WKYC Teams Up With Community To Make A Difference

WKYC Staff helping to "Make A Difference"

A total of 748 volunteers donated 1,671 hours of their time on Saturday at 23 different locations across Northeast Ohio in an effort to make our community a better place.

Volunteers included WKYC staff members and viewers from across our area.

National Make a Difference Day was started by Gannett-owned USA Weekend 20 years ago. This year WKYC joined the company wide effort, encouraging staff and viewers to join in on this national day of giving back.

Five winners even received prizes for their participation. The winners are listed below:

• Susan Jones
• Andrew Brandt
• Shelley Muchnicki
• Nancy Dempsey
• Sonya Pryor-Jones

Main sites included The Cleveland Foodbank, the Akron Regional Foodbank, The Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland, The Salvation Army and Coats for Kids. Volunteers were found at other locations from the Carl & Louis Stokes Academy to the Berea Animal Rescue Fund to libraries, museums and Metroparks across the area.

Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores generously donated hundreds of craft supplies to five Boys and Girls Clubs in Cleveland for volunteers on Make a Difference Day - Oct. 27th. Over 360 youth across the city will be decorating pictures frames with foamie décor and glitter, personalizing their own canvas tote bags with festive fall shapes and making beaded bracelets. Over 30 boxes of supplies were delivered and soon youth ages 6-12 at the Boys and Girls Club will be expressing their creativity thanks to Jo-Ann!

There was an impressive showing of 300 plus volunteers in Nordonia where they turned Make A Difference Day into an day of service for their school district, volunteering at 10 different sites in the community.

If you didn't have a chance to volunteer today, there are volunteer opportunities just about every day of the year.

The Volunteer Center at BVU is Greater Cleveland's resource for recruiting, developing, and organizing volunteers. Since 1993, BVU has been linking volunteers to opportunities that address such issues as homelessness, the environment, crisis support, youth and families, people living with disabilities, seniors and many more.

Funded by the United Way of Greater Cleveland, the Volunteer Center at BVU makes it easy for individuals, schools, businesses and social, civic and faith-based groups to identify volunteer opportunities that meet their skills, interest, location and availability.

Become a BVU volunteer today at  www.bvuvolunteers.org

Gannett Acquires Rovion

Gannett Co., Inc., the parent of WKYC-TV, has announced it acquired Rovion, a Boston-based, rich-media advertising company, which is owned by Local Corporation.

Rovion’s primary product, Ad Composer, includes a self-service technology platform that enables the full development and deployment of rich media and mobile HTML5 ads without requiring coding expertise.

Advertisers and agencies are increasingly demanding mobile rich media ad solutions and self-service ad creation tools, and the Rovion acquisition will enable Gannett’s PointRoll, a leading provider of digital marketing solutions and technology, to expand their mobile and self-service platform capabilities.

Rovion will be part of the Gannett Digital organization under PointRoll, with all Gannett divisions leveraging the Rovion platform capabilities.

Click to watch more about what the company does:

Channel 3 To Air: "Positively Kids: Transforming Cleveland’s Future"

Channel 3 is proud to present “Positively Kids: Transforming Cleveland’s Future” on Wednesday, October 24th at 8pm. This hour long special investigates Cleveland’s present economic health and shows a city that came back from recession earlier than most of the rest of the country and that has one of the nation’s lowest unemployment rates.

The program also highlights that the same energy and commitment of people, banks, the philanthropic community, business and educational institutions is now being used to bring the Cleveland Metropolitan School District out of the doldrums. New leadership at the District developed a Transformation Plan that has unprecedented support from Cleveland’s Democratic mayor, Ohio’s Republican Governor, the Ohio House, the CMSD’s teachers union and many religious leaders. The Transformation Plan will require the backing of Cleveland’s voters to pass a levy that is on the November ballot.

This program fairly radiates optimism. From the city proper, to outlying suburbs; from city schools, to charter schools; from the world of business, to foundations, Cleveland is alive and well. And because of the quality of students shown in programs such as Youth Opportunities Unlimited and the Green Corps, the oft-maligned inner city youth emerges as someone who, when given a chance, becomes a winner.

The organization “Positively Kids” was founded by community leaders Ilana Horowitz Ratner and Mary Beth Cooper and is a year-round initiative that utilizes television specials and exciting new platforms to create greater awareness and encourage community support of programs serving children throughout Northeast Ohio.

“Positively Kids: Transforming Cleveland’s Future” is produced and directed by Emmy award winning documentarian Dennis Goulden, and it is the fifth in a series of programs on education that have been sponsored by Positively Kids and WKYC TV3. The first four - which aired between 2004-2008, raised awareness for children and their success stories from birth through workforce development.

'All-Star Celebrity Apprentice' Cast Announced

Former "Celebrity Apprentice" winner Bret Michaels and 13 other past contestants are returning for an all-star edition to air next March.

NBC announced Friday on the "Today" show the slate of contenders set to face host Donald Trump in the "Celebrity Apprentice" boardroom. Click through the photo gallery above to see the entire cast.

Photos: 'Celebrity Apprentice All-Stars' cast announced

The four other "Celebrity Apprentice" champs -- Piers Morgan, Joan Rivers, John Rich and Arsenio Hall -- will all be included as advisors.

Taping starts Monday. It's the 13th season for the competition series, which premiered in 2004.

"I absolutely love The Celebrity Apprentice," executive producer Mark Burnett said in a press release. "No other show on television has such an entertaining cast, such a dynamic host, and also raises so much money for charity. This season is going to be more fun than ever, and our loyal fans will not be disappointed."

All contestants return this season to endure an entirely new set of tasks with the goal of raising money and awareness for their charity of choice. The contestant who wins it all will receive $250,000 for their favorite charity.

Last season's edition raised more than $2 million for various charities.

Slovenian Ambassador Visits WKYC On Friday

Ambassador Roman Kirn (L) and WKYC GM Brooke Spectorsky (R)

As part of WKYC's involvement in the "Our World Today" project, we welcomed another visiting Ambassador.

On Friday, October 12th, His Excellency Roman Kirn, Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the United States, joined a group of local business executives to discuss economic growth and possible partnerships with Northeast Ohio and Slovenia.

"Our World Today" also works with local schools including Villa Angela-St. Joseph in a global education initiative.

Northeast Ohio is home to more Slovenians than anywhere outside Slovenia itself. Northeast Ohio also has over 180 countries represented, a greater diversity than anywhere other than New York.

WKYC has welcomed dozens of Ambassadors over the past years from countries including the Philippines, Ireland, Columbia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Guatemala.

We also hosted the President of Romania. Upcoming visitors will include the Ambassadors from Lebanon and Ethiopia.

NBC News & Notes: 10/9/12

By Frank Macek

Here is a look at some of the news from our parent network, NBC, with regards to what you see on WKYC, Channel 3...

• NBC has finished #1 in adults 18-49 for week two of the 2012-13 television season, giving the network outright wins in weeks 1 and 2 of the primetime television season for the first time since 2003. The network tied ABC for #1 in weeks 1 and 2 in 2007. Led by "Sunday Night Football," "The Voice," "Revolution" and "Go On," NBC delivered an average 2.8 rating, 8 share in adults 18-49 and 7.5 million viewers overall for the primetime ratings week of October 1-7, according to "live plus same day" viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research.


• NBC has announced changes to its producing staff of "Rock Center with Brian Williams." The struggled Thursday night show has named Alex Wallace as the show's new Executive Producer and replaces Rome Hartman who moves to working on 2012 elections. Wallace is a senior vice president at NBC News and a chief deputy of NBC News President Steve Capus.


• Sunday Night Football (SNF) continues to deliver high numbers on Sunday nights for local affiliates. Last week's game between the previously winless New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers delivered a 11.7 rating, but was off 16% from the previous week, according to Nielsen ratings. SNF was up against postseason coverage last week from Major League Baseball.


• NBC has announced that Andrea Canning has joined the network as a correspondent for Dateline NBC. Andrea will partner with anchor Lester Holt on the weekly newsmagzine, while also contributing to "Today" and "NBC Nightly News" and projects for partner network MSNBC.


• Ken Leung of "Lost" fame will be a part of NBC's coming soap "Infamous" which stars Meaghan Good as a female cop who goes undercover to help solve a murder in a the well to-do family she grew up in. "Infamous" is expected to air in early 2013.


• Also, Carolyn Manno inks a long term deal as a reporter on Football Night in America and other duties for NBC's college football and basketball coverage. NBC Sports Group also says Manno will also contribute to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.


• The network has picked up a full season schedule of "Revolution," "Go On" and "The New Normal." All three shows have shown ratings promise for the network after their September launch. The network will air the first episode of another highly anticipated fall show, "Chicago Fire," on Wednesday, October 10th, based on the lives of firefighters and paramedics tackling challenges related to their work, each other and their personal lives.


• Some new shows in the works include "Get Out Alive" with Bears Grylls who stars in the adventure, reality show which pits two teams against extreme challenges. The new show should debut in the summer of 2013. A new, untitled medical drama is also being developed by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah (writers from "90201," "EPS" and "Life As We Know It") and is based on Army doctors who work at a hospital in San Antonio. And, a new miniseries based on the Austrialian miniseries "The Slap" is in the works. The original show was based on a man who slaps a child unrelated to him, while each of the eight episodes showed the incident from a different point of view of the participants.

Make A Difference Day: How You Can Help

National "Make a Difference Day" is Saturday, October 27 and we need you to Make a Difference!!

Channel 3, in partnership with the Volunteer Center at BVU, is asking everyone across Northeast Ohio to get involved and show the impact we can have in our community.

We all "See the Possible" in Northeast Ohio.

This is a chance for every one of us to make the possible HAPPEN by joining forces on a designated day, October 27, to give back and show the impact we can have.

It's easy...

• View projects HERE 
• Sign up to volunteer with your co-workers and/or your family by October 24. 
• Volunteer on October 27th. 
• Log your hours online in the Volunteer Center on October 27th by 9:00 pm. 

Not only will you get the satisfaction of helping to Make a Difference in our community, but you will also have an opportunity to take advantage of a "Buy One Get One" ticket offer for either a Q event (Cavs, Monsters, Cleveland Gladiators) or the Canton Charge, courtesy of Quicken Loans Arena.

All volunteers will also be entered into a grand prize drawing on the evening of the 27th to win a WKYC Behind the Scenes Tour, Lunch with Russ Mitchell and Kris Pickel, WKYC Bus Stop Kids Forecast, tickets for the Cavs Home Opener and box seats for an April/May Indians game.

But remember, you must log your volunteer hours by 9:00 pm on the 27th to be eligible for the tickets and grand prize drawing. Click to Watch:

Jim Tressel New Contributor To Channel 3

Jim Tressel

Jim Tressel, currently the Vice President of Strategic Engagement at the University of Akron and a national championship winning football coach, will be joining the Channel 3 News team for weekly news segments.

“We are very pleased to announce that Jim Tressel will be joining the WKYC team as a special contributor,” stated Brooke Spectorsky, President and General Manager.

“Jim’s national championships as head football coach at Ohio State and Youngstown State universities are well-known to all, but his motivational speeches and best- selling books will be the basis of our “A Moment with Jim Tressel.”

“Jim motivates with passion but leads with compassion,’ added interim News Director Virgil Dominic. “We envision a weekly segment that takes daily news stories and makes them teachable moments.”

"A Moment with Jim Tressel" will air each Wednesday night during Channel 3’s 7pm newscast.

“Jim is a truly exceptional leader” said Dr. Luis Proenza, President of the University of Akron. “In his new role as our VP for Strategic Engagement, he is responsible for student success, from application and recruitment to graduation and beyond, what we are calling the Akron Experience. We think his weekly television segments will only add to to his community outreach and help grow the Akron Experience."

Tressel has a bachelor’s degree from Baldwin-Wallace, a master’s degree in education from The University of Akron, and two honorary doctorates.

Anchor John Anderson Returns To Cleveland As Weekend Co-Anchor

John Anderson

Former AM host will co-anchor with Lynna Lai weekends on WKYC.

“We are pleased to announce that John Anderson, who spent seven years here at Channel 3, will be leaving Philadelphia and coming home to Northeast Ohio,” stated Brooke Spectorsky, President and General Manager of WKYC. Viewers will remember John and his wife Kristin were the first husband and wife team to anchor a local morning newscast.

“We are really happy to be moving back to Cleveland,’ said John. Kristin and I loved our time there, and I’m looking forward to jumping back into the news and sports world of Northeast Ohio.” John will join Lynna Lai weekend nights at 6 & 11pm as News and Sports anchor, and will also report during the week. His first day will be October 24th.

John was most recently the co-anchor of FOX 29’s “Good Day” show and helmed “Game Day Live," the station's weekly Eagles football local pre-game show. He also hosted FOX 29's "Red October" coverage of the Philadelphia Phillies during the MLB playoffs and traveled to cover the Flyers' 2010 Stanley Cup Finals appearance and Villanova's trip to the NCAA Final Four. John graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

While in Cleveland, he was Vice President of the Executive Board for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and was honored by the Society in 2003 as National Media Person of the Year. In his spare time, one of John's passions is cycling. John has completed 11 century rides (100 miles) and numerous other cycling events. John rode his bike 208 miles from Seattle to Portland, and 288 miles from Cleveland to Cincinnati.

Most of these rides benefitted the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program. John and his cycling teams have raised over $1.5 million in the fight against cancer. John and Kristin have twin children, Luke and Grace. Kristin has left the world of broadcasting and has enjoyed her new career as a Professor of Journalism/Communications.