Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

February sweeps are over...and WKYC retains its #1 position at 11 PM. WKYC beats both 2nd place WEWS and 3rd place WOIO by more than a ratings point. February was huge for WKYC and WKYC.COM - thanks in part to better ratings for NBC programming, the Democractic Presidential Debate and several significant snow events that drew viewers to both platforms. We set an all time high with vistors to our website...with near 16,000 on-line viewers of the Presidential Debate alone and over a 1,000 simultaneous chatters during the debate itself. Other bright spots for WKYC include a 50% increase in our 6 AM morning news broadcast with anchors Mark Nolan and Abby Ham. Also, our weekend mornings, weekend nights and 7 pm weeknight broadcasts continue to do well in the ratings.

Updated @ 5 PM After a single airing on NBC, "quarterlife" has been pulled and will likely show up later on this season on co-owned Bravo. The off-internet series from Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick delivered a 1.3/4 for its 10p network debut, placing it third in the time period earlier this week. The show did not air in Cleveland on Tuesday because we carried the Democratic Presidential Debate. WKYC will now air "Law Order" Saturday Night at 10 pm instead where it was scheduled to air here. Starting next week, NBC will fill the hour with "Deal or No Deal," and thereafter with repeats of "Law & Order."

Time Warner Cable is rearranging their digital cable line up so that channel line up positions will be consistent across all of their NE Ohio Systems. This is good news for Weather Plus! ALL Time Warner systems will now carry Weather Plus on Channel 372. This is effective March 4

VIDEO FEATURES: To watch Mayor Jackson's State of the City 2/28/08: CLICK HERE To watch the Q&A session with the Mayor 2/28/08: CLICK HERE ---------------- WKYC will broadcast Mayor Frank Jackson's "State of the City" speech live on Thursday, February 28th. Coverage will start with Channel 3 News at Noon anchored by Barbara Gauthier. We will then join the speech at around 12:22 PM live from the Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Centre Hotel where the Mayor will bring us to update on the state of Cleveland as we head into this new year and plenty of issues still facing the region. WKYC's Senior Political Correspondent Tom Beres will be joined by expert analysts for coverage you won't find anymore else. That's Thursday, February 28th, beginning at noon on Channel 3 News.

Here is another photogallery of pictures taken on the actual day of the Democratic Presidential Debate at Cleveland State University on 2/26/08. Click on your browser "refresh" to view pictures if you don't see them playing. Photos courtesy: WKYC Production Manager, Al Wohl

The following are pictures taken the day before the Democratic Presidential Debate from the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University. The photogallery includes setup preparation for both WKYC broadcasts and NBC Nightly News. Click on your browser "refresh" to view pictures if you don't see them playing. Photos Courtesy: WKYC Production Manager, Al Wohl

The WKYC Information Center's Social Media Group hosted "Meet the Bloggers" in the WKYC newsroom last night during the Debate. You can see their work at http://www.meetthebloggers.net . Meet the Bloggers (MTB) is one of the most influential political voices for Northeast Ohio in the blogosphere. The group interviews political and community influentials, streams podcasts and blogs prolifically. MTB has interviewed dozens of influentials, ranging from Brad Whitehead of the Cleveland Foundation and The Fund for our Economic Future to Cleveland Councilman and congressional candidate Joe Cimperman. They covered the debate, wrote about WKYC's strategy in debate coverage, met Dave Lougee who is the President of Gannett Broadcasting and interviewed News Director Rita Andolsen and Producer Jon Adkins. If you'd like to check out how they handled the Debate from WKYC (and from the Debate's "Spin Room"), please click on the following blogger links: Writes Like S...

As promised, I wanted to share with you some thoughts and timelines of how things are unfolding today - one of the most important days to WKYC and Channel 3 News. VIDEO FEATURES: Package #1: Behind the scenes of the debate: CLICK HERE Package #2: Four minutes with Brian Williams: CLICK HERE Package #3: Hardball's Chris Matthews at the debate: CLICK HERE The Democratic Presidential Debate is set...and now the countdown has begun... 2:30 PM: Arrived at WKYC to find a newsroom packed full of anchors, reporters and photographers, news manager and other personnel assemblying with final instructions and a snack to take along for lunch. 2:48 PM: We begin preparing the final rundowns for the 6 & 7 PM news broadcasts.. The producers have been hard at work for the past several hours putting the content of the shows together. Now, the directors do our magic in marking our rundowns with camera shots, getting them to the printer and distributed to the crews both here and at Cleveland State....

NOTE: Because WKYC is airing the Democratic Presidential Debate, the premiere of "quarterlife" for Cleveland viewers will be Saturday Night at 10 PM. The creators of the classic 80s TV drama "thirtysomething" are back with another series that's breaking new ground. The fact that the show "quarterlife" focuses on twenty-something's is not unique, but how the show wound up television is. "quarterlife" started its life last year on its own social networking website. Eight-minute webisodes about the lives of six twenty-somethings appeared on the site twice each week. Now those webisodes are full blown episodes. "The show and the social network are really about what it means to take hold of your own life. To be a passionate, creative person who has dreams," explained co-creator Marshall Herskovitz. "quarterlife"'s biggest dreamer is Dylan, played by Bitsie Tulloch. The aspiring writer maintains a video blog that shares ...

Join WKYC every weekday at 4:30 for the brand new "WKYC CommuterCast." It's a five minute look at the very latest traffic and weather conditions around Northeast Ohio before you leave the office. Plus, you can chat live with us about the current conditions or with others getting ready to travel. WKYC Weather Plus Meteorologists AJ Colby and Bruce Kalinowski will help you smooth out your ride home with the WKYC CommuterCast. It begins at weekdays at 4:30 PM exclusively on WKYC.COM. Click here to watch or chat live

We are now just hours away from the Democratic Presidential Debate as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama get ready to woo undecided Ohio voters for the March 4th primary election. NBC's Tim Russert sums it up best each election: "It's all about Ohio, Ohio, Ohio." As we have mentioned in an earlier article, our WKYC Production Manager Al Wohl has been heavily involved in the planning and execution stages of Channel 3's expanded coverage Tuesday Night. Al shares some thoughts with us on WKYC.com and provides us a photogallery of pictures he took. To read the article: CLICK HERE

Because WKYC is airing the "2008 Democratic Presidential Debate" on Tuesday, February 26th, we've been forced to preempt "The Biggest Loser" and the premiere of "quarterlife." Instead these shows will be shown on Saturday, March 1st: 8-10pm "The Biggest Loser" (from Tuesday) 10-11pm "quarterlife" (premiere from Tuesday) These programs will preempt 3 repeat episodes of "Law & Order" on Saturday. We apologize for having to make these adjustments. If you have any questions, you can e-mail our programming department: programming@wkyc.com

Tuesday Night, we will be blogging about the Democratic Presidential Debate as it unfolds here in Cleveland. We'll do a timeline of what we observe and what we do behind the scenes in preparation for the debate itself. Channel 3's expanded coverage will include: Channel 3 News at 6 NBC Nightly News at 6:30 (live from Cleveland) Channel 3 News at 7 Channel 3 News Debate Special from 8 - 9 PM NBC Debate 9 - 10:30 PM Channel 3 News Debate Special from 10:30 - 11 PM Channel 3 News at 11 PM It should be a fun night.. especially since we could have a major snowstorm involved as well.

WKYC Weather Plus Meteorologist Betsy Kling officially announced on the air Friday that she and her husband, Paul Thomas, are expecting a baby this July. For Betsy and Paul, this will be their first child and are so excited about their "long range" forecast. Betsy says, "Those of you who have been watching lately may have seen some changes. The longer range forecast into this summer is calling for warmer weather and a baby. Yup, I am expecting. You are 'officially' hearing it here first. Paul and I are very excited and will be welcoming our next major life change in mid to late July." Best wishes to the future mom and dad! To send Betsy & Paul your good wishes, their email addresses are: betsykling@wkyc.com and paulthomas@wkyc.com

Channel 3 News presented its first ever package shot, edited and aired in HD Friday Night at 11 with a story about a local man from Wayne County who is heading to Alaska to participate in the Iditarod in March at age 58. Because most of our video is shot with standard defintion cameras in a 16:9 mode, this package was remarkable to see in true high definition. Hopefully you were able to tune in. If not, you can at least watch the package right now below. Look for more packages all done in true high definition coming soon. VIDEO FEATURE To watch Paul Thomas' package: CLICK HERE

Looks like the hot, sexy love party is over for the NBC show "Las Vegas." TV Guide is reporting today that the network has decided to pull the plug on the series after its 5 season run. Apparently, last week's episode was the last - and surprisingly the finale - for the show which had not performed well in the ratings for the network on Friday nights. According to TV Guide editor Michael Ausiello, "NBC had hoped this season's cast shake-up - Thomas Magnum replacing Sonny Corleone - might re-energize the show, but instead, it led to a double-digit ratings decline. Of course, the Friday time slot didn't help." So no more from Sin City on NBC. Hope you enjoyed the hot ride while it lasted.

Spring training is underway for the Cleveland Indians down in Winterhaven, Florida, and WKYC and STO are there. Most our promotional production team is hanging out with the team and shooting brand new elements you will be seeing through the upcoming season in High Definition - both on WKYC and SportsTime Ohio. This process starts well before each season. Plenty of hard work goes into the planning stage, the coordination with the team players and the post production that will follow once the footage is shot. Channel 3 staffers "Mac" Mahafee, Steve Pullen, Greg Golya and several other folks involved are spending tedious hours making sure all the footage looks just right through perfect lighting, the best angles, and capturing the true personality of each player on tape. As graphic systems become more and more sophisticated, we are able to have our in house production team develop a presentation that will "WOW" you when you see their final work on the air this season. ...

by Frank Macek The last few weeks have been quite busy here at the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center. The whole station is involved in a new project called "The Information Center" we'd like to share with you. WKYC has become the latest of the Gannett Broadcasting stations to convert to this company wide iniative - a whole new way of bringing news and information to our viewers and readers on-line. Earlier this year, each staff member at WKYC was asked to consider joining groups that would be responsible for a component of our on-line presence. These duties would be in addition to an employee's regular duties as the tv industry enters a new reality of multi-tasking. We were not told which groups to join or how many to participate in. That decision was left to the individual who could join those that interested them most. The response was tremendous and met with enthusiasm by most employees who realize they have a little time in their day to contribute to the station in no...

A Chat with Gannett's Dave Lougee - The new head of Gannett's 23-station TV group says big changes in the media marketplace are demanding big changes in the ways that stations do business. At Gannett, that means more AEs and news producers on the street, close cooperation with the newspapers on the Web, mobile broadcasting and an interactive relationship with viewers. In this interview with TVNEWSDAY Publisher Kathy Haley, Lougee talks about other parts of the Gannett strategy—stations and newspapers working together on the Web to exploit their combined 100-market footprint, a joint venture with Tribune that is creating new community sites, preserving extra digital spectrum for mobile broadcasting and developing a "true" interactive relationship with viewers. It's a fascinating insight into what the Director's Cut Blog has been telling you for the past year about how we see the future of TV. To read the interview: CLICK HERE Courtesy: TVNewsday.com

WKYC will broadcast the "10th Congressional District Debate" hosted by the City Club of Cleveland on Tuesday, February 19th. Coverage will start with Channel 3 News at Noon anchored by Barbara Gauthier. We will then join the debate at around 12:15 PM live from the Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Centre in downtown Cleveland where five candidates will share the stage including incumbent Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, Barbara Anne Ferris, Mayor Thomas O'Grady and Rosemary Palmer - who are all running for this key position. WKYC's Senior Political Correspondent Tom Beres will be joined by expert analysts to discuss the first time in 12 years Kucinich faces real competition for the seat since his upset defeat of Republican Martin Hoke in 1996. That's Tuesday, February 19th, beginning with Channel 3 News at Noon.

NBC's newest show will attempt to settle a classic playground argument. "My Dad is Better Than Your Dad" will pit teams of kids and fathers against each other in a series of physical and mental challenges. The show is the latest offering from "Apprentice" and "Survivor" Creator Mark Burnett. "This is for ordinary Joes who just want to be a hero to their kid," he explained. In addition to the athletic events and quizzes there are also some icky "Fear Factor" elements. "My Dad is Better Than Your Dad" debuts tonight at 9 pm on WKYC, Channel 3. VIDEO FEATURE: To watch a sneak peek of "MY Dad Is Better Than Your Dad" - CLICK HERE

Sportstime Ohio, in partnership with WKYC, has launched a new blog called "From the Truck." Written by Emmy Award Winning Indians Director Pat Murray (pictured, right) and "Indians On Deck" Producer Jim Murphy, the blog will be a fun, behind the scenes look at their thoughts, stories, and happenings from the Indians TV crew this season. Some of it will be a little technical, but mostly it will be just fun... A chance for them to tell you how the show is going or how great the steaks are in Kansas City! This will be called "From the Truck" - from the folks who present to you the telecast of the show. It should be a great season on the field and we are equally looking forward to many success on your HD screen. So join Pat and Jim for the ride - it should be a great time! The "Director's Cut Blog" has added a link to our site on the right hand menu under "Favorite Sites" or CLICK HERE and bookmark the site. Go Tribe!

Special to the "Directors Cut" Blog by WKYC Production Manager Allen Wohl With Cleveland's Democratic Presidential Debate less than two weeks away preparations are underway for the night all eyes will be on Cleveland to see Senators Clinton and Obama face off in the nationally televised event. The WKYC-TV and Cleveland State University sponsored event will be broadcast live from 9-10:30 pm on Tuesday, February 26th on NBC and MSNBC and locally on WKYC, Channel 3. Other Presidential debates around the country had months to plan and prepare, but thanks to a still very tight race for the democrats this one will come together in a matter of weeks. Needless to say, those preparations are in high gear. A meeting was called Monday for the key players in the event including top executives from NBC News, WKYC-TV, Cleveland State University, Mayor Jackson's office, and the Ohio Democratic Party to get the ball rolling. The group toured the Wolstein Center, the site of the debat...

With the Writer's Strike finally ending, NBC has laid out its plans to introduce new episodes of its popular shows back into the mix. April 3: "My Name Is Earl" with one-hour episode April 10: "30 Rock," "The Office," "Scrubs" and "ER" April 15: "Law & Order: SVU" April 23: "Law & Order" "Medium" continues its current run and the network will announce plans for other series soon. In addition, NBC picked up two freshman dramas "Chuck" and "Life" as well as "Heroes" for the 2008-2009 season. NBC will re-launch all three series next year.

Special to the "Directors Cut" Blog by WKYC Reporter Jeff Maynor Older sets will no longer receive television without digital converters. The digital revolution in television transmission is still a year away, but the government is moving now to make sure viewers have no interruption in service. Effective February 17, 2009, older analog television sets will no longer receive over-the-air signals. These sets, that now receive television by rooftop antennas or rabbit ears, will need converters to receive digital transmissions. The converters are already available at retailers, including Wal-Mart, which has them on sale for $49.87. The federal government is providing $40 vouchers, a maximum of two per household, to defray the cost of the converters. Applications for the vouchers are available at retailers and on line. (See a link in our right hand menu). Eighty-six percent of U.S. households have cable TV or dish service and will not need a converter unless they have additional ...

The spotlight shines brightly on WKYC weeknight news anchor Romona Robinson in this edition of "Get to Know Team 3." Romona joined WKYC in March 1997 after anchoring the "Ten O'Clock News" on WUAB starting in January 1988. Since your blog jock sits right next to Romona in the newsroom, we thought it would be fun to ask her a few questions about some things we've always wanted to know. Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be on TV? Romona: I was six years old, sitting next to my Mom watching legendary anchorman, Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News. He was fascinating to watch, I thought. I told Mom that day, I liked his voice and his eyebrows were bushy and scary, but I wanted to read the news just like him. I remember her looking down at me smiling say, "Okay, but you'll have to get good grades and go to college." Q: Where else have you worked over the years, besides at the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center? Romona: I started my ...

Our good friend, Scott Rubens, at WUSA in Washington D.C. (another Gannett sister station to WKYC) lets us know that one of our former WKYC family members has joined their station. Brittany Morehouse worked here and for the Akron Canton News as a reporter. She is now at WUSA as a backpack journalist - someone who writes, shoots and edits their own materials. It's becoming a growing trend in the television industry as we wrote about several months ago. (To read the our original article: CLICK HERE ) To read more about Brittany's new role and what she is doing at WUSA, check out Scott's "Director's Chair" blog: CLICK HERE

As we first mentioned last night, Cleveland will become the home for the only Democratic presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as Decision 2008 comes down to the important March 4th Ohio primary. But why did both choose the NBC Network and Cleveland as their platform. Simply said, it's because of the importance of getting their important message for change to one of the most economically depressed cities in the country - and the fact that both candidates have great respect for NBC Nightly News Anchor Brian Williams and Meet the Press Moderator Tim Russert, who will moderate the debate. Although MSNBC's David Shuster made unhelpful comments on the air today about Mrs. Clinton's daughter, Chelsea - and has subsequently been suspended by NBC - we are confident the candidates will understand their presence at a Cleveland debate will not only help their cause, but our area as well. Both Williams and Russert offer fair, but tough questions. Unlike past deba...

CLEVELAND -- Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have accepted an invitation from NBC and Cleveland State University to debate in Cleveland on Tuesday, February 26th. This acceptance from Obama comes after announcing on Wednesday that he would focus his time in Ohio on meeting with voters and not debating. Hillary Clinton has been pushing for a debate since she and Obama essentially split the Super Tuesday vote. WKYC is helping to sponsor the event. NBC's Tim Russert and Brian Williams will moderate the event. NBC Nightly News will broadcast live from Cleveland the night of the debate. Dr. Michael Schwartz, Cleveland State University President, said the University was contacted Thursday. They were asked to accomodate the event and are very, very glad. President Schwartz said: "This is very important for Cleveland. It matters for the University a great deal as well. We will do anything we can to promote this region." He also believes this is...

We take you behind the scenes of Channel 3 News with a look at some of the big stories we are featuring during the month of February. This feature has been added to the menu at the right for easy, daily access. Preview of Upcoming Stories: None Currently The Stories That Have Already Aired: Aired 2/20/08 "Beside Bandits" - The Investigator, Tom Meyers, exposes criminals striking in what's supposed to be the safest of places... the hospital. Theft, assault and thousand of other cases are being investigated locally. Tom shows you just how easy it is to access patients and a way to protect yourself against these "Bedside Bandits". To watch the package: CLICK HERE Aired 2/18/08 "Faceblind" - Health Anchor Monica Robins reveals a rare medical mystery that leaves faces, blank. But others can never remember one. Even faces they've known since birth. The condition is called prosopagnosia, or face blindness. To watch the package: CLICK HERE Aired 2/14/08...

"Sex and The City" gave us the stories of four women on the rise in New York City. Now "Lipstick Jungle" brings us the stories of three New York women who've already made it. Brooke Shields plays a movie executive mom, Kim Raver's a married but lonely magazine executive, and Lindsay Price is a confidence-impaired fashion designer. "These characters are everywhere, but in New York, it's just more intense," said series creator Candace Bushnell. Bushnell wrote "Lipstick Jungle" as her follow up to "Sex and The City". The show debuts Thursday night at 10 PM on WKYC, Channel 3. VIDEO FEATURE: To watch a sneak peek of "Lipstick Jungle" - CLICK HERE

Channel 3 alumnist, Jonathan Murray, is taking Hollywood by storm and is credited with beginning this whole modern reality television craze that has taken over our television screens in recent years. Murray was one of the creative geniuses here at WKYC-TV who worked as a producer in the news department and was instrumental in developing the successful "Cleveland Challenge" series where Cleveland was compared to other cities. His work was always excellent according to those who worked with him, including WKYC's Scott Newell, who remembers him well. Scott says it was fairly easy to see he was going to be a production star just by watching his work here at WKYC. Scott recalls Murray was impressed by the PBS Series, "An American Family," first broadcast by PBS in 1973. In that series, the Loud family allowed cameras to document their everyday life for seven months, becoming perhaps the first "reality show" ever. From there, Murray would go on to co-create ...

In case you missed the show on Saturday, you can watch it online right now, or a historic KYW Special Report on the state of Lake Erie from 1964. Just follow the links provided below. As the high definition leader in locally produced programming in Northeast Ohio, WKYC is proud to showcase our region's most important natural resource in a year-long effort. Lake Erie: Beyond The Surface is a thirty-minute HD special that aired on Saturday, February 2nd, at 7pm, and was hosted by AM news anchor Mark Nolan. It is the third of four programs dealing with the fate and future of our great lake. Two hundred years ago, 9 American ships fought off a foreign invader on the waters of Lake Erie. Today, there's a new invasion, this one below the surface. Though the lake is significantly cleaner than in the late 1960's, there are serious concerns that we're sliding back into trouble. The dead zone is growing yearly, every eight months a new invasive species drops anchor, and water-hun...

Monday at 7 pm, Channel 3 News took an in-depth look at the start of the trial of Bobby Cutts Jr. - the man accused of killing his girlfriend, Jessie Marie Davis, and dumping her body and that of an unborn child in a Summit County park last year. Davis was last seen shopping at Acme Fresh Market, a local grocery store. Her mother reported her missing on June 13, 2007, when she found her 2-year-old grandson Blake home alone, with bleach spilled on the floor and furniture broken and overturned. In televised reports, Davis' mother reported that the 2-year old kept stating, "Mommy broke the table" and "Mommy's in the rug". At the time of her disappearance, Davis was a resident of Lake Township in Stark County, Ohio. A high-school friend of Cutts, Myisha Lynne Ferrell, was also later charged. VIDEO FEATURE: You can watch the special below from February 4, 2008: Segment 1 - CLICK HERE Segment 2 - CLICK HERE Segment 3 - CLICK HERE Segment 4 - CLICK HERE

From: Bob in Canton Q: Just looked at your website and saw that several people complained about not getting good reception on your HD TV broadcast channel. I live in Canton, Ohio and just got a new Panasonic TV a few days ago and was pleasantly surprised to find that not only could I get an excellent TV picture in HD, but also got your other news and weather channel. As a matter of curiosity, what frequencies are your HDTV stations being broadcasted on? I can't seem to find a good reference to HD frequencies for the Cleveland area. Keep up the good work! A: Hi Bob.. thanks for your comments. People have complaints mainly because they are receiving our signals via cable and sometimes the quality is being lost in the process. Others have been upset by our digital signal not getting out far enough to be received over the air. That's why we are working on an upgrade to move to digital channel 17 by February 17, 2009. This will greatly increase our coverage area. As to you 2nd quest...