Behind the Scenes: Channel 3 News "New Look"

Channel 3 News has a slightly new, more colorful look starting this evening with Channel 3 News at 6 p.m.

The changes include a new HD monitor wall in the back of the newsroom, another monitor wall to the right of that, and new hanging pieces that give a more colorful and interesting background to the main news set.

Here are a few pictures of the finished construction:

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NBC To Launch New On-Air Look September 14th

The Director's Cut blog has learned that NBC is planning a colorful tune-up beginning on Monday, September 14th.

The tag "more colorful" will be adding to on-air promos, but the words will never been voiced by any announcer. The idea is to re-claim NBC's golden years with the network's colorful peacock.

According to Variety Magazine interview with NBC Entertainment marketing guy Adam Stotsky, "Sometimes the most powerful ideas are the ones staring at you in the face." Stotsky added, "Color is also what we strive to do in our programming."

This new campaign will begin the same day as the network's launch of the "Jay Leno Show" at 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. NBC is hoping viewers will remember its past to help its future as it re-defines prime time programming with less expensive shows like Leno's.

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News: Cleveland/Akron/Canton Market Slips to Market #18

By Frank Macek

Bad news for local Cleveland stations, as the bad economy has another unintended consequence - the loss of television households.

The Cleveland, Akron, Canton market is officially dropping one position to the 18th largest television market in the nation, according to Nielsen in recent news release.

Our local television housesholds have fallen from 1,524,930 in 2008/2009 to to 1,520,750 tv homes for 2009/2010.

Denver and Seattle gain ground while Tampa-St. Pete (Sarasota) and Miami-Ft. Lauderdale lost ground, along with Cleveland in the top 20 markets. Florida is seeing a population drop as people move back north.

Nationwide, television households are actually increasing nearly 400,000 since the last survey period. For the 2009-2010 broadcast season, the U.S. will have 114.9 million tv households, including those in Alaska and Hawaii.

Elsewhere across Ohio:

Columbus - falls 2 places to 34th
Cincinnati - falls 1 place to 33th
Dayton - falls 1 place to 65th
Toledo - unchanged at 73rd
Youngstown - falls 1 place to 110th
Zanesville - unchanged at 203
Wheeling, Steubenville - unchanged at 159th

To read the entire Nielsen report: CLICK HERE

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Senator Edward Kennedy Funeral Coverage on WKYC

WKYC will present live coverage of Senator Edward Kennedy's funeral services on Saturday morning beginning with Channel 3 News at 9 am.

Our newscast will air from 9 to 10 a.m., followed by a two  and half hour NBC Special, hosted by NBC's Brian Williams.

Channel 3 News at Noon will air at 12:30 p.m.

We'll have constant updates on wkyc.com

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Got A Question for the Director's Cut Mailbag?

We are always looking for your questions and comments about WKYC and NBC in the Director's Cut Mailbag.

Although, we answer many questions directly through email, we occasionally come across some that might interest all our readers.

So, if you have something you've always wanted to ask, but never got around to - or were afraid to, now is your chance.

You can reach us many ways.. We have email, Facebook and MySpace contact links are at the top of the blog. All you need to do is click on the desired icon.

Of course, you can always send your questions/comments to us at fmacek@wkyc.com

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Behind The Scenes: Pre Show Production

Producer Jon had the digital camera in his pocket tonight and whipped it out in the WKYC News Control Room to capture your blogger (left at the switcher) and my boss, WKYC Production Manager, Al Wohl (center) doing a little pre production for the 6 p.m. broadcast.

This is when we tape certain aspects of the show to roll in during the live newscast.

Let's just say it took a while to get it just right - but the end result was worth it.

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News: "Second City" Comic Prepares To Make The Leap To "Saturday Night Live"

The famed Chicago comedy theater "The Second City" has been a training ground for NBC's "Saturday Night Live" for decades. A long line of comedy greats have headed east from the likes of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in the earliest days, to recent stars Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Seth Myers.

Now you can add Michael Patrick O'Brien to the list.

After a five year run at "Second City" as a writer and actor, O'Brien landed a dream job as the newest writer at "Saturday Night Live".

Legendary "Saturday Night Live" executive producer Lorne Michaels recently did a talent search at "Second City" And "Improv Olympic" and flew O'Brien and a couple others to New York for interviews.

He got the job, and even some homework. "Two commercial parodies for the first day of work", O'Brien said.

"SNL" returns to NBC with live shows beginning Saturday, September 26th.

A special half-hour prime-time edition of "Weekend Update" will join NBC's Thursday night comedies starting September 17th until "30 Rock" takes back its time slot in October.

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News: Friday Night Fever Time!

Hard to believe summer is almost at an end. The days are getting shorter, but Friday Nights are getting hotter thanks to the return of WKYC's Friday Night Fever.

Starting this Friday, August 28th at 11 PM, the best coverage of high school sports officially kicks off on Channel 3.

Join WKYC's Jim Donovan and Dave Chudowsky for the Predictors, Big Game of the Week and highlights from around Northeast Ohio stadiums.

Again this year, WKYC has teamed up with our parent company, Gannett, to bring you the exciting website called "High School Sports.Net" - with the latest schedules, scores, team pages and a team shop to buy your team's gear.

Be sure to check out and bookmark our new site: highschoolsports.net or click on the banner below:

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WKYC Internship Opportunities

WKYC-TV offers a range of internship opportunities for students interested in broadcasting.

The goal of this program is to provide important career orientation, work experience and educational development to acquire skills needed for broadcast employment.

We afford a variety of placement areas for students with coursework in Journalism, Public Relations, Web site production, and Production.

Requirements for participation include:

• Student must currently be enrolled in an accredited College or University.
• The school must recognize the internship as a learning experience and grant course credit to the student.
• Students must be able to be present at WKYC a minimum of three days per week.

Application Procedures: Internship opportunities are offered year-round. Interested students should submit the following:

Resume to include courses related to internship requested.

A cover letter stating the type of internship that would be of greatest interest. This letter should include the dates of availability and the number of days per week available.
A letter from the student's school stating that the student will be granted a prescribed number of credits.

Send all information to:

Internship application
WKYC-TV, Inc.
1333 Lakeside Ave.
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
Fax (216) 344-3477

or

webmaster@wkyc.com

NOTE: This is not a paid internship. This program is viewed as a learning experience and does not guarantee employment upon graduation.

WKYC-TV IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

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News: NBC Signs New Deal for NFL Football

The National Football League and NBC Sports have announced a two-year extension of their broadcast partnership under which NBC will remain the home of "Sunday Night Football" for the 2012 and 2013 seasons. NFL clubs approved the extension at a league meeting Wednesday in Chicago.

The original six-year deal between NBC Sports and the NFL, which includes innovative flexible scheduling, started with the 2006 season and runs through the 2011 season.

As with the original agreement, NBC will broadcast 16 regular season "Sunday Night Football" games, each season's "NFL Opening Kickoff" Thursday night primetime game, both Wild Card Saturday games and preseason games in primetime.

The NFL will continue to provide flexible game scheduling over the final seven weeks of the regular season to ensure quality matchups and games with playoff implications.

"Sunday Night Football" is preceded each week at 7 p.m. ET by "Football Night in America," which provides comprehensive highlights and analysis of the day's events in the NFL, along with a preview of that night's "Sunday Night Football" contest.

A LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF NBC & THE NFL

NBC's long history with the NFL dates back 70 years to 1939 when NBC became the first network to televise an NFL game Philadelphia Eagles vs. Brooklyn Dodgers from Ebbets Field to the approximately 1,000 sets then in New York.

NBC first broadcast the NFL Championship Game in 1955. In 1964, NBC signed a five-year contract to televise the AFL. NBC was awarded the AFC package in 1970, an association that would continue through the 1997-98 season.

NBC televised the first Super Bowl in 1967, the historic New York Jets' upset of the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in 1969, and this past February broadcast Super Bowl XLIII, the most-watched program in television history.

Source: NBC Sports

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Notes from the Newsroom: 8/20/09

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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As you have seen by now, WKYC will indeed be broadcasting the Browns vs. Lions game this Saturday. Although several thousand tickets remain, the Browns and the station apparently reached an agreement that will allow us to show the game. The first week's ratings for the game were very good, although the same can't be said about the Browns overall performance. Hopefully this week will be better. Catch the game this Saturday night at Cleveland Browns Stadium at 7:30 p.m. The Pregame Huddle will air at 7 p.m.

We are in the process of doing some set tweaks that you will get to see on our newscasts over the next week or so. The biggest improvement will be brand new HD monitors in the newsroom that will be behind Romona in the background. Old Herbie the painter was hard at work Thursday taking down the old monitors and doing a little painting to get things ready for the install which should happen quickly once the paint dries.

Our new WKYC HD Master Control Room went on-line Wednesday, August 19th. It's a cool new state of the art setup that will allow us to run operations locally or remotely from Jacksonville, Florida, in the event of a disaster here in Cleveland. We've been waiting a long time to get this project finished and our engineering staff did an outstanding job, as usual. You'll probably see a hiccup or two until everyone gets used to the new equipment, but hopefully everything will go smoothly during this transition.

Finally, CSU Professor Michael Rand was in the building Tuesday to observe our on-air operations and get some ideas for his television project classes. Professor Rand sat with our producers and web folks to better understand how we operate on a day to day basis. Then, he sat in the control room to watch my producer Amanda and I do the 6 pm telecast. As many of you know, your blogger attended Cleveland State University back in the early 1990s, and Professor Rand and I kind of past each other in the night at CSU. He actually replaced the talented director, Bob Jacobs, who taught me how to direct. Bob is one of the best in the business.

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Behind the Scenes: What Are We Up To?

Hidden cameras captured this image this morning - what possibly could we be up to?

We'll have the new look soon... in the meantime, you can check out the construction with a photogallery we've posted on Facebook: CLICK HERE

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News: "60 Minutes" Legend Don Hewitt Dead at 86

One of the biggest behind-the-scenes men in television has died.

"60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt died at his home in Bridgehamton, New York Wednesday, succumbing to the pancreatic cancer that had him looking so frail at Walter Cronkite's funeral just three weeks ago.

Working with Cronkite was among the first jobs Hewitt had at CBS after joining the network in 1948.

His tenure there included a decade of work with the legendary Edward R. Murrow.

In 1960 Hewitt directed and produced the very first televised presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

It was in 1968 that "60 minutes" debuted and established a faithful following of millions that still tune-in every Sunday.

"The formula is simple: It's four words, every kid in the world knows: Tell me a story' it's that easy," he said of his philosophy for the show.

He worked on "60 Minutes" until well into his 80s before retiring five years ago.

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Updated: NATAS Announces Tickets For Emmys On Sale Now

Editor's Note: We received an email this afternoon from NATAS indicating some changes from the original email they sent out.

The following is the correct information for the event.

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The NATAS Lower Great Lakes chapter is proud to announce that tickets are now available for the 40th Annual Emmy Awards and the 16th Silver Circle Celebration.

Saturday, September 12, 2009.

For complete information and to reserve tickets: CLICK HERE

*TICKETS: $80 per person (updated price).

InterContinental Cleveland Hotel
9801 Carnegie Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio

5:00 pm Cocktail Hour
6:00 pm Dinner
7:00 pm Awards Ceremony

Special room rate of $139 and reduced overnight hotel guest parking (cut-off date for special room rate is August 21st).

Special tuxedo rental discounts available from American Commodore Tuxedo. FREE valet parking Emmy® night

To reserve your tickets: CLICK HERE

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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Director's Cut Alert: Browns' Preseason Home Opener To Be Broadcast on WKYC

BEREA, Ohio -- Facing their first blackout since 1995, the Cleveland Browns said their home exhibition opener against Detroit will be shown on local television.

Although tickets remain available in their 73,000-seat stadium, the Browns said they reached an agreement with WKYC-TV to broadcast the game.

Low expectations for the Browns this season, coupled with Cleveland's poor performance in a 17-0 loss to Green Bay last week, haven't helped ticket sales.

The Browns have historically been one of the NFL's top draws, but the tough economy and the team's poor record over the past decade has led to a decline in interest.



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Source: The Associated Press

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Fall Preview: NBC Delivers 1/2 Hour Special To Watch Online

NBC provides broadcast, NBC Universal cable entities and online audiences with an upgraded backstage pass to view the network's new and returning series for Fall as series star Joel McHale ("The Soup") from NBC's new comedy "Community" hosts "The NBC Primetime Preview."

The lively 30-minute cavalcade will feature exclusive, behind-the-scenes views to be delivered across a wide gamut of NBC Universal media platforms beginning August 8 through September 27. The program will run an estimated 306 times over broadcast and cable platforms.

The fresh entertainment show also will feature appearances by former late-night king Jay Leno, who launches his new comedy series "The Jay Leno Show" on Monday, September 14 (10-11 p.m. ET). The spotlight of the preview also focuses on new dramas "Trauma" and "Mercy," new comedy "Community," "The Biggest Loser," NBC's Thursday-night comedies, the Emmy Award-winning "30 Rock" (which recently became the first comedy series to record 22 Emmy nomination in a single year), "Heroes," "Southland" and "Sunday Night Football," among others.

To watch the preview show on wkyc.com: CLICK HERE

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Promo: Browns vs. Lions Discount Tickets

The folks in the promotion department were having a little fun with our promotion along with the Browns for discount tickets to the Browns vs. Lions game next Saturday, so the game isn't blacked out locally.

Have a look at what they've come up with:

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News: Jay Leno Picks Seinfeld As 1st Guest

Jay Leno welcomes friend and fellow comedian Jerry Seinfeld to kick off his primetime comedy series "The Jay Leno Show" (Monday-Friday, 10-11 p.m. ET).

Seinfeld will join previous announced musical guests Jay Z, Kanye West and Rhianna.

Leno moves from late night to primetime in his new comedy show premiering Monday, September 14 (10-11 p.m. ET).

"The Jay Leno Show" will be the first entertainment program to be stripped across primetime on broadcast network television and will showcase many of the features that have made Leno America's late-night leader for more than a dozen years.

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Exclusive: Romona Interviews President Obama's Controversial Aunt

Update: Added actual interview that first aired on 8/12/09 at 11 PM.

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The interview you'll only see on Channel 3 News---President Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, speaks exclusively to Romona Robinson about her immigration status and why she was in Cleveland.

The Actual Interview:



The Promo

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News: Browns Offer Fans New Ticket Deals To Avoid Broadcast Blackout

CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Browns are offering up new ticket deals for the first home pre-season game against the Detroit Lions.

If the team doesn't sell out the stadium, then the August 22 broadcast on WKYC-TV will be blacked out in the Cleveland market and three affiliate markets in Youngstown, Columbus and Dayton.

There hasn't been a blacked out broadcast since the team returned to Cleveland in 1999.

To help spur ticket sales, the Browns are cutting the costs for fans.

For the Lions game only, the Browns are offering 50% off on all remaining game tickets. That means fans can get a seat that normally would sell for $32 for just $16. The Browns are also offering a "family four-pack" which includes tickets, hot dogs, and soft drinks for $99.

CLICK HERE for more details on the discount offer and to get your promo code.

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Notes from the Newsroom: 8/10/09

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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An update to our earlier story about our General Sale Manager, Tom Humpage: he is headed to Portland, Maine as General Manager of the Sinclair station. One of Tom's long time ambitions has been to become a General Manager, and we know he will do very well. We'll miss Tom very much, but wish him nothing but success in his new role.

The WKYC Production Department is gearing up for another season of Browns football - one we hope will be more exciting than last year, or the year before, or the year before. Once again, this year's preseason games will be directed by my colleague and WKYC Production Manager, Allen Wohl. Al is responsible for coordinating all aspects of our coverage from reserving facilities to getting graphics designed, to doing interviews with players to broadcasting the actual production on Channel 3 during the next four weeks. Al, our game producer Jeff Yakawiak and our technical crew spend thankless hours putting together the final production you'll see on the air. We'll be following Al and the gang this year and let you see a little behind the scenes action.

Speaking of Browns programming...we'll have our usual full roster of Browns shows as the official television home of the Cleveland Browns. This will include:

Browns Pre-Game Huddle: Sunday mornings at 11:30 a.m.
Browns Tonight: Sunday evenings at 11:30 p.m.
The Point After: Monday evenings at 7 p.m.

In addition, Jim Donovan goes "One On One" at 7 p.m. this Saturday night with new Browns head coach Eric Mangini, right before the pregame show at 7:30, and kickoff to the Browns vs. Packers game live from Lambeau Field on Channel 3 at 8 p.m.

Behind the scenes, our engineering team has been very busy finishing up a new, fully HD Master Control Room that will go online soon. This will allow us to automate more of our facilities as we continue building out future projects. Also as you may have heard, this new setup will allow for our parent company, Gannett, to remotely run master control operations in the future from our hub in Jacksonville, Florida. This is primarily for monitoring purposes and for taking control of the station to keep it on the air in the event of a regional or local disaster that impacts our ability to operate out of 13th and Lakeside. After Hurricane Katrina, companies began to seriously look at the "what if" situations with their stations. While an emergency is not likely, no facility can be assured that interruptions will not occur. Remember the big blackout? Fuel supplies for generators only last so long.

Another big station project is the annual Susan G. Koemen "Race for the Cure" just around the corner. Once again, we'll have complete coverage of the events on Friday, September 11th, with a special edition of Channel 3 News at 7 p.m. Then on Saturday morning, September 12th, WKYC Senior Health Correspondent Monica Robins and WKYC evening anchor Romona Robinson will host our live coverage of the race itself from Malls B & C downtown for our 16th annual event. For more information or how to participate: CLICK HERE

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Behind the Scenes: Romona Gets Pranked

Well, Betsy Kling was at it again tonight as the crew was about to shoot our nightly Facebook Promo.

Did I hear someone yell "mouse"?

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Behind the Scenes: From Director to Weather Geek?

Your blogger was having a little fun this evening playing weatherman in the chromakey...but little did I know Betsy was spying on me with the flipcam.

Hopefully Brooke Spectorsky (GM) and Rita Andolsen (News Director) won't see this, since they'll make me switch, direct and do weather all at the same time, one day!

I think Betsy is safe!

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From the Wires: Trim, Relaxed Leno Says He's Ready For Prime-Time

Special to the Director's Cut
By Lynn Elber, AP Television Writer

PASADENA, California -- Jay Leno says comedy will rule on his new daily prime-time series and he'll put stars in cars instead of on a couch.

Leno, looking relaxed and trim, told the Television Critics Association on Wednesday that fall's "The Jay Leno Show" will feature some elements from his old home, "Tonight," but in a far different mix.

For starters, there likely won't be the standard-issue talk show desk. Musical acts will be featured only about twice a week. Leno says NBC anchor Brian Williams will be filing stories that didn't make the cut on "Nightly News."

A race track is being built near NBC's Burbank studio for a regular "green car challenge" that will allow celebrities to race electric vehicles, says Leno -- and Tom Cruise has already expressed interest.

Source: The Associated Press

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News: WKYC's Dick Russ, Jim Donovan To Be Inducted Into Hall of Fame

Special to the Director's Cut
By Kim Wendel

CLEVELAND -- The Press Club of Cleveland announced that WKYC-TV's Managing Editor Dick Russ and WKYC-TV Sports Director Jim Donovan, along with former WKYC-TV investigative reporter Paul Sciria, will be the 2009 inductees into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame.

The inductions will take place Oct. 28 at LaCenter in Westlake.

"It's a remarkable accomplishment and speaks to the tremendous talent pool here at Channel 3 to have three of five inductees in this year's Hall of Fame class," said WKYC News Director Rita Andolsen.

"The induction of Dick Russ, Jimmy Donovan and Paul Sciria into the Press Club of Cleveland's Journalism Hall of Fame is a testament to Channel 3's long history of a commitment to excellence in broadcast journalism," said Ed Byers, president of the Press Club.

Two-time Pulitzer finalist for commentary Regina Brett of The Plain Dealer and former Plain Dealer photographer William Wynne will also be inducted. All were elected to the Hall of Fame by members of the Press Club of Cleveland.

The Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame honors people, both living and deceased, who have made outstanding career contributions to the local print and electronic media.

It was created by the Press Club of Cleveland in 1981. Since that year, three or four members have been added nearly every year, elected from a list of nominees presented to the club's general membership.

Russ has been reporting the news to the people of Northeast Ohio for more than 35 years. He currently holds the position of Managing Editor and News Anchor at WKYC-TV.

Before coming to Channel 3 in 1999, Dick spent 20 years at WJW-TV in Cleveland, where he hosted the Noon News.

In the 1970's, he worked at a number of TV and radio stations, including Channel 23 in Akron. His professional honors include membership in the Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and the prestigious Silver Circle Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), recognizing more than a quarter century of exemplary service to the television industry.

Dick is a ten-time winner of the regional Emmy Award, and a two-time honoree by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists as the state's outstanding television documentarian.

He has also been honored with the Gabriel Award, the highest national award for religious TV programming, and is a recipient of the Religious Communicators Council's national award, also for religious TV programming.

Donovan serves as sports director for the weekday 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. news. He joined Channel 3 in March, 1985 as weekend sports anchor.

In June 1999, Jim was named the voice of the Cleveland Browns. Donovan will do all the radio play-by-play announcing for the team.

Donovan has done countless national and international events, including the '96 Summer Olympics for NBC/WKYC; in 1994, World Cup Soccer; and, in 1992, swimming and soccer competitions at the Olympics for NBC.

Since 1991, he's hosted PBS live national coverage of the Soap Box Derby. He provided coverage of the CVS Cleveland Marathon for 13 years.

In addition, he was play-by-play announcer for NBC Sports' NFL games from 1987 to 1997. In 1995, Donovan won a local Emmy award for Best Sportscaster. In 1992, he received an Emmy for "Browns '92; The Next Step."

In 1990, he won an Emmy for his report on Bob Golic's farewell to the Cleveland Browns.

In 1988, he was named all-Ohio Best Sportscaster by the Cleveland Press Club. Before coming to Cleveland, he provided play-by-play basketball and hockey coverage for the Satellite News Channel in Burlington, VT.

He also served for one season as play-by-play announcer for the Vermont Reds, a Cincinnati Reds minot league baseball team.

His career began as a sports director for WJON Radio in St. Cloud, MN. He also did play-by-play and sports anchoring at WVMT Radio and WEZF-TV.

Donovan has served as spokesperson for the Kidney Foundation of Ohio and has participated in events benefiting the Juvenile Diabetes Foundations, American Lung Association and Arthritis Foundation.

A native of Boston, Jim is a graduate of Boston University.

Sciria's career as both a television and radio reporter brought him to Channel 3 WKYC-TV, as well as radio stations KYW, WJW, and WERE, where he co-hosted the popular senior audience radio show "Off Your Rocker."

In 1957, Sciria was hired at then-named KYW-TV as the station's first full-time news reporter.

He is currently senior editor of La Gazzetta Italiana, an Italian newspaper. He is also the owner of a Cleveland-based public relations and advertising agency.

Other past WKYC honorees include Tom Meyer, who was inducted last year, as well as Fred Griffith and Dick Feagler.

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Notes from the Newsroom: 8/3/09

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.

The Director's Cut Blog is finally back from our scheduled furlough which we actually enjoyed as an extra week of time off this summer. So much to do, so little time. But, your blogger always uses his time wisely to get projects done at work and at home.

Time to get you caught up on some things happening around the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center while we were gone.

July sweeps ended on Wednesday, July 29th and it was another very solid book for WKYC. In fact, WKYC retained its number one position at 6, 7 & 11 PM in Households, Adults 18+, Adults 25-54, Women 25-54 and Adults 18 to 49. Those are pretty much the important ratings to win during a sweeps periods as advertisers look to these demographics for making buys. This was the first book for us to be able to compare numbers year to year since the official introduction of Local People Meters into the Cleveland/Akron/Canton market.

Plenty of 3rd quarter sports programming coming to Channel 3 over the next few weeks...including Browns Preseason Football. Some highlights include:

August 9th: Buffalo vs. Tennessee at the Hall of Fame Game in Canton (8 PM)
August 15th: Browns @ Green Bay Packers (7:30 PM Pregame/8-11 PM Game)
August 22th: Browns vs. Detroit Lions (7 PM/7:30 - 10:30 PM Game/10:30 Post Game)
August 29th: Browns vs. Tennessee Titans (7 PM/7:30 - 10:30 PM Game/10:30 Post Game)
September 3rd: Browns @ Chicago Bears (7:30 PM Pregame/8-11 PM Game)
September 14th: "Jay Leno Show" - debut of Jay's new Monday - Friday show

Our good friend and fellow blogger, Eric Mansfield, has been asked by PBS to do a local blog looking at the economic health of 15 American cities. Eric is one of five local bloggers who is writing regularly about the economy in this Akron area and how it's impacting real families. It's a joint, one-year project between Jim Lehrer's NewsHour and the Christian Science Monitor to examine the economy at the community level. Check out the new blog: http://akron.patchworknation.org/

The Director's Cut Blog has learned our friend, Tom Humpage - WKYC General Sales Manager - will be leaving for a new General Manager position. We'll let you know where as soon as we know.

And with the popularity of the "Cash for Clunkers" program by the federal government, WKYC and our parent company, Gannett, has teamed up to bring you a one stop resource for all of Gannett's coverage of the program. To check out our new page: CLICK HERE
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