Notes from the Newsroom: 9/2/09

By Frank Macek

Time for another edition of "Notes from the Newsroom" as your blogger shares some of thoughts on our little corner of local television.

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It's hard to believe it is September already and fall is just a few short weeks away. We'll be kicking off a new fall schedule in just 12 days with the new "Jay Leno Show." NBC affiliates are a little apprehensive - to say the least - about NBC's new approach to Prime Time. For his part, Jay is ready to go and excited about being part of their new revolution. Time & the ratings will tell.

Many of you have weighed in on our new set tweaks, designed to add a little more color and depth to our background. Some of you like it, some of you don't. The single biggest complaint is the fact we didn't do live monitors for the right side of background. Given the high cost of buying many monitors and the current economic climiate, we decided to go with the "fake" monitor wall for now on that side. Another reason is we don't want the background to be distracting from the anchor and the show content. If you are watching the monitors moving behind Romona or Mark, for example, you aren't really paying attention to the news content. Thanks for all your suggestions, and look for tweaks in the future as we continue to evolve.

Another tweak coming soon will be the graphics themselves. G3, the graphics group who designs our graphics through a hub system, has re-designed the color scheme of some of the tease and animated graphics from an amber touch to a red touch. You'll see these introduced into our newscasts in the next week or two.

Our heartfelt condolsences to WKYC News Director, Rita Andolsen, on the recent loss of her father, William Ginley Jr. Services will be held Thursday and the funeral on Friday. For those of you who know Rita personally, please keep her and her family in your thoughts during this difficult time for them. Rita is one outstanding lady - and news director.

A programming change to our lineup this week. Channel 3 will air the Tribe vs. Twins game this Friday Night at 7:05 p.m. We were originally scheduled to carry the Tribe vs. Tigers game Tuesday Night...but because of "America's Got Talent" airing in this time period, the decision was made to swap games. "Indians on Deck" will air at 6:30 p.m. on SportsTime Ohio, then the game at 7 p.m. on Channel 3. No 7 p.m. news will air Friday night.

Don't forget next Friday Night at 7 p.m., September 11th, WKYC will air a special leading up to the "Race for the Cure" on Saturday morning. Senior Health Correspondent Monica Robins will share the background and history of the race and the emotional stories about those who participate - many survivors themselves of breast cancer.

Read more articles on the Director's Cut Blog