July 23rd, 2010 
joel 
Selena Wiles
WORKING…
Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone.
Confirming reports that I received last week, Nexstar-Erie is advertising for a new anchor for 6 & 11 to replace the departing Selena Sunshine Wiles, given the nickname “Sunshine” when appearing on Tri-Cities television in Tennessee and Virginia. According to sources, Wiles is heading back to her home state of West Virginia.
P&T has requested comment from WJET and Ms. Wiles.
(more…)
Posted in Television 
Tags: Alese Underwood, Amelia Segal, Jason Berry, Ken Brown, Nexstar, Selena Wiles, WFXP, WJET 
26 Comments » July 7th, 2010 joel 
PBS World
Unless you’ve been alive over a half-century, you probably learned how to count through the efforts of The Count, the friendly vampire on Sesame Street seen locally on WQLN.
Fast forward to the current decade, and the complex mathematics of state budgets and advances in technology has the local public media outlet doing some counting of their own.
On the positive side of the balance sheet is the addition of PBS World to the 54.3 standard def lineup. When it was launched in 2007, the purpose of PBS World was to be
a new channel featuring documentary, public affairs, and news programming from public television’s award-winning signature series and acclaimed independent filmmakers
During the day you’ll see episodes from the PBS Kids lineup, proving to be a strong alternative to the regular PBS fare on 54.1 and the Create channel on 54.2.
On the liability column is the loss of the popular but expensive Marketplace radio show, which aired at 6:00 PM with morning updates through June 30th. WQLN President Dwight Miller had warned us that because of the severe budget cuts made by the state, the damage would be felt by the viewers and listeners. Marketplace was one of those casualties.
Some think that in this age of 500 digital channels and audio and video on demand, the public media service is becoming obsolete. I couldn’t disagree more. Free educational broadcasting, with programming as excellent as Marketplace, allows every citizen to be informed, and helps keep the playing field level.
Because of that, the loss of even one half-hour daily finance show that helped the common person understand the complexity of finance and economics will be sorely felt.
Posted in Television Tags: Dwight Miller, Marketplace, PBS, PBS World, Sesame Street, WQLN 1 Comment » July 2nd, 2010 joel 
Heidi Parr Kerner
Queen of all media, meet the Queen of Self-Esteem.
Erie motivational speaker and small-business networking consultant Heidi Parr Kerner says on her Facebook profile that she can “help you transform the way you express who you are so you can speak, sell, persuade and communicate in the world!”
Now she wants to do that with women across the nation.
Parr Kerner has submitted an entry in the “Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star” contest. It’s an online voting opportunity that’s wrapping up Sunday morning at 2:59 AM Erie time.
Her idea is to produce “Heidi”:
An Interactive TV Show for Women “Living Your Life from the Inside Out.” It is an opportunity for women to get the support – guidance, nurturance and structure – to practice Daily Disciplines as they face their daily life’s journey. This video demonstrates real women in a Women’s Empowerment Session, sharing the tools, techniques and inspiration that they have acquired from being a part of a group.
The good thing about this voting as opposed to the Pepsi Refresh voting is that while the Top 5 votes winners will move on to the next round, Oprah and her producers will get who they want, so another 35 people will be chosen from open casting calls or other online entries.
Still, the more votes the better. To see Parr-Kerner’s audition and to vote go to the new Oprah Winfrey Network website.
Posted in Television Tags: Erie, Facebook, Heidi Parr Kerner, Oprah, Oprah Winfrey Network, Pepsi Refresh 1 Comment » January 23rd, 2010 joel In the middle of our wide-ranging conversation with A.J. Miceli on the P&T Podcast, he said something that was again revealed last night: the reason was programs like the evening newscasts still work is that the medium of television transcends media, but is a central facilitator of our popular culture.
That was so evident last night in a couple ways as no less than 22 broadcast and cable networks simultaneously aired the Hope for Haiti Now fund-raising telethon. The two-hour event was overwhelmed by stars of film, television and music, complete with some of the most tasteful and unique mashups of talent I’ve ever seen. One of my favorite moments was supplied by Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris.
Later, the last Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien was a triumph (pun intended). He had some great moments, including his exit interview conducted by NBC employee Steven Carell.
Friday night showed that TV continues to be about shared experiences, which helps to bind us together as a nation. That’s a good thing, no matter what the circumstances that precipitated these events.
Posted in Television Tags: A.J. Miceli, Conan O'Brien, Haiti, Huffington Post, Justin Timberlake, NBC, Steven Carell No Comments » January 21st, 2010 joel The Wall Street Journal is breaking this morning (Thursday) that it is confirmed that Conan O’Brien has signed a separation agreement with NBC, ending his long time connection with the network. According to WSJ.com:
While details on the final agreement were unclear, the deal was expected to include a payout of about $32 million for Mr. O’Brien and about $12 million for his staff. It is also believed to include a nondisparagement clause, both for the 46-year-old comedian and NBC. The deal has been said to include a provision that would bar or limit Mr. OBrien from appearing on other shows or hosting his own show for a period of time, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
“In the end, Conan was appreciative of the steps NBC made to take care of his staff and crew, and decided to supplement the severance they were getting out of his own pocket,” said Gavin Polone, Mr. O’Brien’s manager. “Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible.”
The Tonight Show - Jan. 20, 2010
Last night, Conan made more news with a bit that reportedly cost his soon to be former benefactor $1.5 million. He bought a Bugatti Veyron Mouse and gave it giant whiskers and ears, while playing the Rolling Stone’s “Satisfaction” with it’s accompanying high licensing fees as a soundtrack underneath.
No word yet on how long Conan will have to wait to get back to television comedy.
January 18th, 2010 joel 
24
With the new season of “24″ as a powerful lead-in, WFXP/Fox 66 begins Erie’s first hour-long prime-time newscast tonight at 10:00 PM.
Promos running Sunday night promised a greater and different approach to news, weather and sports for the 60-minute strip, which is slated to run 7 days a week. The prime-time news product should prove to be a powerful competitor to the current broadcast schedule. It also illuminates the reality of the cost of syndicated programming compared to repackaging local news.
What would make this move even more interesting is if WFXP put on a hip young anchor to match the prevailing network audience. I love Sean & Selina…but maybe a Jeremy Beecher-type would keep the high 18-35 year-old lead in.
Just my take.
January 15th, 2010 joel 
Jay Leno
In show-business, since when does going with the bean-counters ever work out?
If we listened to the bean-counters, there would have been no green-lights for Titanic, or Lord of the Rings, or Avitar. The bean-counters have given us 500 stations with Ryan Seacrest and only two television news teams in Erie.
Yet it was solely a bottom-line decision to take number-one rated Jay Leno off of The Tonight Show, and give him a prime-time strip, so that GE wouldn’t have to fork over $3M an episode for an hour long drama like ER.
Who was watching, and now squandering the “Bottom Line”? None other than NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker. The one-time wonder-kid of The Today Show proved that he was toxic to NBC’s once-revered prime time. I almost never agree with Maureen Dowd, but she got it right in her scathing NY Times editorial earlier in the week. It’s time for Zucker to go.
Conan O'Brien
I doubt that its going to happen, as the network wagons circle around Jeff and Jay leaving Conan O’Brien as the odd man out, and it looks like to Fox.
It’s gotten so nasty at 30 Rock to the point that Dick Ebersol totally called out Conan in yesterday’s NY Times, saying that he was unwilling to change his shtick for 11:35, and skewed too young for the marquee placement of The Tonight Show. That O’Brien is consistently second to The Late Show with David Letterman is definitely a problem, and now it seems the network just wants to do a System Restore back to May 2009, except with Jimmy Fallon on Late Night.
All of this drama is fascinating to watch from the media observer perspective, but I gotta think that average Joe is plain disgusted and screaming at their HD sets “I told ya so!”
Posted in Television Tags: Conan O'Brien, David Letterman, Dick Ebersol, Jay Leno, Jeff Zucker, Jimmy Fallon, Late Night, Maureen Dowd, NBC, NBC Universal, The Late Show, Tonight Show 5 Comments »
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