KCTV to fix its signal

In the waning days of his reign at KCTV-5 last year, then-general manager Kirk Black was routinely tormented by a group of about 200 residents of Liberty, who would call and email him on an almost daily basis, reminding him that ever since the station switched to a digital signal, they could no longer receive KCTV.

As people have known from the dawn of the DTV transition, the digital signals that are now sent out by TV stations can be ... quirky. It's been years since I studied the various things that can go wrong with DTV broadcasting (Joel Brinkley's 1997 book Defining Vision - a surprisingly fun read given the subject matter - contains an excellent primer), but let's just say this: If you have never heard the word "multipath" in your life, consider yourself lucky.

Well, there's good news for the fine people of Liberty and everywhere else who refuse to acquire their local TV signals via cable or satellite: KCTV is about to make some changes there at the Eye-full Tower and improve reception issues across the metro. Just in time for its CBS-deprived viewers to catch the summer reruns of "CSI" and "Big Bang Theory" -- not to mention a brand! new! season! of "Big Brother."

Meredith PR follows ...

In June 2009 KCTV5 made the transition from analog to digital. During this transition it became apparent that KCTV5 was not reaching parts of the viewing area. A new antenna will be installed on the KCTV5 tower during the month of June.

“It is our desire that the loyal viewers of KCTV5 receive the best signal possible. We realize there has been some difficulty in some areas for viewers to receive a clear signal for KCTV5 following the HD transition. We’re pleased to announce all of our loyal viewers will once again be able to watch all of their favorite CBS Sports and Network programming, as well as our local news and syndicated shows in High Definition. We appreciate everyone’s patience while we remedied the situation,” said Bobby Totsch, Vice President and General Manager.

Tom Casey, Director of Engineering, said, “I am pleased to say that we spent a significant amount of time working with the manufacturer to come up with an antenna design that will not only allow the best coverage pattern but incorporates technology to help support excellent mobile reception in the future.”

(Thanks to Scott Fybush, again, for the Eye-Full Tower shot)

New news director at KCTV-5

Blaise Labbe (La-BAY) is the new ND in Kansas City, and the first African-American male to head up a local newsroom.

He currently directs online content for Griffin Communications, the family-owned company with stations in Tulsa and OKC. Before that, Labbe headed the KWTV newsroom for Griffin for six years. He's also on the board of the Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Journalism.

KCTV-KSMO GM Robert Totsch, who just confirmed his hire to me, said that Labbe was hired by Belo Corporation in 1988 as a photographer at its Houston station. "Anyone who comes up through the Belo ranks, that's solid," said Totsch, who came to Kansas City last year from Belo's St. Louis station.

"People don't usually come up from cameraman" to news director, Totsch said. "He's got an excellent news background." (I'm actually surprised more photogs don't get to run a newsroom — they're often the best storytellers the station has.)

Fox 4 to go all-HD soon ... HD news comes later

Dan Merker, who incidentally has a brilliant solution to the gridlock between exponents and opponents of a college football playoff, was appalled to see his high-definition picture of the World Series Game 1 squeezed to standard-def when an Amber Alert went out for 16-year-old Makenzie Green of Grain Valley.

"Really?" Dan writes. "Channel 4 STILL can't overlay a crawl over HD? It's almost 2010..." Yes, says Fox 4's news director Bryan McGruder, and when 2010 comes, the station will be able to overlay a crawl over HD.

"We just upgraded the switcher this week so that it will accept a piece of equipment we'll install in the coming weeks that will allow us to overlay on top of the HD programming while maintaining HD integrity," according to McGruder.

That means Fox 4 news will air in HD as well? UPDATE: Not so fast. After this post originally appeared, McGruder wrote back: "Our news will continue to air in SD, even after the switcher upgrade. The switcher to which I'm referring is the on-air switcher(master control). We use another switcher to produce the newscasts(production control) and it remains SD as will our newscasts."

Personally, I don't mind having the picture revert to SD during emergencies. It gets your attention.

KMOS-TV honored for community impact

Warrensburg's public TV station may not make much of a ripple in Kansas City, but it sure does in Warrensburg. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting honored KMOS, located at the University of Central Missouri, last night with a Community Impact Award at a ceremony in Warrensburg. CPB created the My Source Community Impact Awards "to recognize and showcase examples of local public broadcasting’s connection to community."

This stems from an ongoing initiative KMOS started in 2003 called "Happy Healthy Missouri Kids." With its community partners, KMOS developed and conducted workshops to educate parents about promoting healthier lifestyles with their kids. Since the launch of this project, community partners have conducted over 200 workshops reaching over 9,000 families.

Earlier this year Smoky Hills Public TV in western Kansas was also honored with a My Source Community Impact Award.

Kirk Black begins to build his Atlanta team ... with Kansas City talent

Kirk Black, the former GM of Meredith's KCTV-KSMO here, just hired his old sales manager to run advertising for his new station, WGCL in Atlanta. His promo guy from KCTV had preceded him by moving to WGCL a few months before he did.

PR follows ...

Summer radio ratings: KPRS wins the last book-only book

Hot 103 Jamz has won another summer radio ratings book. That's nothing new for Kansas City's locally-owned urban powerhouse. But as hundreds of area listeners walk around town with Arbitron's new Portable People Meters strapped to their persons, you have to wonder: Is it the last ratings period Carter Broadcasting will win for a while?

As radio insiders know, Arbitron has long weighted the ratings to make up for the low participation of minority listeners. The number of paper diaries returned to Arbitron, especially by African-Americans, is often disproportionately low compared to their actual percentage of the population. What happens then is one of the most contentious bits of number crunching outside mark-to-market: The minority ratings Arbitron does receive are then adjusted upward to make up for the shortage of filled-out diaries. In a recent survey, for instance, the percentage of black men aged 18-34 had to be adjusted by more than 50 percent.

That's all about to end with PPMs, which are being used around Kansas City as we speak. The next ratings period will feature diary numbers, but those will likely be overshadowed by the "pre-currency" numbers Arbitron releases from its PPM sample. (PPMs will be issued monthly instead of quarterly.) Assuming that the minority listeners who get these electronic devices don't lose them or forget to wear them disproportionate to any other group of listeners, Arbitron won't need to weight their ratings.

Already we've seen this have a devastating effect on stations aimed at Spanish and African-American listeners. Industry reps have howled, and Congress has taken the PPMs to task, so Arbitron may take corrective action yet. For now, though, the outlook would seem grim for urban broadcasters around the country -- including KPRS and Magic 107.3, which also had a great Summer book.

On the other hand, Chicago's urban stations didn't appear to suffer much from the PPM switch ... but ratings for Spanish stations in Chicago dipped. For that matter, that city's longtime morning man Steve Dahl (who's white) was yanked when his PPM numbers came in because station management decided hours of uninterrupted music would do just as well for less money.

But hey! Why all the gloom and doom? Carter's riding high after ekeing out a win over the Spring book winner, 98.9 The Rock. In demos, your winners were The Rock in 25-54 year olds and, by a mile, in 18-34 year olds; Magic 107.3 in 35-64 year olds; and Mix in the surprisingly important cougar demo of women 25-44. Here are your rankings for 6 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Sunday, for the Summer 2009 book ("t" means tie, "+" means gained 2 or more ranks from Spring Book, "_" means lost 2 or more ranks from Spring Book). The number in parentheses is how the station ranked overall in the 25-54 demo.

 1. Hot 103 Jamz - 6.1 (2)       _12t. KUDL - 3.2 (12)
 2. The Rock - 6.0 (1)           14. WHB - 2.9 (7) 
 +3. Magic 107.3 - 5.4 (4)       _15. Jack FM - 2.6 (10)
 4. KFKF - 5.3 (8)               16t. Buzz - 2.3 (15t)
 5. Mix 93.3 - 5.0 (5)           16t. Star 102 - 2.3 (14)
 _6. 980 KMBZ - 4.9 (13)         18. 610 Sports - 2.0 (18)
 7. 101 the Fox - 4.8 (3)        19. Kiss FM - 1.8 (15t)
 _8. 94.9 KCMO - 4.2 (9)         20. KCCV - 1.2 (21)
 +9. Q-104 - 3.9 (6)             21. La Gran D - 1.1 (20)
 +10. The Wolf - 3.8 (11)        22. Gospel 1590 - 1.0 (23)
 _11. KCMO-AM - 3.4 (17)         23. La Super X - 0.9 (22)
 12t. 95.7 The Vibe - 3.2 (19)   24. KXTR - 0.6 (-)

VIDEO: "Meet the Past" begins tonight as Harry gives Crosby hell

Here's a clip from tonight's "Meet the Past," Crosby Kemper's library chats with famous local figures played by our area's best historical performers. I wrote about the tapings earlier this year. Those have been expertly edited to half an hour and begin airing 8:30 Thursday nights starting tonight on KCPT.

In the clip, the man from Independence discusses the 1948 campaign for president and what he did on election night.

WDAF-TV to reunite its dream team for 60th anniversary

Wow, has it been 10 years since I marked WDAF-TV's half century of service? It has.

As we approach the 60th anniversary of the night that the Kansas City Star switched on the area's first — and for nearly four years its only — television station, management there has plans to reunite its most memorable anchor team. Take it away, multiple Emmy winner Damon Bryant:

First, on Thursday, October 15 at 9:30PM we are planning to run a 30-minute special, “60 Years of News.” This will be the fourth in a series of half-hour specials that have run over the past year. This special will include the biggest news stories from the past 60 years, with interviews and reflections from WDAF-TV alumni.

On Friday, October 16, our morning show will kick off the day with a special anniversary edition that will feature highlights and clips from the past, remembrances and a few special treats and other viewer giveaways. That evening at 6pm and possibly at 10pm, we are reuniting the dream team of Cynthia Smith and Phil Witt (click the videos). Cynthia will co-anchor both shows and help provide a special look back to our NBC glory days.

We are also producing a limited edition DVD that will include the four 60-year specials, plus our 50th and 20th anniversary specials. Also included will be rare still photographs from the decades and bonus interview material from WDAF alumni that has not been seen or previously aired. This DVD will be available for purchase after Thanksgiving at any area Rod’s Hallmark Gold Crown store.

(Make sure you check out WDAF's 60th anniversary website, loaded with archival photos and video like the ones featuring Phil and Cynthia below. Also, there's details about the time capsule burial happening on the 16th; kids are invited to submit entries.--AB)

KMBC most excellent at 2009 Mid-America Emmys

Many are nominated ... and, well, frankly, many win at the Mid-America regional Emmy Awards, held every year at this time in St. Louis. Lots and lots of hardware was handed out Saturday night. Still, clearly some awards are more prestigious than others, and by my estimation, Kansas City's KMBC took home one of the top honors.

That's Channel 9 news director Sherrie Brown above, accepting the prize for news excellence (St. Louis's KTVI won for station excellence). KMBC also won both for best AM newscast and best PM newscast.

In journalistic excellence, stations in the No. 32 market more than held their own with their No. 21-market rivals across the state. WDAF took two feature Emmys. KMBC won for weather, education and breaking news, while KSHB shared an Emmy for investigative reporting. Interestingly, KCTV-5, which has banked much of its reputation in the past on being "live, late-breaking" and "investigative," collected Emmys for its business, political and environmental reporting. Very nice ... just not what I expected!

Overall, Metro Sports — which led all local stations with 19 nominations — took home 8 Emmys, while KMBC won 6 Emmys, KCTV 4, WDAF 4, KSHB 3, and there were also Emmys given out to the city government channel KCCG as well as KC's own PlattForm Advertising, "The Steve & Kathy Show" and TVB favorites Jennifer Plas, Meagan Flynn, Michelle Davidson-Bratcher, aka "The Unreal Housewives of Kansas City."

Here's the full list of local winners:

Newscast-Morning/Daytime 1-49 KMBC Troy Diggs, Chris Meggs, Jason Ridder

Newscast-Evening 1-49 KMBC Dennis Sulsberger

General Assignment Report-No Time Limit WDAF John Holt, Mike Lewis

Breaking News KMBC Sherrie Brown

Investigative KSHB (tie) Keith King 

Feature News Report-Serious Feature WDAF (tie) Leslie Carto, Mike Lewis

Business Consumer KCTV Dana Wright, Chris Koeberl, Ken Ullery

Education/Schools KMBC Maria Antonia, Tim Twyman

Science/Environment KCTV Ash-har Quraishi, Chris Koeberl, Ken Ullery

Politics/Government KCTV Ash-har Quraishi, Ken Ullery, Chris Henao

Religion The Steve & Kathy Show Steve Gray

Sports – Story KSHB Mike Marusarz

Sports – Program Metro Sports              Stephen Spiegel, Charlie Parker

Weather KMBC Bryan Busby, Lisa Teachman, Johnny Rowlands

Documentary – Cultural Metro Sports Stephen Spiegel 

Interview/Discussion Metro Sports Marcia Williams-Schmidt, Chris Gough,Dave Neilson, Herbie Teope

Public/Current/Community Affairs-Special KCCG Joe Camoriano

Informational PlattForm Adv Michael Mackie, Jason Kerschner

News Promo – Single Spot KCTV Sara Visomirski, Mark Olson

News Promo – Campaign Image KSHB Jason Smith, Randy Thurman

News Promo – Image Promo Metro Sports (tie) John Kekeisen, Ed Dec

NEWS EXCELLENCE KMBC Sherrie Brown

Editor – Program/Program Feature Metro Sports Erik Ashel

Editor – Sports Metro Sports Erik Ashel

Photographer/Program <>Metro Sports Erik Ashel

Photographer/Sports (Single Camera) <>Metro Sports Erik Ashel

Advanced Media – Arts/Entertainment David Hanklynn Prods. Jennifer Plass, Meagan Flynn, Michelle Davidson-Bratcher, Metro Productions

Advanced Media – Informational/Instruc WDAF Damon Bryant, Daniel Nelson

Advanced Media – Interactivity WDAF Damon Bryant, Daniel Nelson, Michele Allen

KSHB cleans up at KAB awards; WDAF, KMBC no-shows

Judging from the awards list, only KSHB and KCTV appear to have entered the Kansas Association of Broadcasters annual competition. I'm surprised KMBC didn't join; as for Fox 4's money problems, I think we're all aware of those.

HD in SD, or the joys of a middle market

You may recall I posted a few months ago about the travails of KMBC-TV as it tried to get its syndicated programs to air in HD over its ostensibly high definition airwaves. Well, now it's happening over at KCTV, where an alert reader noticed that "Live with Regis and Kelly" and the "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (which went HD on Aug. 30) were still airing locally in SD.

And I, being an alert TV critic, noted that those were two shows that aired locally on a delay. "Live" airs, well, live at 9 a.m. Eastern Time, then on a delay in much of the rest of the country. "Ferguson" airs live, well, pretty much everywhere but Kansas City, where we have a fine tradition -- coughNIGHTLINE -- of airing late-night shows out of pattern. Here, it's on an hour delay.

And so I put the question to outgoing KCTV general manager Kirk Black, who confirmed it was all about the delay. He texted me back, "We have limited HD playback capabilities in KC right now."

So in other words, to quote the Feist Colbert Christmas song: Please be patient. An HD angel will be with thee shortly.

Dan Henry to be honored at regional Emmys

Dan Henry was before my time -- I moved here in '97, he signed off WDAF in '92, when it was still an NBC affiliate -- though of course you still see him shilling in local commercials, and I had a nice chat with him at a recent KC Media Legends luncheon. Over the years I've read about him in our clip files at the Star and learned about the wide appeal of the man who (I think) was the last to serve as lead weathercaster in our market without the benefit of a meteorology degree. "I have 40 people at the Weather Service working for me," he once quipped. And while y'all discuss whether that might not be a bad appraoch for a TV "forecaster" today, here's some PR from the St. Louis chapter of the TV Academy about one of six special service awards being given out at the Regional Emmys Oct. 3:

Dan Henry Bowser, WDAF-TV Kansas City. Mr. Bowser, known on the air as “Dan Henry,” has been broadcasting in the Kansas City area for over 30 years. From 1959-1992, Mr. Bowser enamored listeners and viewers with his casual, often comedic, yet straight forward style. Now retired, Mr. Bowser is still remembered as one of the most beloved and well known of all of Kansas City’s weathermen. Mr. Bowser started his career in Kansas City as a morning disc jockey on WDAF-AM, but he eventually began to cross over to WDAF-TV as a show host and then a weekend weatherman. He became the main weekday weatherman in 1977 and stayed there until he retired in 1992. He was the first to bring local Doppler radar to the Kansas City market.

Perfect storm of economy, technology sinks Skyfox

It probably was too good to last: four news helicopters in the No. 31 (soon to be No. 32) market, particularly given the economy and the ever-shrinking television market. And Fox 4 has been under severe financial pressure since being acquired by a highly-leveraged private equity fund. I can empathize.

Still, I probably should've asked a followup question last year when I reported on the station's acquisition of a sophisticated on-screen traffic system for its morning program, one that can do everything a helicopter can do and then some.

The question I should've asked was: What happens to SKYFOX?

At the time, the answer might have come back, "We'll use both." But now, in response to an inquiry from me -- and thanks to the sharp-eyed readers who spotted the absence of the Fox 4 helicopter while I was gone -- station GM Cheryl McDonald issued this staff memo and sent me a copy:

After careful consideration of the costs going forward and the ample technological developments that have become available in the process of news gathering and coverage, we have decided it more prudent not to renew our helicopter contract at this time and to utilize our financial resources elsewhere.

This decision does not signal in any way a reduced commitment to traffic and breaking news coverage for our viewers. In fact FOX 4 has the most advanced traffic system in the market, with more cameras, traffic sensors, e-mail and cell phone notifications, 3D renderings of every road and Highway, and the most precise drive time information available.

Additionally, Kansas Citians will see no disruption in the level of outstanding breaking news coverage that FOX 4 has provided for the last 60 years. We will continue to utilize aerial equipment when essential in addition to harnessing all the new tools available to cover stories of importance and the myriad of means to convey this information.

FOX 4 has never missed a breaking news story and never will. This has become our tradition and is a promise of our commitment to providing the best news coverage to our viewers in Kansas City.

Previously on TV Barn, Frank Boal left Fox 4 and was not replaced.

Time Warner adds more HDs and virtual DVR service

Time Warner Cable has been telling customers it will be expanding its HD lineup until it reaches the magic number of 100. However, the following news will probably not fall on happy ears among the growing legion of “Mad Men” fans. Here are the channels being put on TWC’s HD grid ... on October 1st:

• AMC HD
• E! HD
• TCM HD
• WGN HD
• QVC HD
• HLN HD
• G4 HD

Better late than never, I guess, although I’m not sure I ever need to see home shopping in hi-def.

Moving on, here's what gets added November 1st:

• Style HD
• Weather HD
• C & I HD
• TV One
• MSNBC HD
• WE HD
• IFC HD
• Fuse HD

Also, in yet another effort to entice people to get a set-top box, Time Warner has rolled out its Start Over feature, which, quoting the literature,

lets viewers restart programs already in progress up to 59 minutes after they’ve begun. When a Start Over enabled show is turned on while in progress, an on-screen prompt pops up offering the option of restarting the program from its beginning. Simply pressing the SELECT button on the remote control immediately restarts the show.

Since I'm using a TiVo instead of TWC equipment, I can't test this feature. But I am assuming that this allows the viewer to also fast-forward through the show ... and its commercials, right? Or is there a trade-off going on here -- watch the network's ads, get a free time-shift? Someone check it out and let me know.

The challenge of community radio, and my thoughts on KKFI

Mark Manning, host of the Wednesday edition of KKFI's Midday Medley program, was good enough to have me on this week to discuss my magazine story about the troubles at KKFI along with former KKFI manager Donna Ross and Rob Lorei of WMNF Radio in Tampa. The discussion was a wide-ranging one, covering the history of community radio, why community radio stations across the country had to change to be more responsive to audiences, why I think KKFI needs to change, and what the future holds for community radio when people have more entertainment and information options than ever. It's a half hour and I've tightened it in a couple of places because I know 30 minutes is a long time to have to listen to anything. (d/l)

Spring KC radio ratings: The(y) rock

What is this, the '90s? KQRC-FM stormed to first place in the spring Arbitrons, released Friday. It's like the old days of Johnny Dare and Murphy, when it seemed everyone in town was checking out the headbanger station. And, always a good sign, The Rock's percentage of listeners ages 25-54 (7.3%) was even higher than its overall number.

On the other hand, the third-ranked country station, "The Wolf" (tied for 13th overall), is the only country station that's skewing old. Which means that Entercom has only partially solved the problem it had 10 years ago when 61 Country was the most listened-to station and also one of the oldest. Maybe Entercom should've kept it on AM and launched an FM sports talk station at 106.5. There's still time.

Anyway, here are the rankings for 6 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Sunday, for the Spring 2009 book. The number in parentheses is either how the station ranked overall in the 25-54 demo (a number) OR how it did in the demo relative to its overall audience (Y means it skewed young, O means it skewed old, and a dash means about the same; if it's an extreme case, I used two letters).

 1. The Rock - 6.8 (1)          13t. The Wolf - 3.2 (O)
 2. Hot 103 Jamz - 5.6 (4)      15. WHB - 3.0 (Y)
 3. KFKF - 5.4 (5)              16. The Buzz - 2.7 (Y)
 4. 980 KMBZ - 5.2 (OO)         17. Star 102 - 2.4 (Y)
 5. Mix 93.3 - 5.1 (2)          18. 610 Sports - 2.1 (Y)
 6. 94.9 KCMO - 4.8 (O)         19. Kiss FM - 1.8 (-)
 7. 101 the Fox - 4.1 (3)       20. La Gran D - 1.2 (Y)
 8. KCMO-AM - 4.0 (O)           21. La Super X - 1.0 (Y)
 9. Magic 107.3 - 3.8 (Y)       22t. KXTR - 0.9 (OO)
 10. KUDL - 3.6 (Y)             22t. Gospel 1590 - 0.9 (O)
 11t. Q-104 - 3.4 (Y)            
 11t. 95.7 The Vibe - 3.4 (O)    
 13. Jack FM - 3.2 (YY)