January 17th, 2010 
joel The pictures from Haiti have been heartbreaking.
The attempt to cover the tragedy of the earthquake has demarcated the limits of even the most highly advanced broadcast technologies. The networks are settling for lots of satellite phone calls and Blackberry video.
Meanwhile, the total devastation has pushed even the most crusty reporter to show their humanity. For me, that’s a good thing.
In this open forum, we express our human emotions as well as educated opinions on media locally and nationally. Get involved with your comments below, or e-mail me, or send a tweet.
Thanks for getting involved.
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Has anyone else lost the OTA signal for WICU and its subchannels (12.1, 12.2 and 12.3)? After consistently receiving it for months at around 70-80% strength, it’s completely gone (starting this weekend).
All of the other locals are still coming in strong.
Could be the warmer temperatures. That happens to some stations I get in colder weather & then lose them as it gets warmer. WICU has come in remarkably well here.
News from PBRTV.com reports that Pittsburgh will be getting an all sports FM on February 15th. The station will be replacing the short lived return of “B-94″ in the market with “93.7 The Fan.” The station will also have familiar call letters as KDKA-FM.
I too lost it recently and have complained (along with many others) to the switchboard operator. All she says is, “we can see it fine here” then I remind her that I’m in one of the other 2 counties in the DMA and we had trouble getting it before and now nothing. I’m ready to contact the FCC and raise awareness of the poor quality of signal strength not to mention the mess of handing 2 stations (3 if you count CW).
WICU and subchannels were back for me as of yesterday at around 85% signal strength. I never seemed to have any problems during the summer and fall with receiving it, so I’m not sure if it’s the weather or something else. I hope it sticks around this time — but I guess the good news is that most (all?) of NBC’s primetime programming is also available online.
I’m near Cochranton in southern Crawford county and no problems with WICU. WQLN has become more of a reception problem but that is probably due to the co channel interference issues with WPCB also on DT 50 from the Pittsburgh area. I usually tune into WNEO for PBS fare due to the WQLN reception issues.
Sponge-worthy.
The word has become part of our lexicon and is in the Urban Dictionary from a TV show.
Sponge-worthy crossed my mind today as I read about Erie, PA.
“A phrase coined by Elaine on the TV show “Seinfeld.” Refers to Elaine’s favorite kind of birth control that was ultimately taken off the market. Elaine bought all the remaining stock she could get her hands on and then hoarded her stash of sponges. She defined her dates as being “sponge-worthy” or not i.e. if they had sex. If he was worth using one of her hoarded sponges!
Jerry- I heard you went out with Bob last night. Was he sponge-worthy?
Elaine- VERY sponge-worthy!
Or alternate response from Elaine-I don’t waste my sponges on just anybody. He has to be sponge worthy, Jerry!”
We have a new Business Blog on GoErie….you know, the place that thought Scott Bremner was not sponge-worthy as a Blogger.
But a Business Blog has developed with not one, but TWO writers…..Jim Martin and Doug Oathout.
They scan all of the Erie area for breaking news on the economy. Or local industry. Or local people involved in the above business prism.
Christopher Wertz passed their muster this very day.
He is an insurance agent; State Farm as I understand this economic brouhaha.
The Business Blog added two Tags for later ID of this news; Insurance, and State Farm.
Mr. Wertz opened his office at 113 West 9th Street.
(presumably in Erie, they did not say.)
Here is the current level of business in Erie……
“The Erie Regional Chamber will host a ribbon-cutting at 10 a.m. today”.
Our Chamber held a ribbon-cutting this very day at 10 am since an insurance agent passed the PA exam (presumably… never brought up by Oathout or Martin) and actually opened an office on 9th St.
His phone number was included but I hate to spoil the entire breaking news at P&T.
Having read this Biz Blog, all my brain could come up with was “sponge-worthy”, but in a business sense of course.
We cut a ribbon.
We involved the Chamber of Commerce.
We blogged about it in our new GoErie Business Blog headed by not one, but two scanners of the business environment in town (and maybe even the whole area).
They promise breaking news on the economy.
We got insurance! State Farm!
Biz Buzz bought the Farm as Biz to Buzz about.
Sponge-worthy to the max!
Where have you gone, Scott (DiMaggio) Bremner?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you (Woo, woo, woo)
What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson
Joltin’ Scott has left and gone away
(Hey, hey, hey…hey, hey, hey)
A new blog started this week.
It will probably raise an eyebrow or two.
It comes with a “Cover Letter” to explain the blog:
“Welcome to the Gates Notes
Since leaving my fulltime job at Microsoft to dedicate more time to our foundation, a lot of people have asked me what I’m working on. It often feels like I’m back in school, as I spend a lot of my time learning about issues I’m passionate about.
I’m fortunate because the people I’m working with and learning from are true experts in their fields. I take a lot of notes, and often share them and my own thoughts on the subject with others through email, so I can learn from them and expand the conversation.
I thought it would be interesting to share these”
Yup! Bill Gates is a Blogger, and true expert, Ashton Kucher is teaching Bill how to Tweet away on Twitter (alluding to his tutorial fee for Bill as his first Tweet).
For those of you who do not know Ashton Kucher, simply get on your hands and knees right now, and thank God Almighty for that.
Gates feels he is back in school and this amused me as he invented Microsoft in his garage and never graduated.
Sidebar: last night, David Letterman had the rich actress Claire Danes, and asked her directly about her college days. She admitted some Philosophy courses and uncomfortably said, she did not finish college.
I sense a trendy way toward success here, eh?
Anyway, Gates set up his blog without a Web designer from all appearances, but maybe a tad of PowerPoint to boost MS profits. As one of the world’s premier hiring of Temp Workers in Seattle and elsewhere, Gates is now accessible to you on Twitter or his blog. Both are in this link:
http://www.thegatesnotes.com/
http://twitter.com/billgates
Tweety Gates to Kucher:
“@aplusk thanks to you and all the other people who have welcomed me. I’ve got a lot to learn about Twitter but look forward to sharing more.”
Tweety Kucher replies to Bill:
“@BillGates I’m happy to give you a tutorial, but I charge by the hour. we can discuss rates offline.
9:03 PM Jan 19th from web in reply to BillGates
Maybe NBC will make a sitcom or drama out of Bill Gates tweets. His blog has all the criteria needed by NBC so far. (yawn).
Kucher made a bet with CNN to see which could obtain one million followers first. CNN lost. So maybe Kucher CAN teach Gates about media technology.
And Gates can teach Kucher how to hire Temp Workers.
Or buy a planet.
Air America is no more:
AllAccess.com is reporting and it is confirmed at the AirAmerica.com website that the progressive/liberal talk radio network isn’t going to make it in this advertising climate and is filing a Chapter 7 liquidation.
Links:
I am watching the re-run of the making of The Mysteries of the Great Lakes. I am surprised that I have not gone down to watch this $5 million production before this. I am glad that WJET decided to re-run this local production.
What amuses me is that Mike Gallagher refers to the medium that is being shot as videotape, when in reality it is large format film. I am surprised that his comments, which were part of the narrative overlay, were not corrected before the final production was released.
No one would ever correct Mike Gallagher. He is perfect and knows everything…or so he like to think.
Did Mike thank his family for “holding down the fort” while he put in long, exhausting hours in making the production possible. this is what we hear each Christmas Eve. at midnight during the diocese mass. you know, he’s the only person taken away from loved ones during the holidays….one would think he was on active duty in Iraq!