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  • Jessell At Large: FCC Needs To Give OVDs MPVD Status

    That’s why I think the FCC's Sky Angel proceeding — in which it's considering whether it should regulate online video distributors like Sky Angel just as it now does cable and satellite operators — is so important. It could give stations a big and badly needed boost toward the Internet and on all those millions of desktops and mobile screens. More | Comments (5)

  • Front Office: MFM To Honor 13 At Annual Conference

    When the MFM convenes in Las Vegas next week, we will be recognizing 13 individual for their extraordinary contributions to the association and the media industry. More | Add comment

  • Spotlight: T&B Embracing Multiplatform, BXF Integration

    Broadcasters want traffic and billing systems that can handle ads for websites and mobile as adeptly as they do broadcast spots and that can integate seamlessly with master control automation. Vendors are doing their best to meet this demand. More | Add comment

  • Digital DMAs: Providence Old Media Slow On New Media

    In Rhode Island's capital, the traditional media outlets are mired in what one expert calls "an analog mindset," but a number of small independent startups are willing and eager to fill in the gaps in digital coverage left by the market's TV stations and newspaper. More | Comments (1)

  • Focus: More Sellers Than Buyers In Station Market

    With four significant TV station group deals within the past year, there is a growing number of groups up for sale. But right now few buyers are willing to pay the multiples that the sellers are demanding. “Owners are either going to have to take lower prices and come out under water or hold stations for another two years," says broker Larry Patrick. More | Comments (3)

  • Air Check: Local News Stories That Made A Difference

    TVNewsCheck is occasionally featuring examples of exceptional TV station reporting from across the country. Here are the first four, taking on everything from fraud, wasteful spending and public safety to a parking lot owner with a penchant for driving other people’s cars. More | Comments (1)

Special Reports

  • NAB 2012: Everything you need to know about broadcasting's biggest tech event of the year.
  • Gearing Up For NAB 2012: The top tech trends and issues.
  • FCC Watch: 18 Topics In 244 Words Or Less: Get briefed on what's happening at broadcasting's favorite regulatory agency by top Washington communications attorneys David Oxenford and Brendan Holland.
  • 2011—Year In Review: Revisit the year’s top developments in business, programming, journalism, technology, regulation and more.
  • Audience Measurement: The state of ratings is examined in three parts: an interview with the head of the Media Ratings Council; the growing presence of Rentrak; and the search for a better local ratings currency.
  • Traffic Reporting: This four-part TVNewsCheck Special Report focuses on what it takes to stay on top of the growing commuter gridlock across the country.
  • Remembering 9/11: TVNewsCheck looks back 10 years after the attacks with a series of five articles.
  • TOP 30 TV STATION GROUPS: Fox Television Stations is No. 1 in the revenue-based rankings, followed by the groups of the other major broadcast networks: CBS, NBC and ABC, with Tribune rounding out the top five.

Industry Calendar

May 2012
Mo
We
21-23
Media Financial Management Association
Media Financial Focus 2012
Las Vegas, NV
Mo
We
21-23
National Cable & Telecommunications Association
The Cable Show
Boston, MA
Mo
28
Memorial Day
Holiday
June 2012
Mo
11
NAB Education Foundation
Celebration of Service to America Awards
Washington, DC
Tu
Th
12-14
PromaxBDA
The Conference 2012
Los Angeles, CA

Station Directory

Net Essentials

AP Breaking News

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Air Check By Diana Marszalek
Local News Stories That Made A Difference
TVNewsCheck, May 15, 2012, 8:37 AM EDT
TVNewsCheck is occasionally featuring examples of exceptional TV station reporting from across the country. Here are the first four, taking on everything from fraud, wasteful spending and public safety to a parking lot owner with a penchant for driving other people’s cars. Full Story | Comments (1)
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
Papers Offering More And Better Video News
TVNewsCheck, May 8, 2012, 11:46 AM EDT
Newspaper sites around the country are producing video on par with that of TV stations, often with the help of former TV multimedia journalists and photographers. In fact, some of the newspapers’ video content is so good that it has beaten material produced by TV news departments when it’s gone head-to-head in awards competitions. Full Story | Add comment
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
TV News A Bad Job? Not To Many On The Air
TVNewsCheck, May 1, 2012, 11:33 AM EDT
Responding to a survey that ranked TV and radio news as one of the 10 worst jobs in the country, many broadcasters say they love their work despite the stress, falling salaries, cutbacks and little growth potential cited by Careercast. Full Story | Comments (5)
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
Status Of Social Media Rising At TV Stations
TVNewsCheck, Apr 24, 2012, 11:15 AM EDT
Twitter and Facebook have quickly become one of the basics of TV news. Faster and easier than blogging, which industry watchers say is becoming increasingly passé, and more personal than station-run websites, social media has become so important that stations are investing in training talent to use them and, in some cases, mandating it. Full Story | Comments (5)
Air Check By Diana Marszalek
More GM Jobs Going To News Directors
TVNewsCheck, Apr 16, 2012, 6:24 PM EDT
The normal career path at a TV station results in general managers rising from the ranks of the sales department. Recently, there's been an upsurge in news directors being chosen to fill the top management spot. And many say that the increased and varied responsibilities that leading a news department entails, is great experience. Full Story | Add comment
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
KLAS Dug Deep To Uncover Housing Scams
TVNewsCheck, Apr 10, 2012, 11:30 AM EDT
The Landmark-owned CBS affiliate in Las Vegas was awarded a Peabody for its extensive investigative reporting on the causes, effects and those responsible for the city’s mushrooming housing crisis. Bringing a number of the issues to light helped prompt the state to act faster to pass laws to ease the suffering of homeowners. Full Story | Comments (1)
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
A Soldier’s Unusual Deployment: WTOC
TVNewsCheck, Mar 27, 2012, 10:56 AM EDT
U.S. Army Capt. Frank Razzano Jr. is spending a year as an intern in the news department of Raycom’s Savannah, Ga., CBS affiliate. He's following a reporter and a photographer as they pursue stories, sits in on news meetings and studies the station’s marketing and promotion efforts. It’s all to learn techniques and skills that will help him do his Army job of convincing foreign populations to support the work of U.S. forces in their countries. Full Story | Comments (6)
Air Check By Diana Marszalek
Stations Up The Ante For Audience Research
TVNewsCheck, Mar 20, 2012, 11:48 AM EDT
More TV stations are investing in audience research than have since before the economic troubles that began four years ago. And they are doing so using more and more online techniques that let them reap better feedback from a larger pool of participants for less money. Full Story | Comments (5)
Air Check By Diana Marszalek
High School Sports News Scores For Stations
TVNewsCheck, Mar 13, 2012, 11:23 AM EDT
In their growing attempts to offer local coverage to attract interest to both newscasts and websites, more than half of the news-producing stations across the country now include prep sports coverage. Football and basketball still get the biggest play, but with many stations now making high school sports a year-round feature, everything from wrestling and riflery to girls’ volleyball gets its share of coverage. Full Story | Comments (1)
Air Check By Diana Marszalek
PolitiFact Aims To Boost Local TV Presence
TVNewsCheck, Feb 28, 2012, 11:01 AM EST
The fact-checking service is lining up relationships with all 25 of Hearst’s news-producing stations and has even broader ambitions. Other broadcasters with PolitiFact deals include Cox and Gannett. Full Story | Add comment
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
WXLV, TWC Share And Share (News) Alike
TVNewsCheck, Feb 21, 2012, 8:07 AM EST
As part of a retransmission consent deal, Time Warner Cable’s statewide 24-hour news channel in North Carolina, is producing three newscasts a day for WXLV Greensboro, Sinclair’s ABC affiliate. Executives on both sides of the agreement say their goal is to use the newscasts to lure and hook more viewers, resulting in ratings for WXLV and subscribers for Time Warner Cable. Full Story | Comments (8)
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
Mike Cavender: A Strong Voice For RTDNA
TVNewsCheck, Jan 31, 2012, 8:16 AM EST
After a relatively quiet few years, the organization is hoping to raise its visibility with its new executive director, an experienced broadcast news veteran who can speak out on the First Amendment and other issues affecting electronic journalists and perhaps restore the annual conference to its former stature. Full Story | Comments (1)
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
New Site Asks: 'Whatever Happened To...'
TVNewsCheck, Dec 6, 2011, 2:09 PM EST
Chris Buck, Larry Chollet and Steve Ives are starting a new nonprofit, RetroReport.com, that will examine high-profile stories from the past to find out if they were true and what has happened since. They hope the site will educate people to be more critical about what they see on TV. Full Story | Comments (1)
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
Post-‘Oprah’ Newscasts: So Far, So Good
TVNewsCheck, Oct 19, 2011, 8:47 AM EDT
Most of the seven top-25 stations that filled the 4 p.m. time period left by Oprah's departure with local newscasts report they’re pleased with their performance so far in this new TV season. Three are holding their top positions in household ratings, and at least two more are leading their markets in key demos. Here’s a first look at how the newscasts are doing. Full Story | Comments (1)
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
Hubbard Puts Premium On News Experience
TVNewsCheck, Oct 4, 2011, 6:20 AM EDT
At the broadcaster’s KSTP and KSTC in Minneapolis, News Director Lindsay Radford is looking for reporters with ability, not just affordability. “We still value paying talented reporters,” she says, and she’s willing to wait for individuals who not only bring news know-how, but also the perspective that comes with time. Full Story | Comments (2)
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
How Social Should A Newscast Be?
TVNewsCheck, Sep 20, 2011, 8:02 AM EDT
KOMU Columbia, Mo., in DMA138, has taken the plunge into social media news, last week launching a 4 p.m. newscast that makes viewers an integral part of the show. And there’s a social media desk that includes two reporters tracking bloggers, Tweets and online conversations about topics making the news. Industry watchers applaud KOMU for pushing the envelope in its use of social media at a time when many stations are still trying to figure them out. But some question their heavy use in what has always been a sit-back, passive medium. Full Story | Comments (2)
Air Check
Relevance Is Top Priority At RTDNA Show
TVNewsCheck, Sep 6, 2011, 5:42 AM EDT
After teaming with the NAB for its annual conference, the Radio Television Digital News Association has a new partner this year, the Society of Professional Journalists. It’s a move RTDNA Chairman Kevin Benz says gives the group an opportunity to present a conference “that is absolutely and totally journalism-based. We believe that we will be putting on the most important journalism discussion in the country.” Full Story | Add comment
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
WTHR Sets Itself Apart With Serious News
TVNewsCheck, Aug 23, 2011, 8:24 AM EDT
The Dispatch Broadcast Group’s NBC affiliate in Indianapolis has a clear goal — to be the best station in the country — and a strong strategy to accomplish it: a total commitment to enterprise and investigative reporting. It’s working as its RTDNA, DuPont-Columbia and Peabody awards this year attest. And it’s No. 1 in the ratings, too. Full Story | Comments (2)
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
DC Bureaus Give Stations A Local Edge
TVNewsCheck, Jul 26, 2011, 7:19 AM EDT
As TV stations struggle to distinguish themselves with hyperlocal strategies, one old solution is looking new again. A number of station groups — including Hearst, Belo, Cox, Gannett and Scripps — are finding that the specialized, localized reporting they get from their Washington bureaus has become a differentiator for them. As the head of Cox's bureau says: "Our sole mission is to give stations hyper-local, unique coverage they can’t find anywhere else.” Full Story | Comments (2)
Air Check by Diana Marszalek
Are Beat Reporters Key To Better TV News?
TVNewsCheck, Jul 12, 2011, 7:19 AM EDT
The beat system, under which reporters cover their beats — and only their beats — hasn’t existed in many TV newsrooms for years. And some believe that it's contributed to a decline in the quality of local TV news. Although the new economic realities of the business make the widespread return of full-fledged beat reporters unlikely, some are trying to bring them back in different and limited ways. Full Story | Comments (6)
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The Market

Symbol Last Change (%)
Nasdaq 2847.21 +68.42 (+2.46%)
NYSE 7542.98 +115.24 (+1.55%)
S&P 500 1315.99 +20.77 (+1.60%)
Updated 05/22 8:23a ET Quotes delayed at least 20 mins.
Source: Financial Content

Ratings

Overnights, adults 18-49 for May 20, 2012
  • 1.
    2.4/7
  • 2.
    1.9/6
  • 3.
    1.6/5
  • 4.
    1.3/4
  • 5.
    1.0/3
  • 6.
    0.4/1
Source: Nielsen
Reviews
Opinions
Features
  • David Wiegand

    Fans of Sex and the City have finally gotten their wish: Their beloved sex-focused sitcom is back on the air ... sort of. The four women have become four men, of course, and the writing isn't as good. Oh, and the laugh track so annoying, it's offensive. And did I mention that the costumes would be considered fashionable if you were holding a yard sale? Men at Work on TBS is almost quaint, it's so old fashioned. If it had any meat on its bones, you'd be tempted to say it's the sadly ignoble epitome of TV's long-festering emasculated-men syndrome. But it's so much of a big, forgettable, innocuous shrug, it's not even worth any actual vitriol.

  • Mike Hale

    The USA Network's motto is "Characters Welcome." Apparently they're especially welcome if they resemble Oscar Madison and Felix Unger. Already stocked with Odd Couple knockoffs in Psych and White Collar, USA adds to its inventory Common Law, another comic crime-fighting show about mismatched partners. But this latest entry exhibits very little of that kind of spark as it tries to wring laughs from the juxtaposition of counseling and police work. It looks too flat and schematically plotted to succeed as the type of lightweight summer fun we’ve come to expect from USA.

  • Joanne Ostrow

    Johnny Carson: Fantastic entertainer, miserable human being. That's the lasting message of Johnny Carson: King of Late Night, the new PBS American Masters film, a rich history of a rare product of television who dominated the small screen for decades. Unprecedented access to personal archives plus all existing episodes of The Tonight Show (1962-92), distinguishes this film by Peter Jones. Telling interviews with family and colleagues, including second wife Joanne Carson, former Tonight Show executive producer Peter Lassally and a number of biographers sharpen the picture. The clips are carefully selected to illustrate specific personality traits, the performance highlights are given context and meaning beyond funny lines and memorable moments.

  • Hank Stuever

    AMC's The Pitch is a sharply-made if slightly off-putting reality series that follows different advertising agencies each week as they compete for new accounts. The inspiration for the show — made clear by its own ad campaign — is to harness some of the verve generated by the network's acclaimed Mad Men. The Pitch has a way of making the ad world seem like a real downer — a repugnant exercise in egotism laced with depressing bouts of creative compromise.

  • Tim Goodman

    HBO's Veep stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as former Sen. Selina Meyer, who accepts the vice presidential duty and regrets it almost immediately: She has no real power and gets muscled by the Senate, Congress and the (so-far-unseen) president, who delegates all the truly crappy jobs to her. Louis-Dreyfus has found perhaps her best post-Seinfeld role and takes to it with such fervor — the constant swearing, the barely veiled desire to become president, the unhappy give-and-take with other politicians and a delightful disdain for average citizens — that you can't help but applaud what is clearly an Emmy-worthy effort. Her work alone makes Veep a gem, but there's even more to like.

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