Hope

We were sorry to read in Sunday's local paper that former WOWT reporter Jim Fagin is battling pancreatic cancer. Fagin's TV work was some of the best Omaha has ever seen, and it has been sorely missed since he left the station a decade or so ago. He now works as an aide to Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson.According to the newspaper story, the circumstances surrounding Fagin's cancer give him somewhat

If We Didn't Know Better, We'd Swear He Attended Morningside

During Sunday's 5:30 p.m. newscast on KMTV, did Devon "Lockjaw" Patton really say that a plane was registered to someone in "Illinoise"? After further review, the call on the field stands; fifteen yard penalty, loss of down, and lots of questions about how someone with an anchor gig can get to this point in his life without being able to properly pronounce the names of all 53 states.

He he he

Sean Weide Jim Minge reports that KETV continued blowing WOWT out in the May sweeps. Sux's numbers are down 17 percent from a year ago.Check it out here.

Media Biz Clippings

Finally, A Place for Great Radio Faces: Check out this story about a Detroit TV station whose reporter remains off-camera. Always. Do you think we could get Travis Justice to do stories in which neither his face nor his voice get into the story?Channel 4 Mystery Reporter Is Intriguing [Detroit Free Press]Wherever They Can Get It: A firm that tracks ad spending, oxymoronically-named TNS Media

Terminology

Ejacucast Authority Jumpy Jim Flowers' Wednesday night prediction: a "snowburst" around midnight Thursday will bring the area "a quick two inches." Isn't "a quick two inches" how Mrs. Thiedlecki describes a night with her husband?

Thud

With no snow likely between now and the start of spring (which SuxNews Weather-Authority-Ejacucaster Andrea Rich on Sunday said "will sprung" by Friday), let's see how "Jim's Winter Forecast" and "Bill's Winter Forecast" held up.Back on November 17, Jumpy Jim Flowers went out on a limb and predicted that we'd receive between 28 and 32 inches of snow during the winter (the average winter snowfall

A November Tradition

Electricity is in the air tonight all over town as neighbors and friends gather around the television to receive "Jim's Precision Winter Forecast"—that magical moment when WOWT meteorologist Jim Flowers works himself into a lather and tells us what to expect for the next five months. For the Brockmans, this is better than Thanksgiving and Christmas combined.As is the case with other holiday

It Really Blows Out There

The arrival of winter weather sent TV stations into its usual frenzy of idiotic stories. After the early morning exhortations to "allow yourself extra time" and "bundle up," all three of Tuesday's 10 p.m. newscasts featured the obligatory "let's have a reporter show us what snow looks like" package. KETV sent Brandi Petersen out to tell us that it was so windy that a station engineer had to hold

Nature's Viagra

Why is this man smiling?After a quick check of the WOWT website Thursday evening, we've got a hunch:Will you be ready?

Sorry for the Inconvenience

We're turning the comments feature off for the time being due to a wave of spam that's hitting blogs right now. We have neither the time nor the energy to weed this crap out. We'll turn them back on once blogspot plugs whatever hole is letting these things through. Feel free to email your comments to us at omanews@hotmail.com; we'll post what we can.

The News Starts NOW: Sweeps Edition

When we wade into what passes for TV "news" this month, we're always excited by the hype that accompanies a sweeps period. Tune in on virtually any night of the week and you'll see people who make slick streets sound like the crash of the Hindenburg take their schtick to the next level. Our two favorites at the moment: Sporting his trusty radar gun, Doug Walker proves that speeders are poised to

Embarrassment

Remember how, when he was first trying to get himself elected to Congress, Lee Terry promised to term-limit himself and only serve eight years? Why don't we hear more about that as he runs for his eighth term?

Anyway, here's what we see every time we look at one of his TV ads:















Eerie, isn't it? Hearing him speak causes roughly the same reaction.

A Mid-Year Resolution

After much thoughtful consideration (or what passes for it here at the OMAnews offices), we've decided that for the month of July, we're going to totally ignore the Big Six. No, you're not hallucinating. We've decided to take a break from the Six-bashing. The plan is that no matter what happens in the Kingdom of Jonas and Clark, we're keeping our thoughts to ourselves. To give you a sense of what

And the Award for Best Nickname of a Local Newscast Goes to...

An insider at one of Channel 6's rivals tells us that, in his newsroom, they now refer to WOWT's "First News Live at Four" as "Dumb and Brummer."