Monthly Archive for May, 2008

Steve Weagle’s 5-day Bike Ride Starts Monday

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on 5/31/2008
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This Monday, June 1st, WPTV chief meteorologist Steve Weagle will kick off his annual bike ride in support of hurricane awareness and support for the the North Treasure Coast Chapter of the American Red Cross.

The 120-mile trek from Sebastian to Boca Raton usually takes about two hours with a car but it takes 5 days with a bycicle.

He’s expected to stop at two area restaurants in Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie where he’ll give the forecast and the businesses will each give the Red Cross a with $1000 check.

Cop Attacks Photojournalist

Published
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on 5/31/2008
in Videos
. 9 Comments
A photojournalist from KOB-TV in Albuquerque New Mexico gets attacked by a cop when covering a story.

The cop told the photographer to move to a designated area for the media without specifying where that area was so the photog moved back a few feet.

The cop later returned telling the photographer where to move. As the photojournalist proceeded to put his camera back in the truck the cop can be seen pacing behind him then attacking him.

The KOB-TV photographer was arrested and cited for “disobeying a police officer” and released 90 minutes later.

Comcast Raises Rates 2.5%

Published
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on 5/30/2008
in Local Media
. 5 Comments

Comcast will be raising rates an average of 2.5% in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

South Florida Comcast Public Relations Director Spero Canton gave the South Florida Business Journal the usual templated answer on why rates are going up again this year:

…the price adjustments “reflect the increased value of our services, including recent enhancements to our video-on-demand service across South Florida.”

Adding Comcast gave away $7.6 million in 2007 locally in the form of grants and in-kind services to schools and non-profits.

At least my $160 monthly bill is good for something if it can’t help fix over-compressed HDTV and schizophrenic DVR that goes nuts without warning.

Congrats to the winners!

/hat tip Joe/

update 5.31.08: The Sun Sentinel has a bit more detail on the coming rate incrase.

According to them, Davie, Lauderdale Lakes and Cooper City will now pay $16.99 for limited basic, up from $14.50 a 17.1% incrase

Digital Starter package is going up from $52.95 to $54.99 a 3.8% increase

Palm Beach Co saw increase of expanded basic in January from $47.99 to $50.95 a 6.1% increase and they are not part of the latest price changes.

Coral Springs and Hallandale Beach may see limited basic price decrease from $0.04 to $0.38 cents

Comcast insists the rate incrase has to do with add more content to Video-on-demand and “improved customer service initiatives”!

DVR cost won’t go up, it would’ve been asinine if it did, considering the issues these boxes have.

Two Fort Myers Stations in HD by August 8

Published
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admin
on 5/30/2008
in Local Media
. 3 Comments

WBBH-NBC2 and WZVN-ABC7 in Fort Myers will flip the HD news switch by August 8 when the Beijing Summer Olympics begin.

Waterman Broadcasting owns WBBH and operates WZVN via a local marketing agreenment (LMA).

Both stations currently broadcast in 16:9 but not in high definition, they’ve broadcast network programming in HD since October 2002.

/hat tip Anonymous tipster for sending the link/

Friday Links

Published
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on 5/30/2008
in Links
. 2 Comments

WPBF’s New Interactive Online Weather Radar

Published
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on 5/29/2008
in Local Media
. 3 Comments

Hearst-Argyle launched a new interactive weather radar for all of its web properties. WPBF being an H-A owned station got it too.

Weather First Interactive Radar is basically a Microsoft Virtual Earth map with radar data overlaid on top of it.

Visitors have the option to set the map at aerial or street level, show cloud cover, storm cells or turn radar loop on and off. There’s also an option to point the map location locally, nationally or to the most active weather spot anywhere in the country.

The whole app is done by MyWeather.net which it looks to be the online extention of WeatherCentral, a company that provides the on-air graphics for many TV stations. I believe WPLG and WSVN use the WeatherCentral.

It’s pretty well done, very lightweight. It doesn’t make my Firefox browser choke and lag when the maps load and I turn the radar loop on like some of the other similar maps.

WFOR, WTVJ Oppose Court Gag Order

Published
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on 5/28/2008
in Local Media
. 8 Comments

Attorneys for WFOR, WTVJ and the Miami Herald opposed a gag order issued today by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge John Schlesinger in the case of Michael Hernandez who’s accused of stabbing a classmate in a Southwood Middle School bathroom.

”The case needs to be tried in this courtroom, not in the newspaper or on television,”

The media is free to publish names and photos of the jurors and it seems it’s also okay to show video of the jury selection process which WSVN just showed in a report about the trial.

Tuesday Links

Published
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on 5/27/2008
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. 0 Comments

WPTV, WPEC’s Gas Cards for Eyeballs Spat

Published
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on 5/26/2008
in Local Media
. 16 Comments

If you didn’t know WPTV and WPEC were in a for ratings this will put it into some perspective.

May sweeps ended Wednesday May 21, and a little before then WPEC started giving away a $1,200 gas card every night.

Fearing for its crown, WPTV announced on Wednesday during Oprah they’ll give away two $1,500 gas card during their 11pm newscast.

But then WPEC got in their face and was like Oh yea we’ll we’re going to give away four gas cards on our 11pm newscast.

WPEC won with 7.4 vs 7.2 ratings points.

Wonder if advertisers ever feel hosed buying TV ads based on sweeps results

Monday Links

Published
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on 5/26/2008
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. 0 Comments

Jorge Estevez and Cynthia Demos are Office Spouses

Published
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on 5/23/2008
in Local Media
. 48 Comments

The Miami Herald profiled ‘office spouses’ and featured CBS4 News anchors Cynthia Demos and Jorge Estevez.

The two say they instantly clicked when they worked together at WFTV-9 in Orlando and consider themselves to be an office couple.

I always thought they had great chemistry together, it shows on TV they’re friends. Too bad management split them.

/img MiamiHerald.com/

Friday Links

Published
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on 5/23/2008
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. 0 Comments

Jim Berry Leaves Sports for News; New My33 Morning Show

Published
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on 5/22/2008
in Local Media and ratings
. 27 Comments

Tom Jicha says Jim Berry is moving to ‘CBS4 News This Morning’ co-anchoring the newscast with Cynthia Demos.

From 7am to 9am Berry will be co-anchoring the CBS4 News on My33 with Jade Alexander.

The change takes effect June 16.

Little doubt this has something to do with WFOR’s ratings which weren’t so hot this past May sweeps. No word yet on the status of Jorge Estevez with WFOR

00:06 Update: Jorge Estevez stays with WFOR and will be reporting during the day Monday trough Friday. Marybel Rodriguez will solo anchor the weekend morning newscast.

Jim Berry and Jade Alexander will be anchoring a new My33 morning show that will be “essentially a show where morning radio meets morning TV. Viewers will still get the essentials: hard news, weather, and traffic.”

Breaking: Worker Falls off WSVN Tower

Published
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admin
on 5/22/2008
in Local Media
. 2 Comments

Worker who climbed WSVN’s antenna fell off it this afternoon and died.

The man was an employee of Structural Systems Technology and was hired to do maintenance on the tower

Update 10:15pm: A short mention on 7News at 10, the guy apparently lost his balance while pressure cleaning the tower, slipped and fell on the ground below!

Sticking up for WTVJ

Published
by
admin
on 5/22/2008
in Local Media and WTVJ Sale
. 16 Comments

Dude passionate about WTVJ brings his message to NBC HQ (or is he turned toward Faux News?) in New York City.

Thursday Links

Published
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admin
on 5/22/2008
in Links
. 2 Comments