Y2K

One of the biggest bits that launched Conan O’Brien’s career was his “In The Year 2000″ segments.

At the time, it seemed far away and was fun to think we were changing our years to begin with a 2 and not a 1.

Now the bit is changed and the year 2000 is here and now so is the first decade of the 2000s.

Who remembers where they were 10 years ago?

How many of you were stuck down at a power plant, police station or large ballroom celebration?

How many Y2K ready stories did you do?

Y2K was going to kill us all as none of the 99s would turn to 00 and all computers would shut down and we would have mass chaos.

We all did story after story about Y2K readiness in the water plant, the computers that run traffic lights, even TV towers and equipment that had a date.

At 8a or so when 2000 struck in Australia and nothing happened, we knew we were OK.

But, we still had to move forward with our plans and station people across the viewing area, just in case North Iowa wasn’t ready.

I was working at KIMT-TV in Mason City at the time. I was anchoring that night and had to stay in the newsroom through midnight in case something happened.

Some people were fanned out across the area. I think it was a couple of us watching TV in the newsroom.

Amy and I were dating at the time and she wasn’t going to do anything, so she came in and sat with us in the newsroom while we waited for the ball to drop and nothing to happen.

Floppy Still Draws Attention

IPTV Producer Chris Gourley sporting his Floppy t-shirt

Yesterday, the post was about growing up in the 319 area code, you knew about Eliot Keller.

If you grew up in the 515, you knew about Duane and Floppy. It was appointment television before anyone knew what that was.

The little dog who sat through countless bad jokes is getting a run on publicity this week thanks to the release of a movie

Marc Hansen of the Des Moines Register wrote a nice story about Duane and Floppy Film Festival.

The crowd was huge to see the show Tuesday at the State Historical Society. Even WHO-TV did a piece on their former programming pouch.

Jeff Stein was interviewed in the piece and is helping make much of this happen. He too, grew up watching Floppy. Stein is a Wartburg College professor communication arts, IBNA executive secretary and now runs the Archives of Iowa Broadcasting Archives based in Waverly. He also helped make the Film Fest Happen.

I did see the show, but only when we would visit my grandpa in Prairie City. But, I’ve come to know how much the show meant to people who grew up here. During my days at WHO-TV, it wasn’t uncommon to get a call every other week asking if certain Floppy shows were recorded or still around in the archives. Mind you, the show went off the air in 1987.

I’ve also gotten to know Duane’s son at our church, so that’s been a fun connection to make.

When TV13 posts the video, I’ll link it for you to see. If not, I’ve still got it on the TiVo and will have to ustream it so you can see the piece.

Our picture model is Iowa Public Television producer Chris Gourley. Chris now produces on Market to Market here at IPTV. He is another former WHO-TV employee. He said he used to direct the Floppy show when he was at TV13. Today, he’s sporting the Floppy t-shirt.

Iowa Broadcasting Legend Dies

Eliot Keller

If you grew up anywhere in the 319 area code, you know what 94.1 and 102.9 mean on your radio dials.

They were original radio stations with visionaries at the helm that knew what local radio was about.

Eliot Keller helped build KRNA (94.1) and KZIA (102.9), he died of complications from ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease on Monday.

Keller served as president of KZIA, INC., in Cedar Rapids which includes several CR stations.

He was also one of the founders of KRNA in Iowa City. This is what a rock station sounded like. They had a tremendous reach and influence on that music scene.

Keller’s career started in news in several stations across the state.

Brian Allen of KSFY-TV in Sioux Falls has a strong interest in Iowa broadcasting history and had Keller write a guest blog. Here’s the most recent one.

The Iowa Broadcast News Association has a link about Mr. Keller.

Last year, a scholarship was awarded in Mr. Keller’s name. It was funded by friends. If you would like to make a contribution to make sure the next generation of broadcasters knows about an Iowa legend, contact the IBNA here: IBNA@ibna.org

Here’s the write up from the Iowa City Press Citizen.
Here’s the Cedar Rapids Gazette story on Keller.
Here’s his obituary. If you didn’t know Eliot Keller, you knew his influence.

Eliot Aaron Keller
(IOWA CITY, IOWA) Eliot Aaron Keller, 62, formerly of rural Iowa City, died today of complications from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) (“Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”) Keller formerly was President, Treasurer and General Manager of KZIA, INC., which owns and operates KZIA Z102.9, 102.9 HD-2, KGYM 1600 ESPN and 102.9 HD-3 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, serving the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City area.

He was one of the founders of KRNA (93.5, 93.9 and 94.1), Iowa City, and served as General Manager from 1974 to 1998. In 1970 he worked in news at WOC AM-TV (now KWQC-TV) in Davenport, Iowa. In 1969 he was in news at WHBF AM-FM-TV (now WKBF-TV) in Rock Island, Illinois. While at the University of Iowa, he worked at WSUI, Iowa City, and at the “Daily Iowan.” He began his professional radio career in 1967 at KCII-AM, Washington, Iowa.

Keller is survived by his wife of 39 years, Sandra, his daughter Nicole M. Keller (T. James Bush) of Indianapolis, Indiana, and his grandson, Cole M. Bush. Other survivors include his sisters-in-law Sharon (McGrew) Caruso (Joseph) of Phoenix, Arizona, and Sue (McGrew) Murphy (Robin) of Ely, Iowa.

Keller received his BA in Radio-TV Journalism and Certificate in Journalism from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, in 1970. He received his MS in Mass Communications from San Diego State University, San Diego, California, in 1976.

He was a member of the Professional Advisory Board of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications of the University of Iowa and a member of the National Advisory Board of the Communications Arts Department at Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa, for a number of years.

In 2009, he was named to the Iowa Broadcaster Hall of Fame by the Iowa Broadcasters Association and the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce awarded Keller the Russell Slade Award for a lifetime of service. In 2008, he was named Corridorian by Access Iowa, now Impact CR, an affiliate of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. In 2004, the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce awarded him its “Volunteer of the Year” award. In 2004, he was also named to the Hall of Fame of the Cedar Rapids Advertising Federation. In 2001, the Iowa Broadcasters Association awarded him its “Broadcaster of the Year” award.

Keller was active in a number of volunteer organizations. He chaired the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce’s Legislative Council and earlier the Council’s Transportation Subcommittee. He was a member of the Government Affairs Forum of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. He was the moderator for those organizations of a number of legislative forums.

He was Excursion Chair of the Iowa Association of Railroad Passengers for more than two decades. He was active in various transportation infrastructure advocacy activities.

In 2007, he was one of the organizers of the National Rail Passenger Leadership Summit (later renamed the National Passenger Train Leadership Summit) in Chicago which brought together transportation advocates from across the country to promote passenger trains (www.nationalpassengertrainsummit.org).

From 2000-2003 he was a member of the board of directors of the Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society, North Freedom, Wisconsin, where he has volunteered for nearly three decades. He received the “Exceptional Volunteer” Award in 2002.

From 1980-1983 he was a member of the board of the state chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

He had a number of opinion pieces, guest columns and letters published and aired in various media.

One of his hopes was that his activities would make for at least a slightly better world.

Because he spent much of his life helping persons around him focus on the future, in accordance with his wishes there will be no funeral service nor memorial celebration of life.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Iowa Impact Endowment Fund of the University of Iowa Foundation, Iowa City, Iowa; the endowment of Community Foundation of Johnson County, Iowa City, Iowa; or the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, Chicago, Illinois.

A hoax for TMZ on JFK

Monday found the celebrity gossip site had an exclusive on JFK on a boat with topless women. Here’s my post on it from yesterday including the update.

Turns out, the photo was real, just not JFK on board, but was from a Playboy shoot.

Oops.

Some of the comments from my series of posts on TMZ found that not all think TMZ’s work is newsworthy. Do we care that a president, dead since 1963, may have been fooling around on his wife?

I was thinking about this type of story this morning after getting a note from my co-worker Steve Carns.

A different time Paul. You and I would have ignored this story 60 yrs ago, just like we would have ignored the personal lives of FDR and his wife.

Is that true? Did the media ignore it? Or did that type of reporting not happen.

You hear how our country has lost its morals somewhere since then as people are getting divorces, having children out of wedlock or just plain fooling around with everyone.

Did we?

Or did that happen and we just didn’t say anything, report on it, or even do stories on that type of behavior?

Did our politicians and people of power behave in a clean manner? Or did we just not report on their private lives?

Was it news?
Is it news?

TMZ and JFK

This is very weird that I write this note.

Just Saturday I had a conversation with family about TMZ and JFK.

I said, the world may be different if TMZ was around when JFK was in the Senate and when he running for president and then was president. I know I’m not the first one to say it and the statement was met with confirmation of, yup, no way JFK is elected if it were today.

There were always whispers about side dishes with JFK. But was there any concrete proof?

If the media hadn’t looked the other way, would he have been elected president? Did the media look the other way?

Who says its just now that you can’t let it all hang out now with everyone having a cell phone camera?

Apparently, JFK did let it hang out and now there’s a picture that TMZ says is authentic. Check out this story with a picture from 1956 (which we now know is from a Playboy photo shoot).

You decide when you click here to look at the TMZ story.

–UPDATE–
According to the Drudge Report, who’s citing The Smoking Gun website, the TMZ-JFK picture is a hoax.

But it still starts the discussion, IF TMZ were around during JFK’s time, would he have been elected president?

–Update from the Past–
I did do a couple of posts about TMZ in the last few days.
One was on how TMZ is changing reporting.
And Production Innovations is here.
And here are the comments.

Working Christmas Comments

Rick Fuller - IPTV, formerly KCCI, ABC News

Another great round of comments about working in the media business on the holidays.

Here’s a few comments that not all could see the first time. These came into my Facebook page. So, now all can read as we all remember our great stories about working the holiday. Whether its falling asleep in master control or leaving the front door wide open in a resignation declaration.
These comments come from working Christmas Eve.
And a second post about working Christmas Day.

Joel Poppen:

Running master control at an independent station with no news department was a very lonely Christmas. Ran morning cartoons and three or four movies. Didn’t want to screw up. Didn’t want to have to call the chief engineer for help on Christmas.

Michael McFarland:

Fell asleep at master control while running programming…a friend came in and scared the living $h1t out of me.

Dan Pearson:

brutal.

Mike Colon:

I figured out right off the bat, unless an orphanage explodes on 25 DEC, it is one right slow news day. Everybody else wants to go off and share their love, that’s great, but some of us have to fill a show.

Brian Danner:

One of the main reasons I left the business lol. Media members have families too they should get the day off. No one wathces the news on christmas day anyway.

Steph Boeding:

At the newspaper, it’s usually a nice, quiet news night, most everyone who’s working is in a festive mood, and there’s always lots of food around. And you used to get paid double for working on a holiday…

Greg Berry:

Christmas was OK. Didn’t have to get in ’til after 2. It was Christmas Eve that I didn’t like. I remember running across the street (to one of the billion churches or funeral homes around KIMT) just in time for the 11 PM service. My wife and parents were already there.

Jonathon Walter Gregg:

At the last station my days off were Thursday and Friday…and this year..i work fo a non-profit…so..i wont be working…so i have yet to work a thanksgiving, Xmas or new years eve….

Phil Roberts:

I was a college kid working my way through school as an evening deejay. The program director had the shift before me. As I listened to the station while I drove to work, I thought it odd that he wasn’t talking, merely playing one record after another. Came to find out he was feeling sorry for himself for having to work Christmas. He was also plastered. Couldn’t have talked without slurring had he wanted to.

Brian Weckerly:

Yes, and I’ll be wearing a wig, fake beard, makeup, and lots of wool. Part 1:
Part 2:

Robert Fisher:

What’s this work thing you are talking about?

By the way, the Evangelical Free Church in Britt just called, no Christmas Eve services tonight…I suppose I better update the list so it gets on all five radio stations.

Mike Peasley:

Of course…someone has to deliver those high quality sportscenters

Michael Stadie:

Of course the Pastoral types work on Christmas Eve and often Christmas Day, not to mention the other holidays.

April Samp:

News business – ’nuff said.

Bert Rigdon:

I worked about 42 Christmas Eves in a row!! Milk haulers went everyday, or at least the trucks had to.

Andrew J. Vickers:

You’re a doctor…some people have to work the holidays, with everyone else off of work, who would we watch on the TV if everyone was off, I just couldn’t watch reruns the whole holiday. Lookin forward to seeing you on IPTV. With that being said, I think it would stink!

Bob Palmer:

I have decided that there is no greater joy than a live shot in the snow at ten on Christmas Eve.

Dan Pearson:

It’s a palmer holiday tradition dating back to a Christmas in Cambridge.

Shawn Harmsen:

Many times, and probably one of the top five things i miss the least about working in the biz.

Nicole Bruene:

I second Shawn’s comment!

Michael Peterson:

My first Christmas as a professional broadcaster took place in 1987. I was working as a night announcer/newsman at KILR in Estherville, Iowa. Since I was a new guy, I was stuck with working the holidays. I was all alone, isolated from family and friends. I was finished at around midnight Christmas Eve, and went to start my car.
The car wouldn’t start. I had to call one of the other announcers at KILR, who was able to arrange an Estherville police officer to pick me up. The next day, our sports director arranged to have a local car mechanic fix the car. The problem was a frozen gas line. Definitely a memorable–not to mention depressing–Christmas!

Roger Riley:

It was at KBIM-TV in Roswell NM, my first Christmas Eve working. After I covered last minute shoppers, I had the fun job of tearing apart the Jamison film processor and scrubbing it down. This had to be done every so often.
Nothing like the smell of bleach which yellows your fingers! When the film processor was not running- it really was a Silent Night! I remember looking out an open door that night and seeing the brilliant stars over head. ( No aliens ever mentioned back then)
BTW we shot film with a CP-16 SOF (sound on film) camera and silent Bell & Howell windups.
No tape injest or file upload, just ‘running it throught the soup’ then cutting and hoping it all looked good on air. Posting some of my old stuff to YouTube Facebook soon! Had almost forgotten about this- until you asked!!!
Remember the next year having Christmas eve off- then driving back Christmas day afternoon trying to get to work on time- almost ran out of gas coming back from Carlsbad to Roswell NM in my 1976 AMC pacer. Went down to Carlsbad to spend time with a college buddy and his family. They treated me great.

Francie:

I work at the newspaper every Christmas, every year. I’m Jewish, and if I wasn’t working, I’d be at the movies or eating Chinese food at home watching movies.

Christmas is most always boring. Sometimes something catches fire. That happened a lot when I worked in the South and inevitably someone forgot how to fry a turkey correctly.

On Christmas, I can always count on a story on the Pope pontificating about peace on Earth or not killing babies. Since 2002, I can also count on a story about the troops eating Christmas dinner with a surprise guest (look guys, it’s Condi Rice! With that guy from 30 Rock!)

Sometimes on Christmas, it snows somewhere. A lot. And you get the inevitable White Christmas story.

Christmas Eve is nice too. You always get the “lets follow Santa with NORAD” story on TV. I don’t understand why NORAD lies. Oh wait, isn’t it a government agency? Never mind.

A lot of times, on Christmas Eve, I get to go home early. Then I get to stay up playing video games or watching a non-Christmas movie, like ‘Terminator 2.’ ‘Cuz nothing says Bah Humbug like robots taking over Earth.

Lauren Squires:

It’s never easy working a holiday, especially when your family lives in Memphis. Growing up in Cedar Rapids and working in the production department in high school, I have worked Christmas several times, but my family was right in town so it wasn’t lonely or sad.

Last year, December 2008, was my first Christmas “alone” and away from my family. Before you go feeling bad for me…I wasn’t completely alone. I was blessed to be invited to my boyfriend’s family Christmas (we’d only been dating a few weeks) and I had several invites from Dubuquers. Either way, no matter how hard I tried, it was really hard for me. Everytime I heard the song “I’ll be Home for Christmas” I’d either turn the channel or start to cry.

Anyway, I worked the dayside shift on Christmas Day. My story: people who have to work on Christmas. Ironic I know!! So I called up the fire department here in Dubuque and caught them as they were cooking and sharing a meal together. I spent the lunch hour talking with them about being away from their families and how hard it was to miss out. But after spending about an hour with them…I realized they weren’t drowning in their sorrows or even upset. They knew what they signed up for when they become firefighters and they knew they were making a difference. If a fire broke out anywhere, they’d be ready at a moments notice; to save someone’s Christmas.

In all honesty, I learned a lot that day. Yeah it was hard being away from family. Yes it was hard working from a bureau. Yes it was cold and snowy…BUT I realized that I wasn’t really “alone.”

To quote myself that day “if you can’t be with your family at Christmas, you can find family in the people you’re with.” After shooting the story with the fire department I was finished writing and editing it. After a full day’s work I spent the evening with my boyfriends family. It may not have been my family but I found “family” in them.

It wasn’t easy and I hate that I’ll probably do it again in the future. But I will never forget the lesson I learned that day. You have the make the best of what you’ve got. And you’ve got to find “family” or perhaps “community” where you are…until you can get where you want to be.

This year…I’m headed south on Christmas Eve (pending weather) in hopes to make up for lost time last year. I am extremely grateful!

And no matter where you are this Christmas…have a great holiday and a Happy New Year!

Dave Vickers:

After 30+ years in the media business the process doesn’t change.
I’ve been lucky to have worked few Christmas Days over the years. I ‘trade’ working Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day for not working Christmas. A two-for-one trade usually works! and it was sign-on so it was home early.
Over the years the kids grew up knowing that was the routine and didn’t know any different. I haven’t seen a New Year’s Day parade in years.

Megan Salois:

This Christmas seems to be turning out to be the ultimate working the holidays for the meteorologists! I’m lucky enough to work with some great people who are all willing to do their part over the holidays during a storm that picked an unfortunate day to move through Iowa.

Holidays are some of my favorite days to work. People are all in a good mood, the atmosphere is relaxed, and there’s lots of food around the office. Plus, my co-workers definately are a part of my family… at least it seems that way with the amount of time I spend with them!

Erik Ullestad:

Great stories, Paul. Growing up in a pastor’s family (and a church choir director’s, too) Christmas Eve was a “work day” but we were able to find creative ways to honor important rituals. Merry Christmas to Yeager family!

Working Christmas Day

KIMT-TV studios, Mason City, IA

Welcome to Christmas Day. Merry Christmas. Now get to work.

 

Plenty of fields of work will require some work on the holiday.

Those fields may be snowplow drivers, police, fire, dispatch, Quick Trip clerks, pastor’s, medical staff and reporters.

Getting into media, you know that’s part of the deal.

I’ve talked about working Thanksgiving before.

Yesterday, it was about working Christmas Eve. That’s when the focus hits the night and the activities that go with it.

But there’s a whole new set of stories involving working Christmas Day. For many, the day begins early in the morning when you open presents then break them by 630a.

If you’re doing the morning news, you’ve really started late Christmas Eve and hope that 5 people are watching or listening. This year, those newscasts will have significantly more people watching with the midwest weather system taking hold.

When I started at KIMT in the late 90s, the Christmas Day newscasts were usually cancelled in the morning and sometimes you only had the 10p that night. That was nice to allow as many people the opportunity to be with family. I’ve even heard of stations canceling all newscasts for that day.

Many people are in good moods who are working the holiday. As Megan Salois says, people are more relaxed and just having fun working with their second family.

But, not everyone is so full of Christmas cheer.

KWAY AM/FM Waverly, IA

One of my favorite holiday working stories again comes from KWAY in Waverly.

 

Bob Foster told me this story during my time working with him at KWAY and doing Wartburg football.

He said a guy was working Christmas Eve at the station and was doing the sign off that night. The employee may not have wanted to work that night. The employee signed off for the night and just left the doors open. Not just unlocked, but wide open to let the good Iowa air into the building. And snow. And cold. And whatever creatures decided to come in the door.

I think it was more than Butters The Cat could defend.

Consider that a Christmas present to management.

I’ve left the door wide open for some of your best stories.

Here’s a look at those.

Merry Christmas! Enjoy the day. And look for stories tonight about dinner with fire fighters, Christmas babies born and stores that were actually open today.

Working Christmas Eve

Noah, Christmas, 2008

There are many people working this holiday. Now that the weather is changing every hour, so too will the stories. The post about working Thanksgiving seemed to inspire me a bit.

I’m going to break this up into two posts. One on working Christmas Eve, the other about working Christmas Day.

There is a difference for some, but not others.

Remember the roads you took today to get to Grandma’s house or your Aunt Eve’s? Well, a snow plow driver was out there to clear the way for you. Granted, he or she probably earned double or triple time to do it, but money doesn’t matter when you want to be home with your family.

Don’t forget the dispatch of those plows, or dispatch for police, fire and EMS. They are always working in that industry. Always ready to answer a call to save someone’s Christmas as Lauren Squires wrote.

Even the malls and stores are open on Christmas Eve. That I can understand. The times earlier in the day need to stay normal. Not everyone is off work.

But it is the media members who are also there, giving you background sound and pictures for your holiday gathering.

Media members know that working holidays is part of the deal. I knew it, but didn’t really know it until it was time to work those days.

I was working as a board operator at KWAY-AM/FM in Waverly, IA during my sophomore year at Wartburg College. I had to close up shop and sign off at midnight on Christmas Eve. This meant I missed chili at mom’s, church with the family and presents opening had to be delayed until 1245 AM when I finally walked in the door. Thankfully, mom was not working that night, she was a night nurse at MHI and we moved up presents on nights she was working.

I didn’t mind working Christmas Eve during the day. You would cover last-minute shopping, travel, maybe a thief stealing Christmas or a fire burning the presents. You’d shoot a stand up and get out of there. Unless you worked nightside, then you were there until the news was done and hoped nothing happened at the end of the shift.

My last Christmas in Davenport at KWQC was 2005. Christmas Eve was a Saturday night. When you’re the weekend anchor, you don’t usually get the night off unless you ask. I worked that night. Amy was pregnant with Noah, her parents came over and we were going to celebrate the next day.

I was doing my normal close down of the operation on Saturday night, making sure Sunday was somewhat planned when the scanners just lit up like a Christmas tree. A fight broke out at a nightclub on the north side of town. The photographer on that night was long gone and I was closer than calling him back. There was no midnight escape planned at home, so I just loaded up a camera and headed out to the scene. I think every squad car in Davenport, Scott County and the State Patrol was there. It turned out to be minor stabbing, but who is out at a bar on Christmas Eve at 11p? Apparently people not feeling the Christmas cheer.

I figured it was payback for all of those years of departing a little bit before my shift was over.

Christmas Eve news is pretty standard. Norad images of Santa, how the last minute shopping is going, national packages on Christmas in Bethlehem and lots of looks at the weather. In 2009, the weather will be the big story.

Not many people actually watch the late news on Christmas Eve, but like anything, you have to do your job and be respectful to those actually watching. Its your job.

Sometimes the news can be more relaxed in the setting of no one’s watching, so let’s have some fun.

A nice tradition on KWQC was placing a camera on the Paula Sands Live fireplace and playing holiday music over the top of it. I believe that was the yule log idea started in New York well before any of us made decisions.

I did leave out one story about KWAY. I’ll get to that tomorrow.

TMZ Comments

Here are the comments posted to my Facebook page about the TMZ articles. I may add some commentary to them as well if warranted. Thanks for the great postings.

The first set of comments comes from the posting on how TMZ is leading the way on many stories, or breaking them more than other competitors.

Erik Maitland writes:

I, too, have realized how many times they have “broken”! they must be well connected!

Being connected is fundamental to reporting and not waiting for a press release to cross your desk.

Steph Boeding wrote:

I’m guessing they have “well-paid correspondents” on the staffs at all the hospitals in L.A…. I don’t know if I would call it “journalism,” but it sure gets them a lot of attention, and it pays the bills.

And Steph also wrote later in the comments section about the paying the bills part of the equation. Many operations are not paying the bills right now.

Mike Colon submitted two comments. Here’s the first one.

And its not just stories of drunken celebs outside clubs. They make some good points, too. There was a discussion on the show the other day about “why was it okay for Barbra Walters NOT to show Adam Lambert kissing a guy, but ten minutes later to totally show Lady Gaga kissing all kinds of chicks.”

The way TMZ started or how people think of them is drunk celebs, or just walking celebs with a few cameras in front of their face. I seem to remember Iowa’s golden girl Shawn Johnson having the TMZ treatment during her “Dancing with the Stars” days.

Michael Peterson writes about old school and how the new guard may be knocking on the door.

I’m afraid TMZ is part of a growing trend. Tabloid stories are now legitimate news stories. Call me old school, but I just don’t like the direction TMZ is taking broadcast journalism!

TMZ is telling stories that have gone on for years but usually never told. Many news organizations would look the other way on some of the drunken actors, bed hopping starlets and other issues that may have existed.

Actors and wannabe celebrities also subscribe to the school of thought that says a little publicity may help them get the next role or TV show or extend their careers a bit further.

Mr. Colon goes back to fundamentals of reporting. And he brings up a former co-worker of ours who was old-school and taught us much.

But it’s still journalism: you have to know what’s going on, know who to talk to, know where to be to get the story. Maybe they work on comission, but they still have to do the leg work to make the story happen. Ed Lewis (obit) (Paul knows who that was) lamented the lack of shoe-leather reporting; pounding the pavement to get the story instead of waiting to be handed one’s assignment. It might be obnoxious, and meaningless in the big picture; but what TMZ is doing is gathering the info that people want to know.

If you read that first article about TMZ in the NY Times, Harvey Levin, the editor of TMZ says traffic to the site shoots up when Brittney Spears is on the site.

Its like that old discussion, is it life imitating art, or is art imitating life? If the public wasn’t so darn interested in the news, they wouldn’t report it.

Emily Erickson adds a good consumer point of view.

Very disturbing – top news is Tiger sleeping around? As I said, disturbing…

When you are the highest paid golf athlete, if not the highest overall, you draw some attention to yourself and your life. When you drive TV ratings like Tiger does when he’s on TV or ticket sales at any golf tournament he plays in, you draw some attention.

But when the story reaches new heights that it has with Tiger, wow, you’ve got an oil gusher.

Now on to the next post on TMZ on their production and news gathering efforts in the field.

This post came from Tuesday’s post and this comment was left on my Facebook page by Zlatko Filipovic.

Yes, the news media is 5000 years behind TMZ. Of course there are ways to instantly upload video, images, you name it, to the internet. I cannot wait until the day I’m working with some forward-looking people in the media industry. This is ridiculous. Our computers in the newsroom are running on Windows 98.

For other comments, check out the comments section on both posts. Good stuff. Thanks for reading.

Production innovation at TMZ

TMZ app on the iPhone

Recently, I looked at the information gathering of celebrity website and TV show, TMZ. The post drew some interesting comments. Many of them are posted on my Facebook page.

If you’ve got comments, post them to the end of this article. I may have to write another post about the comments received and if its truly a news site that the rest need to pay attention to. Clearly, they are doing something right, even if it is mostly celebrities. But, when you’re the highest paid golfer in the world, your life is a matter of celebrity.

Let’s now look at their TV show now. I don’t watch the show on a regular basis, but when I have seen parts of it, I’m intrigued in the set up of the show. They are taping their morning rundown meeting. Probably one of the most fun parts of a day in any newsroom. You pitch a story, make a joke and move on. TMZ will then see the pitch, run the video and then come back for some newsroom or manager comments and then go back to more parts of the story.

There’s no cheesy anchor, camera moves or over-lit studios, just the newsroom staff doing their job and being videotaped at the same time. Maybe there’s a little mugging going on for the camera, but its low-cost production and gets the job done.

The gathering of news in the field is also impressive. Broadcast Engineering looked at the technical side of the gathering but revealed a couple of interesting tidbits in this article.

This is what is amazing to me. Throw away some traditional multi-person crews. Hello one-man-band with camera, laptop and wifi card.

From the Broadcast Engineering article:

TMZ uses cutting-edge news-gathering techniques to air segments, sometimes within minutes of an event actually happening. A group of young new media professionals serve as producer, camera operator and editor, while adhering to fierce deadlines that lead right up to show time.

These one-man-band shooters, who formerly worked on the Web site, went through several weeks of training on how to use the video equipment. Some currently roam the field using backpacks holding a MacBook laptop and a lightweight Sony Z1U camcorder with camera-mounted Focus Enhancements FireStore hard drive recorders. This enables material to be immediately ingested as a QuickTime file and processed for both TV and the Internet. It also allows the producers to use the HDV tape for backup and as an archive media.

There’s a couple of long-standing news gathering traditions thrown out the window. They get more people in the field, but they get what they pay for in some of the questions from the not-so-well-trained media-gathers. I don’t know if they are journalists or not, but that can be debated at another time.

So I ask you, is TMZ the new-media formula for gathering, displaying and broadcasting their information?