Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

Ann Curry is the news anchor of NBC News' "Today," America's number one morning news program, and the anchor of "Dateline NBC," the network's award-winning newsmagazine. Curry joined the "Today" show in March of 1997, and in May 2005, she was named co-anchor of "Dateline NBC." Curry also regularly substitute anchors for "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams." Curry has distinguished herself in global humanitarian reporting frequently traveling to remote areas of the world for under-reported stories. During the span of one year, from March 2006 to March 2007, she traveled three times to Sudan to report on the violence and ethnic cleansing taking place in Darfur and Chad. While there, she provided in-depth reports focusing on the victims who have been caught in the deadly conflict of that region, and she also conducted exclusive interviews with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Chadian President Idrsiss Deby. In spring 200...

by Frank Macek In the 15 years I have been working at WKYC, Thursday had to be the one day where more breaking stories happened at once than I had ever seen. On September 11th, 2001, for example, we all focused on one big event. But, what happened on Thursday can quickly become a news staff's worst nightmare. Earlier in the day, we had the confirmation the Cavs acquired Shaquille O'Neal and a new day was beginning in Cleveland. This was a huge story in itself. Besides Lebron, Shaq is the biggest player to come to the Cavs in recent years. Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora unloaded both barrels on his Republican critics, denying any wrongdoing and getting a lot off his chest. We heard the bad news Farrah Fawcett lost her battle with cancer. Severe weather was breaking out across northeast Ohio. The first round of storms brought several thunderstorms warnings. The second round looked even more threatening as it headed across the lake and began to intensify just in time fo...

NBC has released the premiere dates for our new and returning series on Channel 3 this fall. 9/13: Football Night in America at 7 pm; NBC Sunday Night Football at 8:15 pm 9/14: The Jay Leno Show at 10 pm 9/15: The Biggest Loser at 8 pm 9/17: Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday at 8 pm; Parks and Recreation at 8:30 pm; The Office at 9 pm; Community at 9:30 pm (Community moves to Thursdays at 8 pm on October 8) 9/21: Heroes at 8 pm 9/23: Parenthood at 8 pm; Law & Order: SVU at 9 pm 9/25: Law & Order at 8 pm; Southland at 9 pm 9/26: Dateline NBC at 8 pm; Saturday Night Live at 11:30 pm 9/28: Trauma at 9 pm 10/15: 30 Rock at 9:30 pm

Here are two of our brand new Channel 3 News promos and our connection to the people of our community.

The Nielsen Company reported Wednesday that 2.1 million American households, or 1.8% of the U.S., still could not receive digital television signals through the week ending June 21st. This is an improvement of 400,000 homes since the week of the June 12th digital television transition. In the Cleveland/Akron/Canton market the number fell to 38,276 households from nearly 55,000 prior to June 12th. Still, this number represents 2.51% of all local viewers who are not receiving digital tv signals "over the air." One factor playing into these numbers may be these households can still get limited signals from low power tv stations that were not forced to switch to digital. Across the nation, Nielsen estimates 59% of the completely "unready" homes receive at least one low power station or a foreign station from Mexico or Canada that also remain analog. And in many markets, an average of 3.6 low power stations remain available to viewers who may be content with that limited...

LOS ANGELES - Ed McMahon, the loyal "Tonight Show" sidekick who bolstered boss Johnny Carson with guffaws and a resounding "Heeeee-ere's Johnny!" for 30 years, has died at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 86. Publicist Howard Bragman says McMahon died early Tuesday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his family. Bragman didn't give a cause of death, saying only that McMahon had a "multitude of health problems the last few months." Source: The Associated Press

Special to the Director's Cut By Glenn Farley A few miles from Washington's Interstate 90 there is a pristine waterfall feeding a crystal clear stream. At the base of that waterfall sits two old analog TVs and a computer monitor. Somebody picked this spot to throw them away. Friends of the Trail, a non-profit organization based out of North Bend, specializes in cleaning up debris and garbage left in the forest. Wade Holden runs the organization. He says they're finding lots of TVs dumped, and even shot up in places where people do target practice. "I'm sure there's lots of people doing the right thing. There's always going to be that small percentage of people who don't," said Holden. The Washington state Department of Ecology says 15 million pounds of TVs, monitors and other hazardous electronics were legitimately recycled so far this year, and still, people bring TVs out to the woods to dump them or shoot at them. F...

Our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of former WKYC graphic artist, Brian Chalmers, who passed away suddenly over the weekend. Brian spent a decade as part our WKYC family and was responsible for many of the daily news graphics you saw on Channel 3 News. As many of you know, Brian was also well known for his next generation work on the WMMS Buzzard logo that was originally brought to life by David Helton. NEW INFORMATION (6/24/09): The memorial service for Brian has been moved to the North Royalton Christian Church, 5100 Royalton Rd. (Rt.82) in North Royalton this Saturday, June 27, with visitation from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by the service at 1 p.m. The church is just west of State Rd. (Rt.94) on the north side of Royalton Rd. You can leave your thoughts on Brian's facebook page: CLICK HERE John Gorman has a nice tribute to Brian at the following link: CLICK HERE

Congratulations are in order to several of my WKYC colleagues, once again. WKYC-TV won four awards including a first place award for Television Spot News at the 2009 Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards at the Press Club of Cleveland. The event was held Friday evening at the Marriott Downtown Cleveland at Key Center. Here is a list of WKYC winners: 1. Television Spot News - First Place Paul Thomas, Mike Greene, Danielle Fink "Officer Owens Shot" 2. Television Spot News - Second Place Danielle Fink, Randy White, Brian Johnson "Fuel Tank Rescue" 3. Television General News - Second Place Dave Summers "At the End of the Day" 4. Television Human Interest - Second Place Monica Robins, Sarah Montgomery, Shane Snider "Sleep Deprivation"

It's finally over - the DTV transition. As many of you know, the entire engineering team of WKYC worked their butts off to make this happen on time and to give you a much improved "over the air" signal after years of us being stuck on digital channel 2. One of those actively involved in the construction of our new tower and transmitter, Dave Kushman, built a brand new webpage where you can see the behind the scenes. Our sincere thanks to Dave and everyone else involved in making WKYC the best television station in Cleveland. To visit Dave's page: CLICK HERE

CLEVELAND -- You see him every morning live on the Plaza in New York City. He is the NBC Today Show meteorologist. Al Roker took the show on the road Friday and returned home to Cleveland. Roker was live at the West Side Market and even took some time to talk with our own Mark Nolan and Hollie Strano. You might remember the days when Al was a meteorologist for WKYC.

Channel 3 is unveiling a new series of reports we are calling "Hero Central," where we spotlight people taking the initiative to help others in these trying times. Our first spotlight focuses attention on what you can do this weekend to help fight a growing problem in our communities: hunger. Nearly one in every four Ohio children is listed as "food insecure," which means they don't know where their next meal is coming from. Channel 3, in partnership with the Cleveland FoodBank, the Cleveland Indians and Giant Eagle, are helping to address the problem this weekend. Kids who bring a non-perishable food item to this Sunday's Indians game will get a free ticket to that night's game or tickets to any other game that falls on a "Kids Fun Day." Adults who bring non-perishable items to Monday's or Tuesday's game will be given the same offer. Giant Eagle will then match the amount of food donated and donate the entire amoun...

Special to the Director's Cut Blog By Mike O'Mara The dawn of digital television is getting a big reception today. But the big question is whether some TV owners will be getting any reception at all. History was made a few seconds after 10 a.m. this morning on WKYC TV3 as Michael Cardemone said, "Good morning! welcome to 'Good Company' today." Regular television programming in analog was suddenly over for WKYC. The digital age for television had truly begun. Thousands of old unconverted television sets went to a silent black screen across Northeast Ohio. For viewers who had not updated their old analog televisions with a digital converter box and a good antenna, life became challenging. The switchboard at WKYC lit up. Receptionist Katrina Thompson and a phone bank of engineers were ready for the outpouring of calls. "Hi. I am not getting any signals on my TV. What happened?", said one of the 300 callers. On Fulton Road, at the DTV Walk-In Help Center...

Your Director's Cut blogger, Frank Macek, will be a special guest Friday morning on the Wave Morning Show with Tom Murphy sometime between 8 and 8:30 a.m. We'll be talking about the important transition to all digital television that will occur later in the morning at 10 a.m. Tune in... 107.3, The Wave.

Starting Friday morning at 10 a.m., WKYC will become the "nightlight" station for the Cleveland, Akron and Canton market area after tomorrow's switch to all digital television. That means WKYC's analog signal on Channel 3 will remain on the air for 2 more weeks to help inform digital stragglers about what to do to receive digital TV. The programming on this channel will only be DTV transition and EAS information in English and Spanish. In other words, if a viewer can see this channel 3 analog signal on their TV, they will see and hear a message that they have a problem. The programming on the channel will help them understand what they need to do to receive a digital TV signal. Most of the Cleveland stations will flip the all digital switch at 10 a.m. Friday morning.

For those of you who love a sneak peak at "behind the scenes", here are a couple of pictures from today taken by my directing colleague Matt Babb. Romona Robinson hard at work preparing for tonight's 6pm newscast. You can see a bit of Jim Donovan in the background getting ready for tonight's sportscast: Producer Carrie Young and Director Frank Macek are discussing a couple of ideas for tonight's 11pm edition of Channel 3 News. Does this look staged?: To See More Photos: Photogallery 1 - CLICK HERE Photogallery 2 - CLICK HERE

Seems that the Jay Leno is already hitting the airwaves. Starting this week, NBC began airing a nightly promo for Jay's brand new show at exactly 10 p.m. This leads into the hour's regularly scheduled programming. The new promos have started simple and will get more involved the Director's Cut Blog has learned as the summer moves along - including mini-monologues to get the prime time audiences of NBC familar with Jay and his comedy. All this leads up to his scheduled debut on Monday, September 14th on NBC and WKYC. Be watching weeknights at 10 p.m. for the new promos!

By Frank Macek In their last report issued on Wednesday before the June 12th switch to all digital tv, Nielsen is reporting that 2.8 million homes across the nation are still unready for the transition with just two days to go. This number is nearly half what it was in February when President Obama requested a delay from February 17th to June 12th. Nielsen reports the number of homes "unready" fell from 5.8 million to 2.8 million by Wednesday. Nielsen also estimated that 36% of "unready" TV sets from November 2008 were ready as of the end of April. Most purchased a digital converter box (70%), while some subscribed to cable (20%) and the rest to satellite (10%). The Cleveland/Akron/Canton DMA is the 12th most "unready" market of the 56 metered by the ratings company. This translates into 3.67% or 55,965 homes that still need to take steps to receive all digital signals by Friday or lose their over-the-air (OTA) coverage. Nationwide, African Americans and H...

Our congratulations to our WKYC colleague, Tom Meyer for his first place finish in the Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters Awards announced Monday in Columbus. Tom's shocking story "Strip Search" won "Best Continuing Coverage" for a large market television station. The judges rated his coverage as a "well researched story, with good visuals and sound. Fantastic job not only obtaining the tape, but getting the woman's husband to speak. A shocking story." For a complete list of winners, you can visit the AP's website: CLICK HERE

Special to the Director's Cut By Mike O'Mara If you are watching Channel 3 using a trusty old TV with a rabbit ears antenna, time is running out. Friday June 12, we're switching to the new all digital TV format, along with all major TV stations across the country. John Gensel, a DTV expert at hhgregg is pumped up. "Its finally here, it's the switch over we've all been waiting for and we're finally moving from analog into digital." But Gensel warns that thousands of people in the Cleveland area are still unprepared for the end of analog when those old sets that have no converter box and no digital antenna suddenly go to hash instead of video. On Cleveland's near west side, community activists say that several thousand people could be out of luck when DTV takes effect. Irma Colon runs the DTV walk in center at Lin's Omni Square on Fulton Road. "Honestly, I thought I would be done with my job in a month", Colon said, "but I think I...

By Frank Macek Bad news continues for U.S. media companies as ad spending fell 12% in the first quarter of 2009 according to a new report from Nielsen. All sectors of the media declined $3.8 billion dollars compared to the first three months of 2008, including sales on the web. Spanish language cable tv, cable tv, internet and network tv fared the best with losses of less than 5% year to year...while national newspaper, spot tv for smaller markets, B-to-B magazines and local Sunday supplements lost at least 25% of their business. Local television for larger markets was down 15.6% That was actually worse than local newspapers or spot radio. Some bright spots include an increase in spending on African American television which grew 7.9%. Direct response advertisements also increased 14% thanks to spending from Heat Surge Heaters, Snuggie Blankets, Rosetta Stone Computer Software and Video Professor Computer Software. Other increases include quick service restaurants (McDonald's, Wend...

Finally, the last week of analog broadcasting has arrived for television stations as the "big switch" will occur this Friday, June 12th. The time of the switch will vary by stations, but must be completed by midnight Friday. For those "over the air" watchers who have not taken steps to make your old sets DTV ready, you need to get a converter box and new digital antenna by THIS Friday. The government still offers two, $40 coupons per households to be used toward the purchase of a new box. This little box attaches to your old TV set and will begin picking up the new digital TV signals over the air. Cable and satellite subscribers do not have to do anything. For those of you who already have a DTV converter box, you will also need to take action this Friday. You will need to use the "rescan" or "auto scan" feature on your converter boxes (usually a menu option under "setup" on your converter box remote control). This "rescan" wi...

Here's our new on-air promo for Channel 3 News at 11 PM with Romona Robinson and the new "Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. It's worth staying up late for!

Congratulations to my colleagues at WKYC for a total of 17 Emmy Award Nominations from last night's Lower Great Lakes Emmy Award Nomination party (held in Cleveland at Fat Fish Blue). The following are categories the station was nominated in: Channel 3 News at 6 : Romona Robinson, Rita Andolsen (News Director) Channel 3 News Today : Rita Andolsen (News Director) Channel 3 News Weekend Morning Show : Matthew Babb, Caitlin Kollar, Jeff Maynor, Julie Ocepek, Jamillah Riase, Kim Wheeler Investigative Reporting : Sugarcreek Slaughter - Tom Meyer Spot News : Willoughby South Lockdown - Dave Summers Breaking News : Burke Plan Crash - Romona Robinson, Danielle Fink, Kim Wendel General Assignment within 24 hours : Winter Rescue - Dave Summers General Assignment no time limit : Secret Weapon - Tom Meyer, Tom Genovese Continuing Coverage : Strip Search - Tom Meyer, Brandi Paulson, Tom Genovese Politics/Government : City Hall Nepotism - Tom Meyer, Sarah Montgomery Weather Newscast : Betsy Klin...

As part of the WKYC Information Center, several of our staff members are doing a little bloggin' of their own. Here is another new blog to check out when you get a little web surfing time. Monica's Daily Dose - WKYC Senior Health Correspondent and Noon & 7 PM news anchor Monica Robins blogs about the world of health and medicine. For more blogs from the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center: CLICK HERE Many of our staff members also have profiles on Facebook. You can sign up for a free account and join our fan page to interact with many of us online about the station and the news stories we cover. On Facebook: CLICK HERE On Twitter: CLICK HERE

For those of you who love a sneak peak at "behind the scenes", here are a couple of pictures from today taken by various WKYC staffers. Abby Ham with local National Spelling Bee contestant Anamika Veeramani of North Royalton on the morning show: Channel 3 News live truck having a bad day: Eric Mansfield and Betsy Kling working at their desks before the 7 pm broadcast:

I know there has been a lot of interest in our new tower facility as we get ready to switch to Digital Channel 17 next Friday. It was a big day at WKYC today as our brand new digital antenna was officially raised into place. The antenna is a 10,000 pound piece of equipment that will be beaming new digital signals to your tv set very, very soon. As you have heard, we have been building a brand new tower to hold both antennas for WKYC and WVIZ. Stay tuned for more on this next week as we get set to flip the switch next Friday, June 12th at 10 a.m.

Bring kid friendly food to Progressive Field on June 14th and receive a free kids ticket! It's part of our Kid's Fun Food Drive as we help the community during these trying times.

Special to the Director's Cut By Kristen Dahlgren Around the country, the countdown is on. But in less than 10 days, this won't be just a test. At midnight on June 12th the era of analog TV ends for good, broadcasters will only be sending digital signals. And while call centers are now flooded with questions on the conversion, and even after years of preparation and Congress pushing back the deadline from this February to June, experts say millions still aren't ready. "The estimates right now are that maybe three million households or so that are not yet prepared. And these are estimates so there's no registry of where these people live and we wont know until there's an analog shutoff on June 12th," said FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. For many, these are confusing times. "I've heard people talking about it, some people are giving up television, it just seems like a big hassle to them," said consumer Cheryl Brennan. B...

The Director's Cut Blog has learned that the new "Jay Leno Show" will debut on Monday, September 14th according to sources at NBC. That is one full week before the official launch of the Fall TV season. On the final episode of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" the host reminded viewers not to get too teary-eyed during his last stint behind the desk he has occupied for 17-years by reminding them that he would be back on NBC this fall with his new venture "The Jay Leno Show" (Monday - Friday, 10:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. ET) on NBC and WKYC. During his final bow as the host of "The Tonight Show" Leno signed off saying, "Thank you for watching. Please give Conan as much support as you've given me throughout the years. Good night. We'll see you in September." Leno, recently named America's Favorite TV Personality by the 2009 Harris Poll, announced in December of 2008 that while he will be leaving "The Tonight Show" he wi...

Monday night's premiere telecast of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" generated "Tonight's" highest metered-market household rating for a Monday edition in more than four years and the seventh-highest Monday in the 17 years since Jay Leno began his run as "Tonight" host in May 1992, according to in-home viewing figures from the 56 local markets metered by Nielsen Media Research. The Monday debut of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" averaged a 7.1 rating, 17 share in metered-market households, "Tonight's" strongest "overnight" results since the January 24, 2005 telecast featuring a special tribute to Johnny Carson. Last night's 7.1 rating in the metered markets is up 82 percent versus the "Tonight" second-quarter average of a 3.9 rating in the 56 local markets metered by Nielsen. Versus his final telecast of "Late Night" on February 20, Conan was up last night by 173 percent (...

With less than two weeks left until the June 12 Digital Television switch, the FCC has announced that the following locations will offer walk in antenna and converter box assistance. Viewers also have the option to call 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) or enter their ZIP Code at www.dtv.gov to be referred to an FCC contractor to provide in-home assistance with converter boxes and antennas. The walk in center contact number is (216) 323-3981. HOURS FOR ALL LOCATIONS: Now until June 19: Monday - Sunday, Noon - 8 p.m. June 20 - July 31: Friday 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. LOCATIONS: Lin's Omni Square 3167 Fulton Road Cleveland, OH 44109 (Bilingual) Five Points Community Center 813 E. 152nd Street Cleveland, OH 44140 Fatima Family Center 6700 Lexington Ave Cleveland, OH 44103 Harvard Community Services Center 18240 Harvard Avenue Cleveland, OH 44128 Merrick House 1050 Starkweather Cleveland, OH 44113 Cleveland Public Library Woodland Branch 5806 Woodland Avenu...

Conan O'Brien makes his "Tonight Show" debut tonight. The audience line outside Conan's new west coast studio began forming in the wee hours, with die-hard fans ecstatic about the new "Tonight Show" host. After 17 years at the helm, Jay Leno officially handed off "The Tonight Show" seat to Conan last Friday. As the first and longest running late night show in television history, "The Tonight Show" has always been number one in its time slot, and as only its fifth host in 55 years all eyes will be on Conan to continue the winning streak. Even as he cracked nervous jokes about the new job, he was serious about one thing: He's gotta make'em laugh. "What helps me is just to focus on the job at hand and think, really, nothing's changed," he said. Helping him do that will be some old late night carry-overs, like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Andy Richter, his old side kick. Still, don't exp...

"The Tonight Show"'s Jay Leno put the wrapped up 17 years as host of the program Friday night. The funniest moments from the show's trademark "Jaywalking" segment got a final showcase and Jay welcomed his successor, Conan O'Brien as his final guest. When it came time to say farewell, Jay said hello to the 68 children born to show staffers during his time as host. Jay returns with a new prime-time show this fall. In case you missed his farewell, you can watch it below: