Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

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 acros...

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 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 outlyin...

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 ...

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 fr...

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...

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,...

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...

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 ...