November 2006 ff amera The NationalC Academy of Television Arts and Sciences www.emmysf.tv San Francisco/Northern California Chapter GOLD & SILVER OPEN MEDIA CIRCLE - Nov 11 NETWORK - Nov 15 By Cynthia E. Zeiden Tickets are still available for the 20th Anniversary Join us on Wednesday, Gold and Silver Circle November 15, 2006 for an Induction Luncheon evening at the Open Media coming up on Saturday, Network (OMN), a video-on- November 11, 2006. demand company. The location is The Holiday Inn at the Open Media Network Head- Fisherman’s Wharf is the quarters, 436 Waverley Street, location. The party starts Palo Alto, CA 94301. The event with a no-host reception at runs from 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 11 a.m. Lunch will be CEO Mike Homer p.m., with registration, network- served at noon with the ceremony folllowing. ing and light refreshments the first half hour. At 7:30, Tickets are $65 for Academy members and $70 for the program begins with an introduction to OMN, its guests. Call the Academy office at 650-341-7786. history and development. You’ll see how the OMN The luncheon is shaping up to be a star-studded viewer works technically, along with demonstrations of event in more ways than one. Both the Class of 2006 the types of content featured on OMN. You’ll also find honorees and the presenters they have selected to out how their business model works and how produc- introduce them represent some of the best and bright- ers can distribute their content on the site. est in broadcasting. continued on page 2 continued on page 6 KTVU LAUNCHES EARTHQUAKE HD NEWS IN HAWAII No power, no cell phones, no staff. We are broadcasting blind on emergency generator, sending out our signal to unknown recipi- ents. Slowly some cell phones kick in and we start to get calls from the Big By Keith Sanders By Pamela Young Island. I am on the On Tuesday October 10th at 4pm KTVU became the newsroom cut-in set an hour and 20 minutes after the first Bay Area TV station to air local news in HD. A few first earthquake. There is not enough juice to light the stations in the San Francisco market have already main set or studio cams so our chief engineer Rodney experimented with various forms of HD production, but Shimabukuro struggles to connect wires under my none had tackled the complexities of daily HD news- desk as a Hilo resident describes the devastation of a casts. 6.6 earthquake 6 miles out of Kailua-Kona. It’s an understatement to say the switch to HD We have one lavaliere, which I hold to the speaker news was merely complex. “The operators were phone. No video, no IFB, no rundown, no floor crew. amazing, given the task of accomplishing many News Director Tod Pritchard makes hand signals and continued on page 5 continued on page 3 Off Camera, November 2006, page 1 CIRCLE INDUCTEES PICK PRESTIGIOUS PRESENTERS continued from page 1

Gold Circle Inductee Franklin Mieuli Will be Silver Circle Inductee John Fowler, KTVU 2 reporter, introduced by Linda Giannecchini (Silver Circle 1997), picked his former News Director Fred Zehnder Franklin Mieuli and Associates/KQED, and the (Silver Circle 1991). Fred also received the 2000 Golden State Warriors basketball giant Al Attles. Governors’ Award.

Inductee Mark Hedlund, reporter KXTV News 10 CBS 5 Anchor Sydnie Kohara asked her former selected KXTV News 10 Anchor Jennifer Smith boss Harry Fuller (Silver Circle 2001) to introduce her. (Silver Circle 2004) to introduce him. Harry was News Director at KGO, News Director and General Manger at KPIX. He moved on to ZDTV, CNBC and now C|Net.

Former Fresno Anchor Bob Long has asked KSEE 24 KTVU Mornings on 2 host Ross McGowan will Anchor Faith Sidlow to do the introductions. have his former KPIX “People are Talking” co-host Ann Frazer introduce him.

CBS 5 Political Reporter Hank Plante will be Terry Lowry, (Silver Circle 1996), LaCosse Productions introduced by his KPIX Special Projects producer is the chair of the Gold and Silver Circle Committee. Tim Didion. Pete Wilson, (Silver Circle 2001), ABC 7 Anchor, will be the Master of Ceremonies. Off Camera, November 2006, page 2 COVERING AN EARTHQUAKE IN HAWAII continued from next 11 1/2 page 1 hours we are a live, non- writes the stop, bare- latest data on bones broad- scraps of cast. For the paper. After a younger few minutes reporters it is the speaker a lesson in phone dies Dark Age and I must television, repeat the before prompt- information ers, monitors we receive and robotics from callers. KITV anchor Gary Sprinkle KITV anchor Pamela Young enhanced their We are one “face time.” Our executive producer Erin Kinney is out step away from using a paper cup and string. on maternity leave, our 6pm producer Marisa Assignments Manager Wanda Wehr dispatches Takahashi is in Viet Nam, so 5pm producer Anna neighbor island stringers to shoot video but we are Gomes is in The Chair from 8:30am to 11:30pm, sus- uncertain how we’ll get it in-house since all the airports tained only by strong coffee and Cheetos. are closed. For now we must rely on the phoner The loss of power to much of Hawaii created a descriptions and the imaginations of the handful of unique communication process. We were black to our viewers who still have electricity. Webmaster Brent local audience on Oahu, Maui, and parts of the Big Suyama starts receiving photos on our website, Island, but CNN took our words worldwide, and those thehawaiichannel.com. There are amazing stills of a viewers then called relatives and friends in Hawaii with Lapahoehoe bluff falling into the sea, cracks splitting the necessary emergency information. This also con- apart a highway, elderly patients being wheeled out of firmed to us what I’m sure New Orleans broadcast their crumbling hospital. facilities know all too well. In a disaster you cease to be CNN picks us up and our broadcast, unavailable to a television or radio station. You become a public utility. most of the state, goes out to the rest of the world. I am so proud of the job KITV did. Many put personal We receive email from Europe, Africa, and nearly every concerns aside to support the newsroom, from General mother on the mainland seeking the whereabouts of Manager Mike Rosenberg, who never left the station, vacationing kin. Since we are the only Hawaii television to unpaid intern Nate Serota, who answered hundreds station with a signal, the newsroom becomes Disaster of phone calls. I’m also blown away by the “ohana” Information Central. Most of our calls then become very spirit of the people of Hawaii. Despite damage to nearly personal....”do you know where my daughter is?”... “my 1500 homes, not one family took the Red Cross up on parents are on a cruise ship off Maui “....”my grand- its offer of housing and food. Neighbors and friends mother isn’t answering her phone”.... took in the stranded and homeless. After two hours, the news set fires up. 6pm anchors It is the next morning and everyone is back for the Paula Akana and Shawn Ching take their seats, while mop-up. Flights have resumed and we are getting I’m relieved by 5pm anchor Gary Sprinkle, just back reacquainted with our primary medium...video. Another from Hawaii Civil Defense with our first package. quake hit the Big Island, 4.0 on the Richter scale, but Nearly every KITV staff member walks through the most structures in jeopardy have already fallen. Since door, carrying provisions and foul-weather gear. On top the candy machine has been restocked, newsroom of all this, a tropical storm has been forecast. For the staffers are confident we can weather another storm. JOEL BARTLETT MATIER MOVES LIFETIME ACHIVEMENT TO CBS 5 The Board of Direc- San Francisco Chronicle tors of the Northern Columnist Phil Matier moves California Radio-Televi- from KRON 4 to CBS 5 as an on- sion News Directors air contributor. Phil will appear Associaton honored Joel primarily in the 6 pm newscasts Bartlett with a Lifetime and on Early Edition on Fridays Achievement Award at and Sundays. His reporting will the 25th NorCal RTNDA emphasize government and Awards on Saturday, politics. October 28th. Phil co-writes the Matier & Joel has been a Ross column with Andy Ross, meteorologist at ABC 7, KPIX 5, PG&E and a weather which runs in The Chronicle on Sunday, Monday and officer for the U.S. Air Force. Wednesday. Off Camera, November 2006, page 3 DVD - PAST - PRESENT - FUTURE

By Cynthia E. Zeiden This seminar is definitely one of the most popular we offer! On Saturday, October 7, 2006, after a nice breakfast at Steve Michelson’s Lobitos Creek Ranch in Half Moon Bay, Steve pre- sented his seminar on the history, present and future of the DVD format. Its rich content explored the current usages and trends of DVD, HD DVD and Blue Ray. He then compared the media’s usage to Broadband and gave us some charts that reflected future trends in media delivery. Some facts of interest: only Microsoft’s Windows Media Player has Digital Rights Management built into it. As content providers collect money from pay per view, it protects content and has expiration dates. No other system has this built in. Steve said that with Tower Records closing, it indicates the end of going to stores to buy DVDs. With web VOD, you can purchase movies, download them and burn them onto your own blank DVDs. He calls this Print to Video. Steve also said that MPEG-4 will replace MPEG-2 as the dominant codec because it takes up less space. He ended the morning seminar talking about IPTV, Internet Protocol Television. There are 63 million subscribers worldwide; it uses full screen TV and full interactivity. After the seminar, we broke up into groups to see various DVD demos, focusing on the DVD-rom features of each: Yoga Journal, The Great War, Buddy Rich and His Band-The Channel One Suite, Oil on Ice, Good Cooking, Janice Weir’s Cooking Class and Life with Principle-Thoreau’s Voice in Our Time. In the afternoon, the attendees broke out into groups to discuss their projects in development, getting financing for DVD projects and the legal issues of rights, releases, etc. We plan to offer this event again next year as DVD is becoming more and more dominant as a storage and playback medium. Remember, all Emmy® entries need to be submitted Photos by Lynn R Friedman this year on DVDs. and Gary Schultz Off Camera, November 2006, page 4 KTVU LAUNCHES HD NEWS continued from page 1 very happy with the results. The changes in an extremely aggressive clarity and crisp reproduction is very timeline,” says KTVU Manager of close to HD quality.” Engineering Operations Don Thomp- Don Thompson clarifies “our son. “Vinten, Grass Valley, Klotz, microwave trucks are capable of Sony, and Pinnacle provided onsite editing 16 x 9 in the field and training. Going ‘on-air’ doesn’t end sending back v/o and packages. the learning curve as we continue to The microwave remains 4 x 3 and find better methods, creative ideas, once back at the station our News and utilize new equipment. Addition- Edit (GVG Vibrint) is capable of ally the KTVU Technical Services aspect conversion back to native crews were fantastic in getting wide screen 16 x 9. Completed everything installed and resolving stories and “B” roll are fed to our issues as they arose.” NAS and played out through GVG Substantial changes to the news Profiles using BCS with MOS inter- set were required for the transition face to the iNews rundown. The to HD. “We moved the news set control room has a new HD GVG 4 forward about 5 feet to allow more M/E Kayak switcher to manage all depth in the background for a new the video sources. Because we Panasonic HD Rear Screen Projector have new HD graphics, HD Weather system” says KTVU Director of Local and Traffic systems and HD studio Programming Jim Haman. “We also cameras we have installed an HD changed the shots on the weather GVG Concerto router to manage HD center to add new computer screens sources.” for our weather talent to see the Viewers can see KTVU HD new HD Barons and WSI computers. newscasts on Comcast channel 702 Because of the physical changes we and on Direct TV. Jim Haman added new lights and removed reminds us “not to forget trying a others that were no longer needed.” TV antenna to get the best Haman added that “everyone has uncompressed HD picture. The heard stories of how HD can be very news show is produced in HD and clear, crisp and unfriendly to talent we center cut and down-convert and we wanted to test that theory. the HD 16 x 9 for the SD 4 x 3 We used our HD Local Programming stream that goes to Air. The SD camera to shoot test shots and product is more crisp and the color review with an HD Make-up artist to more true, so the SD Viewer has instruct our talent on make-up for gained as well.” HD. We did side by side compari- “Overall, this was one of the sons after the counseling to see the biggest projects that KTVU has difference.” embarked on since moving into our The graphics change to HD at current location 20+ years ago,” KTVU was enormous. “We started says Ed Chapuis, KTVU News with a new graphics package from Director. “The accelerated time Hot Haus Design in Dallas,” says frame and shear volume of the KTVU Design Director Deanne equipment and workflow changes Moenster-Poitras. “We used Pin- have been enormous. The success nacle Deko for graphic management of the project is directly reflected on and playout to air. Because Deko is a the staff at KTVU, their dedication template-based system, it never and hard work has been remark- creates a composite graphic, but able.” rather “assembles” the layers to air. We utilize a MOS interface with I- News to automate graphics in the control room. We also added ArtBox to coordinate design orders and graphic building by producers in the newsroom.” KTVU’s field cameras are capable of shooting DVCPro HD, but for now shoot in 16 x 9 SD. Jim Haman explains “we selected the Panasonic (left to right) Tim McVay, Deanne AG-HVX200 cameras, capable of Moenster-Poitras, John Mayne, wide screen 16 x 9 production and Ed Chapuis, Jim Haman once upconverted to 720p, we were Off Camera, November 2006, page 5 ABC 7 GOES SOLO

WED. NOV. 15 continued from page 1 Our featured speaker for the evening will be Mike Homer. Mike is the founder and chairman of Open Media Network, a non-profit video-on-demand content collector and distributor for public television, radio and Cheryl Jennings Dan Ashley non-profit organizations. Before starting Open Media Network, Mike was the Chairman and CEO of Kontiki. Some mysterious night moves have happened at He is also an investor and advisor to several Silicon KGO-TV. Valley startups, including Opsware (formerly The San Francisco ABC affiliate has switched its 5 Loudcloud), Tellme Networks, Palm, and TiVo. Previ- p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts to solo anchor shows… ously, Mike was a Senior Vice President at America and nobody at the station will talk about it. Online. Before the acquisition of Netscape by AOL, he Cheryl Jennings now anchors the 5 p.m. by herself held various executive positions at Netscape Communi- and Dan Ashley is the lone anchor on KGO’s 11 p.m. cations, including Executive Vice President and General news. Pete Wilson and Jessica Aguirre are the co- Manager of Netscape Netcenter, and Executive Vice anchors on the 6 p.m. news. Aguirre and Ashley both President of Sales and Marketing. Earlier in his career, also work on special reports. Mike gained valuable experience as Vice President of News managers at KGO are tight-lipped about the Engineering at EO Corporation and as Vice President of changes. They refused to comment on the solo anchor Marketing at GO Corporation. From 1982 to 1991, Mike situation, saying it is a competitive strategy issue. held various technical and management positions at Employees at the station also told Off Camera they are Apple Computer. He earned a B.S. from the University of not allowed to talk about the changes. California at Berkeley. Other staff members will also make presentations. Open Media Network is focused on making it easier ADROUNY ASST. ND to find high-quality video programming by innovative ABC 7 Executive Producer educational, community and non-profit organizations. Stephanie Adrouny has been Watching quality programming should be as easy as promoted to Assistant News turning on a TV. OMN downloads programs to your Director under Kevin computer so you can watch them on your monitor, on Keeshan. Stephanie replaces TV via Tivo or on mobile video devices. OMN’s Internet Tracey Watkowski who is TV Viewer service features more than 40,000 movie, now the News Director at video and audio downloads. ABC 30, KFSN in Fresno. The event is free for NATAS members and $10 for 11 p.m. Producer Krisann non-members. R.S.V.P.s are required, email: Chasarik will become the [email protected] or call the Academy office (650) 341- Executive Producer at KCNC 7786. in Denver. KNTV HONORS LONG-TIME EMPLOYEES Balloons flew, corks popped, ers Jim Sanders, VP of News, cake was passed as NBC11 Willie McGrady, Broadcast honored four employees, Operations Manager and Angela each celebrating 25 years of Crayton, Director of New Tech- service to KNTV. Ken Lopes, nology and Broadcast Engineer- Kirk Woolman, Lou ing for their immeasurable Stallbaumer and Dick contributions to the station. Swank have each seen Honoree Dick Swank noted, ownership changes, numer- by way of explanation to their ous technology changes, and longevity, that each of the a market change from Sali- honorees came from a technical nas/Monterey to the San and engineering background. Do Francisco/Oakland/San Jose engineers have more fun? All of market (a first in TV history) the honorees recognized their (left to right) Dick Swank, Kirk Woolman, before finally becoming an co-workers and thanked them Ken Lopes, Lou Stallbaumer employee of NBCU when NBC for making KNTV such a great purchased KNTV in 2002. The By Damian Trujillo place to work. NBC11 was proud honorees were recognized by Linda Sullivan, Presi- to honor these four individuals who were instrumental dent and General Manager, as well as by direct manag- in making NBC11/KNTV the great Bay Area station that it is today. Off Camera, November 2006, page 6 WALDON TO MILWAUKEE CHIEF OF CONTENT KOVR/KMAX Assistant Linda O’Bryon has News Director Lori been named the new Chief Waldon is leaving Content Officer for North- Sacramento to take ern California Public Broad- over as News Director casting. She reports to of Milwaukee’s Hearst- president and CEO of Argyle station, WISN- Northern California Public TV. Before joining the Broadcasting, Jeff Clarke. Viacom duopoly in O’Bryon is a public broad- Sacramento, Lori spent casting veteran of more 13 years in news than 25 years. She suc- management roles at KPIX-TV in San Francisco, serving ceeds John Boland, who recently left to assume the as Managing Editor, Executive Producer and News newly created role of Chief Content Officer at PBS. Producer. She also worked as a General Assignment Clarke says O’Bryon “brings to this post a wealth of Reporter at television stations in Charlotte, Mobile and relevant skills, expertise and stellar experience that will Peoria. help shape our new organization and expand our Lori also has a rather distinguished academic career. content for listeners and viewers in the Bay Area and She followed up her USC degree with a master’s from beyond. We admire her commitment to providing quality Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. She’s content and look forward to her leadership in delivering served as a visiting faculty member at the Poynter programming to our audiences.” Institute for journalism and a leadership coach for the O’Bryon will lead the content divisions of a multime- Radio and Television News Directors Association and dia organization that includes more than 150 television Foundation. Lori is an active member of the National and radio producers and programmers, editors, report- Association of Black Journalists and was a director on ers, educators, web content developers, management the NorCal RTNDA board. and technical personnel at KQED, KTEH, and KCAH. FRIDAY THE 13TH $40,000 JOHN CANNON HARRY FULLER BASH SCHOLARSHIP The John Cannon Memorial Scholarship is awarded by the Board of Trustees of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to an exceptional high school student who intends to major in television, telecommunications, or a similar communications- related field at a four year college or university. The Scholarship will be distrib- uted over a four-year period with $10,000 awarded prior to the first year of study, and three additional awards of $10,000 granted in subsequent years. To be eligible for the continuing awards, the recipi- ent must demonstrate satisfactory progress towards a degree and remain in a communications-oriented program. The scholarship award may be used for tuition, books, living expenses, and other related costs. An application can be downloaded from, the NATAS foundation web site: www.emmyonline.org/emmy/ scholr.html. While considerable emphasis is placed on the creative accomplishments of each applicant, college board scores are also required. Those selected as finalists will be required to submit a portfolio of their creative work. The entry deadline is December 11, 2006. John Cannon was the longtime president of the Photos by Lynn R Friedman National Television Academy. He died in June 2001. Off Camera, November 2006, page 7 MIKE BOYD LEAVES BEHIND GIANT FOOTPRINTS The word legend is thrown around (guards) brought in Manson’s dinner, with reckless abandon in our and Manson says, ‘Let this guy eat it.’ industry, but there are times we lose And then Mike brings out the Manson someone who deserves the label. Mike book (‘Helter Skelter’), and Manson Boyd was such a person. grabs it away from him and autographs Everybody in Sacramento knew him. He it.” seemed to show up prominently in every But his biggest scoop came in 1988, shot of attorneys walking out of court when KCRA chartered a jet to fly Boyd during a big case, and every police down to southern California to soundbite from a crime scene, interview notorious F Street murderer including the competition’s, much to their Dorothea Puente. There were no other chagrin. Yes, Boyd learned more than a commercial flights scheduled that night, few tricks during his 38 years at KCRA, so some Sacramento deputies asked if Ch. 3. He retired in 2001, and died last they could tag along. The deputies month, at age 74. ended up bringing Puente back to Of the thousands of stories Boyd Sacramento with them on that reported at Ch. 3, two stand out as truly legendary, and private plane and Mike interviewed her exclusively. will be talked about in newsrooms by generations of Adding insult to injury, the competition had no idea journalists to come. what was unfolding. Rival reporters learned Puente There was the time he interviewed mass murderer was back in Sacramento and that Boyd had the exclu- Charles Manson in his prison cell. Boyd stuck the sive interview with her, by watching it all microphone between the bars of the cell, while Manson, on televisions in the Sacramento airport boarding area in full “vintage Manson” form, ranted by firing the next morning, as they were waiting for the first Boyd’s questions back at him. Finally, Boyd looked flight out to L.A. Manson squarely in the eyes and said sternly, ”I’m the One of the greatest compliments another reporter one who’s asking you!” could ever receive was besting Boyd on a story, and “Can you imagine challenging Charles Manson like having him come up to you the next day and say “You that?” asked Ron Middlekauff, a KCRA photographer kicked my butt.” Co-workers and competitors alike will and longtime friend of Boyd. “I talked to Mike about his miss that fire and drive, as well as countless other Manson interview, and it was incredible. At one point, qualities that put Boyd on top, forever. KGO7 CHASED OUT OF ITS STUDIO BY RAIN

The November storm front was no surprise. But rain the morning crew scrambled up to the newsroom set inside the ABC 7 studio was. The KGO building on Front for the next update. As the rain picked up throughout Street in San Francisco has been getting a new roof the day, so did the leak, until it appeared it was actu- put on for months, and it wasn’t quite ready for the ally raining in the studio. Ch. 7 shot video of the situa- first significant rain of the season when it came Novem- tion, and showed it to viewers during their Midday, ber 2nd. Putting a new roof on a television station is 5:00, 6:00, and 11:00pm newscasts to help explain much more complicated, and apparently time consum- why they were anchoring their shows from the news- ing, than replacing the roof of other buildings. Satellite room instead of the regular news desk (which viewers dishes have to be rewired and moved to one side until saw covered by protective tarps). The only adjustment half the roof is finished, then everything has to be made was to the 6:00 show, which Jessica Aguirre moved back to the completed side while workers tackle and Pete Wilson divided up, each anchoring half, the other half. Turns out, they needed a few more dry rather than trying to co-anchor from the small “flash days. cam” desk. In the end, the shows all went off without a Water first started dripping into the ABC 7 studio hitch, as work continued on the roof to plug the leaks during a local news cut-in in Good Morning America. The quickly, because the next rain storm was expected to moisture blew out part of the overhead light grid, and hit in about 12 hours. Off Camera, November 2006, page 8