Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

The NATAS Regional Emmy Nominations were announced tonight, with WKYC receiving the following: Outstanding Newscast Channel 3 News at 7 pm - Tim White, Romona Robinson, Amanda Subler (producer) Channel 3 News at 7 pm - Dave Grendzynski (producer) Outstanding Weekend Newscast Missing Pregnant Mom Found - Lydia Esparra, Scott Newell, Carrie Young (producer), Julie Ocepek (assignment editor) Investigative Reporting Prison Problem - Bill Safos Euclid Creek - Bill Safos Breaking News SuccessTech Academy Shooting - Kim Wheeler, Danielle Fink (assignment editor), Tim White, Monica Robinsn, David Grendzynski (producer), Lisa Lowry (assignment manager), Allen Wohl (director), Romona Robinson, Dave Summers, Brandi Paulson (editor), Amanda Subler (producer), Maureen Kyle, Michael O'Mara, Rita Andolsen (news director) News Report within 24 hours Elliot Ness: Not Untouchable - Paul Thomas, George Payamgis (photog), Chris Mizell (editor) General Assignment within 24 hours Ice Rescue - Dave Summe...

We found Bruce Drennan of "All Bets Are Off" on Sportstime Ohio today went right from St. Patty's Day festivities to his Easter Parade. He doesn't miss a beat. "Be very, very quiet... you wascally wabbit!" If you missed my St. Patty's Day commentary on Bruce, see below! This stuff is just too good to make up.

As you have heard, Sportstime Ohio will launch its HD channel on April 1st giving cable viewers 24/7 access to local and regional high definition sports programming. To celebrate, SportsTime Ohio and B&B Appliance are giving away FREE 32" HDTVs! Every time a Cleveland Indians player hits a home run in the month of April (on STO televised games only), someone wins a free HDTV! For more information & a chance to win, visit the new STO HD website: www.stohd.com

Sportstime Ohio, in partnership with WKYC, has launched a new blog called "From the Truck." Written by Emmy Award Winning Indians Director Pat Murray (pictured, right) and "Indians On Deck" Producer Jim Murphy, the blog will be a fun, behind the scenes look at their thoughts, stories, and happenings from the Indians TV crew this season. Some of it will be a little technical, but mostly it will be just fun... A chance for them to tell you how the show is going or how great the steaks are in Kansas City! This will be called "From the Truck" - from the folks who present to you the telecast of the show. It should be a great season on the field and we are equally looking forward to many success on your HD screen. So join Pat and Jim for the ride - it should be a great time! The "Director's Cut Blog" has added a link to our site on the right hand menu under "Favorite Sites" or CLICK HERE and bookmark the site. Go Tribe!

We were the first to tell you about this last week on the Director's Cut Blog...and now here are the official details: CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Indians, SportsTime Ohio and WKYC-TV3 announced the 2008 Tribe TV schedule. All of the games on the two networks will be televised in High Definition. (NOTE: This does not include the Spring Training games.) SportsTime Ohio will television 141 total Tribe games on cable/satellite (133 regular season games and 8 spring training games). WKYC-TV3 will air 20 games as the flagship station of the Indians Over-the-Air network. Fox Sports National will televise 8 games during the regular season. The Indians will continue to be among the industry leaders in High Definition broadcasts as all 153 network broadcasts will be in HD. (All 133 STO games and all 20 games on Channel 3). STO will begin their season with eight telecasts from Spring Training, beginning March 5th at 1:05 p.m. when the Tribe plays host to the Atlanta Braves. STO's spring t...

From: Mike in Cleveland Q: Hi Frank...Love the Director's Cut Blog on wkyc.com. The old clips are great! Heard that the Indians were going all HD on STO, do you know if that's true? How come we see HD Indians games on channel 3, and an HD newscast, but all the Indians highlights within the HD newscast are seemingly SD, and really bad SD at that? Any way to record and edit HD highlights like they do on Sportscenter? A: I love these multiple part questions...Thanks for the comments. Glad you enjoy the blog. I'm always working on new ideas. Regarding STO - yes, all Indians games (home & away) this season will be done in high definition according to Pat Kilkenney, SportsTime Ohio Vice President of Program Acquisition/ Executive Producer. Viewers having been asking - and now you shall receive. Finally, the bad quality video is a result of us not having the capability "yet" to record massive amounts of video in high definition for our newscasts. This is coming, b...

Sportstime Ohio - the regional sports network & partner of WKYC - has added a fresh coat of watercolors to their main set in Studio C. The new look, which debuted Sunday 11/18/07, has a much nicer blue look with a brick bottom and steel trussing. Also, an additional monitor has been added. STO also built a second set in the same studio that will be used for upcoming sports specials. Here are some pictures of the "Red Zone" show taken tonight for those of you who haven't seen the new look on-air yet: This show is hosted by WKYC Sports Anchor & radio voice of the Browns, Jim Donovan (right). The two guests are Jim's radio color analyst and former Brown Doug Dieken (left) & Browns PD Beat Reporter Tony Grossi (center).

Sunday's Indians clinch of the AL Central was a huge ratings winner for WKYC which carried the game in High Definition: According to a press release issued by WKYC Monday: "Yesterday (Sunday) was a great sports story in Cleveland as the Indians captured the American League Central Division title and an outstanding day for Channel 3 Sports and SportsTime Ohio as the high-definition broadcast of the game topped the ratings," announced WKYC President and General Manager Brooke Spectorsky. "Fans stayed glued to their sets and generated an outstanding 14.25 rating/29 share (530,000 persons 2+) and peaked at a 23 rating/42 share (855,000 persons 2+). "After the game, SportsTime Ohio cameras and Cchannel 3 stayed with the Indians post game and finished with a 10.4 rating/18 share for the 45 minutes of celebration", added Spectorsky. "These numbers just reinforce that Cleveland is all about sports, and throughout the year, Channel 3 and STO have given fans ove...

SportsTime Ohio (the regional sports network done in partnership with WKYC) announced Tuesday that the network has partnered with Time Warner Cable to sign a one year television deal with the Ohio High School Athletic Association. SportsTime Ohio will have exclusive rights to televise eight (8) football playoff games, six (6) football championship games, eight (8) boys' basketball playoff games, four (4) boys' basketball championship games, and four (4) girls' basketball championship games. In addition, STO has exclusive distribution of a minimum of four (4) other OHSAA events to be determined. SportsTime Ohio will carry these events live and tape delayed throughout Ohio. A partnership with Time Warner Cable has been forged to distribute statewide coverage of these events, including the full Cincinnati and Dayton DMAs. Through this partnership, OHSAA programming will air in all 12 DMAs in Ohio reaching 3.1 million homes. Time Warner Cable's "Local on Demand" s...

When you go to a game at Jacobs Field, you can see and feel the electricity of the Indians and the fans. But, what if you are watching it at home? Channel 3 Lydia's Esparra goes behind the scenes of SportsTime Ohio with the men and women who bring that same feeling right into your living room. Pictured is Emmy Award Winning Indians Director Pat Murray (left) and the STO Control Room (right). This is the same control room where your blog jockey, Frank Macek, gets to direct the Indians pregame show called "Indians On Deck" for away games (along with our other WKYC staff of Directors - Al Wohl, Eric Carrel, Mark Bogden & Matt Babb). To Watch our exclusive story, CLICK HERE

We've added a new feature to the "Director's Cut Blog" - a TV program guide for all our shows on WKYC and Sportstime Ohio. This is located on the menu off to the right and gives you are complete list of which shows are on WKYC Analog Channel 3, along with those shows presented in High Definition on WKYC's Digital Service - 3.1 & Weather Plus 3.2 (Channel numbers may be different on your cable or satellite system). You'll also find a daily program guide for SportsTime Ohio. Enjoy!