Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

CLEVELAND -- WKYC's sports anchor, Jim Donovan, as well as managing editor, Dick Russ, will be among those formally inducted into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame at a dinner reception this evening in Westlake. Former WKYC investigative reporter, Paul Sciria as well as columnist, Regina Brett, and photographer William Wynne from The Plain Dealer are the other inductees. Jim Donovan came to Northeast Ohio as a weekend sports anchor in 1985 and has gone on to be arguable Cleveland's most prominent voice in sports. Donovan has been the radio play-by-play announcer for the Browns since their return to the NFL in 1999. He has covered the Summer Olympics in 1992 and 1996 and World Cup soccer in 1994. Dick Russ has proven to be one of Northeast Ohio's most versatile broadcasters. He has worked as a reporter, anchor and now managing editor at WKYC-TV 3. Colleagues say Russ' talent with words has always set him apart from his peers. Russ is also a member of the Oh...

Special to the Director's Cut Blog By Gary Levin, USA TODAY Viewers are tuning in to the major networks this fall. Ratings are up 2% after years of steady declines. New hits, big gains for some returning shows and comparisons with last fall's strike-hobbled start have helped. But the biggest factor: "There's much more DVR recording this year than in the past, which has had an impact on all the numbers," says ABC prime-time research chief Larry Hyams. A fourth of young-adult viewership is now recorded, though ratings among ages 18-49 are flat. Starcom Media analyst Sam Armando says the season is off to a decent start: "People are aware of the shows and are checking them out." But overall, cable is down, partly from news networks' post-election drops. AAmong the networks: -- Top-rated CBS is up 6 percent (and flat among young adults), thanks to big gains from the seventh-season wonder "NCIS" and a strong launch for its L.A.-based s...

By Frank Macek It's time again for an edition of "Notes from the Newsroom" as your blogger shares some of his thoughts on our little corner of local broadcast television. --- Thanks to everyone involved in our station wide event called "Heroes Help Northeast Ohio" that took place all day on Thursday, October 22nd. Over 17 bins of food were collected and lots of cash that will provide for over 30,000 meals for our local needy. Also, 312 coats were received for area childen and a room full of toys will delight northeast Ohio children this holiday season. A big thank you from all of us at WKYC, the Cleveland Foodbank, "Coats for Kids" and "The Salvation Army" and to WKYC producer Jon Adkins who made the day so successful. Surf in tonight (Tuesday) to WKYC.COM from 7:30 until 8 p.m. for a webcast followup to the "Road to Reform" special that aired on WVIZ last Friday Night and WKYC on Sunday morning hosted by WKYC Senior Politica...

Special to the Director's Cut by Gary Levin, USA Today Five weeks into the new TV season, it's clear that few new shows are tanking in the ratings. But breakout hits are elusive, too. The top new show is CBS' "NCIS: Los Angeles." The spinoff follows the original "NCIS," which has eclipsed CSI to become TV's No. 1 drama. "L.A." and "The Good Wife," also on CBS, Fox's "Cleveland Show" and "Glee," and ABC's "FlashForward," "Modern Family," "Cougar Town" and "The Middle" are doing well enough to earn full seasons. (Cleveland has already been renewed for next season.) CW's "The Vampire Diaries" also is expected to keep going. "All in all, the networks are in decent shape" with new series, says CBS scheduling chief Kelly Kahl. "It feels a little more optimistic to me than it has" in the past. That's not to say TV doesn...

Our partners at USA Today are tracking the success of this Fall's television season. For the first month (September 20th through October 18th), the following graphs show where the main networks are standing:

By Frank Macek It's time again for an edition of "Notes from the Newsroom" as your blogger shares some of his thoughts on our little corner of local broadcast television. --- WKYC is gearing up for our station wide event called a "Heroes Help Northeast Ohio" that will benefit several different groups this holiday season. From 5 am until 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, you can stop by the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center to make your donations to help benefit the Cleveland Foodbank, Salvation Army and Coats for Kids. WKYC will broadcast live throughout the day on WKYC and SportsTime Ohio's "All Bets Are Off with Bruce Drennan" show. We'll even have the Perry High School Marching Band to play for us during the morning hours. And, you'll be able to see our live, all day web stream at http://www.wkyc.com/video/livestream/channel3news.aspx . Please come and make this year's outreach to the community our biggest yet! WKYC, WVIZ/PBS & 90.3 WCPN...

CLEVELAND -- WKYC-TV and WKYC.COM are proud to announce our brand new instant text messaging system for iAlerts, breaking news, severe weather and more. Now you can get our alerts direct to your mobile phone or device faster and easier than ever before, with WKYC's new text alert messaging system. Get breaking news updates along with other local information sent to you as a text message. The best part is you can select only the messages you wish to receive. Our iAlerts are broken down by individual schools. Our severe weather alerts are only for the counties you select. Our other features are only the ones that interest you. You can choose from the following categories: News - Be alerted when important local and national news happens. Severe Weather Alerts - Stay updated when severe weather is in our area. Daily Weather Forecast - Get the daily forecast sent to you each morning. Friend to Friend - A friendly monthly reminder for women's health....

Special to the Director's Cut Blog By Gary Levin, USA Today Viewers with DVRs are catching up with series in record numbers, brightening the picture for TV networks by easing yearly declines. In new Nielsen data for the season's premiere week, many shows scored substantial gains from viewing delayed one to seven days after they aired. The lift, bigger than ever, blunts early fears several top returning series had plummeted. Grey's Anatomy added 3 million viewers, climbing 17% from its initial total, and two others - CBS' The Mentalist and Fox's House - added nearly as many. In all, 36 shows added 1 million or more viewers, and ratings for 14 programs shot up 20% or more. And it shows how DVRs - now in one in three homes, up from 27% last fall - not only shift viewing but also increase it; owners watch far more TV than those without. Yet because viewers can skip commercials, networks can't charge advertisers for many of those extra viewers. (Ad buyers do...

By Frank Macek Over the weekend, I had a chance to read an excellent article by Hillary Atkin in NewsPro Magazine that takes a look at the current state of television news and how we got to this point. I thought I'd share some of my comments on the general points made by Ms. Atkin. The bottom line is cutbacks by television stations are having an enormous impact on the overall quality of television news, including here in Cleveland. All our stations locally have been hurt financially in 2009. However, we doubt that few, if any, local station managers would admit their product isn't what it used to be because of staff reductions. They would probably argue its been multi-faceted. One of the biggest reasons for cutbacks is diminishing profit. Since the great economic downturn that started in late 2007 and 2008, stations have been under extreme pressure financially. Advertisers aren't spending as much money and local television stations are ...

Shopping for a flat-screen TV? Buying one with the Energy Star sticker could land you a cheaper electric bill. Energy Star-certified televisions are usually about the same price as comparable models, if not cheaper, and also save on electricity. California is even close to banning the sale of energy-guzzling TVs. Frankie's Sports Bar and Grill in Uptown Dallas is hoping to guzzle less power by switching some sets to more energy-efficient models. "Our electric bill is anywhere from $6,000 to $9,000 a month," said Joel Hill. He said the bill is just the cost of doing business. "We have to have the game on and have it on in a lot of places," Hill said. Oncor said the sports bar could save energy and money by switching to Energy Star-certified televisions. "You are going to save about 30 percent compared to your old TV right now," said Jeamy Molina an Oncor spokeswoman. Hill said the bar has recently added several energy-efficient flat-screen T...

You've got a new flat-screen high-definition TV and HD cable box-but there's a good chance you're not even using the high-definition technology your TV was built for. The culprit isn't your TV though: check the cables. Most people don't know that the type of cable running between their TV set and cable box has such a big impact on picture quality. Simply upgrading from composite video cables to HDMI or component cables (for only about $15) will make a huge difference in the clarity. The folks at the Geek Squad say the same clarity can be achieved with your TV and home theater's audio system by replacing analog wire with a coax or optical cable. Our sister station, KARE explains:

CHIBA, Japan -- Japan's big name electronic manufacturers are readying flat-screen TVs that can show high-definition movies and video games in 3D for launch next year. At the country's biggest consumer electronics show that opened Tuesday just outside of Tokyo all the major makers displayed 3D prototypes. Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. said they would bring their first models to market next year. The companies are plowing ahead even before there is much content available, with corporate spokesmen saying only that preparation is under way. Demonstrations at the exhibitions were mainly short clips of movies, nature scenes and sports. Source: The Associated Press

Last year WKYC helped the Cleveland Foodbank pull off their largest one day food drive in foodbank history thanks to everyone's generosity in dropping off canned food items during our one day event. This year, we are aiming to make the event even bigger and beat last year's total."Heroes Help Northeast Ohio" will be held on Thursday, October 22nd, from 5 am to 7:30 pm in front of the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center, 1333 Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland. WKYC staffers will be on hand all day to collect items in a drive through that will be easy and convenient. In addition to collecting food, WKYC will also be collecting new or gently worn coats for our annual "Coats for Kids" campaign we hold each year with our radio partners. Plus, we'll accept holiday gifts for the Salvation Army. We need everyone's help in the community to be part of the Hero Army and make the day a complete success. Please encourage your kids' schools or neighbor...

NEW YORK -- Add "Saturday Night Live" to the shows making sport of David Letterman's difficulties. But in the hands of "SNL," Dave got off pretty easy. On Thursday, the late-night host acknowledged having sex with women who worked for him and told viewers he was the victim of a blackmail attempt. On SNL's "Weekend Update," anchor Seth Meyers dubbed the extortion attempt by a CBS News producer "a stupid human trick." Meyers added that the would-be blackmailer was threatening to reveal embarrassing details of Letterman's personal life, then gave a joking example: After sex, Dave would say, "Stay tuned for Craig Ferguson." Fellow TV hosts Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon are among comics who already had zinged Letterman on their shows. --- Source: The Associated Press, Frazier Moore, AP Television Writer

PHILADELPHIA -- Shares of Comcast Corp. are diving after reports surfaced that the nation's largest cable TV provider is in talks to purchase a stake in NBC Universal. Comcast has called some of the reports inaccurate but stopped short of denying that talks were held. General Electric Co. owns 80 percent of NBC Universal, which includes several cable channels plus the NBC and Telemundo networks, the Universal Pictures movie studio and a chain of theme parks. The other 20 percent is owned by the French media conglomerate Vivendi SA. Shares of Philadelphia-based Comcast were down $1.17, or 7 percent, to $15.71 in morning trading Thursday. GE fell 26 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $16.16. Source: The Associated Press