Notes From The Newsroom: 7/4/11

By Frank Macek

It's time for another behind the scenes look at what's happening at the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center.

Happy 4th of July holiday as half of 2011 is already gone, but the world of television never takes a nap.

A few news notes to pass along that you might be interested in.

We wish our former Director of Technology, Mike Szabo, well on his retirement. Mike's last day at WKYC was Thursday, June 30th. Mike has steered us through some very complex changes here at the station during the last 13 years at Channel 3 in a variety of roles. Mike was responsible for integrating so much of our new technology from the initial digital system design of our facility, to the transition to high definition and the launch of SportsTime Ohio almost 6 years ago. Most recently, Mike worked on the new digital transmitter/antenna/tower and the new newsroom workflow installation that launched with AP's ENPS and Bit Central. He is exceptionally talented engineer and we will sorely miss him.

Congratulations to Jim Miller, who becomes the new WKYC Director of Technology. Jim formerly served in the Navy and was a broadcast engineer at WKBN-TV/Youngstown, before coming to Channel 3 over 28 years ago. Jim will continue to lead us into the future with mobile television and eventually 3D-TV that will no doubt become the next technical step for local stations in a few years.

WKYC is also proud to be launching a new web product soon. Deal Chicken is a brand new daily deal site -- similar to Living Social and Groupon -- that will bring savings of up to 90% to Clevelanders Monday through Friday. This new product will join on our growing list of localized WKYC websites like Moms Like Me.com and Metromix.com to reach more of our viewers and in this case - save them big $$$ locally. You can sign up before launch at the following address: http://bit.ly/register.dealchicken.com/BC04CL/frankmacek
We have gotten many emails about the status of WKYC Meteorologist AJ Colby. While we generally don't comment on personnel issues, AJ is still at the station. Unfortunately, he will still be leaving and the station plans on hiring a new weekend meteorologist. You can always reach out to him at ajcolby@wkyc.com

As always, please don't forget to become a friend of Channel 3 News and Channel 3 Weather. We have special on-line content just for our Facebook friends including your chance to be our "Facebook Friend of the Day," daily behind the scenes promos, previews of NBC shows, a daily programming guide of what's on Channel 3 and so much more.

• Click to become a Facebook Friend of Channel 3 News
• Click to become a Facebook Friend of Channel 3 Weather
• Click to become a Twitter Follower of Channel 3 News
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