KTRK 13 adopts AccuWeather's StoryTeller interactive monitor

KTRK 13 has had what it brands a SmartBoard for a while. Basically one of those CNN-like interactive boards reporters can touch and make graphics appear and move around.

Recently AccuWeather announced KTRK and other ABC owned and operated stations are getting AccuWeather's StoryTeller which sounds similar to what the station already has. Not sure if this means the station is formally adopting the SmartBoard or going with a brand new system:

AccuWeather today announced the placement of StoryTeller™, an Interactive Touchscreen System which brings any story to life, in the top 4 television markets. The ABC Owned Stations, WABC-TV New York City (Market 1), KABC-TV Los Angeles (Market 2), WLS-TV Chicago (Market 3), and WPVI-TV Philadelphia (Market 4), as well as KTRK-TV Houston (Market 10), will be able to engage viewers with an interactive suite of touch-screen software that puts all the elements of breaking news, sports, traffic and weather literally at the presenter's fingertips.

"WABC and our other stations have pioneered the use of large screen interactive monitors to better illustrate stories for our viewers," said Dave Davis, President and General Manager at WABC-TV in New York. "This cutting edge AccuWeather technology really brings these screens to life."

StoryTeller creates fresh, lively, personalized presentations that speak directly to audiences because it allows on-air talent to present information in a highly visual, highly advanced way. It makes it easy to incorporate live HD and SD video, graphic images, movies, and web and social media content into the presentation, especially for stories that are unfolding in real time.

"StoryTeller uniquely allows news teams to present segments with leading-edge technology," said Ryan Ayers, Vice President, Display Systems and Services at AccuWeather. "The many different applications provide stations with everything they need to help them tell the story and ultimately attract and engage viewers."

Much more than just an advanced piece of touchscreen hardware, StoryTeller includes specialized applications for news, sports, elections, traffic, and weather presentations. The applications offer ready-for-air visuals such as sports brackets, detailed 3D cityscapes, tools for in-depth analysis and video control (often used for sports) and interactive graphics and maps. Also available are rich and varied ESRI® map data to support news stories of all types. StoryTeller includes a library of informational videos and graphics for tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters, making it easy to be first on the air with the story behind the headlines.

The proprietary interface includes special features to easily move story elements within the display and to quickly swipe from one full-screen scene to the next. StoryTeller has full telestration capabilities to explain the story in a clear and conversational style. With its full internet connectivity, the presenter can invite viewer commentary or highlight further coverage on the station website or through social media. The system also includes detailed 3-D maps to help illustrate locations of breaking news.

The StoryTeller touch surface is available in multiple sizes to support a variety of interactive presentation techniques. For example, the 82" wall-mounted screen accommodates two presenters - one on each side - in a highly conversational format. Another powerful configuration is a large screen on a special set - sports, elections, or the like - paired with a smaller screen at the anchor desk for interaction amongst the news team.

Watch the board in action here.

KIAH 39's NewsFix hits one year on the air

There were many doubts when KIAH 39 announced it was dumping traditional news for the new NewsFix format. I remember people giving it only a few months to survive. Well a year later, we get the release from the Tribune owned station heralding its one year anniversary:

The local television newscast like none other in America has reached a milestone - a full year of innovation in showing viewers a new way to experience news.

On March 19, 2011, Tribune’s KIAH-TV debuted “NewsFix”, the creative, anchorless newscast that has captivated the Houston market with convincing success.

“Making the transition from the traditional news format has been an energizing experience,” said Roger Bare, VP/GM of KIAH. “I’m proud of the commitment and hard work that has led to “NewsFix’s” success.”

“Newsfix” has the highest percentage of overall viewership under the age of 34 (55% at 5p, 57% at 9p), nearly doubling the percentage of its closest competitor in the market. The median age of the Houston television late news viewer is 55.8, “NewsFix’s” 9:00pm median age is 32.5, the youngest median age among late newscasts in the market. Overall, “NewsFix’s” viewership has significantly increased, more than doubling its weekday 5:00pm audience since its debut, while doubling 5:00pm and 9:00pm ratings in the 18-49 and 25-54 age groups.

“We are pleased with what “NewsFix” has accomplished in its first year,” said Nils Larsen, CEO of Tribune Broadcasting. “It has proven to be a viable news format, one of many recent innovations in newsrooms across Tribune Broadcasting.”

“We have created a new format that some would consider alternative news,” said KIAH News Director Gary Jaffe. “We have proven to be engaging and thought-provoking, and we verbalize it in a catchy and responsible way.”

While “NewsFix” has broken new ground in terms of local news presentation, the program’s diversity of content has created a journalistic forum unlike traditional broadcasts. Features such as Bullet Points (hosted by former radio personality and gun shop owner Jim Pruett) and Crime Bureau (Harris County Constable Victor Trevino) provide unique community awareness. The weekly NewsFixer investigative segment fights bureaucratic red tape to provide solutions for viewers, and prompted a nationwide removal of a potentially dangerous pet product from store shelves.

“We’re providing an open line of communication with our viewers,” said Jaffe. “We’re casting a wide net of content aggregation, and that’s what our viewers keep coming back for—especially first-time news watchers who enjoy experiencing news in a new way.”

“Before our launch there was much skepticism among media watchers, who wondered if “NewsFix” would succeed,” said Steve Simon, the show’s executive producer. “We’ve answered that.”

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KDAF 33 studio set looks like old KIAH 39 one

KDAF 33's award winning Dallas news studio set looks familiar to Houston TV viewers. Why? Because it looks a heck of a lot like KIAH 39's old Houston news set.

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KHOU 11 reporter doing live shots on KPRC 2?

If you were watching KPRC 2's 5pm newscast Tuesday evening and saw former KHOU 11 reporter Alex Sanz doing a live shot, you were not having a spring break hallucination.

Turns out Sanz was covering the trial of former Houston millionaire John Goodman in South Florida for his own station and helped out KPRC. As you might remember, Alex Sanz left KHOU for WPTV NewsChannel 5 in West Palm Beach last November.

Then, there was another Sanz sighting Wednesday morning on Fox 26 KRIV where he was covering the same story.

"I spent five years in Houston and made many good friends while I was there," Sanz told mikemcguff.com. "It's great being on the air [in Houston] this week."

As I posted before, Sanz was hired to cover government and politics for FLDemocracy2012.com, The E. W. Scripps Company Florida TV stations (like WPTV) and the Naples Daily News. He spent his first month following the presidential candidates across Florida.

So the lesson here is, young reporters, if you want to dominate Houston television sets, get a job in West Palm Beach when a former Houston man is making news there.

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Steve McNair named CBS RADIO Houston Vice President and Director of Sales

Steve McNair has been named Vice President and Director of Sales for CBS RADIO Houston.

 The appointment is effective on Monday, March 26. He will work with Sarah Frazier, Senior Vice President and Market Manager, CBS RADIO Houston and Michael Weiss, President, Sales, CBS RADIO and in leading the sales efforts for CBS RADIO’s six stations in the market, covering a variety of formats including KHMX-FM (Hot AC), KIKK-AM (Talk), KILT-AM (Sports), KILT-FM (Country), KKHH-FM (CHR) and KLOL-FM (Spanish).

McNair, who has been in the radio and television industry for nearly 20 years, most recently served as General Manager for Fox Sports Houston.

“Steve will be a terrific addition to the senior leadership of CBS RADIO Houston,” said Frazier in a statement. “He has a strong background in radio and television, and his experience will be important as we look to continue strong revenue growth. In addition, he has a unique expertise in sales training and management that will benefit our entire sales team.”

Prior to joining FOX Sports Houston, McNair was the Director of Sales at Clear Channel Radio in San Antonio. His career also has included work at Clear Channel in sales and sales management in Houston and as an executive coach for Clear Channel management across the United States.

He was born and raised in New Orleans and is a proud alum of the University of Houston. McNair is involved in the Houston community spending time mentoring and coaching youth and adults alike. He is also a member of the Greater Houston advisory board member for Big Brothers Big Sisters.

(This post was taken from a CBS news release sent to me)

Where's KPRC 2's funny morning guy?

A reader named Laurie wrote to me about former KPRC 2 morning financial contributor (by way of CNN Newsource) Carter Evans.

KPRC had a male "Your Money" reporter who was witty, funny and interesting. Starting a couple of months ago he was replaced by a series of bland women. I don't remember his name, but would like to know if he went elsewhere. Do you know who I mean? Any info?

Laurie

TV Spy has the answer. Last November, the site said Carter Evans was following his wife to the West Coast and leaving CNN Newsource.

You may know of Evan's wife, Fox News entertainment reporter Courtney Friel.

She got a gig at Fox owned station Fox 11 KTTV where she covers Hollywood for that station as well as other stations (including some work for FNC still).

No word on what Evans is up to now. His site still has him as working at CNN Newsource.

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Mike McGuff's Paris, France trip in 2 minutes

Remember when I announced a break from blogging? Here was part of the reason. I was going to Paris, France. Here are some videos and photos I took on that trip. I shot an intro because this will probably be my first and last "report" from Paris, France.

This is a quick look at what I saw, edited with quick cuts, so you only have two seconds to get bored before the image changes. It's kind of like me barging into your living room with the slide projector in the 70s, only this is more interesting. Hopefully I showed you a few things you didn't know existed in Paris.

Sites featured are the Louvre Museum, La Sainte-Chapelle, Notre Dame Cathedral and Centre Pompidou among others.

I threw in a song from my pals The Octopus Project from Austin/Houston. Hopefully the audio is not removed from the video as a result of this.

How are 3 Houston TV stations number 1 at 10pm?

Last week ended with announcements from three Houston stations that each was all tops in the 10pm news department for the February 2012 sweeps period. Those three stations were KPRC 2, KTRK 13 and KHOU 11 (the only English stations with 10pm newscasts). This development has left media watchers scratching their heads and some TV staffers scared (more on that below).

Luckily we have some seemingly informed commenters on this blog trying to analyze it all. Hey, better them than me, I don't see the total ratings like these people apparently do.

Anonymous Mar 3, 2012 05:52 AM
Ok so with this information and the stats shown from channel 13 and channel 2. Here is what's really going on.
Channel 13 is number 1 at 10 with Monday-Friday averages, not including Saturday and Sunday. Channel 2 won some special demographic ratings at 10pm which Is where their proclaimed "victory" comes from. Channel 11 is number one at 10pm with Saturday and Sunday averaged in, without Sat and Sun they are #2. Channel 13 still leads in every other time slot downright.

AnonymousMar 5, 2012 04:03 PM
Channel 13 still holds a commanding lead at 4:30, 5, 6 AM. Fox 26 leads at 7AM. Channel 11 is most watched during the midday hour. Channel 13 most watched by wide margins at 4,5,6 PM newscast. And most watched at 10 during Mondays-Fridays.

I talked with an expert in this matter who has no horse in this race. This person said the reality when it comes to the end of a sweeps month is the stations stop producing "shocking" stories to make you watch and start spinning the numbers in their favor. That's not to say they are massaging the numbers, but they do skew the data in their favor. What do you expect, they are going to downplay their ratings?

Part of the spinning involves quoting numbers that are Monday through Friday, others quote Monday through Sunday. Some stations look at certain demographics like 18+, while others look at total households watching. Then there is factoring out the Spanish networks, who clearly are doing quite well in the ratings. Then in a month like February with all the big awards shows and Super Bowl, some stations remove non-news programming that leaked into the 10 to 10:35pm time slot.

Now on to a bigger concern. Where the heck are all of the TV viewers for the 10pm shows? I can only go by the numbers provided to my blog from the TV stations, but these numbers are surely lower than a few years go.

For example, here is a definitive number we have from KHOU who declared itself the seven day winner at 10pm last month:

The February sweeps period showed KHOU 11 News at 10p to be number one in total viewers, seven days of the week, with a 5.7 household rating based on Nielsen Media Research.

I don't have access to a history of Nielsen numbers, but I do have the few articles I can find about past Houston ratings in the Chronicle's archives (this however was easier to locate through Google than the chron.com archives). In a May 23, 2003 article by former TV critic Mike McDaniel, we get the numbers from that sweeps month:

In the late-news race, that station [KTRK] posted a 10.8 rating, substantially ahead of the 9.4 rating scored by second-place KPRC (Channel 2).

OK, so we have a win in 2012 at 5.7 but a win in 2003 in the same time period at a 10.8 rating. As I've stated, I am no ratings expert by any means, but see what I'm saying? That's quite a drop in viewership for all 10pm newscasts (I'm assuming I am comparing the correct numbers here - please let me know if I am incorrect).

So I hope this makes some sense for those asking questions. Below are all of the releases stations sent me concerning the February ratings.

Help Mike McGuff win money for children's charity - with just one click VOTE HERE

- KHOU 11: Houston’s Most Watched 10PM Newscast
- KPRC 2 number 1 at 10pm for 2nd month
- KPRC #1 at 10pm
- Univision rates high in Houston and Dallas
- Fox ratings for KRIV, KDFW, KTBC - February 2012