ALABAMA
Mobile –5 nominees
WALA (Fox), WKRG-TV (CBS)

Jacksonville – 5 nominees
WJXT-TV (CBS), WTLV-TV (NBC)

Miami–Ft. Lauderdale – 166 nominees
Caprisho Productions, KTI Video, 347 Media, Broward Education Communication Network, City of Miami Television,
MGM Networks Latin America, Miami Dolphins LTD., Miami Heat, Miami-Dade TV, Plum TV, Sherjan Broadcasting Corp., Third Eye Design Group, University of Miami, WBFS-TV (UPN), WFOR-TV (CBS), WLRN-TV (PBS), WLTV (Univision), WPBT-TV (PBS), WPLG-TV (ABC), WSBS (Mega TV), WSCV (Telemundo), WSFL-TV (CW), WSVN-TV (FOX), WTVJ-TV (NBC)

Orlando–Daytona Beach – 38 nominees
Central Florida News 13, Digital Juice, Entravision/Univision, Frank Vision, Orange TV, Sun Sports, UCF Instructional Resources, WESH-TV (NBC), WFTV-TV (ABC), WKMG-TV (CBS), WOLF-TV (FOX)

Panama City – 1 nominee
Live Oak Production Group, Inc.

Pensacola – 2 nominees
WSRE-TV (PBS)

Tallahassee – 3 nominees
Ron Sachs Communication, Salter,Mitchell/Marketing For Change

Tampa–St. Petersburg – Sarasota - 65 nominees
Bay News 9, Catch 47, Riverbank Studios, Jenesis Productions, Inc., WEDU-TV (PBS), WFLA-TV (NBC), WFTS-TV (ABC), WTSP-TV (CBS), WTVT (FOX)

West Palm Beach – 10 nominees
Palm Beach County Channel 20, WPTV (NBC)

LOUISIANA
Baton Rouge – 1 nominee
Louisiana Public Broadcasting

New Orleans – 17 nominees
Cox Communications, Cox Sports Television, The Southeastern Channel,, WVUE-TV (Fox), WWL-TV (CBS), WYES-TV (PBS)

PUERTO RICO – 17 nominees
Corte Directo, DIGI Sound, Geoambiente del Caribe, Inc., RoKa Productions, Inc., Third Eye Productions, Universidad de Puerto Rico, WIPR-TV (PBS), Corporacion De Puerto Rico, WAPA-TV

Congratulations to all of the nominees!
The Chapter will accept the names of additional entrants on all nominated entries up to two weeks after October 18, or no later than the close of business on Friday, October 31, 2008. The fee for each additional name is $200.00.

The Rosen Shingle Creek offers a special rate on sleeping rooms to all guests attending the 2008 Suncoast Emmy Awards.

Call the Central Reservation Department at
1-866-996-6338
Request the group rate for the Suncoast Emmy Awards.

The reduced room rate is $159.00 plus tax per room, single or double occupancy, subject to availability. There are a limited number of rooms.
First come, first served.

This offer will close on
Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Governor’s Award is given by unanimous vote of the Suncoast Chapter’s Board of Governors recognizing those individuals, or entities, who have made extraordinary contributions to television in the Suncoast region of the State of Florida, the State of Louisiana, the Mobile, Alabama television market and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

At the 2008 Suncoast Emmy Awards on December 6, the Governor’s Award will go to Al Tompkins, Broadcast/Online Group Leader for the Poynter Institute of St. Petersburg, Florida, the renowned school for journalists, future journalists and teachers of journalism.

Al is one of the most requested journalism trainers in America, having taught seminars and workshops in 42 states and four countries. His book Aim for the Heart has been adopted by more than 70 university journalism departments as their primary journalism writing text. His daily Poynter.org
column Al’s Morning Meeting is a “must read” for 20,000 journalists worldwide every day.

Al began his journalism career in 1973 in local radio in Kentucky. He has worked as a photojournalist, reporter, investigative reporter and more recently News Director of WSMV-TV Nashville.

He has been awarded many of broadcasting’s major journalism awards. He is an 18 time Emmy winner including The National Emmy. He won the Peabody Award, The Robert F. Kennedy Award for International Reporting, 7 National Headliner Awards, Three Iris Awards, The American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel award for court reporting and his Dateline NBC documentary Saving Stefani won the Clarion Award.

Al serves as a juror for the DuPont-Columbia Awards.

In April of this year he was named to the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

The Board of Governors congratulates Al Tompkins with the Suncoast Chapter’s highest honor, the Governor’s Award for his extraordinary contributions to excellence in journalism.

Brian Lukas is the Chief Photographer at WWL-TV in New Orleans. Some of the first images coming out of New Orleans and transmitted to CBS and the cable networks during Hurricane Katrina were captured through the lens of Brian’s camera as he ventured onto the streets of New Orleans at the height of the hurricane.

Just two weeks after Katrina, Brian was assigned coverage of another massive hurricane as it hit the Louisiana and Texas coastline – Hurricane Rita. Brian captured some of the first broadcast images of Hurricane Rita slamming into the western coast of Louisiana.

For coverage of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, he was presented, along with other members of the news staff at WWL-TV, three of the most prestigious awards in the broadcasting industry: the George Foster Peabody Award, the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award and the national Edward R. Murrow Award.

Some of Brian’s best work has come in documentaries. The “Rainforest Connections” won an Emmy in Miami in 1990. It was photographed throughout Brazil, Costa Rica and South Louisiana and illustrated the possible impact of global warming on Louisiana and other coastal regions. He was nominated for another Emmy Award for “Reflections”, a documentary that also won the Louisiana Associated Press photography award. In 2004 Brian was nominated for four Emmy Awards for “Louisiana Purchase: A River’s Story.” He won an Emmy for his photography of this documentary.

Brian also has traveled the world shooting documentaries for WWL-TV in Australia, Columbia, Indonesia, Italy, Lebanon, Singapore, Spain and other international locales.

Brian began working in New Orleans television while he was a student at the University of New Orleans in the early 70s. For over 30 years he has grown his craft capturing the lives and looks of Louisiana as a working news photographer. He modestly says, “I learned from the best in the business here.”

The Silver Circle Awards are given to television professionals who have distinguished themselves with the excellence of their work for 25 years or more. These awards have been given annually in South Florida since 1959. Brian Lukas is the first person to receive a regional Silver Circle Award. Congratulations, Brian!

Ask Howard Burkhart “How are you this morning?” He always says “Mighty fine” and smiles.

Howard is the Studio Stage Manager at WSVN-TV/7 in Miami – Ft. Lauderdale. People on the staff say “Howard is our backbone.” “He is the unsung hero of Channel 7.” “He solves every problem that comes along while always being pleasant.” Bob Leider, the General Manager of the station says, “Plus, he is a great human being.”

Howard’s family moved to Miami from New Jersey in 1948 when he was in the 9th grade. He joined channel 7 as a studio cameraman, when it was called WCKT-TV, right out of the Army in 1958 and he has been there ever since.

Howard says, “One of the most memorable shows for me was the week of the NBC Today Show that broadcast out of the Florida Keys during the Cuban Missile Crisis.” Howard worked as a freelancer shooting camera in many situations, including Orange Bowl football games. He recalls standing behind the goal posts during Super Bowl 2 or 3 (he doesn’t remember which one) and a kicked football surprisingly landed square in his hands. He was a boom operator for many years on the Jackie Gleason Show when it was produced on Miami Beach. He worked studio camera at channel 7 on two children’s programs Sunday Funnies and MT Graves and as a field camera operator on such diverse projects as Habitat for Humanity, Crime Stoppers (a crime re-enactment show) and, “one of the most enjoyable”, the annual Winterfest Boat Parade in Ft. Lauderdale.

Marian Wertalka, channel 7 studio technician, says, “Howard is the guy with all the jokes - sweet, corny, clean, funny jokes. He has a joke for every day. When I first started working with him, he would tell me jokes, and I thought the studio was a fun place to work.”

Howard says, “I have been fortunate to have a job for 50 years that I enjoy and have no plans to retire”. The Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is happy to name Howard Burkhart the recipient of the 2008 Golden Circle Award, recognizing 50 years of cheerful and professional service to television.

Images of Excellence is a video theater on the Suncoast Chapter web site that screens Emmy Award winning videos from the 2007 Suncoast Emmy Awards. The screenings began on Monday, October 13 with Tuesday’s Tears, a musical tribute to the City of New Orleans from Larry McDaniel, Claudia Calderin and Ken Berk, NBC6/WTVJ, Miramar, Florida. Here is the schedule for upcoming videos.

Week of October 20
Brandi & Rain won an Emmy Award in the 2007 Suncoast Emmy Awards recognizing the work of Berndt Peterson, WFTV Channel 9 Eyewitness News in Orlando, Florida.

Week of October 27
Levantate con El Vacilon won an Emmy Award in the 2007 Suncoast Emmy Awards recognizing the work of Raul Alarcon, Armando Castro, Augustin Fernandez III, Michael Carnase, Eddie Urrutia and Alvaro Segura for Spanish Broadcasting System Mega TV, Coconut Grove, Florida.

Week of November 3
A Walk With Clyde won an Emmy Award in the 2007 Suncoast Emmy Awards recognizing the work of reporter Preston Rudie and videographer Gene Yagle for WTSP-TV. TampaBays10 in St. Petersburg-Tampa, Florida. It also won an Emmy Award in the category “Editor” for Gene Yagle.

Week of November 10
Sports Wrap won an Emmy Award in the 2007 Suncoast Emmy Awards recognizing the work of Carla Hernandez, Hitmat Kilzi and Samuel Hernandez for WFOR-TV/CBS4 in Miami – Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Week of November 17
Confesiones de un Paparazzo won an Emmy Award in the 2007 Suncoast Emmy Awards recognizing the work of Pamela Silva and Armando Pico for WLTV-23 Univision, Miami, Florida. It also won an Emmy Award in the category “Editor” for Armando Pico and another Emmy Award in the category “Writer” for Pamela Silva.

Week of November 24
Behind the Fire Lines won an Emmy Award in the 2007 Suncoast Emmy Awards in the category “Editor” recognizing the work of Jonathan Cordell for WTLV/WJXX FirstCoastNews in Jacksonville, Florida.

Week of December 1
Proto Gojin won an Emmy Award in the 2007 Suncoast Emmy Awards in the category “Technical Achievement” recognizing the work of Fernando J. Montilla, Joseph K. Garrahan and Heri Martinez de Dios for Atlantic College in Puerto Rico.

Go to www.suncoastchapter.org to screen Images of Excellence.

Now comes a new morning-news product from WGNO-Channel 26— actually part of a companywide initiative by corporate parent Tribune Co.—which has premiered at 5 a.m.

“It’s going to be something totally different from what this
market is currently giving viewers,” WGNO News Director Bob Noonan said. “We’re going to be a cross between ‘The View,’
‘(Live With) Regis and Kelly’ and (the Fox New Channel’s) ‘Fox and Friends.’ That’s going to be the feel.”

“We’re not all sitting behind a news desk reading the news of
the day or repeating our 10 o’clock newscast.”

WTEV CBS47 and WAWS FOX30 announced Thursday that Mike McCormick has been hired to be the News Director for the combined stations and website, MyTVJax.

McCormick is a former News Director for First Coast News from 1999 to 2006. Under McCormick’s leadership, First Coast News received multiple honors, including, five national and thirty regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, and 33 Associated Press Awards, according to a press release from CBS47 and FOX30.

“I’m very excited to return to Jacksonville, where I have a long history, many colleagues and friends,” McCormick said in the release. “I can’t wait to be covering the community again. I want to bring a new approach to the news, giving Jacksonville viewers an alternative choice in the market. I’m impressed by the growth of these stations and their web sites and want to lead the news team through the next phase.”

I have to admit, it’s entertaining watching newscasters struggle in hurricanes.

I was amazed at how far Al Roker’s hat sailed when a gust from Gustav blew it down a New Orleans Street. Another Gustav reporter fought the wind as it pushed her along like a bouncer. At any moment, I expected to see a flailing Mary Poppins imitation.

A wave recently sent Geraldo Rivera headlong into the surf while he was covering Hurricane Ike. It was funny because (a) it was Geraldo, and (b) he survived it.

I’m always expecting one of these on-the-scene daredevils to get clocked in the head by a hefty chunk of debris. As a reporter, I’ve spent a little time standing in the fringe winds of hurricanes, worrying mainly about me. I can imagine a loose stop sign sailing Frisbee-like in the wind. If it hit just right, it could execute its own command.

It’s great TV, but these reports should probably come with a disclaimer, like they use for car commercials: “Only professional newscasters have been used for these stunts. Do not attempt anything this stupid yourself.”

When Media General’s Tampa Tribune and WFLA-TV announced plans to tightly coordinate news gathering activities in 2000, many students of the news business thought a new era of convergence had begun. Today, although patterns of news gathering and distribution are certainly changing in the Internet age, TV/newspaper partnerships seem almost incidental to it. Instead of getting video content for their websites from TV partners, many newspapers have cross-trained print reporters to shoot them themselves.

“We see a little bit of cross-promotion going on” between TV and newspaper organizations, says Mary Spillman, a Ball State University professor who studies patterns of media convergence. “What we do not see, as much as you might expect, is true convergence.”

Still, there remains enough interest in the potential of TV/newspaper partnerships that several new ones have been announced this year. For example, the Tribune Company, which enjoys a long-running partnership between the Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV, announced a partnership between the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and WSFL, the CW station it owns in the same market, which included relocating the broadcast studio into the Sun-Sentinel building. 

WSFL subsequently dropped its 10 p.m. newscast but promised to come back in 2009 with a 5-9 a.m. program that will feature contributions from the Sun-Sentinel’s staff. Tribune’s Baltimore Sun also announced a partnership with WJZ-TB, a CBS owned and operated station, to share content for the web and work together on news projects. Meanwhile, Media General is still trying to drive deeper convergence between the Tampa paper and TV station, as well as with the TBO.com website, partly to stretch resources at a time of newsroom cutbacks.

The 2008 paper also raised the question of whether the impetus for TV and print news organizations has faded, now that both are more focused on convergence with the web than with each other. Both the newspapers who did and did not have television partnerships said in about equal numbers that they were producing their own video, suggesting to the authors “that the future of newspaper-television partnerships could be vulnerable.” Specifically, 59.4% of the editors said they had offered video training to reporters in the last 6 months, 74.5% had offered it to their photographers, and 30.9% said they had hired a photographer specifically for web video.

Web video creator Brett Rounsaville probably has the perfect job skills given the current economic climate – he knows how to hunt and gather and live off the land. As “Amtrekker,” Rounsaville has spent the last year living out of a backpack, sleeping on couches and park benches and capturing on video his efforts to complete a list of 50 cool things like hang-gliding, riding an ostrich and creating a crop circle. He shoots, edits and uploads the videos all from a small backpack: You can watch him catch a firefly, see a freak show or hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon on his site www.Amtrekker.com. You’ll learn how he’s pulled off the editing, posting and community-building for his Web series while living the nomad’s life.

With television makers including Samsung and Panasonic this year unveiling flat-screen sets that are capable of displaying 3-D content, the format is widely considered the next leap forward in TV technology.

So far, 3-D programming has been about stunts and gimmicks rather than an earnest play to engage viewers on a deeper level. With growing competition from other media, however, it may be time for the television industry to push forward with 3-D.

The technological advances are the necessary foundation that network programmers need before they invest more in 3-D.

As consumers invest in televisions that can handle 3-D content —either over-the-air or through Blu-ray players—networks in turn will have an incentive to invest in both producing and broadcasting content in 3-D, said Andrew G. Setos, president of engineering at News Corp.’s Fox Group.

The number of 3-D-capable sets sold in the U.S. is expected to surge from about 2 million this year to more than 28 million by 2012, according to Chris Chinnock, president of consultant Insight Media.

Peter Price’s tumultuous and aggressive reign as president and CEO of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will come to an early conclusion at the end of the year.

He will continue to advise and to head up the NATAS Foundation, which raises money for scholarships, education and other initiatives, he said in an interview with TelevisionWeek. He’ll perform the NATAS Foundation duties without compensation—“church work,” as he called it.

MARCELLE FONTENOT, who has been co-anchoring the 6 p.m. newscast Monday through Friday at KATC-TV3 (Lafayette, Louisiana) for two years, has been promoted to the anchor desk for the 5 p.m. and coveted 10 p.m. newscasts.

JOSH MCELVEEN will take over the 5pm primary anchor position at WMUR-TV in Manchester, NH at the end of October. He leaves NECN in Boston where he has anchored Sunday nights and reported during the week since early 2007. Josh was also NECN's Burlington Bureau Reporter in 2006. Prior to NECN, Josh was an anchor/reporter at WWL-TV in New Orleans.

BARBARA MAUSHARD, currently news director at Hearst-Argyle’s WESH-TV, the NBC affiliate in Orlando will relocate to Hearst-Argyle’s New York City headquarters as VP, News.

JOE RAWLEY joins WGNO-TV in New Orleans as the live reporter for their new early morning program "Good Morning New Orleans". He leaves WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge where he has produced the Noon and 5PM programs, and helped to create the 9PM news on WBXH-TV. Joe was in Baton Rouge for two and a half years, having joined the WAFB team from KPLC-TV in Lake Charles, LA.

LOOKING FOR A JOB? CHECK OUT THE ACADEMY’S FREE, NATIONWIDE JOB BANK WITH OVER 700 HELP WANTED LISTINGS AT www.suncoastchapter.org.

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Suncoast Chapter

Officers

Dave Game, President, Executive Producer for Digital Media/CBS Stations South Florida
Chip Richards, 1st Vice President, Production Manager, WLRN-TV,
PBS, Miami
Craig Stevens, 2nd Vice President, News Anchor, WSVN-TV, Miami
Bob Behrens, Executive Director, television producer
Rebecca C. Torres Rivas, Vice President Puerto Rico, Operations and Production Vice President, Public Broadcasting of Puerto Rico
Karla MacDonald, Acting Secretary, Suncoast Chapter Administrator
Betsy Behrens, Treasurer and Trustee, television producer

Board of Governors

Mary Ross Agosta, Director of Communications, Archdiocese of Miami
Teri Arvesu, Executive Producer, Noticias23 Univision
Jeff Barnes, Owner, FinalCutz
Giovani Benitez, Investigative Producer, WFOR/CBS4
Holly Brobst, 11pm News Producer, WSVN-TV/7
Jeff Burnside, Special Projects Producer and Reporter, NBC6/WTVJ
Abel Castillo, News Photojournalist, WFOR/CBS4
Kathleen Corso, Special Projects Producer, WPLG-TV Local 10
Tammy Darling, Director, WSVN-TV, Miami
Mark Drury, Creative Services Director, WSFL-TV
Wendy Feinberg, Managing Editor, Nightly Business Report, PBS/WPBT-TV/2
Steve Greenberg, Independent Producer/Reporter
Freddy Hernandez, Animator, WPLG-TV Local 10, Miami
Joel Kaplan, President, Kaplan Multimedia
Richard S. Maher, Technical Manager, David Brinkley Studios,
Barry University, Miami Shores
Spears Mallis, Mallis Enterprises, Miami
John Mays, Production Supervisor, WFOR/CBS4/UPN33, Miami
Angela Gonzalez Ramos, Programming & Public Affairs Director, Univision 23
Craig Stevens, News Anchor, WSVN-TV, Miami
Jose Suarez, Director of Digital Media, WTVJ/WSCV, Miami
Rodney Ward, Executive Editor of Nightly Business Report and Senior Vice President of NBR Enterprises

Committee Chairs

Art & Design
Stacey Panson, Graphic Artist, Ft. Lauderdale
Emmy Awards
Spears Mallis, Mallis Enterprises, Inc., Miami
John Mays, Production Supervisor, WFOR/CBS4
Emmys On The Road
Craig Stevens, News Anchor, WSVN-TV, Miami
Newsletter
Bob Behrens, Executive Director, Suncoast Chapter
Scholarship
Angela Gonzalez Ramos, Programming & Public Affairs Director, WLTV/Univision23
Web Site
Dave Game, Executive Producer for Digital Media/CBS Stations South Florida

Karla MacDonald, Suncoast Chapter Administrator
Tel. 954-322-3171
e-mail emmysuncst@aol.com

TO SUBSCRIBE TO TUBE TALK: Send mail to: tubetalk@emmyonline.org with the following command as the body of your e-mail message: subscribe tube talk
TO UNSUBSCRIBE TO TUBE TALK: Send mail to:tubetalk@emmyonline.org with the following command as the body of your e-mail message: unsubscribe tube talk

TUBE TALK is written and published by newsletter editor, Bob Behrens who also is Executive Director of the Suncoast Chapter. Submissions related to television in the Suncoast region of Florida, Mobile, Alabama, Louisiana and Puerto Rico are welcome.  Send to emmysuncst@aol.com.