News: It's Back.. kind of

The WKYC Information Center is working to revive an online version of the Akron Canton News which will be reported daily by WKYC Akron Newsroom Chief Eric Mansfield.

As you know, Akron lost its only local newscast back in May thanks to a terrible economy that kept many advertisers away. Plus, this was coupled with our limited coverage area on Time Warner Cable.

Now thanks to new technologies, we are working to create a daily on-line edition of the latest headlines. Soon, we'll be adding Akron weather and hopefully more features. We'll start small and grow it large.

For now, the webcast will be available on WKYC.com and on Eric Mansfield's blog "Have I Got News For You" located at: ericmansfield.blogspot.com

If you would like to submit video, news from your neighborhood or more, please contact Eric at: ericmansfield@wkyc.com

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News: Local People Meters debut in Cleveland

By Frank Macek

Nielsen started utilizing its controversial Local People Meters (LPMs) in several new markets today including Cleveland.

What this means to us is a new way of measuring viewers of our local television programs in a way that Nielsen says will offer a truer representation of actual viewing audiences. Not all stations are convinced though this will be better.

In the past, Nielsen recruited viewers by phone & mail to fill out a paper diary for a one week period during sweeps - a four week period during the main months of February, May, July and November. This amounted to about 1400 diaries during the survey month or about 400 households being included in the sample size.

With LPMs, viewers tell an electronic meter that they are watching while the meter tracks their viewing habits. The sample size becomes 600 LPMs in a market. Nielsen now goes door to door to recruit participants. And they hope the sample will include a better portion of those who are younger, busier and in the minority.

A device is hooked up to each tv in a participants home and every household member is asked to activate the machine when they begin and end watching any program. These results are tallied based on live viewing, live viewing + 3 days of DVR viewing and live viewing + 7 days of DVR viewing.

What does this mean for Cleveland TV stations? First, it will mean a 12 - one month survey periods. Every month becomes a new sweeps time...putting TV stations in continuous, competitive situations. Will this mean you will seen the hype stories all the time? Not likely. But it will mean stations have to become smarter and wiser as to the news content they offer year round.

The Cleveland market is still rated as market #17 with 1,552,900 total households including 1,533,710 households that have TVs. Cuyahoga County will continue to make up nearly 35% of the total designated market area (DMA) out of the 17 counties that make up our viewing area. The main or "metro" counties include Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Summit, Medina, and Lorain. The rest of the area consists of Erie, Huron, Richland, Ashland, Wayne, Holmes, Stark, Tuscarawas and Carroll County.

Because of that large portion of viewers, Nielsen is sub-dividing Cuyahoga County into 5 zones based on census neighborhood blocks. These now include the west side, downtown & lakeshore communities, the central area, near east side and far east side.

As we begin this new journey - the first of several that will turn our local TV industry upside down - we'll share with you more about Local People Meters and how these numbers differ from Nielsen's diary surveys of the past.

Courtesy: Special thanks to Diana Pollock, WKYC Research Director, for contributing to this story

Disclaimer: The comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of WKYC or Gannett Broadcasting. Please post your comments below or email me: fmacek@wkyc.com

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News: Remembering Stephanie Tubbs Jones

WKYC will present live coverage of the Memorial Service for Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones this Saturday beginning with Channel 3 News at 9 AM.

The Memorial Service at Cleveland Public Auditorium will follow the last public viewing earlier in the morning from 8 to 10:30 PM.

Channel 3 will provide live coverage from 11 AM until 1 PM both on the air and on-line at wkyc.com

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News: Browns vs. Bears Thursday Night on WKYC

Thursday night, it's the Browns final pre-season game as they take on the Chicago Bears at the Cleveland Browns Stadium. It's a game you will only see on Channel 3.

Beginning at 7 PM, we'll bring you the Pregame Huddle with Jim Donovan and Dave Chudowsky.



At 7:30 PM, Jim Donovan and Bernie Kosar will have the play by play in high definition.

Starting with the regular Browns season, we'll have you covered with the following weekly programs:

Browns Pregame Huddle: Sundays at 11:30 AM
Browns Tonight: Sunday at 11:30 PM
The Point After: Monday at 7 PM

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Spotlight Feature: Behind the Scenes at the DNC

With the Olympics behind us, we look forward to the Democratic National Convention all this week in Denver, Colorado.

Every night this week at 10 PM, NBC will devote an hour of prime time programming to cover the night's biggest events.

NBC Producer Geoff Mason gives you a "behind the scenes" tour at the Democratic National Convention.

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News: Olympics Set TV Viewing Records

The history books have closed on the 2008 Summer Olympics, but there are many notable moments that will go down as records.

NBC Universal tallied 214 million total viewers for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing over 17 days, solidifying it as the most watched event in U.S. TV history, according to Nielsen.

This tops the 1996 Atlanta Olympics at 209 million viewers and the 2004 Athens Games at 203 million.

MOST VIEWED EVENTS IN U.S. TV HISTORY:

1. 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, 214 million (17 days)
2. 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, 209 million (17 days)
3. 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, 204 million (16 days)
4. 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, 203 million (17 days)
5. 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics, 194 million (17 days)

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Programming Change: Indians Game Causes Change of Prime Schedule

CLEVELAND -- Due to tonight's Indians vs. Tigers game on WKYC, a few of NBC's Monday night primetime programs will air in other time slots.

*Deal or No Deal will air at 3:05 am late tonight/early Tuesday morning

*America's Toughest Jobs will air at 3:05 am late Tuesday/early Wednesday morning.

Should the Indians game run past 10 pm this evening, WKYC will join in progress NBC's coverage of the Democratic National Convention as soon as possible.

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Video: Website lets users vote on creditability of news story

The Internet has made everyone a critic.

From eBay ratings to music reviews to social networking sites and now, to the news media. A new site keeps track of and chronicles breaking news from all over the world.

That's handy, sure - but what makes it unusual is that users vote on how credible the information is.



The website address is: www.newscred.com

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Update: Fired Philly TV anchor admits e-mail hacking

We have an update on a story we first brought you at the end of May. Former WKYC anchor Dawn Stensland's husband Larry Mendte was fired by his station in Philadelphia after it was alleged that he secretly read his former co-anchors private emails. Again we stress Dawn was not involved in this in any way.

Today, we have the latest from The Associated Press:

A fired Philadelphia TV newscaster has admitted to hacking into his former co-anchor's e-mail accounts.

Larry Mendte has pleaded guilty to one count of illegally accessing a computer. He admits to illegally viewing hundreds of Alycia Lane's e-mails for more than two years, ending in May. The access came at a time when leaked information about Lane's personal life contributed to her own downfall.

Mendte and Lane co-anchored evening news for four years together at KYW, a CBS affiliate. The partnership ended after Lane was arrested in December following an alleged scuffle with New York police and was fired.

Mendte later lost his job and was charged by federal prosecutors. He faces a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison, but is likely to get much less.

Courtesy: AP

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Director's Alert: WKYC to air special newscast at 5 PM; Watch Live on wkyc.com

Update: Sadly, Congresswoman Tubbs Jones passed away this evening at 6:12 pm according to the Cleveland Clinic who released a statement announcing her death. Our heartfelt prayers to her family and friends.
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WKYC will air a special newscast at 5 PM updating viewers on Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who apparently has a brain aneurysm according to the hospital president and wkyc.com.

We'll provide the latest developments on her condition - as it was erraneously reported by every OTHER Cleveland market station and CNN that she had died earlier in the day. WKYC reported the facts, and respected the truth with responsible reporting that indicated she remained in critical condition.

Please join us at 5 PM, 6, 7 & 11 PM (at midnight) for comprehensive coverage. To read more on this developing story: CLICK HERE

We are providing you the opportunity to watch the newscast online: CLICK HERE TO WATCH

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Director's Alert: Fire Forces Cleveland TV Station Off Air

A fatal fire this morning in downtown Cleveland was also responsible for knocking WOIO/WUAB Channels 19 and 43 off the air for about an hour, according to the station's own website.

The fire broke out about 6 am this morning on the 13th floor of Reserve Square - a high rise mix of apartments and retail. The television studios are located in the basement of that building.

A 27 year old man died in the fire after food left on the stove apparently ignited.

According to wkyc.com, when crews arrived on scene and charged their fire hoses a water main broke. Crews were still able to extinguish the fire, but the water main caused the basement of The Reserve Square building and the WOIO/WUAB studios to flood.

For more of this story, CLICK HERE

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From the Mailbag: Gannett Graphics Change

From: Sam in Cleveland

Q: I don't know if you have heard about this yet, but I came across an article saying Gannett plans on adopting a new, uniform graphics package for all of its stations. I hope this is not the case with WKYC, as I like your in-house graphics. You have an extremely talented team there.

A: Yes, I am very aware of the article and what it means to us here at WKYC. Yes, Gannett has decided to institute a company-wide initiative with all our broadcast properties. This has been widely reported in the trade publications recently.

Starting later this year, we will begin using a hub situation where our graphics will be ordered from our station, but made in Denver and then sent back to us via our graphics network.

This is probably more a benefit for the smaller market stations than WKYC which has had a very talented art department that will be sorely missed as we move forward. In a lot of ways, this makes sense both economically and for efficiency reasons.

The new system will be based on Chyron's AXIS...but will be interfaced with the Deko graphic system that is currently in use by all of our Gannett stations.

I will be featuring the new system when we implement it here at WKYC. In the meantime, you can read a recent article on this from Reuters: CLICK HERE

You can email your questions to me: fmacek@wkyc.com

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News: Olympics a BIG hit on WKYC and NBC

Just as Tiger Woods is good for golf ratings, Michael Phelps is great for Olympic ratings. Saturday night, as Phelps went for his historical 8th Gold Medal at the Beijing Olympics and his 14th Gold in his swimming career, NBC enjoyed its most viewed Saturday night in 18 years with 31.1 million tuning in, and jumping to 40 million during the half hour Phelps swam.

NBC has averaged 30 million viewers each night since the Olympics kicked off on August 8th, thanks in large part to Phelps and the gymnastics teams. NBC certainly is looking for its Week #2 darling as the Olympics heads into its second week.

What did NBC air 18 years ago that drew that kind of audience? It was an episode of "Empty Nest."

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WKYC Reporter Celebrates Brother's Publishing Success

The brother of WKYC's Jennifer Murphy, Richard Murphy, has written his first book and it's getting rave reviews.

The book, "Confessions of a Contractor"(Putnam; Publication date: Aug. 14th) is the story of Henry Sullivan, an unconventional contractor who renovates houses for wealthy women in Los Angeles.

Richard knows the topic well. Before becoming a successful screenwriter, he supported himself as a contractor.

Jennifer tells us "Both my husband and I read the book and just loved it. It has tremendous range and the characters, especially Henry Sullivan, are so likable."

The book is on sale at all major bookstores. Or, you can click on the following link and video to learn more: confessionsofacontractor.com

VIDEO FEATURE:



Courtesy: wkyc.com

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WKYC Relaunches Mom Site on the Web

Whether you've got back to school on the brain, or are looking for a new pediatric dentist - WKYC has a new and improved moms' website that can help.

North Coast Moms became "Cleveland Moms Like Me" in the early morning hours on August 14th. The new site offers more social networking for Northeast Ohio moms and their families.

The new website address is: cleveland.momslikeme.com

Some our new features include:

Groups: You can communicate in forums that are public and you can also create a private group among a close circle of friends. For example if you have your own Bunco club, you can create your own private group. Only you and folks in that group can communicate. Right now we have groups on diet and weight loss, working moms, and even a "laugh of the day" group!

My Stuff: Will be your very own "Dashboard," and you'll also have your personal profile page.

Coupons: We love this new feature. During these tough economic times we'll all appreciate the new feature.

Photos: The photos section allows users to upload their own galleries for their entire site, or if they choose, just for friends to see. Soon, you'll also be able to upload your own home videos too.

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Gannett cutting 1,000 newspaper jobs

The nation's largest newspaper publisher, and owner of WKYC-TV, is eliminating 1,000 jobs.

The latest cost-cutting move at Gannett includes 600 layoffs. The newspaper industry is trying to cope with declining revenues due to an economic slump and a continuing migration of advertising dollars online.

USA Today, the largest-circulation newspaper in the country, isn't affected by the latest round of cutbacks, but had 45 job cuts of its own last November.

The latest cuts will affect Gannett's other newspapers, which include 84 dailies such as The Arizona Republic and the Detroit Free Press as well as nearly 900 non-daily publications. Other major newspaper publishers have also been slashing jobs.

Courtesy: The Associated Press

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Meet the NBC All Stars: Bob Costas

In this edition of "Meet the NBC All Stars," we focus on a broadcaster who has been charged with handling goliath duties for the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.

This Olympics will be Bob Costas' eighth for NBC Sports and his seventh as primetime host. After serving as late night host in 1988 from Seoul, Costas has won acclaim and Emmy Awards each year for his work as primetime host from Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Salt Lake City, and Athens. Costas, who has the longest tenure of the network's sports announcers, joined NBC in 1980. He has handled a wide array of assignments, including play-by-play, studio hosting and reporting.

The 19-time Emmy Award winner is one of the most respected and honored broadcasters of his generation. In 2005, Costas was named host of NBC's "Football Night in America," an exclusive and complete look at each Sunday in the NFL. "Football Night in America" encompasses more than four hours of NFL coverage, including a primetime pre-game show and the premier primetime game of the week "NBC's Sunday Night NFL Football." Costas also co-hosts NBC's coverage of the U.S. Open, The Players Championship, Ryder Cup, Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.

Costas first worked on NBC's coverage of Major League Baseball, the NFL and college basketball. From 1982-89, Costas teamed with analyst Tony Kubek on MLB "Game-of-the-Week" telecasts, forming one of baseball's most popular broadcast teams. During that time, he served as the play-by-play commentator for "Game of the Week" assignments and coverage of the American League Championship Series in 1983, 1985, 1987 and 1989. He also hosted All-Star Game pre-game shows in those same years and World Series pre-games in 1982, 1984, 1986 and 1988.

Under the umbrella of The Baseball Network, Costas handled play-by-play chores for the 1994 All-Star Game and called 1995 Division Series and ALCS games on NBC. That year, he also called his first World Series on television, teaming with analysts Joe Morgan and Bob Uecker on Games 2, 3 and 6. The trio of Costas, Uecker and Morgan again joined in 1997 for NBC's exclusive coverage of the World Series, marking Costas' first start-to-finish coverage of the Fall Classic. The 1998 ALCS, 1999 NLCS, 1999 World Series and 2000 ALCS showcased the duo of Costas and Morgan. Costas and Morgan also called the 2000 Major League Baseball All-Star Game from Atlanta.

From 1984-92, Costas hosted NBC's NFL pre-game show, "NFL on NBC." In 1996, he returned to the NFL pre-game, contributing commentaries and interviews. He also hosted the pre-game shows for Super Bowls XX, XXIII and XXVII. From 1990-91 through the 1995-96 NBA season, Costas served as the host of "NBA Showtime," NBC Sports' pro basketball pre-game show. In November 1997, he moved from the studio to courtside to work as NBC's top play-by-play man for "NBA on NBC" game telecasts. Costas' call of Michael Jordan's game-winning shot at the buzzer in the deciding Game Six of the 1998 NBA Finals between Chicago and Utah was one of sportscasting's most memorable calls of the modern era. After three seasons as the lead NBA on NBC play-by-play voice - the last two and a half with acclaimed analyst Doug Collins - Costas volunteered to hand the NBA mike back over to the NBA's signature voice, Marv Albert, for the 2000-01 season.

Costas also originated the popular "Costas Coast-to-Coast" nationally syndicated Sunday night sports radio talk show, and served as a regular host of the program through mid-1996. From August 1988 through January 1994, he hosted his own Emmy Award-winning late-night interview television show, "Later with Bob Costas," on NBC. In 1994, Costas expanded his broadcasting duties at NBC. He contributed segments to a variety of NBC News programs, including the primetime newsmagazine, "Dateline." On occasion he still provides special interviews for NBC News'"Today."

Costas began his broadcasting career in 1974 at WSYR-TV and Radio in Syracuse, N.Y. He later joined KMOX Radio in St. Louis, working as play-by-play voice of the ABA Spirits of St. Louis. He also called play-by-play for one season of Chicago Bulls road-game telecasts. He then went on to handle regional NFL and NBA assignments for CBS Sports while acting as the radio voice of University of Missouri basketball from 1976 to 1981.

In April 2000, Costas' book, "Fair Ball: A Fan's Case for Baseball" made The New York Times Best Seller list. Net proceeds from the book were donated to B.A.T - Baseball Assistance Team, which provides financial assistance to those members of the baseball family in need. Costas has won Emmy Awards as "Outstanding Sports Personality/Host" in 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004. He won his first Emmy for play-by-play work on his call of the 1997 World Series; and won Emmys for writing in 1988 and 1995. The latter award was for his moving tribute to the late Mickey Mantle on "NBC Nightly News." In addition to his 17 Sports Emmy Awards, Costas' interview program "Later with Bob Costas" won the 1993 Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series.

Costas has been honored as "Sportscaster of the Year" by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association a record eight times. He won first in 1985, when at 33 years-old he became the youngest person to win the award. He added awards in 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1997 and 2000. In March 2000, Costas was named "Favorite Sportscaster" at the TV Guide Awards, based on balloting by readers of TV Guide magazine.

One of television's most gifted interviewers, Costas won acclaim as host of HBO's "On The Record," a weekly show on which Costas interviewed luminaries from the worlds of sports, entertainment and politics. He recently began hosting "CostasNOW," on HBO, a monthly one-hour sports magazine program. Costas also hosted HBO's "Inside the NFL" from 2002-08. In 2005, he also signed on with CNN as a substitute for Larry King on "Larry King Live."

Costa's combination of wit and intelligence have made him a popular guest on the talk show circuit from his memorable play-by-play call of elevator races on "Late Night with David Letterman" to his current appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

Costas attended Syracuse University.

Courtesy: NBC

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News: WKYC offers Monica Robin's Health News Online

Health News is one of the most important news features that viewers and readers are interested in on-line. WKYC keeps you informed with Senior Health Correspondent Monica Robins.

WKYC has built a new online Health Channel that provides you both reports from Monica and exclusive reports from our partnership with NBC and CNN and health reporters across the nation.

You find the player on wkyc.com/news/health or CLICK HERE

You can also find Monica on Facebook.

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News: Browns vs. Jets on WKYC Tonight

CLEVELAND -- The preseason opening game is here and you can catch all the excitement on Channel 3 starting at 7 p.m.

The Jets have a new quarterback, Brett Favre -- and have scheduled a news conference at Browns Stadium to introduce him later Thursday.

Here's the line up for tonight:

7 p.m.: Browns Pre Game (HD)

7:30 p.m.: Cleveland Browns Preseason Football Cleveland Browns vs New York Jets (HD)

RELATED LINKS:
To view more stories about the Browns & Brett Favre, visit WKYC.com: CLICK HERE

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News: NATAS puts tickets on sale for Emmy Awards

The NATAS Lower Great Lakes chapter is proud to announce that tickets for the 39th Annual Emmy Awards and the 15th Silver Circle Celebration are now available on-line.

Saturday, September 13, 2008 is the big day, so make your plans now to attend.

Visit http://www.nataslgl.org/ for complete information and to reserve tickets.

But first, here's some basic information:

TICKETS: $80 each for members and one guest,
$90 for non-members/ guests (reserve by September 5)

Special room rates available from the Marriott (reserve by August 23)
Special rental discounts available from American Commodore Tuxedo

So visit www.nataslgl.org now to reserve your tickets or call 440-526-EMMY if you need more information.

A portion of your ticket helps support the NATAS-LGL scholarship program.

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News: The Olympics on WKYC and NBC

WKYC is proud to offer our viewers unparalleled coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics from Beijing, China. And for the first time ever, the games are being completely presented in high definition from start to finish.

NBC Universal, broadcasting its record 11th Olympics and surpassing ABC for the most Olympics broadcast by any network, will present an unprecedented 3,600 hours of Beijing Olympic Games coverage across its various networks, the most ambitious single media project in history.

NBC's coverage features the most live coverage in the United States (75 percent in all), across the most platforms, of any Summer Olympics in history when the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.

WKYC will air the the NBC network schedule which is divided into three dayparts: afternoon, primetime and late night - for a total of 225 hours of coverage over 17 days beginning with the Opening Ceremony on Friday, Aug. 8, at 8 p.m. ET.

Primetime on NBC will feature live coverage of all 32 swimming gold medal finals; four key nights of men's and women's gymnastics led by the women's and men's team gold medal finals, as well as the women's and men's individual gold medal finals; beach volleyball; and, for the first time ever, both men's and women's marathons. The first week of the Olympics features gymnastics and swimming, two sports in which the USA is especially strong this year.

The USA's women's gymnastics team, led by 2007 world all-around champion Shawn Johnson and nine-time world medalist Nastia Liukin, and the USA men's gymnastics team should be strong competitors for Olympic gold. In swimming, the USA is as solid as ever. Michael Phelps, the 23-year-old phenom, looks to make Olympic history and, by the end of the first week, could break the records for most career gold medals by any Olympian (nine) and most golds in one Games (seven), famously held by Mark Spitz. Five-time Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin leads the women and continues to be the 100m gold medal favorite.

In 2004, the Athens Olympic Games on NBC earned ratings gold. NBC's unprecedented 1,210 hours of coverage from Athens (Aug. 13-29) were watched by 203 million total viewers and earned the distinction of the most watched non-U.S. Olympics in history.

In addition, WKYC will once again present local coverage called "The Olympic Zone" nightly from 7:30 until 8 pm leading into primetime coverage of the game hosted by WKYC Sports Anchors Jim Donovan and Dave Chudowsky.

We'll get you ready for that night's live coverage, profile local athletes and give you a unique perspective of the Olympics Games from Cleveland's own olympic athlete Diana Munz.

WKYC also is providing reports from our embedded blogger, Clevelander Adam Miller, who is reporting for the Today Show. You can find his exclusive blog reports on WKYC.COM: CLICK HERE

You don't forget you can keep up to date with the latest news coming from the games and daily schedule of events with WKYC's Olympic page. It's all the information you need in one place: CLICK HERE

So, just us for the Olympic Games beginning this Friday, August 8th ONLY on WKYC-TV and NBC.

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