Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

Multiple award nominee Jason Lee has been recognized with two Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in a Television Series and two Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor for his starring role as Earl Hickey on NBC's hit comedy series "My Name Is Earl" which airs Thursday nights at 8 PM on WKYC. Lee not only stars, but also serves as a producer on the show about a hapless crook who has an epiphany after winning a small fortune in the lottery. Determined to change his karma, he sets out to right all the wrongs he's inflicted on people. To date, "My Name Is Earl" has received the People's Choice Award, two Television Critics Association Awards, a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, and Emmys for executive producers Garcia and Buckland for writing and directing, respectively. Born and raised in Huntington Beach, California, Lee turned a childhood pastime of skateboarding ...

The Director's Cut Blog has learned this afternoon the Montel Williams Show is ending production after this season, it's 17th. According to Broadcast & Cable, CBS Television Distribution confirmed Wednesday that "The Montel Williams Show" will go out of production at the end of this season. Instead, CBS will sell stations a "Best of" package for next fall, a la Sony's all-barter Judge Hatchett. With 17 years of episodes in the can, CBS will be able to give stations 52 straight weeks of episodes. "We have been honored to have Montel as a part of our family for the past 17 years, and we're very excited that Montel will live on through these" Best-of" episodes," said John Nogawski, president and chief operating officer of CTD. "Stations continue to embrace Montel and his message of social responsibility that has been the cornerstone of his show." Montel airs weekdays at 2 PM on WKYC. Courtesy: Broadcasting & Cable

It's that time of the season again...February sweeps. Though not a huge book, it will begin another round of compelling and sometimes sensational stories that hope to captivate viewers over the course of the next month. As we have been telling you, The Investigator Tom Meyers officially joins Channel 3 News this Thursday Night at 11 PM to kick it all off. The book runs through February 27th. Let the fun begin!

Terry Moir, WKYC's Director of Local Programming, has been named co-host of the WDOK Morning show with Trapper Jack. (Terry is pictured with Fred Griffith) She will be heard weekdays mornings with Trapper and newsman Jim McIntyre starting at 5:30 AM it was announced Friday by the CBS Radio station. Her first regular day on the air will be Monday, January 28th. She had been filling in on the morning show recently and was quickly seen as a natural fit with Trapper and Jim according to station officials. Terry will continue her programming duties at WKYC while getting up early to awaken morning listeners on the radio with her witty humor and contagious energy level. You have been hearing Terry's voice for years on many Channel 3 commericals. She has also starred in a number of "Terry Godmother" programming commercials explaining to viewers changes in our on-air lineup. Plus, she was the driving force behind launching a local morning talk show on WKYC called "Good C...

Chris Jansing has been named NBC News correspondent, effective immediately. Chris is a native of Fairport Harbor, Ohio, and graduated from Otterbein College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast journalism. She began her journalism career working both for newspapers and radio stations in Ohio and New York. Jansing will be based in Burbank and will contribute to all NBC News properties, including "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," "Today" and as a contributing anchor for MSNBC. Jansing joined NBC News in June 1998 as an anchor for MSNBC and has covered major national and international stories for NBC News. Most recently, Jansing reported live from Southern California on the devastating fires affecting the region. She played a vital role in MSNBC's "Super Tuesday" coverage throughout 2007 and anchored MSNBC's coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino. In addition, Jansing anchored MSNBC's "Ethical Edge," a series of awar...

America's got talent, but do you??? Casting for NBC's "America's Got Talent" show begins immediately in 13 cities: Orlando, Nashville, Charlotte, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, Brandon, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Cleveland is not included in the tour, but if you can travel to one of the nearby sites, you just may have a shot at the big time. Producers are looking for specialty acts such as dance groups, opera singers, acrobats, impersonators, kids groups and more. Send an email with your city and talent in the subject line (ex. New York-acrobats) to agt3talent@gmail.com and include the following must-have information: name, phone numbers, description of talent, interesting facts about yourself, a photo, city you will audition in (one of the 13 above) and time slot you would like (between 9a and 6p) and you must include a video link or mp3 of you performing. Applicants without a video link will not be considered. All other talent ...

We are only a year away now from the federally mandated switch from analog to all digital broadcasting in the United States. As you know, TV viewers who get their signals via "over the air" will be forced to switch to a cable or satellite subscription, pay for a converter box or trash that old TV and buy a new digital one. Many are going tosimply opt for trashing the old set and buying a new one. And this is where the problem lies. Each of those sets is a toxic mess waiting to happen...with several pounds of lead and mercury...that could contaminate soil and water supplies if they are not properly disposed. Today there are very few options, other than landfills for these sets. Congress hasn't been thinking much about this problem after deciding to impose this mandate on consumers. Nor do they seem to care. We have yet to see a serious program offered by legislators that addresses this issue or provides serious funding for recycling programs. A few companies, like Sony, ar...

The deadline for entry into this year's Lower Great Lakes Emmy Awards is now Friday, February 8th at 5 PM. You can visit www.nataslgl.org to download your entry forms on-line and to find more information. Also on Tuesday, February 9th, the chapter will host three simultaneous luncheons in Cleveland, Indianapolis and Toledo called "Digital TV - 365 Days and Counting; The Future of Television in Amercia." Keynote speaks from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) will be in each market. Watch the NATAS website for more information next week.

The following is a complete schedule of Indians games to be aired on WKYC this season: WKYC INDIANS BASEBALL SCHEDULE 2008 *Note all games outside of primetime will have 30 pregame shows and postgame wrapups Monday, March 31 vs. Chicago @ 3:05 (home) Sunday, April 13 vs. Oakland @ 1:05 (home) Sunday, April 20 vs. Minnesota @ 2:10 (away) Sunday, April 27 vs. New York @ 1:05 (home) Sunday, May 4 vs. Kansas City @ 1:05 (home) Tuesday, May 6 vs. New York @ 7:05 (away) Sunday, May 18 vs. Cincinnati @ 1:15 (away) Sunday, May 25 vs. Texas @ 1:05 (home) Friday, June 6 vs. Detroit @ 7:05 (away) Tuesday, June 17 vs. Colorado @ 9:05 (home) Saturday, July 5 vs. Minnesota @ 7:10 (away) Sunday, July 13 vs. Tampa Bay @ 1:05 (home) Sunday, July 27 vs. Minnesota @ 1:05 (home) Sunday, August 3 vs. Minnesota @ 2:10 (away) Monday, August 25 vs. Detroit @ 7:05 (away) Sunday, August 31 vs. Seattle @ 1:05 (home) Monday, Sept.1 vs. Chicago @ 7:05 (home) Saturday, Sept. 20 vs. Detroit @ 7:05 (home) Monday, Sep...

We were the first to tell you about this last week on the Director's Cut Blog...and now here are the official details: CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Indians, SportsTime Ohio and WKYC-TV3 announced the 2008 Tribe TV schedule. All of the games on the two networks will be televised in High Definition. (NOTE: This does not include the Spring Training games.) SportsTime Ohio will television 141 total Tribe games on cable/satellite (133 regular season games and 8 spring training games). WKYC-TV3 will air 20 games as the flagship station of the Indians Over-the-Air network. Fox Sports National will televise 8 games during the regular season. The Indians will continue to be among the industry leaders in High Definition broadcasts as all 153 network broadcasts will be in HD. (All 133 STO games and all 20 games on Channel 3). STO will begin their season with eight telecasts from Spring Training, beginning March 5th at 1:05 p.m. when the Tribe plays host to the Atlanta Braves. STO's spring t...

Today marks the one year anniversary since the launch of "The Director's Cut Blog" here on WKYC.COM. It's been quite a year as we close in on our first 100,000 page views thanks to big stories like the SuccessTech Academy Shootings, a flash flood at the station, a visit by NBC Nightly News anchorman Brian Williams and tons of stories about what goes on behind the scenes here at WKYC - including exclusive in-studio photos. We were quoted & we were criticized in great on-line media like "Ohio Media Watch," "NewsBlues," "Cleveland.com," "TV Newsday," "Shop Talk" & others. We brought you great "Where Are They Now?" features on former WKYC employees Terry Burhans, Lisa Colagrossi, Connie Dieken, Art Edwards, Doreen Gentzler, Amy Murphy (Hasten), Eileen Korey, Marshall McPeek, Joe Mosbrook, Dawn Stensland and Donna Terrell Our popular "Get to Know Team 3" offered you inside information on several ...

This month, the "Director's Cut Blog" touched base with former WKYC reporter Joe Mosbrook. Although semi-retired, Joe continues to be one of our favorite, traditional journalists whose high integrity for the product and booming voice will forever have a place in the history of WKYC. I can't help but remember Joe standing in the snowy Ashtabula field in 1981 after our chopper at the time "Newshawk 3" went down and flipped over in near blizzard conditions. There was a calm and collected reporter and his photographer, Dave Hollis, doing a matter of fact feature on themselves. Although Joe doesn't mention it below, it was certainly one of the memorable moments in local television most folks working here still remember about Joe's career. (Watch the video below) We asked Joe to share, in his own words, a little about his past, present and future. THE PAST: I joined WKYC TV & Radio in March of 1967 and formally retired in April of 1998, although I cont...

From: Mike in Cleveland Q: Hi Frank...Love the Director's Cut Blog on wkyc.com. The old clips are great! Heard that the Indians were going all HD on STO, do you know if that's true? How come we see HD Indians games on channel 3, and an HD newscast, but all the Indians highlights within the HD newscast are seemingly SD, and really bad SD at that? Any way to record and edit HD highlights like they do on Sportscenter? A: I love these multiple part questions...Thanks for the comments. Glad you enjoy the blog. I'm always working on new ideas. Regarding STO - yes, all Indians games (home & away) this season will be done in high definition according to Pat Kilkenney, SportsTime Ohio Vice President of Program Acquisition/ Executive Producer. Viewers having been asking - and now you shall receive. Finally, the bad quality video is a result of us not having the capability "yet" to record massive amounts of video in high definition for our newscasts. This is coming, b...

From: Calvin in Akron Q: I just subscribed to high definition cable and the HD channels look great. But I notice a very thin line of static at the top of the screen on the SD (standard definition) channels, what is that? A: That "static" has been there for a long time. It's a data stream of information your TV reads for closed captioning and time codes transmitting by a broadcast TV station. In the analog TV days, this information was usually hidden by your TV set which didn't quite display every line, so you likely never noticed it. When SD programs are viewed on a HD set, you see the entire SD picture - and the line with the information. Check in your new HDTV's control setup for an overscan feature (sometimes called "zoom"). You can use this to crop your picture a bit and eliminate this "static" if it bothers you. Keep in mind, if you start watching a lot of HD programming afterwards, you may want to switch this back. Otherwise, you might lo...

Starting today, the Director's Cut blog has made some minor changes to where you can find some of our features. This is being done to allow local WKYC features to occupy the main page of our blog including "Where Are They Now," "Classic Channel 3 Promos," "Meet the NBC All Stars" and my own commentary regarding WKYC and our transition to all digital broadcasting. However, we have found there is also tremendous interest in the daily programming we offer from news to upcoming guests to watercooler talk. Thus, the "Director's Insider" feature about NBC Programming has been expanded to now include information from other highly popular WKYC shows including "Montel Williams," "Rachel Ray," "Ellen DeGeneres," "Dr. Phil" and "Entertainment Tonight." The "Director's Notebook" is a new addition to the blog that features stories from around the internet regarding WKYC, NBC, Gannett, Hig...

CLEVELAND -- Monday morning, Comedian Frank Caliendo and his many personalities stopped by "Channel 3 News Today" and provided some laughs. Frank has been busy lately appearing on the new TBS series "Frank TV." Whether he's lampooning the President or sending up the hottest celebs, you never know who Frank will show up as next. Frank's new show is shot in front of a live audience, but also includes segments filmed at a variety of locations. Everything from current events to icons of the past is fair game for this comic chameleon. Among the impressions he performed for WKYC viewers this morning included John Madden, President Bush and Robin Williams. VIDEO FEATURE: To watch a clip of Frank on Channel News Today (1/14/08): CLICK HERE WEB LINKS : Frank's Website: www.frankcaliendo.com Frank TV on TBS: www.tbs.com/shows/franktv

With the transition of television from analog to digital only a year away, many of you have questions about how all this will work. We're here to take you through it step by step. The Director's Cut Blog , WKYC.COM and Gannett Broadasting have put together a useful guide that will help you better understand what the transition means for you and how it will work. It's an excellent resource you will want to check out and let others know about. ---->>CLICK HERE FOR ACCESS

This is a group of classic Channel 3 Promos from around 1994, courtesy of the "Director's Cut" archives. This latest batch includes cameos from Judd Hambrick, Connie Dieken, Art Edwards, Jodine Costanzo, GM Bill Scaffide, Liz Habib, Jim Donovan, Eileen McShea and Jon Laufman among others. Our special thanks to WKYC Editor Sarah Montgomery for helping us get the videos to the web. Feel free to post your own comments and share your memories. Just click on the videos to watch. If you can't see the video on this page, CLICK HERE

Host Howie Mandel can be seen on NBC's hit show "Deal or No Deal" where he helps contestants beat the banker and win up to a million dollars in cold hard cash. Howie Mandel's versatile career has encompassed virtually all aspects of the entertainment spectrum, ranging from television to film and stage. From his work on the Emmy Award-winning "St. Elsewhere" to the international (and also Emmy-nominated) "Bobby's World," Mandel has become a mainstay of the American comedy scene. Mandel started his career on a dare during a trip to Los Angeles in 1979. He was at the legendary Comedy Store on amateur night and was coaxed by his friends to get up and try his luck. As fate would have it, there was a producer in the crowd who immediately hired him to appear on the comedy game-show "Make Me Laugh." His appearance on the show led to talk-show appearances, a stint as Diana Ross' opening act and, eventually, to the television series "S...

The Golden Globes ceremony won't look the same this year. The traditional ceremony has been canceled and will be replaced with a news conference format. The move came after striking writers threatened to picket the event. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which owns the Globes, says it's disappointed viewers won't see their favorite stars celebrate the achievements in movies and TV, but at least winners will be announced on the ceremony's original date. The Association had been working on reaching an agreement on a revamped format with NBC, which is to air the show this coming Sunday. The award show regrouped when actors threatened to boycott the ceremony rather than cross the writers' picket lines. The Golden Globes ceremony provides the unofficial kickoff to the Hollywood awards season, and has served as an informal bellwether to the Academy Awards. VIDEO FEATURE To watch a package on the Golden Globes: CLICK HERE Courtesy: The Associated Press and NBC

As you know, the annual Consumer Electronics Show is underway in Las Vegas featuring the latest and coolest new gadgets and technology. Some of the best features of the show are the presentations given by both manufacturers and broadcasters. The CES is offering a videocast podcast portal from this year's show that is well worth checking out: ---->>CLICK HERE TO ACCESS Video Feature To watch video about the latest gadgets at CES: CLICK HERE

The battle over business for the new digital to analog converter boxes just ramped up today as EchoStar (owner of Dish Network) announced its plans to offer two new digital-to-analog converter boxes at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The boxes will be distributed in anticipation of the Federal Communications Commission's requirement that all full-power broadcasters cease the transmission of their analog signal by Feb. 17, 2009. EchoStar's TR-40 over-the-air, digital-to-analog converter allows analog TVs to receive digital over-the-air broadcasts and comes with an onscreen setup wizard for easy installation. Other features include up to a seven-day electronic programming guide (EPG), program search, parental locks and VCR auto-tune timers. The box will be sold under both the EchoStar and Sling Media, Inc. brand names for $39.99 at retail, and can be purchased via the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Digital-to-Analog Converter Bo...

LOS ANGELES -- Dr. Phil has been criticized for visiting Britney Spears when she was in the hospital over the weekend and his plans to talk about issues surrounding that visit on his show Tuesday. Bending to public pressure over his proposed Spears intervention show, Dr. Phil has now canceled the program scheduled for tomorrow, according to managing editor Harry Levin at TMZ.com. In a statement on the Dr. Phil site, he said, "As was widely reported this weekend, at the request of concerned family members, I visited Britney Spears in the hospital. The details of that visit will, of course, remain private. We had planned to tape a Dr. Phil Now show today, focusing not on the tabloid side of Britney's latest problems, but instead on the very serious issues surrounding this case." The statement goes on, "Clearly, it is not just Britney's family struggling to find a way to protect adult children who cannot be ordered or compelled to seek help. Because the Spears situ...

From: Jim in Kent Q: I first want to commend you and WKYC for informing the public about HDTV and the changes in television that we are going through over the past months. I have some questions about how the switch to digital will affect WKYC and other television stations. Will the digital signal be any clearer/stronger when the analog signal is finished? Will it cost the station any less to broadcast digitally? What will you do with your analog transmitter? And with the recent rule change by the FCC, do you think any stations in the Cleveland/Akron area will drop their analog transmissions in 2008? A: Thanks for your letter. I'm glad the information has been helpful to you. Let's take a look at each of your questions - First, digital definitely offers better picture quality because the resolution is much higher than analog tv. Plus, most people forget about the audio. With digital, we can offer superior 5.1 (or higher) surround sound which is another attractive feature to many...

Media trade publications are reporting today that Landmark Communications is putting its high profile network, "The Weather Channel," on the auction block - and NBC is licking its lips. The New York Times says, "Among the Weather Channel's suitors, NBC is expected to compete aggressively, people involved in the auction said. NBC has a weather-related unit called NBC Weather Plus, a joint project of NBC News and NBC affiliates, but the venture has never taken off. NBC Weather Plus includes a cable channel, frequently available only on digital cable platforms and high on the dial, along with a Web site, weatherplus .com ." "The Weather Channel" has a staff of 800 employees; 125 are meteorologists. This could make for an interesting marriage between NBC and a network that at one time was seen as a fledgling network that was not going to make it. But it did and has remained as one of the last remaining independent cable networks not goggled up by big medi...

From: William in University Heights Q: I just purchased a new HD TV with a digital tuner. I also own several older sets and get excellent reception through a household antenna. However, despite using exactly the same antenna, the reception on my new digital TV is so poor that many stations can not be viewed. This includes both VHF stations, such as WKYC Channel 3, and UHF stations. Can you explain why? I will be very disappointed not to be able to view your station. Although it is often reported that viewers should be able to receive the same stations on digital or analog TVs using normal antennas, my experience shows this is not true. A: I turned to WKYC Engineer Dave Kushman who handles our transmitter facilities to answer this one - "The fact that you are not receiving any stations well VHF or UHF is telling me you have an antenna issue. DTV and analog reception are totally different. A weak, snowy signal or one with reflections (ghost) will be viewable on an analog set but a D...