Rock simply wouldn't have rocked without electric guitars, Marshall amp stacks, the Vox Box, amplifiers capable of projecting the music to the crowd, or stage effects that helped create a spectacle.
Join us on a magical mystery tour through some of the greatest tech-milestone concerts, instruments, and music gadgets in the history of rock music. READ IT
The next residents of the International Space Station launched into orbit aboard a Soyuz spacecraft Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, Russian cosmonaut Max Suraev and spaceflight participant Guy Laliberte lifted off at 2:14 a.m. CDT.
Future Expedition 22 Commander Williams, Soyuz Commander Suraev and Laliberte are scheduled to dock with the station at 3:37 a.m., Friday, Oct. 2. They will spend nine days as members of a joint crew that includes Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka, NASA's Mike Barratt and Nicole Stott, the European Space Agency's Frank De Winne, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and the Canadian Space Agency's Bob Thirsk.
Uncle Barky caught up with former DFW anchor Tracy Rowlett (WFAA, KTVT) and talked about his new life away from television. READ IT
"He just manages to fall into these deals over the years," said Houston accountant Bob Martin, who helped analyze 18 years' worth of Perry's tax returns for the AP. "It looks like his net worth increased while he was in office, in the relative scheme of things, on a small salary." READ FULL STORY
A pop star fishes a 12-year-old boy out of the audience during his concert, runs around the stage with him, holds his hand, before returning him to his parents. Later, a group of volunteers holding candles fan out along the ramp encircling the stage.
Is it Michael Jackson? Sure sounds like it. No, it’s Bono. And the show was last night at Giants Stadium, where U2 put on an extravaganza that only Jackson and Liberace could have imagined. READ MORE
Elise Hu, Matt Stiles and Emily Ramshaw are all award-winning journalists who had full-time jobs at some of Texas' largest media outlets -- KVUE-TV in Austin, the Houston Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News, respectively.
But in August, they quit their jobs for new opportunities at the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit news site that is set to launch Nov. 3 and has raised enough money to sustain itself for about three years.
Why would journalists leave a full-time job at an established news organization to work for a start-up? For Hu, Stiles and Ramshaw, a better question is, "Why not?" READ MORE
Both Channel 11 and Channel 13 started airing their news in high definition in 2007.
Back in 1999, Channel 8, Houston's public broadcasting station, aired The Houston Symphony: A Maestro's Farewell in HD. In 2001, Channel 8 used HDTV cameras to produce Mary Lou's Flip Flop Shop kiddie show. We'll overlook the fact that very few people had HD televisions back then. READ MORE
Police say Bobby Bones, the morning DJ for KISS-FM, was walking through the parking lot of Clear Channel radio in South Austin just after 4 a.m. when someone called out to him, then chased him. Bones tripped and fell, injuring his knee and shoulder. The thief grabbed Bone's laptop and took off. READ MORE
On Monday, The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented KHOU-TV with an award for Outstanding Regional News Story – Investigative Reporting at the 30th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards in New York City.
Channel 11 was one of only two local stations in the nation to receive an award at the event and the only local station to be awarded in the investigative category. READ MORE
KXT radio (91.7 FM), the new music arm of North Texas Public Broadcasting Inc. (KERA), will launch on Nov. 9th, providing nine to 11 hours of weekday local programming.
[snip]
The station will debut with the 7 a.m. locally produced KXT Morning Show and also will feature mid-afternoon and evening components. Local hosts and special program features will be announced later. READ MORE
My old college newspaper The Baylor Lariat has an interview with ESPN anchor Trey Wingo. Wingo attended Baylor University back in the day. He talks about his career and offers advice to future sports broadcasters. READ ITA new report by Audit Integrity identifies some high-profile names "that have the highest probability of declaring bankruptcy among publicly traded firms." SEE THE LIST
Spawned by MGM Domestic Television and Weigel Broadcasting last fall, This TV offers a mix of movies and original specials. READ THE REST
I'm posting this before lunch so you can get over to one of the Houston Pollo Campero locations for free chicken today! It's not just for Houston, but all of the company's restaurants across the nation. Naturally there are some limits.
Television show host Wash Allen is expanding his Houston-based show to Los Angeles and Chicago as part of an agreement with ABC’s Live Well HD Network.
“The Wash Allen Show” is independently owned, produced and syndicated by Allen and Judy Foston of public relations firm Foston International, also based in Houston. Formatted as a reality show, Allen follows public service organizations as they stage their galas and special events. READ MORE
"The Dr. Oz Show," the new daily syndicated show hosted by cardiac surgeon and health expert Dr. Mehmet Oz, and the National Association of Free Clinics (NAFC), will hold an enormous free clinic at the Reliant Convention Center in Houston, Texas on Saturday September 26, 2009 to provide medical care to hundreds of people who have no form of basic health insurance. Dr. Oz will participate in the event and will devote an entire show to the plight of families living without basic health insurance and the heroic work of the medical volunteers who help them. The episode is scheduled to air in early October.
The September 26 free clinic will be staffed by close to 500 volunteers, including 160 doctors, 200 nurses, and other health workers from the surrounding area and across the nation. "The Dr. Oz Show" and the NAFC are also reaching out to the medical community in Houston for specialists to participate, including obstetrician/gynecologists, pediatricians, reconstructive plastic surgeons, oncologists, endocrinologists, cardiologists, emergency room doctors and otolaryngologists. The 168,000 square foot convention center floor will have more than 120 exam partition rooms and be set up to accommodate more than 1,600 people in one day.
This event will be massive in scope, taking place in Texas, the state which US Census data reveals has the highest percentage of uninsured people in the country with 25.2 percent. In Harris County, where the city of Houston is located, there are 1.3 Million people without health insurance.
-- Doors open at 6:30 AM for on-site registration
-- People who are UNINSURED between the ages of 6 and 65 are eligible for
services
-- People looking to receive services should Pre-Register by calling 211
for an appointment
-- Those interested in volunteering may signup online at
www.regonline.com/tcare.
Redneck and "white trash" culture tends to get a bad rap by the snootier elements of our culture. Maybe you think that hicks and hillbillies don’t know nothin’ ‘bout nothin’, but you couldn't be further from the truth. Sometimes we need to look to the trailer parks for succor, refuge, and justice. SEE THE LIST
I am a big Joel McHale fan. The Soup host on E! is now on the NBC show Community and also in the Matt Damon movie The Informant! McHale talks with the AV Club about his busy life and work.A word of warning. Track 3 is rather cringeworthy. In it, Marvin Zindler tried to interview an accident victim receiving medical treatment. It's best to listen to Zindler's explanation at the beginning of the clip to understand why he's interviewing the injured. Needless to say, you couldn't get away with this kind of interview today. LISTEN
My guess where Sam lands....KSEV, to replace Pat Gray....bet on it!!
I'm still enjoying retirement, and plan to relax and spend as much time as possible with the family. Having breakfast with my son everyday, helping with homework every night, and coaching his baseball team reminds you of what's really important in life!
NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, who will command the next International Space Station mission, is using Twitter, a blog and short video clips to provide a unique, behind the scenes insight into his training in Russia. Once in orbit, Williams will become the first space station commander to share his experiences using Twitter.
Williams Twitter username is Astro_Jeff. He is in his final month of training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. He will be providing a look at his experiences in Star City and at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Williams will launch to the space station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft with Soyuz Commander Max Suraev and spaceflight participant Guy Laliberte from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept. 30. Williams will become a flight engineer for the Expedition 21 crew when he arrives at the complex and later will command Expedition 22. He will spend six months in space.
Williams will be making his third trip to space. He first flew on shuttle mission STS-101 in May 2000, during which he was the lead spacewalker. He served as a flight engineer aboard the space station for Expedition 13 in 2006. Williams has logged more than 193 days in space, including more than 19 hours during three spacewalks.
To follow Williams on Twitter, visit:
http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Jeff
To read Williams' blog, visit:
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/2089
Longtime New York TV anchor Ernie Anastos tells the weatherman on Fox 5 WNYW to keep doing something with a chicken and it rhymes with ducking if you catch my drift. He says he meant to say, "Keep plucking that chicken."Move over, Big Tex – Oprah Winfrey is invading your turf next month. The queen of daytime TV will tape her talk show at the State Fair of Texas on Oct. 12, a Winfrey spokeswoman confirmed Thursday.
Will Oprah devour a corny dog or sample some Deep Fried Butter? How about milk a cow? Will we see her on the Texas Star Ferris wheel? READ MORE
If you work in an office with smooth jazz being piped in, you might feel like you are about to lose it. Someone made a short cartoon about this actually happening.Lauren Przybyl’s biography includes this line: "Yes, 'y’ is the only vowel in her last name. She often hears, 'Would you like to buy a vowel?’" She probably also hears, "How is that pronounced?" (For the record: prezbul.) But come Monday morning, more people in Dallas-Fort Worth will know, as Przybyl joins Tim Ryan as co-host of KDFW/Channel 4’s Good Day.
Przybyl replaces the popular Megan Henderson, who left in February to take a job at Los Angeles station KTLA. Przybyl, who comes to Fox 4 from Boston’s WHDH but is a North Texas native who grew up in Colleyville, gamely answered our five questions, none of which was "Would you like to buy a vowel?" READ THEM
I am in the Mojave Desert this week working on a series of reports about the Space Shuttle Program.
The access NASA is affording us is unprecedented.
Thanks to my colleague Ted Oberg, we have secured a seat on the orbiter Discovery's ferry ride back to Florida. My photographer, Jesus Amaya, and I will ride aboard a C-9 military aircraft ahead of the 747, which piggybacks the orbiter.
No journalists have ever been allowed to do this during the two and a half decade long shuttle program. READ THE REST
"In 2013, it will be possible to live all over town — and live a full life — via light rail," said Jay Crossley, of the advocacy group Houston Tomorrow.
That means that people in America's oil capital could have the option to use less oil, by leaving the car at home. On the train, Crossley can look out the window and see one major problem: There is a lot of vacant land along the rail line. For a variety of reasons, developers have not yet rushed to build homes and stores within walking distance.
Crossley thinks part of the problem is that Mayor White, like all Houston officials before him, has done relatively little urban planning. And with Houston's lack of regulations, developers can often build where — and how — they see fit. READ THE REST
"The city of Houston covers 620 square miles," he says. "You could put inside the city limits of Houston, simultaneously — I kid you not — the cities of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit." READ THE REST
Stick 'Em Up! is a documentary that takes an in depth look into the overshadowed world of wheat pasting in Houston, Texas.
R2-D2
Sure, he's cute, but the flaws in his design are obvious the first time he approaches anything but the shallowest of stairs. Also: He has jets, a periscope, a taser and oil canisters to make enforcer droids fall about in slapsticky fashion -- and no voice synthesizer. Imagine that design conversation: "Yes, we can afford slapstick oil and tasers, but we'll never get a 30-cent voice chip past accounting. That's just madness." READ THE REST
He has been at San Antonio's KENS 5 since 1973 and now anchor Chris Marrou is ready to move on:During the newscast Marrou offered, “After more than 35 years here at KENS-TV, I’ve decided to retire. My wife Kathy and I will soon be 62 years old and those little twins of mine you saw on TV a few years back are now 21 and graduating from college. READ MORE
Austin's Jim McNabb reviews the new 4pm show from KEYE 42 and doesn't appear to be too impressed. If you like tea leaves, it sounds like a great show. READ ITThe two students (from MIT, of course) put together a low-budget rig to fly a camera high enough to photograph the curvature of the Earth. Instead of rockets, boosters and expensive control systems, they filled a weather balloon with helium and hung a styrofoam beer cooler underneath to carry a cheap Canon A470 compact camera. Instant hand warmers kept things from freezing up and made sure the batteries stayed warm enough to work.Of course, all this would be pointless if the guys couldn’t find the rig when it landed, so they dropped a prepaid GPS-equipped cellphone inside the box for tracking. READ IT
I love the Haunted Mansion ride at the Disney theme parks. It's true. I am not even paid anymore to love all things Disney. 
I will admit that I never have watched an episode of Dr. Phil. The only thing I know about him is what I heard from a former Wichita Falls, TX resident where Dr. McGraw used to practice. Some thought he was odd there too. "As of Monday September 14th, Dr. Phil is no longer on our schedule. Currently we do not have additional information on when the Dr. Phil program might air. The 3pm time slot has been filled by a new program: Dr. Oz, which we think folks will enjoy watching. It's a very fun, smart, and informative program."
It is no secret that KPRC 2 traffic anchor Jennifer Reyna has lots of fans. In fact my neighbor told me he switched from KTRK to KPRC because of Jennifer. So it is no surprise that there are Internet chat room threads dedicated to her and she made this list.
Last night I posted the sad news of actor Patrick Swayze's passing on my social networking accounts. The President called the rapper "a jackass" in an off-the-record comment during a CNBC interview yesterday, but the comment became public when it was tweeted by ABC's Terry Moran on Twitter, Politico.com reported Monday night. READ THE REST
Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News profiles KTVT CBS11 and Dallas Cowboy dude Babe Laufenberg's rise to the top of DFW sports broadcasting. 
This kitten might drive you crazy when you feed him. Supershooter 3D, the very first Mobile Television Truck designed specifically for producing live 3D television events, is set to roll. This one-of-a-kind mobile unit, created by NEP Broadcasting and PACE utilizing the state of the art FUSION 3D system, satisfies the growing demand for 3D productions in the Television Industry.
"Like HD years ago, the demand for 3D production is growing industry-wide. Everyone is looking for a way to bring the television audience closer, to make them feel like they are part of a live event. 3D technology can help create a fresh and engaging experience. Our commitment to providing the latest and greatest to our clients made our partnership with PACE, the best in the 3D business, an easy decision." Says NEP Broadcasting CEO Debbie Honkus.
SS 3D sets the bar high for live 3D television -- combining PACE's cutting-edge FUSION 3D technology, designed in a partnership with James Cameron, and NEP Broadcasting's live television mobile unit design and integration expertise. Customizable for every client's individual needs, SS 3D features: a 3D production viewing area, a convergence station, and 3D capable tape, video and engineering rooms. Wired for eight 3D cameras, two 6-channel EVS XT-2 servers, and ten tape machines, with an SSL Aysis Air PLUS! Digital Audio Console, SS 3D is capable of handling any production.
There really is no Texas city outside of maybe Austin that is known as bike friendly. So this interesting new bike probably wouldn't catch on here. The Yike Bike is a bike you can collapse and carry with you! No more stolen bikes. WATCH THE VIDEOWent to the OU/BYU game in Arlington at the new Cowboy's stadium...here's my two cents, notice there's more pros than cons. We sat in the 4th level, 4th row on the 35 yd. line.
Pros:
-The video screen was very impressive...kudos. It was overwhelming at first, but I got used to it. 40 million well spent...
-You're able to go up and down the escalators at will before the game, which was nice...Every stadium I've been to, you can only go 'up' before the game and 'down' after the game.
-All the seats were padded and had ample leg room/cup holders. I never felt cramped.
Cons:
-Bathrooms...my wife didn't stand in line...I stood in a line that was 20 yds. long. Awful (We did go at halftime)
-Instead of ramps to access the upper sections, they had stairs? Dude, stairs are cool for an NBA arena but NEVER at a football stadium. This isn't high school.
-All of those HD screens Jerry claims to have? Not one of them were showing the game when standing in the concessions line, instead they had the food/drink prices posted. Also, the Cowboys pro shop in the upper level was closed...I thought that was odd. I didn't go in the one downstairs.
-You can't walk around the perimeter of the stadium on the lower level once you're inside...that's because of the field level suites. How dare the peasants walk by and look inside!! It's definitely catered to the "upper class" fan.
-Sound System: Fail! I could hardly hear anything the referee said over the loud speaker. The PA announcer sounded muffled. OU might as well not even brought their band, you couldn't hear them in the 4th level.
-The parking situation was terrible. I parked in LOT 14...it was also the RV/Bus lot. The parking staff allowed the bigger vehicles to take up several parking spaces, while we parked in the grass. I had no idea we were going to need "Off! with Deet" to tailgate. $30 for a piece of lawn...
Overall Grade: C-
I've been to Reliant Stadium probably 15 times...and Houstonians should be proud. Plus, it cost less than half the price tag of Jerry's World. If he really did pay 1.4 billion, he got ripped off...
CHR KKHH/Houston night host Mo' Bounce comes east for the night gig at CHR WHTZ (Z100)/New York. Bounce hits the airwaves effective tonight (9/8). “We took our time to find the perfect person for the night show, and after months of searching, we found that in Mo’ Bounce. His talents and personality will be a great fit to the Z100 team," said Z100 PD Sharon Dastur. READ MORE
