Yet still in El Dorado and the internet connection is hit and miss....Will blog when I can.

FS Reporter Moves to KARK; Things Shaky for NWA Weekend Anchor

This from a tipster:

KFSM's Mallory Hardin moved out of NWA and back closer to home.  She's
 now a reporter at KARK.

KNWA's Alexa Hamblin isn't expected to stay there much longer.  Her
 contract will soon be up, and her cushy reporter/weekend anchor gig has
 been posted.

Wow a whole week without blogging...What can I say other than I've been and still am very busy on my business trip to El Dorado. Looking at the next week or so my schedule is not gonna let up. I'll attempt to post a bit.....

KNWA Hires New Razorback Nation Team Member

Source: KNWA Press Release KNWA-TV today announced the next wave in its coverage commitment to The Razorback Nation. Marty Houston will be joining the largest sports staff in the state offering game analysis and a unique perspective of the team behind the scenes. “Marty’s years of following the Hogs and his popularity on the television show, “The Huddle” makes him a valuable information source for Razorback Athletics. Marty is deeply entrenched into the past, present, and future of The Razorback Athletic program. He’s a true walking Razorback encyclopedia”, commented Blake Russell, KNWA-TV Vice President and General Manager.

Marty will be at all home and away games as well as appearing on the Pig Trail Preview at 10:20pm on Friday nights as well as on The Pig Trail, Sunday at 5:30pm. “The Pig Trail” is a weekly 30 minute comprehensive wrap up show on Sunday evenings.” It usually airs at 10:30pm on Sunday nights, however with NBC’s Sunday Night NFL football, the show has been moved to Sunday at 5:30pm so the hog fan can enjoy a special “Hog Call” before the NFL kickoff.

“Over this past year I have gotten to know the staff working on The Razorback Nation and have come to appreciate and respect the dedication to developing the Razorback brand on KNWA.” said Marty Houston. “I am grateful and looking forward to the opportunity to work with them during what promises to be an exciting football season for the Hogs.”

In September 2005, KNWA became the First and Only broadcast outlet to commit a sports department to cover the Razorbacks 100% of the time. “It’s interesting, when we started The Razorback Nation franchise, we slowly began to see our competitors increase their involvement little by little. Now, if you look across the state, many television stations are trying to get into the game, however the 3 year track record and resource commitment we have is the best in the state”, said Mr. Russe.

Will be working in El dorado this week..Will try and blog some...

Web Poll Results: Who Has the Best Overall News Operation?

According to ya'll, the blog readers KARK has the best overall news operation. KARK topped the list with 34.1 percent of the vote / 104 votes; KATV came in second with 23.9 percent of the vote/ 73 votes; KTHV came in third with 22.6 percent of the votes /69 votes; KLRT last with 19.3 percent of the vote / 59 votes.

The CW Returns to NWA Next Week

This from a tipster: The CW returns to the Fort Smith/Fayetteville market on Cox Cable next week. It'll be seen on these Cox channels - Ft Smith-22 /Fayetteville-4 / Siloam Springs-17.

KARK in the Telethon Business?

An e-mailer is upset KARK held a telethon this morning to keep the Bald Knob school open. Here's the e-mail: The KARK morning show held a telethon Friday morning to raise money to keep the Bald Knob school district open. I understand reporting a fundraiser and detailing why they're in need of money, but to hold atelethon and give the KARK number to call to donate!!!! If that is not
crossing the line, I don't know what is!!!!!!

KNWA Adds Noon Newscast

Source: KNWA Press Release KNWA-TV will expand its news coverage by offering “Arkansas at Noon” weekdays at Noon beginning Monday, September 10th.. “As our area continues to expand, so do we. This 30 minute show will highlight the news from the entire state of Arkansas as well as top stories from right here in Northwest Arkansas,” commented Blake Russell, KNWA-TV Vice President and General Manager. “Arkansas is a wonderful place to live. Many of our viewers are interested in news and weather from throughout The Natural state. We’ve found a way to create a show that delivers a unique news product that you can’t get anywhere else.”

Arkansas at Noon will feature local news and weather and offer a travel forecast for the entire state. Another interesting feature of Arkansas at Noon will be “Dialing for Dollars” where news talent will pick a phone number and call it live on the air. The caller must know the predetermined “Count” and “Amount” shown on the screen. If they do, they win! “Many central Arkansas transplants to the Northwest corner of the state are very familiar with this game. I have been amazed by the number of people who have been excited about us bringing it to Northwest Arkansas and The River Valley,” stated Blake Russell.

“This is a great opportunity for us to be the first and only station in our area to do something like this – and even more important – to give our viewers the option of watching a newscast that covers the entire state, “said Scott Pickey, KNWA-TV News Director. “So many people in Northwest Arkansas are from the Little Rock area – or travel back and forth – so I think there’s a strong interest in what’s going on all over Arkansas.

Arkansas at Noon will be anchored by Kelly George in Northwest Arkansas; and Melissa Simas and Meteorologist Mike Francis in Central Arkansas.

Severe Weather Coverage...Or the Lack There Of...

Was KTHV the only Little Rock station providing severe weather coverage when Clark County was under a Tornado warning? 4 and 7 didn't even have their map in the lower left. Ed Buckner was on the air on Channel 11 providing updates. Was listening to KQUS-FM out of Hot Springs when the warning came across....I bet since most stations are voicetracked and automated it was just about the only radio station covering the weather. See, that's what stinks about automation. It has brought the quality of the public service that TV and radio stations are suppose to provide down.

UPDATE: 7:55pm With five minutes to go for the Tornado Warning for Clark County, KATV puts the warning on the screen. Nothing, nada from KARK.

Correction: Just realized why I didn't see KARK's severe weather coverage. KTAL/Shreveport ( a Nexstar NBC station) covers up KARK programming in the evenings on my cable system. Sorry, I'm usually not home during the evenings.

UPDATE: The Arkadelphia radio stations provided coverage of the storms....Note from new GM Grant Merrill :
You are correct in the fact that things are automated at night, but we were able to get our operations manager into the station about ten minutes after the warning was issued. That is of course a little too late for my liking, but this thing came out of nowhere! I did coverage over the phone using our radar sites that we subscribe to, and Randy Allen was able to get our Office of Emergency Services on the line. We did wall-to-wall coverage until about 8:10 or so. Because of a power outage, KIX 106 was down for a brief period, but we restored service late last night.

KHBS/KHOG Rogers Offices /Newsroom Opens Late September

Source:KHBS/KHOG Press Release 40/29 News expands their Live.Local.Latebreaking news and weather coverage capabilities by opening a new state of the art station facility in Rogers. The 12,906 square foot all-digital facility enables 40/29 News to play a larger role in covering the communities throughout the expanding Northwest Arkansas and River Valley areas.

“This building expansion will make 40/29 News the only station in our area with three complete newsrooms in Fort Smith, Fayetteville and Rogers,” said station President/General Manager, Jim Prestwood.

40/29 News will begin broadcasting from the new building at the end of September at The Peaks office complex in Rogers. The facility contains a state of the art studio, a digital control room and newsroom along with offices for sales, engineering and promotions.

“As long as we’ve been on the air,” Prestwood said, “40/29 News has been committed to covering Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley. It is extremely important to us to continually upgrade our ability to cover news and weather to better serve our viewers. By upgrading our studios in Fort Smith, by building a new studio and station in Rogers and through our expanded news bureau in Fayetteville, 40/29 News now has the most modern and technologically advanced news gathering operation in the area.”

40/29 News has also expanded our ability to cover severe weather in the area with the new expanded 40/29 SuperDoppler Weather Center. It’s the most technologically advanced weather center in the area.

"This new digital facility gives our 40/29 SuperDoppler Storm Team of meteorologists the ability to use the most advanced weather technology to track storms throughout the viewing area and keep our viewers up to date with the most accurate and reliable forecasts" said News Director Mike Courington. "The new facility will give us a great new look but more importantly the 40/29 Weather Center will give our viewers faster and more accurate Live.Local.Latebreaking storm coverage.”

To facilitate the move to the new building in Rogers, 40/29 News anchors and meteorologists are delivering newscasts from a temporary set in the Fort Smith newsroom. “The surroundings may look different right now,” Courington said, “but viewers will notice a drastic improvement in Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas when we debut the new facilities at the end of the month.”

There will be a ribbon-cutting and open house at the new facility in Rogers on Thursday, September 27.

Coincidentally, the ABC affiliate was the first news station to broadcast in Northwest Arkansas and is now celebrating its 30th anniversary serving the area, including its 20th year with the distinctive call letters KHOG-TV.

THV This Morning Producer's Last Day is Friday

A source confirms to ATN, THV This Morning Producer Kat Robinson's last day is this Friday. Appears Robinson will be doing some freelance writing and promotions.

KHBS/KHOG May Soon Be Taken Off Cox Cable

Source: KHBS/KHOG-TV Press Release KHBS/KHOG-TV (Channel 40/29) and KHBS/KHOG-TV-DT (Channel 15/21) today announced that the analog signal of KHBS/KHOG-TV may no longer be carried on Cox cable television systems effective October 1, 2007, if the parties are unable to conclude retransmission consent negotiations currently underway. These negotiations have been continuing for more than a year, during much of which time KHBS/KHOG-TV digital channel has not been carried on the Cox system.

The Cable Act of 1992 prohibits cable operators from carrying broadcasters’ signals without their consent. The removal of KHBS/KHOG-TV analog signal from the Cox system will only result if negotiations between representatives of Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc., KHBS/KHOG-TV’s parent company, and Cox are unsuccessful in reaching a conclusion before October 1, 2007. Hearst-Argyle is seeking fair and reasonable terms from Cox in return for allowing Cox to carry KHBS/KHOG-TV’s programming and charge its subscribers for that programming.

“We’re greatly disappointed that after more than a year Cox has yet to arrive at a mutually satisfactory solution,” said Jim Prestwood, KHBS/KHOG-TV/DT president and general manager. “We have not received any compensation for this past year during which Cox has carried our analog signal. To continue to allow any distributor to take our product and use it to derive fees from subscribers and advertisers without any consideration to us doesn’t make much sense.

“We’ve made substantial investments to bring the most popular programming to our viewers,” Jim Prestwood added. “Cox has had the luxury of actively promoting to current and prospective subscribers the availability of our analog channel on their lineup and charging its subscribers for our signal. But they won’t come to terms with us on providing fair consideration for it. To allow any re-distributor of our station’s analog and digital signals to benefit economically from our efforts without providing us a reasonable contract for that right would be unacceptable for us.

“Given the modest compensation we are seeking, in comparison to the amount Cox currently charges its subscribers on a monthly basis, we believe that Cox should not need to raise its subscribers’ rates as a result of concluding a negotiation with us. We believe the compensation we are seeking is commensurate with what other cable companies have paid to owners of TV stations comparable to ours.

“We sincerely hope we and Cox can conclude our negotiations before October 1 so as not to deprive any of our respective viewers and customers of our programming,” Prestwood added. “We will continue to keep our valued viewers informed of developments, on our air and our website, www.4029tv.com.”

Barrett Makes Debut On ARSN as Voice of the Razorbacks

I've made a post about Barrett's debut on the Inside Arkansas Radio blog.