Morning Mystery Crew

Tuning in to Channel 3's morning newscast, we're never quite sure who we're going to see. Perhaps we're imagining it, but it seems that at least once a week, anchor Mary Williams (or, as she pronounces it, "Wee-yums") is MIA. Likewise, KMTV seems to play roulette when it comes to filling the morning weather chair. Friday, for example, we were (pleasantly) surprised to find our favorite pair o'

Back

Summer's over. Time to get back to work. Where to start?

There've been quite a few departures and arrivals in the past several weeks. We see the exits of weekend anchor Devon Patton and Kerri Stowell as positives for the Channel 3rd. Then again, lord knows what they'll hire. So far Dave Roberts doing weekends has worked. Maybe they should stick with that.

At Channel 7, longtime morning field

Sean McMahon Leaving Television?

We are told by what we believe to be a reliable source that KETV weekend sports anchor Sean McMahon has decided to leave the station. Channel 7 has not yet released the information, so not a lot more is known at the moment.If true, the departure would represent a significant loss for the station, given McMahon's strong on-air work and widespread reputation as an all-around good guy. McMahon's

Vote

It's been a quiet primary election season, at least when it comes to TV ads from candidates, and for that we can all be glad.

But driving around this morning, we encountered the inexpensive ugly cousin of the slick TV spot: a gaggle of otherwise normal-looking folks standing at a busy intersection, clutching signs for their candidate, sporting vacant smiles, and waving.

Is this effective? Have

Bordering

Former KETVNewswatchSeven reporter Farah "FUBAR" Fazal has landed just north of the Rio Grande with a job at KRGV—the ABC affiliate in Weslaco, Texas.

The Harlingen-Weslaco-Brownsville-McAllen market is #87, with just over 350,000 households. Omaha is #76, with about 410,000.

While she was in Omaha, Fazal's station bio boasted that she was fluent in Spanish. Perhaps her new job gives her the

Three for 3: Suggestions for Getting KM3 Out of the Hole (Part 2 of 2)

With Channel 3's ratings stuck in the basement, the station faces a challenge, to say the least. Back in the summer of 2003, General Manager Jim McKernan told Omaha B2B magazine that he "would be disappointed if we weren’t at least number two in overall news viewership" within two years. Well, the two years is almost up and things for the station are the same, if not worse.The question is, what

Amazon Prime members now get free instant streaming

Best of Google TV Series

I’ve been an Amazon Prime member for a while now and love the free two day shipping, especially when I’m keen to get my hands on the latest Google TV device as soon as possible.

Now there’s even more reason for Google TV users to love this service. Amazon currently has over 90,000 movies and TV shows that you can stream instantly on your Google TV device for a few dollars. Well, they have just announced that Amazon Prime members will also get unlimited, commercial-free access to more than 5,000 of those movies and TV shows, for no additional cost. Titles include “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “Syriana,” “March of the Penguins,” and—my personal favorite—”Doctor Who.”

This will work immediately on all Google TV devices, so give it a whirl if you’re an Amazon Prime member. If you don’t already own a Google TV device, then here’s another reason to make the most of that Amazon Prime membership.

Posted by Peter Sherman, Google TV Marketing

Meanwhile, On Channel 7...

KETV must be trying to win over WOWT viewers by getting into the business of half-assed reporting and stupid stories:• Last Thursday, the station screwed up royally in its coverage of a car accident involving three teenagers. We were swamped with emails griping about the coverage. One emailer summarizes the screwups better than we can: KM3 at 5pm had 3 teens critically injured in 2 car crash.

Weide Has the Answer

As usual, Sean Weide has dug up the story behind one of our questions—in this case, WOWT's ad for a new sportscaster. Merlyn Klaus is leaving. Read about it in The Reader's Media Notes blog.

WOWT Taking Its Cues from Channel 3, Again

Once again, apparently prodded by KMTV's Action 3 News format, lethargic WOWT is making changes to its otherwise stale product. This time, it's the opening sequences, graphics, and theme music.We could give a long description of each, but it's just as informative to say that the graphics look like Channel 3's, only blue, and the music sounds like Channel 3's, only with the three-note NBC

Maybe they should spray it on the "Senior Drug Mules"

We haven't had time to check out Rob McCartney's "Old People Who Smuggle Drugs" story, so we can't offer any comment on it yet.Never a station to rest on it's laurels, KETV is whetting our appetites for next week's big Wednesday night "investigation": Mike Sigmond will report on perfumes purported to make those wearing it smell younger. The clever title of the report is "Smelling Younger."

Radar, Radar Everywhere and "Winter Forecasts" Stink

Dear god. Where do we start? Jim Flowers' "big announcement on Friday was "Radar to the Power of 6." As if he needs another stupid gimmick to squeeze into the Channel 6 forecasts. If you didn't see it, the geniuses at 6 will now be able to show us three different radar scans at once, which will, according to Flowers, allow him and his lackeys to give us 3-D images of storms and whatnot. Um,