Erie's Lilly Broadcasting stations to carry Kanzius telethon
Erie-Meadville: Of course it's that time of year again for the "Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon" which is a very worthy cause. You can catch it in Erie on WJET TV 24 / DT 24-1. While the fight against muscular distrophy is important, there is another upcoming telethon that is just as worthy. On September 16th at 7pm, The Lilly Broadcasting family of stations will be carrying a one hour telethon to benefit the John Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation (www.johnkanziuscancerresearchfoundation.org/). John along with Myron Jones was an owner / manager of WJET TV, WJET 1400 and later "Jet FM 102", "Froggy 94.7", WHOT AM and FM Youngstown and also owned WWOW 1360 Conneaut, Ohio separately. He would decide to retire in 2000 and sell all of the broadcast properties between 1998 - 2000. In 2002, he developed Cancer which would turn out to be a form of Leukemia. While most people would have a hard time dealing with such adversity, John decided to use his wealth of broadcast experience and develop a method of fighting cancer using radio waves. You can read more details at the website listed in this article. As for the telethon itself, you can catch it on WICU TV 12 (DT 12-1 or DT 35-3), WSEE TV 35 (DT 35-1), or WBEP on DT 35-2 or on cable. My guess is that it will be hosted by Scott Bremner from WSEE and Amanda Post from WICU. However, I'm just basing that on the promo the stations are airing.Bob Hannon leaves WYTV
Youngstown: WYTV 33 sports director Bob Hannon has left the station following the newscast on Friday night (August 29th). He is moving on from "Big Board Sports" to become the new president and chief professional officer of the Youngstown / Mahoning Valley United Way according to a report on vindy.com. He will start there on Labor Day, September 1st. Bob has been part of WYTV for 20 years and has also been the voice of the Youngstown State University Penguins football program, calling all four of their national championship wins. In addition, he has also covered Ohio State University Buckeyes football program, coached by former Penguins coach Jim Tressel. His work on WYTV has won him numerous AP awards over the years and such work has provided him with contacts he'll likely get in touch with for United Way fundraisers in the Mahoning Valley.WTAE 50 Anniversary Special a true gem
Pittsburgh:The baby of "the big 3" local affiliates in Pittsburgh - not to mention VHF outlets, WTAE-TV (4) celebrated it's upcoming 50th Anniversary last night with a look back over the years. Sally Wiggin did a marvelous job of capturing an hour's worth of footage. (I could have gone for another three or four hours myself!) The special, which repeats on Saturday at 1:00 PM and is available in three segments at the station's website, recalls the children's programming of yesteryear when the ABC affiliation was in its infancy and most programs were locally produced. Extensive interviews with John G. Comomikes, Joe DeNardo and Bill Hillgrove remember the late Paul Long and long-time co-anchor Don Cannon - the team Conomikes brought together in 1969 to make the station's newscasts more competative. One segment also recalls the late Myron Cope who died earlier this year.
The station signed on September 14, 1958 from its current studio location at 400 Admore Boulevard in Wilkinsburg. For the last several weeks the station has been touting that it will begin High Definition news broadcasts within the next few weeks.
More: PG
WSEE finally goes HD
Erie-Meadville: Tirak's HDTV Watch: According to reports on Erie's AVS Forum page, WSEE DT 35-1 finally went HD after 1:30pm on August 26th. I had checked 15 minutes earlier with no change but later checked and WSEE will now be sending CBS programming in HD 1080i over the air. Nothing was on in HD at the time but even on my OTA converter box, I can now change the picture ratio. Apparently, there was a software issue that had to be sorted out before the change could occur. I cannot confirm if the same is true for Time Warner customers who have HD service if the channel is available there. Feel free to let me know if you see WSEE in HD on Time Warner or Armstrong cable. The first CBS HD program was "The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric". I did notice a slight echo problem which is one of the bugs that is to be expected early on. WSEE is also carrying the digital station in standard definition on Dish Network, which looks better than it's washed out analog station did previously. All cable and satellite companies will down convert local digital stations for SD customers by next February. Kudos to WSEE for being Erie's first full powered commercial HDTV station.Madden at 105.9? Not yet.
Pittsburgh:Apparently the prospect of Mark Madden joining WXDX-FM (105.9) in the afternoon drive is false - especially if you ask WEAE-AM (1250) General Manager Mike Thompson. His response to Bob Smizik when asked how he'd feel about Madden up against the new Paulsen & Crow show, "I would expect that we would be the first to know if Mark has interest in going back on the air someplace other than ESPN." A response such as that caused Smizik to suspect that despite being let go, Madden is still under contract with ESPN. After all, he had signed a new 5-year contract just months before he was taken off the air, although nobody confirmed that he was under contractual obligation.
The rumors of Madden doing afternoons at WXDX built up after the station fired afternoon jock Steve Grimm last week.
WJAC has new set
Johnstown-Altoona-State College:WJAC-TV (6) debuted a new set earlier this month. Orlando-based FX Group designed the new set creating new ways to present the news in the Allegheny Mountains. The new set takes up about 2200 square feet in the studio and is equipped with over 13 HD DLP and LCD TV screens to display news, feeds and other graphics. Of course the new set is designed for HDTV broadcasts.
Television Hill comes down
Pittsburgh:No, not the hill itself, but the former WPXI-TV (11) studios atop Television Hill in Pittsburgh's Fineview neighborhood are coming down. The station moved from its original location in the fall of 2007 after 50 years in one place. Take a look at the Chopper 11 Video. WPXI's original moving plans included moving the transmitter tower but Summer Hill residents weren't interested in another broadcast tower in their midst. Cox Enterprises opted to keep the 800 foot tower atop the old location. The tower also holds antennae for WWSW-FM (94.5) and WSHH-FM (99.7) and is on perhaps the highest point within city limits.
The portions of the building being torn down are one-time additions to the original building which became too small for comfort for the station as it grew in its first 50 years. PBRTV understands (but does not have confirmation) that the original structure will remain as a service building for the engineering staff.
In lieu of posting a 1991 tour of the old studios by a certain 14-year-old (we don't have the video changing technology anyway), we supply this video taken by a YouTuber (embedding disabled) during the Winter of 2008. You'll see that the station looked a lot like a ghost town. Freaky huh?
Cullen out as WPTT changes format
Pittsburgh:Many kind of expected it wouldn't be long before Lynn Cullen would be out at Renda's WPTT-AM (1360) - especially after Doug Hoerth's ouster last December. Yesterday she confirmed that her last day will be August 29. The reason has nothing to do with Cullen's performance but a change in format come September 1 on which her show would not fit. WPTT will become an all-financial advice station as WMMY.
Alan Serena, vice president and marketing manager for Renda Broadcasting (and once-owner of 1360) told the PG that direct competition from KDKA-AM (1020) and WPGB-FM (104.7) were the reasons the talk format would no longer work for the 5000 watt daytime station; 1000 watt nighttime, out of McKeesport. "It was slicing the talk pie pretty thin, and we found that, quite honestly, it was like trying to push a boulder up hill," he said. Serena also pointed out that Cullen's show was the only three hour block which brought in any ad revenue. Additionally, the reason they cut Hoerth's program last December was in hopes that the budget would be trimmed enough to make sure Cullen could survive on the station.
Cullen will not be on the air this week due to a long-planned vacation, but will return for the final days of her program next week. Lynn Cullen is known as one of Pittsburgh's few liberal talk show hosts. She considers her audience to be more of a community - one whom she'll discuss this change with to "try to assuage what I suspect will be frustration and anger at losing a voice that they felt spoke for them," she said. Meanwhile Cullen says there are other outlets interested in possibly letting her continue her show. Although she wouldn't specify which stations, they are interested in her because of her loyal audience.
Lynn Cullen arrived in Pittsburgh in 1980 as a feature reporter on WTAE-TV (4). Prior to her 10 years on WPTT, she hosted a similar program for 10 years on WTAE-AM (1250) now WEAE.
Note: This story was edited since its original posting.
Wildcatter Country flips to 11Q
Misc. Pennsylvania: There is a format flip in nearby Venango county to report. After a few years as "Wildcatter Country", WKQW 1120 has flipped to oldies over the weekend. The station is now known as "11Q", playing oldies from the 50's, 60's and early 70's. This also brings the oldies format back to the oil region a few years after it was dropped by sister station WKQW 96.3. Clarion County Broadcasting purchased the stations for $540,000 in 2005 and changed the FM to adult contemporary and the AM to classic country from it's previous format of news talk.WYNE 1530 updates web address
Erie-Meadville: Captain Dan has informed us here at PBRTV that WYNE 1530 has a new and easier web address to access for station information and streaming audio. Go to http://wyne.mercyhurst.edu/ and click on the WYNE mic in order to listen online anywhere in the world.Comcast delays changes in two towns
Pittsburgh:If you're a Comcast customer in Ross Township (North Hills) or Castle Shannon (South Hills) you'll have to wait a little bit before you get the HD channels and channel switches that everyone else experienced in July. The changes were supposed to take place Tuesday, August 19, but have had to be delayed.
Comcast offered an introductory low price to customers who upgraded - an offer which doesn't expire until the end of August. The same offer will be made to the two communities in waiting, but the cable giant wants to make sure there are enough cable boxes to go around. "Customer reaction was unbelievable, Comcast spokeswoman Jody Doherty told the Post-Gazette, "Customer demand was stronger than our most aggressive projections."
Comcast is the area's cable leader having purchased AT&T Broadband (nee TCI) who had slowly aquired the area's community cable companies throughout the 80s and 90s.
Schano back on 4
Pittsburgh:Fifty years ago, Eleanor Schano was the first (and only) woman in the newsroom at WTAE-TV (4). Now, she's back at 4 with a new program called "Live Well/Live Long with Eleanor Schano." The program, created by Schano and writer Gina Catanzarite, will be a series of 90-second mini programs during the first commercial block of the Thursday Noon newscast on 4, although the hope is to eventually have enough sponsor backing to do a segment with a variety of topics each weekday. The creation comes after Schano's most recent project, "LifeQuest" on WQED-TV (13) was cancelled in 2007.
The new program isn't aimed at the 50 and older crowd. "Everyone wants to live well and live long," Schano told the Post-Gazette. She also points out that this project will take her back to her reporting days as the reports will be field-based, something she couldn't do at WQED where money was tight.
The segments will also be available on WTAE's website and the digital sub-channel devoted to weather and traffic. Schano's original intent was to do a half-hour series, but available time slots were not attractive. The 90-second segments was a more doable option.
Schano will also be a part of WTAE's 50th Anniversary special scheduled for August 28 at 8:00 pm.
Szabo to do afternoons at "Q92.9"
Pittsburgh:"Q92.9" WLTJ-FM (92.9) finally has an afternoon host. Beginning Tuesday, August 19, Zak Szabo will take the afternoon drive (2 - 7 p.m.). Szabo previously worked for the first incarnation of "B-94" (WBZZ) and most recently for WLTJ sister station WRRK-FM (96.9).
WLTJ tweaked the format on Easter Sunday firing the entire staff. After a few weeks of a jockless station, John Cline and Kerri Griffith were hired for the morning drive.
Local native becomes bureau chief for ABC network news
Pittsburgh:19-year-old Emily Graham has become the bureau chief of ABC News on the campus of Arizon State University according to PR.com. Graham will oversee a staff of students at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications as they report on stories relevant to the Western US. These stories will be used throughout ABC bureaus on platforms including "Good Morning America" and ABC News Radio. ABC partnered with the Cronkite School and four other college journalism programs in the hopes that they could catch younger viewers. The partnership helps the news staff at these schools gain hands-on experience and network-level mentorship.
Emily Graham - described as a polite, yet aggressive girl with a strong work ethic - sought out every opportunity in Phoenix not long after arriving at the school two years ago. She's experienced the news industry through many "real world" experiences through all sorts of facets including, camera and production crew, assignment editor, radio show host, investigative reporter and a month-long gig as an international multimedia reporter in South Africa.
In Pittsburgh, Graham spent her free time volunteering for Special Olympics, the Carnegie Science Center, WQED and WDUQ and visits home as much as possible. She's expected to graduate in May 2009.
Die-hard Pittsburgh native and fan on the air at ESPN
Pittsburgh:Cranberry Township native Steve Braband has been working at ESPN in Connecticut. The 25-year-old describes himself to the Post-Gazette as a "representative of the black and gold in New England Patriot territory." Although he is a program coordinator, Braband recently became an on-screen star in a series of spots promoting the new six-hour "Sports Center" morning block. The spots featured him wearing a countdown clock showing the time to the start of the new programming while he spent time with friends, hung out with the ESPN anchors and at Giants training camp. (The spots can be seen at a promotional website - steveislive.com.) Braband, who always wanted to work at ESPN, graduated from Seneca Valley High School and Clarion University and was an overnight producer at KDKA-AM (1020) before getting the new gig last year.
Cullen goes national - "ONE NIGHT ONLY!"
Pittsburgh: WPTT-AM (1360) talker Lynn Cullen will be joining nationally syndicated talk host Bev Smith during the 7:00 PM hour Thursday night. Smith's program is produced from the studios at Sheridan Broadcasting in Downtown Pittsburgh and heard on WAMO-AM (860). The two are expected to discuss the presidential race and other current events, gender issues, racial issues as they pertain to news and other media, and their own experiences in the talk radio field.Villarreal sits for weather
Pittsburgh:In case you are wondering why Krista Villarreal is sitting down for the weather forecasts, well she had foot surgery a few weeks ago. The doctor ordered that she keep it in a big boot and to keep the foot elevated, so rather than standing in front of the chromo-key, she remains seated at the news desk.
Changes in Satellite Radio
National News:You've probably heard by now (and we've kept it on the downlow here at PBRTV) that the nation's two satellite radio companies merged in late-July. New York City-based Sirius bought Washington, D.C.-based XM and the company is known as Sirius-XM. With the FCC's 3-2 vote in favor of the merger, the long 17-month approval process was over. But the move is not without continuing criticism from folks at the FCC and the NAB. Now the combined company has to worry about programming contracts made with celebs like Howard Stern.
There is also the question of how the programming will be presented to the now-combined 18.5 million subscribers. A plan has been put into effect and will roll out in October. Before you run out and get a new receiver though, know that it is only necessary if you desire to get an "a la carte" package containing elements of both satellite companies. The current subscription plans will remain available being souly XM or Sirius and there will be a 3-year cap on prices. But for those interested in receiving both, here's a brief run down of the options.
A La carte packages include:
- 50 channels of Sirius or XM with extra channels added for 25 additional cents each month (more for "premium" channels) The total isn't expected to go above $12.95 but for the 50 channel choice option it will be $6.99 a month.
- Another a la carte package features 100 channels of Sirius programming with a selection of the best of XMs channels or 100 XM channels with a selection of the best of Sirius' programming - $14.99 per month.
Best of Both
- For $16.99 a month you could get the "Best of Both" where you continue to receive the existing service of either XM or Sirius with selected programming from the other service.
Mostly Music, or News, Sports and Talk
- $12.99/month: Pre-selected packages of mostly music or news/talk/sports.
Discount family-friendly
- Family-friendly programming from either service will get a one-dollar discount per month - $11.95. A combined package will get a two-dollar discount per month from the "Best of Both" - $14.95.
Time Warner explains cable outages
Erie-Meadville: If you are one of many residents in Erie county upset with Time Warner Cable regarding recent outages of both cable & internet services, this may explain why outages are occuring. According to a report on WJET TV 24, a represenative from Time Warner Cable in Ohio stated to the station that the system is is going through an upgrade which is causing both cable and internet outages in several areas of the county. This is occuring in areas outside city limits that were previously served by Adelphia Cable. The upgrades promise to improve picture quality for Time Warner customers who will have to be patient until the upgrades are completed. Time Warner is looking to complete the upgrades by December.Bowman thrilled to be back
Pittsburgh:In 2000, sixteen years after starting at WPXI, Dennis Bowman's contract wasn't renewed and he left the market for a job in Topeka, Kansas. Three years later the Bowmans returned to the Pittsburgh area. Ironically the house they had sold was on the market again, but it was out of their price range. So they found a house in Bellevue and soon began Dennis Bowman Enterprises - creating a weather-related program for schools joined by Dennis' alter-ego 'Chester Drawers'.
In 2005, KDKA-TV (2) came calling and Bowman was on board as a freelance meteorologist during vacations and maternity leaves. Otherwise, he was self employed. "The downtime was great," Bowman told the Post-Gazette, "you might have a week and a half where you weren't busy, and if I wanted to plan a trip or something, I could." Bowman went on to say that there was a downside to working for yourself. "When you don't work, you don't get paid any money by anybody." That's why Bowman is very thankful to have the new full-time morning gig at KDKA. He will still do school visits, but now on behalf of KDKA and will fold his own company. His wife, Debbie, will take on a program of her own offering education about bees.
Aside from adjusting the sleep schedule, Bowman adds that the morning shift is a little more casual than the evening newscasts at WPXI. "We know people are just waking up and starting their day with us, looking forward to that first cup of coffee. We have a chance to be bright and cheerful and share a laugh with them along the way."
City seeks Verizon cable bid
Pittsburgh:For the first time since the city of Pittsburgh has had cable service, steps are being made to offer an alternative. City Council hired Cohen Law Group yesterday to contract Verizon Pennsylvania into the mix where Comcast has been the lone cable TV service since 2002. This comes after Verizon showed interest in becoming a competitor in the spring - the first time a competitor has ever done so.
City officials say that it could take years to finish a citywide build-out, but the goal is to have a deal by late fall after several public hearings. The first cable franchise deal was in 1980 with Warner Cable which gave way to TCI in 1984. TCI had an exclusive run for 15-years until merging with AT&T which was later bought out by Comcast. Right now Comcast pays the city 5% of gross annual revenues and officials don't expect that to change unless pricing wars cause revenues to drop.
Verizon began its cable service last year in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia suburbs after spending two years building a fiber optic network. The company has agreements with 80 southwestern Pennsylvania markets. The company is in the same stage of talks with Philadelphia.
City officials are seeking assurance that 100 percent of the city - including the "poor neighborhoods" would be served. Negotiations will take place to determine where the build-out begins making sure that the decision isn't based on the income level of the neighborhood.
Verizon offers competative prices with one package offering all local channels, 200 digital channels, HD programming and "on-demand" for $47.99 a month compared to Comcast's digital package of 177 channels (30 in HD) and "on-demand" for $67.93.