Today I had a brief reminiscing with some fellow engineers about having to deal with the local news crews at former jobs and told a few tales of the regular stampede of useless, re-hashed content, multiple yet pointless liveshots and how they were more funny than informative.
I believe that local news bloopers are one of the big reasons why YouTube has become so popular. So much of what they do is fit only for passive, hilarious examples of short-term amusement.
I have collected a few so you can see for yourself:
All across the nation there are TV stations headed toward the analog shutdown mandated by congress on February 17th, 2009. At which point, only the station’s high power digital transmitter will be authorized to stay on the air along with the Class ‘A’ and low-power TV stations and their low-power translators (for the moment).
So, until that happy day arrives and the engineers can toss a hand grenade in the analog transmitter cabinet and run out the building laughing we need to keep these antiques running. This is one such story… Continue reading ‘Treating analog TV transmitters like sickly inmates on death row. Keep ‘em alive… For now…’
I’m a dedicated Capitalist. I work for money. Money pays my mortgages and rent, keeps my fridge full, and house warm in the winter. Obviously, money is important and I want to earn as much of it as I can before I decide I’ve had enough of this “work” thing.
That said, there are times when a company can own so much of one thing that its profiteering interests eliminate enough (or all) competition and they not only set the price I pay but the rules and restriction I and others play by. Depending on the industry this can be a financial pain (like the old Standard Oil monopoly and current Cable monopolies) or it can be downright Orwellian scary (like AT&T). I don’t mind rules and restrictions when I use someone else’s service or property, but when that restriction infringes, even slightly, the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights (especially the First and Second amendments), then my ears perk up, my brow furrows and I get ready for a fight. Continue reading ‘Why media ownership caps are important. Censorship in action.’
They don’t watch TV. Mostly. Get it?
OK, I’ll repeat myself. Broadcaster’s (and many cable networks) are not relevant to young people most of the time. This is not news any longer, however it bears repeating, because thick-headed, narrow field-of-view TV execs, GMs and news directors keep fooling themselves into believing they are just one cool news story or graphic sparkle or well-timed-but-intrusive-as-hell snipe away from getting them back. People want to be entertained. Kids like the sensationalistic garbage that MTV and Fox crank out, but more often than not there really isn’t anything compelling for young people to watch on television so the Internet and the nearly infinite sites available to kill time trump the local TV station’s programming and newscasts every time. Continue reading ‘What broadcasters need to know about the core demo.’
For a little something out of the ordinary, today we went down to San Jose and visited the Body Worlds exhibit on display at The Tech Museum.
For those that haven’t gone to see it or know what it’s about; essentially it is a traveling display, which is the brainchild of Gunther von Hagens, consisting of donated corpses that have undergone a plastination process which allows the muscles, organs and bones to be preserved and positioned into various poses. Continue reading ‘Time for a field trip. Corpses on display!’
