"Boston Med" producer Terry Wrong: How I got all that access

In Sunday's Kansas City Star, I preview another exciting season of medical documentary that we've come to expect from Terry Wrong and his crew. They've been doing these unscripted reality series since 2000's "Hopkins 24/7," and the extraordinary effort and access that goes into them becomes clear from the get-go.

I asked Wrong how he does it. An edited transcript of our Q-and-A follows.

What do you have to do to gain the kind of access you had for “Boston Med”?

The access is premised on two things. One is history. That means you have to have done a couple of medical documentary series before and treated them with integrity and operated within the ethical and legal rules regarding both patient confidentiality and media law. I did two series, those turned out well, and of course, Mass General called up Hopkins and said, “How was it?” And they said, “Oh, it was great. Do it.”

The second thing is you need to have your media lawyers and the hospital’s risk management lawyers agree that there is a context in which you can film which obeys all the patient privacy concerns, staff rights and other issues involved in shooting medical cases in a hospital. That’s no small thing. I basically meet with the heads of all the departments I’m interested in filming, the chief of surgery, the presidents of each of the hospitals. People ask me hard questions: “If this happens, what will you do?”

Invariably someone will ask if they can see the show before it is broadcast, and the answer is always no, we’re a major news network, we never show a story before we go to air with it. Then someone else will ask, “What if a doctor doesn’t like the way a story is going?” The answer is — remember, this is not a reality show, no one’s under contract — anyone can say at any time, “I’m uncomfortable,” and stop shooting, but they can’t suppress or retract anything that’s been shot up to that point.

For patients, it’s a little different. Patients have the protections of HIPAA, and that means you want to get informed consent from them. And in an emergent situation, you don’t always have time to get that from them, but at the first opportunity. HIPAA’s a lot more complicated than that. There are a lot of other ways you can identify a person. A tattoo can do it. A Social Security number on an X-ray. You have to be aware of that, and they have to know you are aware of that. We actually take HIPAA classes and we take airborne pathogen training. I don’t want to get into all the classes we take, some of it is proprietary, but suffice it to say we put in several weeks not even reporting or filming, just training. Very few people have time to do this. These projects take two years. What shows can you think of that, from the greenlight to the time it airs, takes two years?

What kind of people do you hire to shoot your show, and what’s the schedule like? 
 The schedule is hell because you’re covering people whose schedules are hell. Surgical residents, when they’re starting out, are supposed to work 80 hours a week — though if you can tell the difference between 80 and 90 hours when you haven’t slept all night, that’s something. We basically move away from our homes and our loved ones and we live in an apartment across the street from the hospital. We respond 24/7. We shift out who’s up in the middle of the night, but sometimes there’s so much going on, we wake everybody up. I myself was on the rooftop with a camera at 3 a.m., waiting for the helicopter to come in, plenty of times — while wondering why I couldn’t get any of the people who are 10 or 15 years younger than me to wake up so I could go to bed.

The producers who gravitate to this kind of work have, if not a medical background, a strong interest in medicine. This time I had a woman whose brother is a neurologist in the Boston area and whose dad is head of neurology at a Boston hospital. Three or four other people had those connections. At least 70 percent of the team had worked with me before, so they were extremely familiar.

What was different this time from “Hopkins”?

If we had just made a carbon copy of “Hopkins,” it still would have been a completely different show. Each individual case has its own human drama because it’s happening to new people you haven’t met, and going to Boston you’re meeting doctors you’ve never seen before. No two heart transplants are alike. There’s tremendous variation.

But I did have a larger, macro purpose. Every time we’re in a hospital we’re learning medical information that helps us to understand the conversation that’s going around us better. We were smarter reporters this time. And we learned a lot of things that broadened our understanding that medicine is an art as well as a science. And what I mean by that is that you can go to one of the very best hospitals in the country and you have what you think is one of the very best doctors in the country, you can still have a bad outcome. Once you get deep into this, you learn no one is guaranteed a perfect outcome. There’s too much variance.

The second thing is that a good outcome to you may be that you go back to your life and are as energetic, perhaps more energetic, than you were before. But you learn that in medical terms, a good outcome can be anything from “you’re alive, and your brain works,” to going back to your life as usual.

(Below: In 2000, editing "Hopkins 24/7." Wrong is in the center, back to camera. Courtesy Johns Hopkins.)

It seems like you are trying to make medical dramas that both patients and doctors can watch and learn from.

That’s definitely true. I’m not going to name medical dramas, but there are ones that show procedures that could never happen in people’s particular specialties. There’s so much drama in real medicine, you don’t need to hype it.

A few sound bites gathered over thousands of hours of video really burned themselves into my brain. One was from an ob-gyn resident who said, “The most dangerous thing a woman will do in her life is have a baby.” It’s true. When you start following around ob-gyn residents — oh my god, the complications that can come up.

She also said, “Everybody thinks they’re entitled to have the perfect baby.” Now if you understood how badly hurt the field of ob-gyn has been by malpractice suits, which are roughly five times what they are in other fields of medicine — and consequently they have difficulty filling ob-gyn positions — that shows how far out of whack the public perception is with the medical reality. That is one public service I wanted to provide with this series.

Another thing is from something that was said to me by a colorectal surgeon: “You know, for all the times that I get it right, those few times where there are complications, they drive me crazy, and that’s what will ultimately drive me out of medicine.” Now, this is a terrific surgeon — but that’s what they have to live with, their own perfectionism. I wanted to show that, too. I wanted to get the expectations of the patients and the doctors more aligned, and show the public what to expect when you go into the hospital.

In light of the health care debate that’s been going on, probably as long as you’ve been filming this program, what message, if any, does this series send? Seemingly the best procedures with the best surgeons that money can buy — but whose money, and how does it get paid for?

There are a couple of issues here. One is the hospitals we focused on are teaching hospitals, where new procedures, new therapies, things that advance medicine, are done. We have always been the leader in those teaching hospitals. We have more than a dozen top-flight teaching hospitals. Surgery was invented here. Anaesthesia. Now, teaching hospitals on the clinical level deliver medical care to the population it serves, regardless of whether the population can pay for it or not. Now, someone does pay for it, and it’s the federal government, the state government, and taxpayers. You can’t make progress without spending money. And I would argue you are better off spending money to make people healthier than to send people to Mars.

I’m half Canadian, so I could make the case that everyone should get a basic level of medical care — but remember, Canadians have had to come to the United States to get MRIs for years because the waiting lists are so long in Canada. And I don’t hear people decrying the state of medicine in the U.S. saying, “I’m going to go get my surgery in London.” American medicine is still at the forefront, and it is still an area where we are a superpower. And if we’re not willing to pay for that, it’s going to show in life expectancy and other indicators.

Chris Pisano: "I just did not see this coming"

Tomorrow's FYI, which will be posting online tonight, catches us up with the latest round of changes going on inside KCTV-5 in the eight months since new management took over. Most of the shakeup has not been obvious to viewers. Yes, two members of the investigative unit were let go in December, but that was after the November book, and most viewers probably didn't know there was a new I-team addition until April or so, when Stacey Cameron started filing stories.

But mornings! People sure noticed that.

Dana Wright has been an anchor as long as I have known her; in Topeka, WIBW GM Kirk Black made her an anchor, and when Black came to KCTV, so did she. As of the first week of May, however, she is an anchor no more. New KCTV-KSMO general manager Bobby Totsch and his hand-picked news director, Blaise Labbé, informed her that she would become the station's new chief investigative reporter, replacing Ash-har Quraishi, who's now in Chicago.

As for Wright's co-anchor, Chris Pisano, he was shown the door. After I criticized the move in a March column, Totsch met with me and reassured me that Pisano was a fantastic dude whose fantasticness had nothing to do with the fact he was being fired one year into a new three-year contract.

"I can't say enough him as a person," Totsch said at the time. "He's a great dad, just an unbelieveable person. I couldn't be more proud of him. He understands that we're going in a different direction. We will do anything we can to help him."

Welllllll, that was then. As you may know, Pisano did not go quietly. There was some text fed into the prompter during his last hour on KCTV, something to the extent that he was "pursuing other opportunities." He ad-libbed, instead, that he was being let go. And that was pretty much the last thing Chris Pisano said on KCTV-5.

All hell soon broke loose on 5's "fan page" on Facebook.

"NOT A SMART IDEA LETTING THEM GO!" posted David Small.

"I can't figure out how the KCTV management conducted their market research," wrote Mary Ellen Sippel. "Maybe they wanted to have a boring AM show like the other networks."

"KCTV-5 has made their position very clear Management does not need want or care what your worthless opinion is," wrote Kevin Casey, amid rumors that someone at the station was deleting Chris-and-Dana messages from Facebook.

Totsch and Labbé confirmed to me that they did, in fact, delete comments they found "derogatory" or containing personal attacks or bad language, but that it was consistent with station policy.

Earlier this month, as I was reporting the KCTV story, I called up Pisano, who said he regretted the way his last few minutes played out on the air ... and that he was gratified that people missed him.

"My inbox is inundated with messages," he said. "People who are Internet-savvy will find my profile and shoot me an email saying, 'We’re sorry to see the change, and by the way, you should check out their Facebook page.'

Truth be told, though, Pisano isn't consumed by loathing or a desire for revenge, which would be the only reason to wade through pages and pages of viewer feedback.

"It's gratifying to hear there were people who appreciated (our show). That said, it's not gratifying in any other sense. It's not, 'Too bad KCTV didn't realize what it had!' What is the point of that?"

Since arriving in town seven years ago, Pisano has — at least for me — been emblematic of KCTV5's turnaround. Which is funny because no Internet perverts were busted on his watch. He didn't interrupt the game to talk about twisters. However, more than anyone else at the time, he represented new blood at a station that at the time sorely needed it.

He also had an upbeat personality made for "More in the Morning," a total reboot engineered by Black's news director, Regent Ducas, the year before Pisano arrived. Pisano always seemed kind of above that fray, and he meshed well with his tag-team partners, first Carolyn Long, then Wright. It's too bad he's gone now, because it would be interesting to see how a less in-your-face approach to news — the kind being championed by Totsch and Labbé — might suit his style.

"More in the Morning" came a long way in a few short years, but it was still solidly in third place in the 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. news derby. In the February book it averaged a 1 in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic, same as KSHB's fourth-place show and behind the 3's that KMBC-9 and market leader Fox 4 rang up in the demo. (Getting a 1 means your station's being watched by 1 percent of 18-to-49-year-olds, or roughly 10,400 area viewers.)

But there were no signs, inside or outside KCTV, that a change was imminent.

"I was completely surprised," said Pisano. "I just did not see this coming."

When I caught up with Pisano, he was playing Mr. Mom, walking into Costco with the three youngest of his four children.

"I have nothing bad to say," Pisano said. "Probably 99 percent of my experience with KCTV5 was extremely positive. I loved my work. I loved what I did."

And then, "one day I was sent to HR and given my walking papers. That's the way it happens."

As for that incident that got him yanked on his last day, Pisano called it "a subtle little thing I said — and it got blown out of proportion." The "subtle little thing" was not reading the parting words that had been written for him.

"I've always prided myself on telling it straight, and I wasn't about to stop on my last day. I left KCTV-5 with precious little, but I left with my integrity. I did not intend on leaving while throwing bombs or burning bridges."

Pisano's mood seemed philosophical throughout our interview. He reiterated that he wasn't angry and that this is part of what talent buys into when it chooses this career. A native New Englander, his previous employment included stations in Macon, Ga., and Grand Rapids before coming to KC.

"We're a traveling band of gypsies," said Pisano. "I'm realizing I was disappointed because I was looking to put down roots in Kansas City."

I had heard he might be thinking of leaving the business and trying something else.

"I have several options," Pisano allowed. "Is my heart in it anymore? Only time will tell. This shook my belief in the business. I was always of the mind that if you did a good job, had a good work ethic, a positive attitude and people valued you, you would also be valued by your company. And I was — I was treated as a valued employee. And then in 60 days, I went from valued employee to 'clean out your desk.'"

His and Wright's places were taken by Kelly Jones, a newcomer to the area, and Greg Adaline, who's been at the station a year. After a couple of weeks of sound and fury, the Facebook boards do seem to have calmed down about the replacements, though I guess if I were Adaline I would keep my thoughts about the transition to myself.

Comments:

I have never lived anywhere (and I've lived in many areas of the US) that local news coverage baffles me like KCTV5. People come and go and one never knows why. I realize that ratings are the basis of all decisions. But they certainly have a reputation of being very callous in their dismissals. Chris Pisano was a solid anchor. In fact I thought he was superior and could have handled evening news, etc. etc. I wish him well. Maybe I will see him in another area. Recently saw weather person Devon Lucie doing the weather on CBS affiliate in DC. Never understood moving Dana Wright in for Carolyn Long. She was giddy and at times not professional and I didn't feel she really helped the "More In The Morning". Good luck to Chris Pisano and his family. B.J. Gregory

Had to voice my opinion in regards to changes at #5 or 3. I was and am very sorry to see Chris Pisano go. He was the best one in the morning. I was glad to see Dana Wright go as she was so silly and didn't watch it when she was on. This isn't my opinion either. I hope Chris will find another job on television and his talent should not be wasted.As far as the new anchors they haven't convinced me to change from Kris Katz on #9. I am so glad they have told Katie Horner to cool it when she breaks in programing with her weather many miles away from here. I do not watch her at all. - Olive Wilhelm

I am a newcomer to all the fuss associated with the recent personnel changes at KCTV-5. I did notice the changes but didn't know any of the "behind the scenes" politics that plague many businesses. I somewhat and inaccurately suspected that Chris Pisano got a promotion to a prime time spot at a larger metropolitan location. The guy is highly professional and always maintained such a positive image that drew me to his morning show.

I am at a loss on how the various local networks are rated. No one has every asked me about my viewing preferences, particularly in the morning. I was a regular viewer of TV-5 early in the a.m. during my morning workouts. Nothing against the current staff but I now move around to the other stations instead of locking in on channel 5 as I used to do.

In my estimation, Chris was/is a class act. I like the fact that he maintained his integrity and didn't "fall on the sword" for his superiors and the words they chose for his departure message.

He will be missed and I wish him the best. BUT............. I do like the revamped policy on the continuous break-ins during network programming to talk about a cell that had already passed through the viewing area. I was angry and frustrated on many, many occassions, when all I could see is red in the form of a "red" dress. Yes, it is still ingrained in my mind, kill and overkill!

Tom Klocek

I enjoyed you blog on Chris and now realize more than ever the big mistake that KCTV made. I always thought he should have gotten the 6 and 10 news spots. I have been wondering what happened to Carolyn Long? What will Jerry Lewis TV show for MS do with out Carolyn and Chris to join Gary as hosts? Since Chris left the noon news I stay tuned to CNN and catch up with the local news on KMBC,com. - Bill Rohleder

Chris Pisano was our favorite but I’m not sorry to see Dana Wright go. Such a shame Channel 5 thinks the replacements will help their ratings. The show has lost class in anchors and trust by viewers such as myself. Thanks for finding Chris. Regards, Grace

I hope that Bobby Tutsch recommends massive changes at the channel-5 weather segment. Now the weather segment is really annoying and I refuse to watch it even though weather dominates local news. Anybody with cable, or a computer, can get a weather report at any time of day, from many different sources. Nobody has to wait utill the evening news comes on. I despise the quiz show "promos" which has an announcer asking a series of questions and then advises viewers to tune in and find out. No, we don't have to wait until the evening news to learn the answers to any but the most local issues. There are too many other sources. - Kenneth Lee

Thanks for giving us information regarding the More in the Morning Show. I was an avid watcher when Chris and Dana were on. Now, I must change the channel as soon as they say good morning. Both Greg and Kelly's voices drive me crazy. They are too fake and try too hard at being funny. I posted many a comments on Facebook regarding the change. Many got deleted and I guess after too many of those they just "de-fan" you--LOL I'm not joking, I did get de-fanned and after I added them back I am no longer able to post any comment of any kind. I sent an email to the news department and alas, that wasn't answered either. I guess they truly do not care about the viewers over 49 years of age. After all, isn't my age group the one who would even be up and watching at 5 am? We also have more disposable income as children are grown and out of the house and almost finished with college. I just choose to watch another news show in the morning. I have a very difficult time believing that the ratings are up. Any idea on where we can watch those over the course of the year? Thanks again, I am hoping that KCTV5's morning show tanks. LOL No, not bitter :) - Pat Turner

I am with the others when I say I find Kelly flat and Greg forced and phony. Kelly has already morphed through 3 heads of hair; her stylist fails because she looks weird. Greg is just strained. I agree with Pat Turner. Those of us that are 50+, up and working don't seem all that important to the demographic. Funny that, as I sit here listening to them reporting about the unemployment of class of '09 and '10. They are the ones with huge loans and no jobs and we are the ones working and saving. Duh? :-( Christy Hunt

I didn't like the morning news anchors at Channel 5. Dana was cute and silly. Chris bugged me with his snide comments after he read a story. I know he was trying to be funny but it was like he was trying to be Joe Buck or anyone else over at Fox. He always seemed to me like he was acting like he was too good for this little morning news show and wanted to be the next Lewis Black. - Jeff

I was one of the individuals who complained on FaceBook about the firing of Chris Pisano and the direction that Mr. Totcsh took the morning news and rather than responding to my comments, I was simply deleted, removed from the Friends List and prevented from making any more comments on the KCTV5 FaceBook site. So much for the American right to Freedom Of Speech. If this is how they want to respond to viewers, then fine. I'll just join the growing list of people watching other programming and channels. - Dennis Harvey

Chris is a true anchorman. His dignity to the morning show was the only reason I watched the news. His humor was real not fake or put on. It seems that TV5 is going the way of the old KSHBTV or years past. Chris is able to be honest with the viewers about current events and local real news stories. I really enjoy listening to him. I will miss him. The new line up on the morning show on TV5 is hereby cancelled. At least at my house. Chris, best of the news to you and prayers that your next reporting assignment will be anchoring a major station! Maybe if Dana Wright would change her hair color to blond she would be able to anchor an evening show again. Tisk tisk. Just kidding Dana. I think you should have stayed as the evening anchor. - Dave Ryan

Journalism students: smarter than you think!

I know you hear it said — I've probably said it myself — "Why would anyone want to major in journalism today? Isn't that just a quick ticket to the unemployment line while you manage your own non-paying blog?"

A valid question, but in reality, while the commercial landscape of journalism is certainly changing, it's not disappearing. And if you can get into a top J-school, most of those are so tightly ingrained with the industry anyway, it's practically like going to trade school.

Which brings us to Cassie Besek. Last Saturday she earned her degree from the Missouri Journalism School. And on Monday America watched her take home $50,000 on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." The St. Thomas Aquinas High graduate from Overland Park told Meredith Vieira she plans on moving to the coast and getting a job writing about entertainment for a magazine.

I'm thinking she gets hired.

Conan's future is probably brighter than you think

Conan O'Brien brings his traveling catharsis tour to Kansas City on Sunday. And as I explain in the Sunday Kansas City Star, I make the case that, far from diminishing him, the decision to jump to cable's TBS will only make Conan a bigger star — and ironically, it will be bigger in part because his nemesis Jay Leno is at NBC.

When I was on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” in April extolling the move, host Howie Kurtz sniffed, “You used the phrase ‘raise his profile’ on TBS. They're not usually used in the same sentence.” (Video below.) Perhaps Kurtz should ask Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert what being a big fish in a small pond does for your profile.

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)

"Food Wars" goes on hiatus, so bogus Kansas City BBQ "battle" will have to wait

An alert reader called up the Star yesterday to note that the Travel Channel series "Food Wars" had suddenly disappeared, mid-series, from the schedule.

Sure enough, when I checked in with Travel Channel PR, I got this answer: "Food Wars will return with fresh episodes later this year and we’ll be sure to notify all of our press contacts of its return."

To some people around here, at least, that was a major disappointment, because tonight's installment was supposed to be from Kansas City, pitting the two best joints in town in an epic "barbecue battle" ...

... Gates and Bryant's.

With all due respect to those storied institutions, I don't think so. Not to include Oklahoma Joe's and Jack Stack in a BBQ competition at this late date is a sign that you haven't done your research. For heaven's sake, even Bud Trillin has darkened OK Joe's convenience-store doorstep and reluctantly admitted to being in the presence of greatness.

Thanks to an alert tweeter, we learned that when "Top Chef" was recently in KC, the crew sent out for barbecue at OK Joe's. "Top Chef" — now there's a food show.

Final thoughts on "Greensburg"

I've just watched the last three hours of the "Greensburg" TV series on the Planet Green channel. It's the end of a documentary project that has lasted nearly as long as the recovery effort from the Greensburg tornado, which flattened the western Kansas town three years ago Tuesday.

Overall, I've been very impressed with this series and its attempt to tell true stories with a minimum of manufactured drama. Since I am working on a longer-term project on Greensburg, I've had a chance to converse with many of the same people that Pilgrim Films, the producer of "Greensburg," spoke with over the past three years. I've attended public meetings and been in many of the homes you've seen on TV.

In particular, the three hours that aired Sunday and tonight hewed closely to the same large themes that I tried to capture in my story on page one of today's Kansas City Star: conflict between people over the town's future direction, exhaustion after three years of continuous recovery work, and uncertainty about whether it will all be worth it.

I've talked with Craig Piligian, the head of Pilgrim Films, and Johnny Gould, a top producer on the "Greensburg" series, and I know they and the field producers who worked on the show remain concerned about Greensburg's long-term success. When Gould and I chatted at TCA in January, he seemed genuinely worried about fundraising for the Twilight Theatre — and this is a project the show didn't even cover! I think that care and concern has been evident throughout the series, and you can't say that about most shows on cable.

However, in one sense "Greensburg's" interpretation of events is different from my own. In a break with the other 21 episodes, the closing hour is narrated (much like the clip show that aired Sunday night). And as the hour wound to a close, the narrator kept telling us that the rebuilding of Greensburg was a "success." The school was a success. The rebuilding of Main Street was a success.

Perhaps most dubiously, the Big Well project was declared a "success" — even though the plans were approved (not without controversy) less than a month ago and there's currently no money for the exhibits that will go inside the Big Well Museum.

I agree that Greensburg has rebuilt its bricks-and-mortar infrastructure. And I don't mean to diminish the tremendous sacrifice that went into that. Take, for example, Kiowa County United. People gave a million and a half dollars with no return on their investment — just so they can buy flowers and get their pictures framed without driving to Pratt? That's as much a human triumph as it is a commercial triumph.

My only point is this: Greensburg will need more actual successes like that — not just imagined ones — in building its human infrastructure if it's to grow into a prosperous small town, rather than becoming a tiny village of white elephants.

RELATED STORIES:

• Success hasn't come easy for Greensburg (May 4, 2010)
• Previous Greensburg stories I've written (2008-2009)

"South Park" does it again

"South Park" proved once again that is on its game — and even though Comedy Central bleeped its latest controversial episode, it never would have aired on broadcast TV. We talked about that — and what all this does to perceptions of Islam — this week on KOGO Radio, San Diego's news-talk blowtorch.

More information about my book is here!

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d/l

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The state of the TV nation: Cable's up, VCRs are vanishing, and we're watching more than ever

Television Audience 2009, Nielsen's annual data dump on the state of the American viewer, is just out. Taking a look through the charts and graphs, here's what I see in the ongoing evolution of our entertainment centers.

Cable breaks the 90 percent barrier. Or in other words, cable reaches ubiquity. With 62 percent of people subscribing to wired cable and another 28 percent paying for satellite and other wireless services, cable channels are everywhere they want to be. Where they aren't, the audience is thought to be out of reach — abstainers and folks on a strict PBS diet.

While it is true that cable channels rarely take a broadcast-sized slice of the viewing audience, the growing availability of cable means that the gap between big cable channels and small broadcast networks will get smaller and eventually vanish. Surely this weighed on Conan O'Brien as he pondered TBS's offer. After all, TBS will be in nearly 101 million homes when he signs on TBS later this year. That is how many homes NBC was broadcasting to in the year 2000. ("In the year two thou-saaaaaaand....")

VCRs crash, DVDs saturate. People, I hope you're recycling your VCR players and cassettes responsibly! Because if you aren't, America's landfills have a helluva mess on their hands. Just in the past year, the number of homes with VCRs has plummeted from 72 percent to 65 percent. In just five years, the players have disappeared from a third of American homes. DVD players peaked in 2008 and remain in 88 percent of homes, a notch lower than the high water mark of VCRs (90 percent in 2005). However, with DVD sales hitting the wall and online viewing surging, shiny disc players have nowhere to go but down.

Factors that boost TV-watching are on the rise. Fully 83 percent of homes are now multi-set, which is worth keeping in mind when you read the time-spent-viewing numbers below. (For instance, when you put a TV in the kids' bedroom, which I don't recommend, they will instantly add to your total household viewing time.)

DVR use has doubled in just three years — 34 percent of homes have one and that figure is above 40 percent in markets like Kansas City. And digital cable is now in 46 percent of homes. Both DVRs and digital cable offer options for time-shifting, which increases viewer convenience, which leads to more TV watching. Which brings us to the annual eye-popping statistic ...

The average household now consumes 58 hours 29 minutes of television per week. That is more than eight hours per day per household, up two minutes from 2008. Women watch more than men, teenagers or kids.

If your household is black, add 20 hours to that. African America continues to lead the country, by far, in time spent viewing. Black households were parked in front of their TVs for 78 hours and 44 minutes a week, more than 11 hours per household per day. Black households spend more time watching all forms of cable, including pay channels — which is why HBO can cater to them with shows like "Treme" that unapologetically feature African-American actors.

The fastest growing demo in TV isn't a "demo." The audience portion with the largest year-to-year increase, according to Nielsen, is adults 50-plus. This is a demographic grouping, to be sure, but not what the industry considers a "key demographic" — i.e., one that advertisers pay dearly to reach. The reason is that 50-plussers watch more TV than any other group save African-Americans. (Tellingly, Nielsen doesn't even break out time spent viewing for older adults.)

Meanwhile, the two demos that media buyers covet almost more than life itself — adults 18-49 and teenagers — slightly shrunk last year. Of course, this will have the perverse effect of driving up advertising rates for those networks that can prove they are young viewer magnets. If older viewers want more respect from TV programmers and advertisers, they'll have to follow the young 'uns lead and watch television less.

55% of Americans are at the mercy of levees - and the Army Corps

Through the miracle of Google Alerts, I got an immediate response to my article on Harry Shearer and his documentary about the U.S. Army Corps in time for the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Sandy Rosenthal of Levees.org, the group that has been vigilantly working to uncover the true state of America's levees and to educate media folk like me who write about levees, corrected my story, saying that 55% of U.S. counties were protected by levees,not the 43% that I had cited.

When I pointed out my source was an academic one instead of FEMA, Sandy wrote back:

Actually both population estimates come from the same place, FEMA, but the 55% estimate is the most recent (Sept 2009). The 43% estimate was presented to Congress in June 2008 by the Congressional Hazards Caucus. Levees.org wanted to see documentation of those counties, and were told by a member of the Caucus (Gerry Galloway) we need to request that data from FEMA.

http://www.hazardscaucus.org/briefings/levees_briefing0608.html

We filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act in March of 2009 and 6 months later we finally received our data and its source documentation. But we had a surprise! We discovered the number had been raised to whopping 55%. This means the majority of the nation's population lives in counties protected by levees.

COMMENTS:

Thank you for posting to your blog about Levees.org's work and our discovery that 55% (and not 43%) of the American population lives in counties protected by levees.

This new data has been published by Homeland Security Newswire, Insurance Journal and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Anyone wishing to see the data, and its significance, may do so by clicking this link:

http://levees.org/2009/12/01/new-map-shows-large-sectors-of-american-population-are-protected-by-levees/

Thank you, Mr. Barnhart for posting this important information.

Sandy Rosenthal, wife, mom, Saints fan and founder of Levees.org

KMBC back at full strength

Channel 9 got back on the air with its regular transmitter at 6:30 a.m. after a crew from Fort Worth and director of engineering Jerry Agresti labored through the night.

The tubes that Agresti feared were damaged by the sudden loss of coolant were fine. The cost to repair the transmitter was less than $10,000, general manager Wayne Godsey told TVB, mostly to pay the crew.

Here's my story from this morning's Kansas City Star about the brazen burglary that knocked KMBC off the air.

Tony and Nikko Gonzalez score their own cable show

 

Yet another benefit to being an Atlanta Falcon — it's easy to do a TV show for the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network.

Yes, Cartoon (it's not just about the cartoons anymore, haven't you heard??) announced today a new series, "My Dad's a Pro," starring the future Hall of Famer and his adorable son Nikko.

They also announced another 24 new series and specials. And that's not even the Adult Swim end of things. They include:

• Adventure Time – premiered Monday, April 5 at 8 p.m. ET/PT
• Ben 10: Ultimate Alien – premiering Friday, April 23 at 8 p.m. ET/PT
• Generator Rex (from the creators of Ben 10 and prem'g right after Ben 10)
• Unnatural History – premiering Sunday, June 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT 
• Tower Prep
• Sym-Bionic Titan
• MAD (yes, based on the magazine)
• Regular Show
• Robotomy
• Secret Mountain Fort Awesome
• The Looney Tunes Show 
• Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated
• Young Justice
• Run It Back Sunday 
• Total Drama World Tour  
• Metajets 
• BEYBLADE: Metal Fusion 
• The Amazing Spiez
• Cartoon Network’s Hall of Game
• Firebreather
• Scooby Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster
• KROG
• Lords of Bad Axe
• Totally Spies! The Movie

And these shows are returning:

• Star Wars: The Clone Wars
• Dude, What Would Happen
• Destroy Build Destroy
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold
• Flapjack
• Johnny Test
• 6teen
• Stoked
• Bakugan
• Pokémon
• Battle Force 5
• Pink Panther & Pal
• Totally Spies

KMBZ, KCUR, KSHB, KCTV also win regional Murrows

My bad: I reported earlier about KMBC's win in the Region 5 Edward R. Murrow Awards handed out by the RTDNA. I neglected to check the full listing because had I done so, I would have seen that...

• KMBZ-AM won an impressive victory over St. Louis powerhouse KMOX for its morning news (listen).
• KCUR won for a compilation reel of its breaking news coverage (listen).
• KSHB was honored for continuing coverage (listen)...
• ... while KCTV was honored twice: once for its coverage of the tapes from the Liberty bus crash (watch with annoying ad) and another for Ash-Har Quraishi's disturbing story about sexual assaults in a local hospital (watch with annoying ad). In case you hadn't heard, Quaraishi has landed on his feet in Chicago, working on WTTW's long-running public affairs program "Chicago Tonight."

KC FilmFest kicks off with kicky radio documentary

UPDATE: Tom's film won the CinemaJAZZ award at the KC FilmFest.

My friend Tom Roche directed the opening film of this year's Kansas City Film Festival, and if you've got the time, you should cut out of work early to see it, 4:20 p.m. at the AMC Mainstreet.

It's called "Alley Pat: The Music Is Recorded," and it's about the 35-year career of one of the true pioneers in broadcasting, James "Alley Pat" Patrick. Alley Pat endeared himself to two generations of Atlantans with his outrageous show, his commitment to civil rights and personal courage.

Tom arrived in Atlanta in the 1970s and, radio buff that he is, almost immediately found Alley Pat's show. And started recording hours and hours of his on-air banter. Thirty years later, Tom — a video editor best known as the guy whose name is upside down in the credits of 56 "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" episodes — pulled out his Alley Pat collection and wondered if there was a film here.

There was — a fast-paced, funny and one-of-a-kind production that brings a bygone broadcast era to life.

If you're thinking, "I'll just wait for the DVD," don't. Tom told me there are just way too many music clearance issues to make production of a home-video version feasible. So you see it today or you may never see it.

Some clips:

Here's one of interest to Kansas City viewers:

Earlier, I wrote about the amazing story behind Harry Shearer's "Unwigged" DVD and how it all came about because Tom walked backstage after his Atlanta show and offered to do one.

Tom also started up a web site full of Alley Pat tapes.

Conan on cable! Why Team CoCo is smart to go to TBS

Look no further than Stephen Colbert — a man whose late-night comedy-talk program attracts barely 1 million viewers per weeknight, and only airs Mondays through Thursdays — for evidence that there's nothing like lowered expectations to make you feel like a huge success.

Jon Stewart graces magazine covers and hosts big-time award programs, all for hosting a program that airs half an hour four nights a week to an average audience of 1.7 million — or about what Conan O'Brien was averaging in 1994 when NBC was thisclose to firing his ass.

That is why Team Coco's decision to walk away from network television and sign with cable powerhouse TBS is the latest brilliant strategic reaction to what has been one of the least predictable, careers in the history of late night TV. Conan O'Brien has been delivered enough setbacks to sink lesser stars.

Once again, he has responded by choosing exactly the right option, accepting that every move has its tradeoffs. This one means accepting that your future is as a cable star. But as Comedy Central and Adult Swim prove every single late night, that's not so bad.

Conan O'Brien will air a show for one hour Monday through Thursdays at 11 p.m. beginning in November, it was announced this morning.

His lead-out will now be George Lopez. But don't expect that arrangement to last forever. THR's James Hibberd reported earlier today that Fox had wanted Conan to be on contract, rather than own his own show. Even so, 100 percent clearance on Fox affiliates was not guaranteed.

Now look at him. I can guarantee you not only is Conaco (his company) given full ownership of the TBS show, but he's got an option to produce the lead-out (midnight) show when/if "Lopez Tonight" fails. TBS will have first look at all Conaco series; this will be huge for TBS, which is looking for niche comedies; and it will be huge for Conaco, which has seen niche ideas like "Andy Barker, P.I." flop on network TV.

He will get a huge swell of publicity and, with his viewing base of 2.5 million likely to grow — because he'll be on at 11 instead of 11:35 or 12:35 — will instantly host one of the biggest shows in cable.

Yes, bigger than "The Daily Show."

Audio: I talked about the upside of Conan going to TBS on WTOP Radio in Washington, D.C., tonight.

d/l

Reactions

Peter writes: "I do have the Internet and would love to see Conan's show streamed live on the TBS site. That would give him the best of both world's because he can reach the whole planet with the Web but his ratings will only be judged in the context of cable."

"Helen" writes: "Basic cable is on the way out, as millions of us don't have the little black wire but do have internet access. We can't watch George Lopez and apparently we won't be able to watch Conan O'Brien, because TBS programming isn't available on-line -- which means Stewart, Colbert, and Comedy Central have little to fear."

The reader is misinformed. TBS is in more than 100 million homes, and the percentage of people with basic cable is at all time highs.

"Treme" plants a tree for David Mills

Eighty friends and family of the late David Mills gathered for a brief public expression of gratitude for the writer's life in the most heartwarming way one can think of.

In the middle of a city that's come back strong from a devastating storm ... in the middle of a park that housed countless memories of New Orleanians past and present ... a relative stranger had a tree planted in his honor, in the belief that the live oak will do what the fallen writer surely would have, if he could have: that is, stay and grow roots.

"David wasn't from here," said Mary Howell, the local civil rights attorney who opened the tree-planting ceremony. "But in the short period he was here, we grew to love him and sense his love for this place."

Howell — who's the inspiration for Melissa Leo's character on "Treme" — noted that a thousand stately trees had met their demise in City Park during Katrina. Some wondered if the park would ever come back. But it is back, and Howell said "the fact that they are laying out fresh trees, and fresh roots, seemed appropriate today." She hoped the roots of Mills' tree "will flourish and grow deep and grow wide."

"Treme" co-creator Eric Overmyer and producer Anthony Hemingway also spoke. "We are all born into this world with a purpose in life," Hemingway said. "It's beautiful when we discover what that purpose is. I can say with confidence that David Mills was in touch with his purpose in life."

Then the attendees — including John Goodman, Steve Zahn, David Simon, Khandi Alexander, Davis Rogan, Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters — threw a bit of dirt on the tree plant and took a special memorial Hubig's pie while the Rebirth Brass Band played "Closer Walk with Thee," "Feel Like Funkin' It Up" and other songs (many of which you heard them play last night on the sensational "Treme" premiere).

Omar's here!! And other sights and sounds from the HBO "Treme" premiere gala

Hello from New Orleans, where as luck would have it, I am in town for the French Quarter Festival the very weekend that HBO showed the series premiere of "Treme" for the cast, crew and friends of the show at the Morial Convention Center, one night before its debut on the HBO. The show's two co-creators, including "The Wire's" co-creator, David Simon, spoke before the premiere. (Here's my review of "Treme.")

Dave Walker, my friend and host, commented that he couldn't recall a show, especially an HBO show, getting this much attention for the first episode. (The exception might be "John from Cincinnati," but in a totally different way.) Judging from the VIPs who showed and the dearth of available seats among the 900 chairs set out for the screening, I would say the anticipation is as widely felt in New Orleans as anywhere else.

Dave even wondered if someone would announce a second-season pickup for "Treme" this very night. Michael Lombardo, one of HBO's top executives, was there, but he didn't say anything.

Nine members of the late David Mills' family were also there. There will be a remembrance ceremony and tree planting Sunday in honor of Mills, felled by a brain aneurysm March 30.

Despite the circumstances, co-creator Eric Overmyer couldn't help but note the overwhelmingly festive air of the occasion. "I think tonight is the cakewalk back from the cemetery, don't you?" he told the crowd.

Kermit Ruffins was there. He seated himself at the end of the last row, and set his horn down next to his chair. Clearly he wasn't going to be there at the end. (Neither were we, having seen the premiere of "Treme," between us, at least eight times.)

An HBO publicist spotted us and said, "Look who came!" and before the light even fully illuminated his face, I could tell I was looking at the one, the only Michael K. Williams, Omar from "The Wire." I found this the most thrilling thing of the night. Is he joining the "Treme" cast, like Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters before him? No one knows, save I guess for David Simon.

Speaking of the Buddha of urban drama, he told the crowd that he worried that he had no more praises to share this evening of his late colleague, after mourning Mills at a remembrance the day after he died. Instead, Simon read a letter from a descendant of Tootie Montana, the famed Mardi Gras Indian Chief who died, two months before Katrina, while addressing the New Orleans City Council. He, too, died while "fighting the fight." It's a wonderful letter and I will leave it to Dave to transcribe it at his Treme blog.

"Hookers for Jesus" gets picked up by Discovery

Local reality queen Sharon Liese can add another pickup — her third — this morning as Discovery Networks announced a three-episode order for her docu-series "Saved on the Strip."

Here's Discovery's writeup from its upfront release: "Blonde, brash and fearless, former high-class call-girl Annie Lobert answers to a higher calling now. She bravely patrols the streets of Las Vegas to combat sex trafficking. SAVED ON THE STRIP profiles Lobert, her new husband Oz Fox and her team of former prostitutes, who all counsel current women caught in the downward spiral of unwise choices, drugs and violence in Sin City."

Oz Fox is a guitarist for Stryper, the Christian megaband. "Saved on the Strip" will air on Investigation Discovery, a digital network.

As you may recall from my recent profile of Liese, this was the series with the working title of "Hookers for Jesus." Liese's assistant Britt Frank discovered Lobert, and soon afterward, reality producer Jon Kroll jumped on board.

Three episodes sounds like a ridiculously tiny order, but Liese told me today that the show hasn't even done any shooting. So if Discovery likes what it sees, I'd expect more hours to be added to the order.

Liese's previous series was "High School Confidential," which she filmed in her home and at a nearby high school over four years. Her second series, "High School Confidential 2," is filming in Chicago.

Local reservist on "Millionaire" Friday

Handsome young man, that Matt Hicks. But whether he's now rich and handsome, you'll have to tune in Friday to see.

Hicks, a senior at UMKC and National Guard reservist, gets into the hot seat Friday on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire,” airing on KSHB (NBC), weekdays at 4:00 pm.

In 2004 he graduated Belton High School; the next year he joined the Guard and was deployed to Kosovo for 13 months, but not before proposing to his wife Leanne, who was in the studio for the taping.

Details on "Greensburg's" third and final season

Discovery's Planet Green has released the schedule for the wrapup episodes of Greensburg. This brings the total number of episodes to a network-sized 22. Season one is on DVD and season two is available through Amazon Video on Demand.

I'll have a story in the Kansas City Star in a week or two, with a full update on life in Greensburg nearly three years after the storm.

There will be a recap episode before the three new episodes air. Here's a brief clip.

Notice the councilman in the green shirt. That's Rex Butler voting "aye" on the LEED Platinum resolution (not "ordinance") in December 2007. On Tuesday, voters returned Butler to the Greensburg City Council; he had stepped down when his term expired two years ago. Though Rex gets a rep as being an "anti," he's actually one of those "naturally green" folks you hear from around Greensburg. What's more, he's one of the town's foremost vegetable growers. Last week he gave me a tour of his expansive backyard garden.

"We eat out of our garden 12 months a year," he told me.

But Rex, I said, I don't see any crops. What are you getting out of your garden now?

He smiled and said, "Cottontail."

PR follows ...

The city of Greensburg captured the hearts of people around the world after an EF5 tornado, one of the strongest in American history, devastated the city on May 4, 2007. Now in the final chapter of this inspiring story, Planet Green visits the community and documents how the enormous task of transforming a small city into a sustainable center has become a reality. As former residents return and the downtown area nears completion, GREENSBURG has become a testament to the resiliency of the human spirit, bringing hope for future generations. GREENSBURG is produced by Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way with Craig Piligian's Pilgrim Films and Television for Planet Green.

Programming Highlights (all times Eastern):

Sun, May 2 at 8:00 p.m. - Greensburg Recap Special

Sun, May 2 at 9:00 p.m. – Episode 1

Mon, May 3 at 8:00 p.m. – Episode 2

Mon, May 3 at 9:00 p.m. – Episode 3

About Planet Green: Planet Green is the multiplatform media destination for people looking for something new. Launched on June 4, 2008, Planet Green is following the evolving conversation about sustainability and is the entertainment brand that champions the visionaries who move our world forward in small and large ways. Planet Green and its two robust Web sites, planetgreen.com and TreeHugger.com, offer unique, insightful and inspiring content related to how we can evolve to live a better, brighter future. Planet Green's original programming, digital tools and content will entertain, educate and activate.