I think that your LDS is showing…Lilly Derangement Syndrome!

Of course the Lilly’s are interested in making a profit; so is every business on the planet. They took the big gamble, they rolled the dice, and now they are trying to make it work in the most difficult environment in the history of broadcasting.

You may not agree with his policies, but “Brian Lilly has declared war on the ‘traditional’ TV station as we know it.”????

That’s silly.

Brian Lilly is ONLY interested in $$$. Mr Lilly could care less about quality – just look at the ugly new WICU news set as just one example. Brian Lilly has declared war on the “traditional” TV station as we know it.

The thing though is Mr. Lilly is only saving about $7,000 per camera or so by buying the smaller “OMB” Cameras. If he truly cared about quality he could buy some TREMENDOUS Panasonic P2HD gear and make WICU a showplace for Quality. However, In 5 years Erie TV will be a wasteland and Mr. Lilly will move on and try his broadcast theory on another market.

I’m not surprised Mr. Lilly hasn’t tried the CJ or “Citizen Journalist” approach where anyone with a camcorder and Lav mic can do a report and send it to TV-12!?

Over the years WICU (thanks to Chief Engineer Michael Csop and Owner Edward Lamb) has been known as the quality station in Erie. In the 40s, 50s, 60s & 70s WICU used the best quality film Cameras for Field Camera work. In the 80s TV-12 had a mix of JVC/Panasonic and Sony Cameras for Field work before going with NBC (and their considerable discount) and buying Panasonic MII ENG Cameras – they were a decent camera although I never did care that much for them – but they got the job done.

In the mid 90s – after the Lamb family sold to SJL – Channel 12 went with Panasonic DVCPro. Not a bad camera at all….but it was no BetaSX. Then a couple of years ago Brian Lilly had a brainstorm to purchase the Panasonic HVX-200. The dreaded “OMB” camera…even though it produces a pretty good picture I don’t want to go into all the pros and cons of the camera in this post.

The bottom line: if you want to have a QUALITY operation you will HAVE TO SPEND MONEY – PERIOD! There isn’t any way around that fact. Just look at the quality of the on-air product at TV-12 these days and ask yourself if Brian Lilly is more interested in quality or $$$? Thats All…

Both of you are exactly right. I couldn’t agree more.

But ask yourselves, quality or $$$: Which is Brian Lilly more interested in?

Unfortunately, I believe the answer is clearly the latter.

Given the prominent addition of one-man-band cameras to the mix, I would bet the farm we’ll see at least some OMB reporters (branded as “multimedia journalists,” “backpack journalists” or “all-platform journalists”) within 4 years.

If you go to New York City try watching NY1 News. It is 100% 1 man band. A lot of the shots are blurred and the talent stand ups are almost always off center and out of focus….other than that 1 man banding works beautifully.

But that is just the opinion of an old ENG/Field Cameraman who remembers his time of shooting video in the field and then rushing to make deadline with great fondness!

Sad…

Stations in major markets, from Washington, D.C. to Phoenix to San Francisco, are going one-man-band; the supermajority of small markets have already done it.

Erie is in a very rare position, being a 125+ market and having photographers working at all three (two?) stations.

I couldn’t be happier that we do have photographers. But you can’t dismiss it as a radical idea, when it’s happened at almost all markets our size…