Kareem Johnson | A Reporter's Notes

DTV Status for Major Stations:

KUMO-LP/LD is not included, but will broadcast on Channel 10, serving as the region’s lone VHF digital station when it signs on.

This chart will be updated as necessary.

If you’re tired of seeing DTV transition commercials, it’s not over; you’ll have to wait a few months. The transition commercials are being rejiggered  for the new date: June 12. The House of Representatives joined the US Senate in moving the DTV deadline to June 12, 264-158, after businesses spent millions of dollars on transition commercials trumpeting February 17. Maybe the networks should ask for bailout money, too.

If you’re wondering why the big day is moving, well, it’s because a few million people are either unaware a change was coming, unable to make the change, or didn’t care.  Be sure to tell your congressperson to move Thanksgiving or Christmas when you’re running behind on either of those holidays.  It would make about as much sense. Watching the cheesy NAB-produced commercials and asinine questions to TV stations during their “Let’s cover the DTV transition instead of actual news” segments, you might be tempted to do something else: turn the TV off. Permanently. 

Well, you’ve got to live through it for 4 more months. 

There is general agreement that the public is generally unprepared for DTV. Unfortunately, the public is usually unprepared for lot of things (see: any holiday). 

As the Post-Dispatch’s Gail Pennington said her Tube Talk blog: “Oh Yay!” 

Note: Most of this entry was written in jest.

ABC’s Charles Gibson is frozen out from the presidential Debates; PBS’s gets 2, NBC, CBS get 1. Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifill, both from The Newshour With Jim Lehrer, represent CBS, Tom Brokaw represents NBC, and Bob Schieffer, CBS.

The subtext is that ABC probably lost out because of the journalistic travesty of a debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton prior to Super Tuesday, with a ‘gotcha’ style of questioning that irked and raised the ire of many viewers, causing ratings losses for World News for a period after the debate.

From a journalistic standpoint, these are excellent selection of nation’s best broadcast journalists, combining experience, credibility, and fairness in their reporting. This should make for interesting, informative debates.

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From the BBC Press office:

Matt Frei, presenter of BBC World News America, interviews President George W. Bush on Thursday 14 February. This special edition of the weekday programme will air globally on Thursday 14 and Friday 15 February at various times.

The exclusive interview takes place at the White House on the eve of the president’s visit to Africa. The president and First Lady will visit Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia. Matt will be talking to the president about the issues surrounding his trip to Africa including AIDS policy and the malaria initiative. Plus they will discuss the Unites States’ place in the world today and his legacy.

The interview will have a global reach that only the BBC can achieve. In addition to airing on BBC World internationally and on BBC AMERICA in the US, it will also be available on bbc.com. Radio listeners will be able to tune in via BBC World Service language services broadcasting to Africa including Arabic, English for Africa, French for Africa, Hausa, Kinyarwanda, Portuguese for Africa, Somali and Swahili. While in the UK audiences will be able to view it on the BBC’s domestic services.

Rome Hartman, executive producer, BBC World News America says, “Matt Frei’s interview with President Bush is the latest in a series of ground-breaking programmes and high-profile interviews for us. Just last week, an impressive line-up of expert commentators and leading political figures contributed to a live five-hour broadcast on Super Tuesday and expert analyst Ted Koppel offered his unique insight on Wednesday’s programme. Day in and day out, BBC World News America features smart and sophisticated reporting from BBC correspondents in the United States and around the world…a reach and range that no US news broadcast can match.”

I don’t know if this interview will make the nightly bulletins on KETC here in St. Louis, but I’ll suspect that will wind up on Youtube. If it does, it will be linked here.

The Television DMAs list from Neilsen Media was released last week.

St. Louis remains the #21 Largest Designated Market area for Television, with 1,244,370 TV homes, or 1.103% of the national audience. The number is essentially flat from last year, with St. Louis in the #21 slot with 1,228,970 TV homes, about a 1% percent increase over last year.

The biggest increase was Lima, OH which climbed from 196 to 185, climbing 11 markets.
The biggest decrease was Bluefield-Beckley-Oak Hill, which dropped from 155 to 150, a drop of 5 markets. 

2007-2008 Designated Market Areas