Tag: NBC

The Downside Of Coffee

I found this on Shoptalk, a daily broadcast news newsletter, this morning:

NN-LEKA-7:45-DELAY-WHY?

URGENT

STATIONS:

Our Claire Leka 7:45pm et pkg/insert/looklive will be DELAYED. It will not be available for the 7:59:30pm et Live Generic because …. we plugged in our coffee and blew out our circuits. No kidding. We’ll try to get the piece out just after 8pm et. ….and we will try to better manage our caffeine consumption so this doesn’t happen again. We apologize for the inconvenience.

We’ll be using the 3:30pm et insert for the 7:59:30pm et live generic.

Lisa Farrell

CBS Newspath NYNY Newspath

Newspath is a branch of CBS news which serves local affiliates. ABC, NBC and CNN have services like this as well. You’ll seldom find the Newspath reporter on a network newscast and seldom find the network reporters on the affiliates local newscasts.

Another Reason To Hate Winter

I got this a little while ago:

Geoff,

I’ve been watching your forecasts for many years… and over these past few winter’s…. I have yet to see you give a satisfactory/accurate forecast! As of tonight. you just said snow is going to change to rain on the coastline.. More specifically: Stratford, CT….. What I do not understand… is CH 3 (WFSB) CH 6 (NBC) Ch 7 (WABC-7 NY) didn’t mention anything about changing to ALL rain… they mentioned a mix… also.. I’ve been monitoring the forecast(s) from noaa.gov/nyc… and they also do not mention rain… I think too much “faith” is put into your “Skymax” computer models.. rather than actual facts… correct me if I’m right/wrong.. but I do not understand the conflicting forecasts. Please explain?!

When he says I haven’t given an accurate forecast in years, I suppose that reveals his mindset.

Of course he could be right. I’m hoping he’s not. It’s so complex. Surely there are things I’ve missed or underplayed. Hopefully, I’ve seen the whole picture.

The funniest part is, I didn’t know the details of the other forecasts until I read this (I had some idea of NWS because I read their forecast discussions – not their finished forecasts).

So, now I sit and wait… and watch… and wait some more. The is what Tums are for, right?

Another New Year’s Eve

Helaine has headed to bed. Steffie’s upstairs, watching TV by herself. New Year’s Eve has ended at the Fox house.

We were together at the stroke of midnight. Helaine and I kissed. She always gets choked up at New Year’s. It’s actually very sweet.

The three of us sat together and grazed the TV dial as the new year approached. Everyone station seems to be doing something special tonight.

Tony Orlando was performing in Atlantic City and it was live on Fox News Channel. Good lord – he’s the size of two houses! He and the band looked like poster children for ‘going through the motions.’

In his defense, how many times could you sing “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” before going postal?

On NBC, Carson Daly was holding down the fort. Years ago, he was very nice to Steffie. I, in turn, will be nice to Carson. He’s very thin and I’m jealous.

MTV looked like a community access channel, albeit with good lighting. I have no idea who their acts were. I have less idea who their hosts were, except Steffie pointed to one and said, “That’s Perez Hilton.”

Oh, that’s what he looks like.

On ABC, Dick Clark was supported by Ryan Seacrest. You can see Dick’s mind is sharp, and he looks good, but it’s still painful to hear him speak.

Approaching midnight, he had trouble keeping up with the countdown to the ball drop. He actually dropped a number to get back in sync.

He has to have worked hard to get back to where he is. The problem is with me. I need to be more understanding. This is my weakness.

New Year’s Eve is a bittersweet night for Helaine and me. Most years we stayed at home, quietly spending the time together. One year, just after arriving in Connecticut, we went to a party and a former co-worker began to hit on my wife!

Our first New Year’s Eve together, back in Buffalo, we went to a party at our friend Phil’s apartment. Who knows why, but we had a fight. Neither of us remember the specifics. It was twenty four years ago tonight, and it was the closest we ever came to splitting up.

I like New Year’s Eve at home better.

Good TV News

Helaine just sent me a story&#185 about my favorite show.

The show will go on for “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” despite its failure to lure viewers. NBC said Thursday it has ordered an additional nine episodes of the backstage drama from “The West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin for a full season’s worth of shows, or 22 weeks.

Hallelujah! I’m almost willing to forgive them for running a ‘two parter,’ which they began this week.

It is witty, clever, well written and well acted. How often do you get to say that nowadays?

&#185 – When did husbands and wives begin emailing each other? I’ve actually received email from Helaine while we were both sitting on the couch in the family room!

Looking At Video On The Web

I will sit online and watch twenty minutes of a Photoshop tutorial or other narrowcast that interests me. I won’t sit for twenty minutes of a compilation of stories – some of which, by definition, appeal to me less than others.

As I wrote yesterday, with a house full of Helaine’s friends visiting, I spent a lot of looking at online video. It quickly became obvious there’s a lot right and a lot wrong as far as video goes.

I’m not talking about content. There will always be good and bad content. This is about structure, access and indexing.

While mulling over what I would write in this entry, I had breakfast and browsed the Sunday Times.

THE NEWS Yahoo said it was backing off from a plan to bring television-style programming like situation comedies and talk shows to the Internet.

BEHIND THE NEWS As advertising grows on the Internet, there is a market for content as well. But the content that seems to be working best is created by individual users and takes the form of short videos, shared photos, blogs and other small-scale efforts. The Hollywood approach, epitomized by Yahoo’s hiring of Lloyd Braun, the former chairman of ABC Entertainment, in 2004, is no longer in favor. There had been speculation that the shift in strategy would result in Mr. Braun’s leaving the company, but he vowed last week that he would stay.

Yahoo!’s&#185 corporate wisdom seems to be right on. Internet video is not watched the same way as mainstream over-the-air video.

As far as I can tell, that point is lost on the news divisions of the major broadcast networks. NBC and ABC both present ‘conventional’ newscasts online. I’m glad they do, as opposed to posting nothing, but they have extremely limited utility.

Internet video done right is sharply focused – one subject. For news, that means offering stories one-by-one.

I will sit online and watch twenty minutes of a Photoshop tutorial or other narrowcast that interests me. I won’t sit for twenty minutes of a compilation of stories – some of which, by definition, appeal to me less than others.

Technology does exist to make a newscast random access, so I can pick and choose what I want to see. I don’t see that technology widely used.

In the pre-remote era there were ‘specials’ and ‘variety shows’ on TV. They’re gone, victims of cost and easy viewer choice. I think the same fate awaits conventional TV newcasts re-purposed for the Internet (or web only newscasts presented in virtually the same format as their on-the-air siblibgs) .

It’s a new age, and content must adapt.

What seems to be in its infancy is a way to find what you’re looking for and a standardization of format. Why must we fight between Windows Media, Real, Quicktime and Flash. Isn’t there already one or two that are actually superior to the others?

That was painfully obvious when I followed a link for a Simpsons video that went to youtube.com. After I watched, and was on the youtube.com site, I couldn’t do much but randomly traipse around.

Yes, there were categories to click, but it was non-intuitive and a hodge podge. I ended up going to pages that I hadn’t intended to visit.

The same goes for Itunes. It looks organized (and Itunes, after all, is an adjunct to the Ipod, with the world’s best designed user interface), but I had trouble finding what I wanted, or even knowing whether what I was clicking was audio or video! And why is it necessary for Itunes to run in its own application and not my browser?

There is not yet a ‘Google’ for video – and that includes Google’s video search though this ad implies they understand there’s a problem). We desperately need one. We’re early in the game. Someone will figure it out before long.

Addendum – As I finished writing this, I came across a link for the Natalie Portman video from last night’s Saturday Night Live. Though NBC will surely end up objecting to and stopping this improper use of their content by youtube.com, isn’t this the way SNL should be presented on the Internet – a piece at a time?

&#185 – Am I writing that correctly? The corporate name ends with an exclamation point. It just doesn’t look right set in type.

The 40 Year Old Virgin

Were we the last people in America to see The 40 Year Old Virgin&#185? We’ve seen it now!

Other than getting the newspaper and picking up the mail, I didn’t leave the house on Saturday. Helaine wasn’t far behind. Tonight, with little going on and both of us in pajamas, I asked if she wanted to see a movie?

We had never ordered a pay-per-view film before. I hit the big ‘money button’ on the remote control and scrolled through the titles. There’s a lot of garbage available. In fact, the percentage of crap is astounding, especially when coupled with the fact – someone wants you to pay for it!

We got to the “T”s before there was one movie we’d even consider watching. Helaine said “The 40 Year Old Virgin” was supposed to be funny, so we gave it a shot. The $3.99 we paid seems reasonable versus what it would cost to rent a DVD.

It was certainly a lot more convenient.

There’s plenty to like about this movie. The cast was excellent, starting with Steve Carrell and working down. But let me start where the credit belongs – the writing.

On many occassions Carrell and Judd Apatow’s script could have easily turned Andy, the title character, into a stereotype. Instead, at each fork in the road, Andy establishes himself as multidimensional and human. It’s a neat trick, and though some of his personality traits are unexpected, it works.

Andy, a stock clerk at a Circuit City type store, reveals his lack of sexual experience while playing cards with the guys. The movie is his journey out of virginity.

This is a real ensemble cast with five or six solid performances by characters that aren’t written paper thin. I particularly like Seth Rogen (the tattoos were ‘special effects’), Romany Malco and Paul Rudd as his co-workers and Catherine Keener as Trish.

Until last week I had no idea who Catherin Keener was. Then I saw Death To Smoochy, where she had a large supporting role opposite Edward Norton. She was very good last week and just as good this week.

If you were watching TV any time around the release of the movie, you probably saw a clip of the scene where Steve Carrell has his chest waxed. The word is, his pained expression… his pain actually… was real.

It was hysterical, but I am such a wimp I had to look away.

I enjoyed Carrell on The Daily Show and in Anchorman. This was far better and he is a fine comedic actor. I haven’t seen The Office, his show on NBC. I guess I have to now.

My guess is, in time this movie will be considered a classic. Honest. Is that too much to predict?

There is some nudity and explicit sexual content. If my daughter has seen this movie, I’d rather not know.

&#185 – Actually, no more than two minutes ago, my friend Farrell said he hadn’t see it either. He is in England at the moment, so we very well may be the only people in America not to have seen it.

Curling Update

I wrote about my curling infatuation yesterday. Obviously, I’m not alone.

From NBC:

MSNBC’s Saturday coverage of the U.S. women’s curling match vs. Italy delivered 1.258 million average viewers (0.81 HH rating) its highest rating and best viewer delivery in the 5-8 p.m. time slot since Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004 (1.272 million viewers), and the best Saturday for that time period since coverage of the start of the Iraq war, April 5, 2003 (1.801 million viewers).

In the general scheme of things, we’re talking about tiny numbers. A .81 rating means 99.19% of the homes with TV are watching something else! However, for MSNBC it’s huge. No, actually, for curling it’s huge!

NBC Almost Gets It

As I type this, I am watching NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. It’s the Internet version, though I’m not sure what’s different between this and the newscast that aired earlier tonight over-the-air&#185.

As a Firefox browser user, MSNBC sites have given me problems in the past. Everything loaded perfectly tonight – painlessly. Maybe MSNBC has mended their ways.

Nightly News is streaming using the Windows Media protocol at 300 kbps. The video looks to be about 320×240 and is relatively sharp with a few glitches associated with motion. Brian Williams looks crisper on TV with more vivid colors… but not by much. I’m actually impressed with the quality.

Here’s where NBC has it wrong – and I’m afraid this shows they don’t totally understand how Internet streaming will be used. You can only watch this broadcast beginning to end, in real time. There is no ability to jump forward or back.

If you miss something, there’s no way to repeat without repeating everything you’ve already seen. Same if you want to skip ahead past a story you’re not interested in. Tough luck.

There is code on the webpage which turns off the Windows Media Player timeline and any of the standard ‘right click’ functions. There are probably ways to work around these shortcomings, but for most users, it is what it is.

This is the way I watched TV 20 years ago. I am used to more control. My DVR is more powerful. Certainly, the Internet and Windows Media Player allow more versatility, if that’s NBC’s desire.

I should be allowed to move forward and backward thought the timeline. In fact, the site should be set up with the ability to random access stories, probably at the click of a button.

At some point television networks and stations will have to come to grips with the difference between Internet viewing and over-the-air viewing. We will probably see shorter programs, but possibly longer individual stories. Once we can ‘request’ stories that interest us, more time and depth in reporting are a logical next step.

Maybe the idea of a program (at least for news) will disappear as you cherry pick what you want to see.

It’s funny, in this age when HDTV and huge sets seem to be the big thing, the tiny on-screen viewing window works just fine.

&#185 – Now that it’s over, I can report the commercials have been replaced by promos and the 30 minute newscast ran around 22 minutes.

There She Is…

It’s 8:11 PM and the 52 Miss America contestants have just introduced themselves on TV. I’m telling you, because you probably didn’t/couldn’t watch.

After years of being on NBC and then ABC, Miss America has moved to CMT. CMT used to be Country Music Television. Not hip enough? CMT it is!

CMT doesn’t get quite the channel position ABC or NBC get. On my cable system, ABC is on channel 7, NBC on channel 4 and CMT is channel 146.

Until 20 minutes ago I didn’t know there was a channel 146!

On my cable system you need to subscribe to the digital tier to get CMT. I can’t give you the exact statistics, but that’s got to hold down the available audience.

Most of the contestants were attractive, poised, well dressed and well spoken. Not all of them.

At least four or five times, Helaine and I had a “what was she thinking” moment. Weird hair. Weird dress. Too much makeup.

The host is James Denton from Desperate Housewives. He’s OK – nothing glaringly wrong, but I wish he were a little more enthusiastic. From time-to-time he’ll fire off an ad lib and you can sense he’s clever, but he’s not breaking out. The host sets the tone.

Judging by their brief intros, most of these young women want to get into TV news. Great. Just what I need – good looking, young competition. Wouldn’t you like to write for a newspaper?

As I’ve been typing, 42 contestants have been eliminated, including poor Miss Connecticut. Of the ten on their way to the finals, only two or three are blond!

If I were at work tonight, Ann, one of our anchors would have already picked the winner. She’s uncanny and always right.

As it is, based on physical beauty and the swimsuit competition, I’m still at a loss. The night’s young.

Network TV – Home Video

SNL Lazy Sunday Chris Parnell and Adam SambergLast week I wrote about Saturday Night Live’s “Christmastime For The Jews,” but obviously missed the most buzzworthy segment from that show, “Lazy Sunday,” with Chris Parnell and Adam Samberg.

From The New York Times:

Since it was originally broadcast on NBC, “Lazy Sunday” has been downloaded more than 1.2 million times from the video-sharing Web site YouTube.com; it has cracked the upper echelons of the video charts at NBC.com and the iTunes Music Store; and it has even inspired a line of T-shirts, available at Teetastic.com.

When it aired, I hit the rewind button to see it again, and I too have watched it on the net. It’s very clever. I’m too old to get all the cultural references, as Steffie was glad to point out.

Today’s Times splashed this story across the front page of the Arts section. Here’s what I learned that impressed me the most:

On the evening of Dec. 12, the four wrote a song about “two guys rapping about very lame, sensitive stuff,” as Mr. Samberg described it. They recorded it the following night in the office Mr. Samberg shares with Mr. Schaffer and Mr. Taccone at “SNL,” using a laptop computer that Mr. Taccone bought on Craigslist.

Then, while their colleagues were rehearsing and rewriting that Saturday’s show, the group spent the morning of Dec. 15 shooting their video with a borrowed camera, using the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Chelsea to stand in for a multiplex cinema and Mr. Taccone’s girlfriend’s sister to play a convenience-store clerk. Mr. Schaffer spent the next night – and morning – editing the video and working with technicians to bring it up to broadcast standards.

In other words, if you have talent, you no longer need the support of a major studio or broadcast network to make something good and powerful. You can shoot and edit your film at home, or in a small office, with off-the-shelf equipment that’s readily available and cheap.

That is a major change from how moving pictures have always been produced.

Yes, Parnell and Samberg needed NBC to get instant publicity and notoriety today. I’m not sure they’ll need that tomorrow.

West Wing – Others Noticed The Logo

Yesterday I wrote about my unease at seeing an NBC News logo on the West Wing “live debate.”

I guess I’m not the only one who noticed.

Cousin Michael just emailed this link to an AP story on that same topic (the writer probably reads my blog).

I wonder if others will object or if another barrier has gone down… much to my chagrin.

NBC News Live – Huh?

I just buzzed by the live telecast of West Wing. Good for NBC. I’m a fan of live television, working in it on a daily basis. Live puts an edge on this and any other show that’s missing once it goes to tape.

Unfortunately, in the lower right corner of the screen is an NBC News logo with the word LIVE above it.

This is a mistake. News and fiction need to be separated. There are already enough people who are suspicious of the separation between news and entertainment. This continues to blur the line.

West Wing’s producers undoubtedly want to make this seem as real as possible, but I think this particular move goes over the line.

Daily Nightly

I hate to say something good about a competitor, but I enjoy reading The Daily Nightly, NBC News’ blog which serves to promote NBC Nightly News (and is seen on a competing channel).

I especially enjoy reading Brian Williams entries. They are written in a very conversational tone. You can hear Williams’ voice as you read.

It is interesting to watch the direction of TV news and the Internet. We have a large Internet presence at my station and I think it serves us well. I’m sure what we’re doing now isn’t what we’ll doing a year from now.

I don’t think anyone knows where this is leading, but there’s no doubt the Internet can earn money for content providers. TV station or broadcast networks can provide lots of content. And, altruism aside, that’s why business is done – to make a profit.

Right now the people leading the way are classicly trained in the art of television. That seems to be a good jumping off point. I suspect this medium will become even more powerful, and a preferred choice, as soon as we learn to harness random access and customization.

I have some ideas of my own, but I’m not sure how to implement them or whether they can be implemented at all. I do know a TV station can not discern who is watching and from where. An Internet broadcaster can!&#185 That is the key.

Broadband speed is available in enough places that we’ve reached a sweet spot for video. What you can see on the Internet looks pretty good (Will I eat those words in 5 years? Probably.) But, by and large, we are feeding it as a serial medium. A follows B follows C… and everyone gets the same content in the same order. Or, individual elements can be requested, but only one at a time and with all the choice at the user’s end and not built into the serving software.

We really need to transition into individual channels presenting customized feeds. The more we know about you and where you live, the more customized and germane we can make the content.

Even when all this technology comes on line, good writing, like Brian Williams’, will still have an important place.

&#185 – Here’s a sample of how Internet hits can be physically located. This is based on my IP address and was produced just by reaching a specific website.

Be Careful Ad Libbing

I work on TV and when I’m on the air, everything I say is an ad lib. Yes, the anchors and sports reporters read most of their copy, but for some reason the weather person has always been afforded this privilege.

Ad libbing can sometimes cause problems. I often speak with ‘salty’ language off the air and have to be careful I remember when I’m on.

My biggest ad lib problems have come when I’ve said something innocent and it turned out to have a second meaning. It is interesting, from my vantage point, to see the anchors biting their tongues, trying to keep from busting out laughing.

As it turns out, my ad lib problems put me in the same boat as Bill Clinton. Here’s an email I got this afternoon from a friend.

Yesterday on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, which I am sure you never watch, he had an “exclusive” interview with former President Clinton, who talked about the Pope, his relationship with his new best friend, former President Bush and his health. When asked about this kind gesture offering former President Bush the only bed on the government jet when they were on the recent tour of Tsunami-affected countries, Clinton shrugged it off and said, “I can sleep anywhere.” OUCH!

Mr. Clinton, I feel your pain.

The Last Of The Announcers Retires

This is not a major news story. The Associated Press reported it and it was picked in a few places, including MSNBC. Howard Reig, one of the last remaining staff announcers&#185 has retired from NBC.

These are the guys who used to do the “NI” or network identification at the end of programs, intro’ed shows and were always there to say, “Please stand by,” or “NBC Radio news on the hour. Now from Cleveland, Virgil Dominic.&#178”

Reig was best known as the voice of NBC Nightly News.

As I remember, about 25 years ago the networks eliminated staff announcers, opening the way for the freelance promotional voices you hear now. Part of the deal was an agreement for lifetime employment for the staffers.

When I was a kid these guys did everything. They sat in the booth for live voiceovers, but they also appeared on shows – even hosted some. I remember names like Wayne Howell, Pat Hernon, Ed Herlihy, Gene Hamilton, Bill Wendell, Fred Facey, Don Pardo and Reig on NBC. Sometimes you’d hear these guys on NBC Radio Monitor late Saturday and Sunday nights. They were the utility infielders of broadcasting.

When I was a kid, I thought what they did was cool and actually thought I might enjoy being a booth announcer. My voice never deepened enough to make that happen. Actually, I still think what they did was cool, though unfortunately, of another era.

&#185 – All the citations I can find say Reig is the last of the breed, but isn’t Don Pardo still on staff doing Saturday Night Live? Is Joel Goddard, on Conan, a staffer?

&#178 – Every day, one NBC Radio “News On The Hour” (either 4 or 5 PM, I can’t remember) originiated at WKYC, the owned and operated station in Cleveland.

Continue reading “The Last Of The Announcers Retires”