Outside Cable News

Via Minneapolis Star Tribune
Meier felt KSTP-TV’s ax; now, he gets its hook
By C.J

Now, Randy Meier has been literally, as well as figuratively, kicked off KSTP-TV’s air.

The former KSTP-TV anchor was invited to guest-host on FM107’s afternoon drive-time show for two days last week. On weekdays, “5 Eyewitness News” sends a camera to the radio station for frothy cut-ins that air live on TV.

On Wednesday, after clearance seemed to have been given for Meier to be back on KSTP-TV’s air for the first time since 2003, he got rudely pushed off camera at the last minute by show sidekick Julia Cobbs, who did not return calls.

“It was just weird,” Meier told me Thursday. “My biggest astonishment was, ‘Where’d this come from?’ Clearly there were some people who were fine with it and at the last minute somebody wasn’t fine with it. For all parties involved it would have been nice if everybody had been on the same page.

“It was very difficult for the radio people to have to deal with that. It was disRESPECTful to get stiff-armed off camera. That’s never happened to me in 25 years. I don’t blame FM107 one bit. They did exactly what they had to do. … I felt bad for the people around me because it put them in a very difficult situation. They couldn’t apologize enough and wanted to make sure I was going to come back the next day.”

Yeah, it seems somebody wanted him to return Thursday for just a tad more insult to go with Wednesday’s injury.

>Read the rest at Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Via Engadget HD
Cox Northern Virginia gets 5 new HD nets: SciFi HD included
By Darren Murph

No double-takes necessary, Cox has just delivered five new HD channels in the Northern Virginia (Fairfax) area. According to a local familiar with the situation (read: watching the tube), subscribers up that way can now tune into USA HD, Bravo HD, SciFi HD, CNBC HD and Lifetime HD. Per usual, it’s anybody’s guess as to when (or if) these stations will find their way onto other systems, but don’t ever give up hope, alright?

Via NewsOK
Watts says network will cover more issues
By Jim Stafford

Americans segregate themselves in white churches and black churches and listen to music that targets black listeners and music that targets white listeners, former Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts said.

So why, then, would a cable news network that targets black viewers be seen as anything but the norm, Watts said Friday in a telephone interview from Washington.

The Oklahoma native plans to launch the Black Television News Channel by mid-summer 2009.

He already has deals with both Comcast and Dish Network that will put the new channel in 20 million homes at launch.

Plan calls for change

“As far back as 2003, Nielsen and Arbitron indicated that the black community more than any other culture depends on subscription television,” Watts said. “In spite of that you see very little programming on television that appeals to the African American community. You have 70 Hispanic cable channels and three Hispanic news services.
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Via Multichannel News
Politics In High Definition
Election Helps Drive Cable’s High-Def News Coverage
By George Winslow

With voters pondering the prospect of the first African-American or woman gaining the presidential nomination of a major party, cable news networks are preparing to make television history with their coverage of the election in high-definition.

“For those of us who cover politics and elections, this is the election you want to do,” said David Bohrman, senior vice president and Washington, D.C., bureau chief for CNN. “We knew from the beginning it was going to be interesting with two open races but it has turned into this amazing story that has almost transitioned into a spectator sport. That has really caught on with people.”

It has also caught on with networks ramping up their high-def offerings. HDNet provided gavel-to-gavel high-definition coverage of the conventions in 2004, but this year will mark the first time that the major broadcasters and 24-hour cable news networks will be using an HD pool feed.

“We expect HD to be a big part of our convention coverage and going forward a big part of everything we do,” said Warren Vandaveer, senior vice president of operations and engineering for Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, which will provide the pool feed for the Democratic Convention in Denver in high-definition. “All the pool members wanted an HD feed, and we’ll be providing that.”
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