Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

From: Richard (city unknown) Q: I hate that Channel 3 runs Indians games in place of other NBC programming when the Indians aren't that good this year - and haven't been for several years. It really annoyed me when hockey was supposed to air or was joined in progress. A: As the over the air television home of the Cleveland Indians, we are under contract with the Indians to carry 20 games per season. Unfortunately, the station can only pre-empt so many hours of regular NBC programming. So, we must carry mainly afternoon games on the weekends and select games during primetime we felt would be the most interest to our viewers. Whether the Indians are contenders or not, we hope you can appreciate being able to receive some of the games free on broadcast TV. The options are not pretty for those without cable or satellite. Go Tribe! --- Have a question for us? Email us anytime: fmacek@wkyc.com

From: Betheny in Cleveland Q: I noticed your new interactive radar on your website. I love it, but think it's too big. Could you make it smaller? A: We are currently experimenting with all the new weather tools we got with our recent upgrade to all HD weather. As part of that, we are putting the Interactive HD Radar right on our homepage only when severe weather threatens the area. We have received many comments for people grateful that it's easy to find and easy to use, so we hope you'll give it a chance. Again, we are building our website to better serve you when the weather turns bad, so we don't have to cut in as much and interrupt your regularly scheduled programming like the other stations do. --- Have a question for us? Email us anytime: fmacek@wkyc.com

Become part of our local television community and either post your own comments about the stories we feature or feel free to email me directly with questions you have about the programming or news product you see on WKYC. While I can't always give secret information away - cause that would be unfair - I am thrilled to answer your general questions about the television station or listen to suggestions for new things you'd like to see featured on the blog. You can email your questions to me: fmacek@wkyc.com

From: Pat in Florida Q: I know I E'd you once before to ask what happened to Scott Newell. I was a huge fan of the New Christie Minstrels music and got a kick out of knowing he was part of the band. I moved to Florida over 20 years ago and always liked Judd Hambrick, do you know what he's doing now? Thanks for taking the time to answer my burning questions. A: JUDD...and we all called him JUDD.. Hambrick is now semi-retired and lives with his wife in Florence, Alabama, after pursuing some business ventures for a time in Belden, Mississippi. You can watch some of the fun promos that I previously posted on YouTube of Judd from 1985: CLICK HERE . You can email your questions to me: fmacek@wkyc.com

From: Sarah in Cleveland Heights Q: Hey, glad to see Mark Nolan on the evening shift again. I miss seeing him every night...I never get to see him doing the morning news. It's WAY too early. A: We loved having Mark fill in for Tim White the last couple of days. Romona and Mark looked great together. Watch out Tim! You can email your questions to me: fmacek@wkyc.com

From: Sam in Cleveland Q: I don't know if you have heard about this yet, but I came across an article saying Gannett plans on adopting a new, uniform graphics package for all of its stations. I hope this is not the case with WKYC, as I like your in-house graphics. You have an extremely talented team there. A: Yes, I am very aware of the article and what it means to us here at WKYC. Yes, Gannett has decided to institute a company-wide initiative with all our broadcast properties. This has been widely reported in the trade publications recently. Starting later this year, we will begin using a hub situation where our graphics will be ordered from our station, but made in Denver and then sent back to us via our graphics network. This is probably more a benefit for the smaller market stations than WKYC which has had a very talented art department that will be sorely missed as we move forward. In a lot of ways, this makes sense both economically and for efficiency reasons. The new system...

From: Renee in Bay Village Q: I keep seeing graphics that are flickering on my screen, particularly during the "Dr. Phil Show". Is it my old TV or is something weird going on? A: This one is actually us. The graphics you are referring to are called "snipes" and are graphics that promote upcoming shows and other station events that run during regular programming - like the "Dr. Phil Show." (see picture example). For some reason, we have a bad computer board that runs this system and causes the glitches. We are aware of the issue and hope to have it fixed soon. Ain't new technology wonderful? You can email your questions to me: fmacek@wkyc.com

From: Doug in Cleveland Q: Tim and Romona said that Betsy has gone on maternity leave. Did she have her baby? What did she have? A: We are still officially on baby watch as of Tuesday. No "Petunia" yet has anchor Tim White has named the child already. Although, Betsy and her husband, Paul Thomas, will keep us in suspense up until the very end. We'll let you know as soon as we find out. You can email your questions to me: fmacek@wkyc.com

From: Steve in Macedonia Q: I noticed a new sports guy on your newscast tonight. Where did he come from? A: Ah, you must mean Al Pawlowski. Nice ethnic name like Macek, don't you think? Ironically, at one time we were both air personalities on Smooth Jazz, 107.3 The Wave and tried to transform the station to "All Polkas, All The Time", but the bosses wouldn't listen and went with Kenny G. instead. Back to your question, Al is "on loan" to us from SportsTime Ohio where he is the host of many of the Indians programming you see on the cable channel like Tribe Report and Indians on Deck . Al's helping us out so our other sports anchors, Jim Donovan and Dave Chudowski, can sneak in some summer vacation time before a busy August including Browns Pre Season Football and the 2008 Summer Olympics from Beijing, China. You can email your questions to me: fmacek@wkyc.com

From: Ross in Mayfield Heights Q: I have seen both Channel 3 HDTV "off the air" on a friend's TV and through my own satellite company. There is a very noticeable signal loss by comparison. Is that really true or is it just me? A: Maybe you need a better TV like your friend's! Chances are the signal loss you notice is because both cable and satellite companies including Dish or DirectTV use compression methods (like MPEG-2) to redistribute the signals they get from us. Because of the huge bandwidth involved, the cable/satellite companies must compress all the signals in order to offer subscribers as many channels as they do. We would recommend that if you really want the best picture quality available, you get your signal over the air. And, remember, it's FREE!! You can email your questions to me: fmacek@wkyc.com