I remember when you could smoke on airplanes.”

Louis C. K. stars in, wrote, directed and edited the show! Renaissance man!

The show was adult, smart and funny. I’ll be back for more.

The New Control Room

The control room is just the most obvious addition in a project which will replace nearly every wire and piece of gear at the station. It’s a crazily complex project.

A new control room is being constructed at work. That’s actually an understatement because the control room is just the most obvious addition in a project which will replace nearly every wire and piece of gear at the station. It’s a crazily complex project.

Instead of the traditional broadcast switcher we’ll be using Ignite from Grass Valley. Think non-linear editor or PowerPoint for a live broadcast. It’s more structured than a legacy control room but it’s a whole lot less labor intensive which seems to be the goal everywhere nowadays.

Here’s a very short video to show you a little of where we are.

The Dean Martin Infomercial

I see dead people. There’s hardly anyone on here Stef would recognize, yet most of the participants had a higher profile than anyone on TV today.

I’m watching an infomercial. They’re selling a DVD of Dean Martin’s Celebrity Roasts. This is about as entertaining as anything else on at this hour.

It’s not even distinguished from regular programming! The listing on my TV says:

WSAH 95 – Dean Martin. “Dean Martin, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, and More!” : A feel good hour with Dean Martin and friends! News.

News? Seriously? You need to go there to get viewers? Thanks.

I see dead people. There’s hardly anyone on here Stef would recognize, yet most of the participants had a higher profile than anyone on TV today. These were stars in a three network universe!

From the looks of it the comedy is less than memorable. I didn’t realize Angie Dickinson was that hot. She was smoking.

Everyone is laughing as if they are auditioning to be Ed McMahon. I’d like to think we’re more sophisticated today. Maybe not?

Game Shows: Give ‘Em The Bonus

The reason I’m writing this is the part of the shows that tick me off. No one wins the bonus round anymore!

Early in the afternoon when I wake up I turn on the TV. My first stop is the area between 59 and 63 where the news lives. Squeezed in between CNN, Fox, MSNBC and the rest are the HD/digital versions of local station: 59-1 and 61-1. So, as I’m tuning for news I also catch less lofty programming.

There are a few game shows on at the time. I’d by lying if I said they hadn’t received significant viewing from me.

I remember Family Feud from its original incarnation. That was before Richard Dawson seemed smarmy. Now it’s hosted by John O’Hurley&#185– J. Peterman from Seinfeld.

I also see the daytime version of “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” hosted by Jeff Foxworthy.

Foxworthy is the nearly perfect game show host. O’Hurley is OK.

The reason I’m writing this is one part of both shows ticks me off. No one wins the bonus round! Back in the ‘good old days’ they did all the time.

On Feud it’s easy to control the bonus by choosing questions that don’t have a single overwhelmingly favorite answers. When Richard Dawson blurted, “Survey says,” it was usually followed by a number in the 20s or 30s. That’s significant when you have to average twenty per answer to win. Now O’Hurley reveals number in the single digits and teens.

By the time the second bonus player walks on stage you already know the outcome. I don’t remember the last time I actually saw someone win.

On “Fifth Grader” the bonus round multiplies the contestants winnings by a factor of ten. Get it wrong and you walk home empty handed. Through the entire show Foxworthy touts the potential winnings. Early on that number is $250,000.

Truth is nearly every day the contestant “drops out of school” instead of taking the risk. When the bonus round is played it’s played by someone with little to lose (meaning little to win). I have never seen anyone win $25,000 much less $250,000! I would guess the average is under $10,000.

Maybe you’re not supposed to see these shows on a regular basis? As someone who does I am irked at the bonus round’s empty promise! It really is upsetting to me.

I know, times have changed. Finances are different. Budgets are held back. These are syndicated shows playing to much smaller audiences.

I’d rather see a smaller amount that gets hit than know O’Hurley and Foxworthy are teasing numbers that have little basis in reality.

Correct me if I’m wrong. The idea of a game show is to not piss off your audience? Fail!

&#185 – Family Feud has had many hosts. Originally it was Richard Dawson then Ray Combs. He was followed by Louie Anderson, Richard Karn and John O’Hurley. Steve Harvey hosts for the 2010-2011 season.

Pinks – All Out

The drivers are there with friends and family. Often they’ve driven hundreds of miles to get to the track. This is a big deal. They are psyched. Emotion oozes from them like sweat on a hot day.

I’ve got one of my TV weaknesses on right now. It’s “Pinks – All Out” on Speed. It’s the best reality show on television!

Shot cinéma vérité style this is a drag racing competition, but not with pros. These are ‘just folks’ who’ve invested heavily in their cars and are asked to put their money where their mouth is with large cash bets against each other.

The drivers are there with friends and family. Often they’ve driven hundreds of miles to get to the track. This is a big deal. They are psyched. Emotion oozes from them like sweat on a hot day.

The host/producer/Svengali is Rich Christensen. He is a cross between the guy who played Billy Jack and a young Sylvester Stallone.

Instead of using lights the races are started as Christensen drops his hands. Hold your calls. This is about the most macho thing ever done on camera.

The amazing thing is after the race the winner and loser are always in good spirits. These are gladiators. The loser respects the victor and vice versa.

I’m not a car guy. I did not grow up in rural Texas as many of tonight’s participants have. I am still drawn in and cannot look away.

Hurricane Gloria Photo–25 Years/Pounds Ago

At some point everything will be on the Internet. For instance, this afternoon my friend Bob sent me an IM:
Bob: you have email. may make you laugh–(not my upload)

This NEVER bodes well!

At some point everything will be on the Internet. For instance, this afternoon my friend Bob sent me an IM

Bob: you have email. may make you laugh
(not my upload)

This NEVER bodes well!

The photo below is from September 26, 1985. I remember the suit. It was silk. I loved that suit.

There is one part of that photo I forgot. The prediction was for tropical storm, not hurricane strength, winds&#185. Somehow in the fog of time I thought I’d called for minimal hurricane force. Gloria was absolutely a tropical storm when it hit Connecticut, though it’s probably officially recorded as a hurricane at landfall.

&#185 – We had AccuWeather for a short time very much against my will. Trust me. It was a forecast prepared by me.