N.A.T.A.S Suncoast Chapter

AUGUST 2010

CHAPTER NEWS

HERE'S WHERE ALL THE ENTRIES CAME FROM IN THE
2010 SUNCOAST EMMY AWARDS!

The entries came from all over the Suncoast region.

Miami – Ft. Lauderdale, Florida:		376 entries
Tampa – St. Petersburg, Florida:		174 entries
Orlando – Daytona Beach, Florida:		113 entries
New Orleans, Louisiana:		68 entries
Puerto Rico-all markets:		39 entries
West Palm Beach, Florida:		32 entries
Ft. Myers – Naples, Florida		23 entries
Jacksonville, Florida		18 entries
Mobile, Alabama – Pensacola, Florida:		12 entries
Tallahassee, Florida-Thomasville, Georgia:		9 entries
Baton Rouge, Louisiana		8 entries
Gainesville, Florida		2 entries

The total number of entries is 874, not 898 as reported in last month's issue of TUBE TALK. The reason is 24 entries were bogus. People filled out the form in Emmy Express, but then changed their mind about entering and left bogus entries in the system, which has inspired a new paragraph to be written for inclusion in the rules for the 2011 Suncoast Emmy Awards:

If you change your mind after filling out the entry form in Emmy Express, or if you make a mistake that you can’t correct in Emmy Express, please call Karla MacDonald, the Suncoast Chapter Administrator, at 954-322-3171 and she'll fix it.

Good luck to everyone who entered the 2010 Suncoast Emmy Awards!

REGIONAL NEWS

THE HEAVENS HAVE TAKEN
JACK FOLEY HORKHEIMER

Jack Foley Horkkeimer

Jack Foley Horkheimer, the creator/writer/host of public television’s Star Hustler/Star Gazer died Friday, August 20, 2010 of respiratory disease. He penned his own epitaph, "Keep looking up was my life's admonition; I can do little else in my present position."

His TV series on naked eye astronomy ran for 30 years. Seen on PBS nationwide, Star Gazer reached millions more via cable. It was also seen worldwide via WORLDNET - the official television network of the United States Information Agency.

Jack also was Executive Director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium at the Miami Science Museum. For over 35 years, he was an internationally recognized pioneer in popularizing naked-eye astronomy. His "Child of the Universe" presentation, which his peers have dubbed a "classic", celebrated its 38th anniversary in 2010. He led several solar eclipse expeditions. He also co-organized the first Halley's Comet Chase aboard four supersonic Concorde aircraft.

Jack made frequent appearances on national talk shows, including Charlie Rose, Larry King, Sally Jesse Raphael and Geraldo. He was absurdly delighted to be the summer weekend host on Time/Warner’s Cartoon Network, introducing such intellectual celebrities as Cow and Chicken, The Powder Puff Girls and I. M. Weasel.

The Suncoast Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences gave Jack the Silver Circle Award in 2007.

CBS 4 PARTNERS WITH WSRF TO PROVIDE HURRICANE COVERAGE FOR SOUTH FLORIDA'S HAITIAN COMMUNITY

David Bernard

WFOR-TV has expanded the coverage of its CBS4 Hurricane Network by adding WSRF-1580 AM, South Florida's leading Creole-language radio station serving the South Florida Haitian community. This agreement ensures that the large population of Creole-speaking Haitian residents will get the full benefit of CBS4's skilled team of meteorologists and forecasters, led by Chief Meteorologist David Bernard. Should a storm threaten the area, CBS4's weather team will provide WSRF with the
latest updates and forecasts for the radio station to relay to their listeners in their native language. In addition, CBS4 will offer updated coverage whenever a tropical storm threatens Haiti, allowing those residing in South Florida to monitor events that may impact family members back home. WSRF will also provide the CBS4 News team access to their press contacts on the island whenever a news breaking event occurs in Haiti.

The first and only Haitian-owned radio station in the United States, WSRF broadcasts throughout Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. The station provides a principal source of information for Haitian and Haitian American communities in South Florida, which boasts the largest population of Haitians outside of Haiti. Its Creole-language, 24 hour format offers culturally-compatible
programming both on air and via streams on its website, wsrf.com.

WSFL-TV IN FT. LAUDERDALE-MIAMI
CANCELS MORNING SHOW

"The Morning Show" on WSFL-Channel 39 was canceled due to poor ratings, according to the Sun Sentinel, which produced the early morning news show.

The show's staff wasn’t aware of the cancellation until after the last show was finished.

"Sorry we didn’t say goodbye on the air," WSFL features reporter Eugene Ramirez wrote on his Twitter account. "We didn't know until after the show was over. Thx to loyal fans who made waking up early worth it!"

Co-host Kristin Anderson wrote "It's over...Wow. Shocked." on her Twitter account.

"The Morning Show," hosted by Dave Aizer and Anderson, had aired weekday mornings from 5 to 9 a.m. since it launched on April 13, 2009. Owned by the Tribune Co., the show was produced at Sun Sentinel's headquarters in Fort Lauderdale.

"While we're proud of what we accomplished in a short period of time, the audience didn't build the way we had anticipated, and we had to make the difficult decision to end production," Sun Sentinel and WSFL spokeswoman Kery Knutson wrote in a statement.

RHONDA BARNETT,
FORMER MIAMI TV NEWS PRODUCER PASSES
BY ELINOR J. BRECHER, ebrecher@MiamiHerald.com

As a television producer, Rhonda Barnett won four Emmy awards. As a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesperson, she won respect from both colleagues and reporters.

For all the fun and excitement she had in her career, Barnett enjoyed nothing more than her marriage to Marc Barnett. "It was a late-in-life love, but so genuine," said friend Cookie London, who introduced the couple. "They were soul mates." Rhonda’s story about Marc’s 1994 proposal won a 2009 Miami Herald contest for the most creative way to pop the question. They married in her dying father’s hospital room, having already tested the "in sickness and in health"’ portion of the wedding vows. Marc was in remission from cancer at the time. Rhonda had cared for him, as he would then care for her.

Rhonda Kay Hasday was born on Dec. 4, 1951, to a Jewish family with roots in Turkey. She grew up in Queens, graduated from Queens College, then earned a master's degree in library science at Simmons College in Boston. While there, she interned at a local TV station. Next stop: CNN, where she worked with producer Chris Guarino, now senior producer of Washington Week on PBS. He said that Barnett worked on a news/talk show called Take Two. "I always called her the best news person I've ever known," Guarino said. "She really pushed reporters and designed segments that were thoughtful and insightful."

From CNN, Barnett went to WPLG-10, where she won two Emmys in 1985 for the specials "Do you know who your doctor is?" and "MDV: Mark Does Video," about creating a music video with Gloria Estefan.

Retired anchor Dwight Lauderdale praised Barnett's "unique ability to talk the most reluctant person into doing an interview with us. You knew that if you worked with Rhonda on a project it was going to be done right."

Former colleague Connie Hicks, now with Nightly Business Report and Barry University, said that Barnett “saw things a little differently than even other thoughtful, reflective people might see them,” which elevated her work.

Publicist Ron Sachs was a WPLG assignment editor during Barnett's tenure, when "Miami was the country's murder capital. You had the 'cocaine cowboys,' immigration issues, the Pope," who visited in 1987, "rebuilding Liberty City after the riots - she was part of all that."

From WPLG Barnett went to WCIX, then became spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education before joining Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's public information office in the 1990s.

Having covered the space shuttle Challenger explosion for WPLG in 1986, she understood, a decade later, how important it was for reporters to get accurate information quickly after the Everglades crash of ValuJet Flight 592.

She handled several other calamities, including the no-name storm of October 2000 that left thousands stranded in floodwaters and the sidewalk electrocution of two teens one month later, due to faulty streetlight wiring.

"It's a job that requires you around the clock" said Capt. Luis Fernandez, who worked for Barnett. "She was in a tough position with the disasters [and] very stressful calls for firefighters."’

In the late 1990s, she got a breast cancer diagnosis. Three years ago, doctors found melanoma of the eye, and, despite treatment, it spread to her bones. On Aug. 3, Rhonda Barnett lost her long fight, and died at home in Miami Beach. She was 58.

TAMPA FOX AFFILIATE WTVT-CH. 13 GETS
NEW GENERAL MANAGER

Tampa Fox station WTVT-Ch. 13 will see a changing of its executive guard later this month, as a new general manager takes the helm and its current top executive heads to Atlanta.

Bill Schneider will leave his job as general manager at WTVT and start work Aug. 23 in that capacity for WAGA-TV, the Fox-owned affiliate in Atlanta. Schneider worked there as head of sales years ago.

On the same day Schneider starts in Atlanta, WTVT's current ad sales chief Jeff Maloney rises up to replace him in Tampa - completing one of the most seamless top executive transitions the local market has seen in quite a while.

Atlanta's a larger TV market so it certainly seems a promotion for Schneider, who faced everything from the untimely arrest of morning anchor Russell Rhodes to the transformation of WTVT into a graphics hub, performing graphics work for Fox-owned stations across the country from its Kennedy Blvd. studios.

TAMPA'S WFLA EXTENDS MORNING NEWS TO 4:30

NBC affiliate WFLA, Channel 8, will expand its "News Channel 8 Today" weekday morning newscast by a half-hour beginning Sept. 20, station officials announced today.

The newscast also will be adding a second anchor to the morning team that includes anchor Rod Carter, traffic reporter Alicia Roberts and meteorologist Leigh Spann.

The expanded morning block of news will begin at 4:30 a.m.

WFLA News Director Don North says there is a growing audience for early morning news.

RETIRED TAMPA ANCHOR COMES BACK TO TV

Bill Ratliff

Former WFLA-Ch. 8 anchor Bill Ratliff, who retired at Tampa's NBC affiliate last year will return to local TV as an analyst for 2010 election coverage.

But he's doing it for rival CBS affiliate WTSP-Ch. 10.

The move makes sense: Ratliff built up a tremendous amount of viewer loyalty during 12 years as an anchor on WFLA’s morning show and 27 years’ total at the station. Long before he took that job, he spent a year covering the 1986 race for the U.S. Senate between Bob Graham and Paula Hawkins.

"The one thing I know about Florida politics, is that no one is an expert," said Ratliff, 61. "But a couple of people over here
recommended me, they called and now I'm really excited to get back to it."

Ratliff said he had no non-compete contract clause keeping him from work at other stations when he left WFLA last year. But he needed time to decompress after 12 years of rising at 3 a.m. to work the morning shift. "If (WFLA) had called, I probably would have said yes to them.," he added. "But they never did."

WTSP news director Pete Roghaar said Ratliff will make his first appearance today, in their 5:30 p.m. newscast, and is expected to appear two to three times each week over the next three months. Right now, he’ll be talking over political issues inside the studio; Roghaar hopes if the next three months go well, it may be the beginning of a long-term association which could last at least until the GOP convention comes to Tampa in 2012.

"Bill has a lot of equity in this market," said the news director, who said he called Ratliff to ask if he’d be interested in working at WTSP. "It's great to have somebody like that at your beck and call in an important election season."

This development marks another interesting twist in the evolution of local TV in the current economic climate. With a fair number of anchors retired or laid off during harsher economic times – Bill Murphy and Frank Robertson at WTVT-Ch. 13, Al Keck at WFTS-Ch. 28, for example – there’s a pool of talent with local name recognition whose non-competes are probably running out.

RENTRAK ADDS NEW TV STATION CLIENTS
IN NAPLES - FT. MYERS
By David Goetzl, Media Daily News

Rentrak has inked a deal in the Fort Myers, Fla. market, continuing its follow-the-leader strategy. The Fox affiliate in the 64th-largest DMA joins two other stations in the market in subscribing to the company’s local ratings service, derived from set-top-box data.

In April, Rentrak said the CBS and CW stations in the area, which also includes Naples in southwestern Florida, are using the second-by-second viewing tracking information.

As Rentrak rolls out the StationView Essentials product as a potential Nielsen competitor, offering data into commercial viewing its rival doesn't, it is pushing a distinct strategy. Rentrak looks to persuade one station in a market to become a customer, then have local agencies embrace the data and then have other stations follow. It now claims 38 stations in 19 markets.

In Fort Myers, a deal with Waterman Broadcasting with its NBC-ABC duopoly there would give Rentrak the stations linked with all the major networks. Rentrak has been known to stagger announcements on new station clients, partly for increased publicity. It would not be a surprise if word of a Waterman deal came soon.

The Fox station, WFTX, is part of the Journal Broadcast Group, which has 13 outlets, including the NBC station in Milwaukee and the ABC affiliate in Las Vegas.

GAINESVILLE TELEVISION NETWORK TO
ADD NIGHTLY LOCAL NEWSCAST
By Andrea Rumbaugh, Correspondent, The Gainesville SUN


Myra Monroe		Joe Girvan

The Gainesville Television Network will bring a new local newscast to its three stations starting in late September or early October.

GTN News is scheduled to air Monday through Friday at 5:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. on
WGFL-CBS4; 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on WNBW-NBC9; and 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on WMYG-MY11.

"We felt it was the right time for us to give the Gainesville area another choice in local news," said Michael Yanuzzi, president of the New Age Media company, which owns and manages GTN.

To help attract Gainesville viewers, the newscast will have the familiar faces of Myra Monroe as news director and Joe Girvan as sports director.

Monroe has served as anchor and executive producer for WCJB-TV20, anchor for ABC affiliate WTXL-TV in Tallahassee and journalist and mentor for UF’s WUFT-FM/TV.

Girvan has served as sports director for WCJB-TV20, sports anchor for Bright House Sports Network in Tampa and sports director for NBC affiliate WPMI-TV in Mobile, Ala.

The newscast's stories and local news will be produced by a Gainesville staff, while the anchors and production duties will be based in Iowa through International News Network, a company that helps small-market newscasts air productions typical of major-market newscasts. Its technology and support will help GTN avoid mistakes typically found in smaller newscasts, Yanuzzi said.

It also will allow GTN News to focus on content instead of production.

"Our expertise is to be on the ground in the market with reporters and videographers and people that know the Gainesville market," he said.

Mark Leeps, news director for UF's WUFT-TV, said GTN News has its work cut out for it. "It’s very hard to start from scratch and take on a dominant local news presence like TV20," he said. He said one important aspect is scheduling newscasts around popular network programming. Yanuzzi agrees, saying he hopes CBS' 10 p.m. television shows will attract viewers to its 11 p.m. newscast. He also hopes the programming – and coverage of Gator football games – will conquer another issue GTN News faces – changing viewer habits. Gainesville viewers have watched TV20 for so long they might be reluctant to switch to another newscast, he said.

GTN plans to use the first year listening to viewer feedback and adjusting its content to give Gainesville residents what they want.

"Our main focus is to concentrate as much of our resources on local new stories as possible," Yanuzzi said.

Advertising will not be an issue for GTN News, he said. He said advertisers are looking for another market because it's better to have advertising money in several markets in case ratings fall. GTN News should spur growth in advertising as well as take some from TV20, Yanuzzi said.

However, Carolyn Barrett, president and general manager for WCJB-TV20 and CW Gainesville, said she is not worried about advertising.

She also expects TV20's ratings to remain strong. It has been on the air for almost 40 years, and she said people depend on its local news and identify with its long-term anchors, including Paige Beck, David Snyder, Lisa Wolf and Bob Williams.
And even though the newscast always strives to improve, she said competition will bring out the best.

"We're going to keep doing what we're doing and hopefully do it better and better and better," Barrett said. "We serve the community, and that's what we're here for."

WWL-TV, NEW ORLEANS REPORTER
BIGAD SHABAN JOINS LEE ZURIK
IN JUMP TO WVUE
Dave Walker, The Times-Picayune

A general assignment reporter at CBS affiliate WWL-Channel 4 for three years, Bigad Shaban has left the station to sign with New Orleans Fox affiliate WVUE-Channel 8, WVUE news director Mikel Schaefer said Friday.

According to Schaefer, Shaban will have to sit out a six-month non-compete contract before appearing on WVUE’s air.

Like reporter-anchor Lee Zurik, who jumped from WWL to WVUE last year, Shaban will work behind the scenes at his new station until the non-compete, a standard element in TV news contracts, expires.

A Florida native, Shaban earlier worked in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Gainesville, Fla., and as an ABC News producer.

PETRY ADDS WVUE, NEW ORLEANS
TO CLIENT ROSTER
By Mark K. Miller, TVNewsCheck

Advertising-sales representation company Petry Television has been appointed the exclusive national advertising sales representative for WVUE, the Fox affiliate in New Orleans (DMA 51).

WVUE is owned by Louisiana Media Co. LLC, itself principally owned by New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson, which acquired the station from Emmis Communications in July 2008.

WVUE was New Orleans' second station when it went on the air in 1953 as WJMR and has been the market’s Fox station since 1996. It is carried on both the Charter and Cox regional cable systems and also be found on other cable systems in Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as on AT&T's U-verse system in the region.

"We look forward to a bright future of growth, both for this single station in New Orleans and for Louisiana Media Company," said Joe Cook, president of Louisiana Media Co. and GM of WVUE. "The selection of Petry Television as our national representative will allow us to work more closely with other stations in this region to provide unique opportunities for our common advertisers both on our air and on our website, fox8live.com."

"This is an outstanding station and a terrific fit for Petry's strengths as a focused, strategic partner," said Val Napolitano, Petry Television president-CEO. "Needless to say, we're also excited to be in business not only in the home market of the Super Bowl champs, but with their home station."

FORMER WWL-TV "ACTION REPORTER"
ED MARTEN DIES AT 72
By Dominic Massa / Eyewitness News, wwltv.com

Ed Marten

Ed Marten, who spent more than 15 years in local television as an anchor and "Action Reporter" at two local stations in New Orleans including WWL-TV, recently died after a lengthy illness. He was 72. Marten had battled multiple myeloma, a form of bone cancer, for the past two years, according to his wife, Molly.

A native of Galveston, Texas who grew up in the Slidell area, Marten (whose professional name was a shortened version of his given name Martensson) began his broadcasting career in radio in Monroe, Louisiana, before station managers asked him to consider switching to television. "He came home and said, 'I know we have two babies and I'd have to take a cut in salary. Can we handle it?'" his wife recalled. "I said, 'You know what? You should be on TV. You're a good-looking guy. Go for it.'"

The on-air job in Monroe led to a similar position at a station in Alexandria. In 1968, former WVUE-TV news director Alec Gifford recruited Marten to come to New Orleans, as the station's "Action Reporter," part of a news team that at the time included Buddy Diliberto, Richard Angelico, Bob Krieger and others. In a 1981 New Orleans Magazine profile, Marten said he was the third person to hold the title for the station, responsible for fielding and helping solve consumer and homeowner complaints.

"Not everybody can do it," Marten told writer Errol Laborde. "I guess it takes a certain type of personality to want to get involved with it at all." Marten's personality helped him establish ownership of the franchise for more than 13 years.

"One personality trait of an Action Reporter may be that of a hunter," Laborde wrote in the 1981 story. "On camera, Marten has to stalk through the thickness of organizational charts to locate the person responsible for removing abandoned cars or cutting weeds. Spotting his prey, the camera is his weapon." Off the air, Marten's wife said hunting and fishing were very much a part of his life. He was also trained in the sport of falconry, using trained birds of prey to hunt game. His wife said Marten even trained sheriff’s deputies in the sport.

Marten served for a brief time as one of WVUE's anchors, before jumping to top-rated WWL-TV in 1982, where he continued as the popular "Action Reporter," a position inherited by Bill Capo after Marten left the station.

As a news reporter, he contributed to coverage of the horrific crash of Pan Am Flight 759 in July 1982. He later became co-anchor of a 4:30 p.m. newscast as well.

Marten left WWL-TV after just two years, to help his wife run the jewelry store she owned in Slidell which bore his name: Ed Marten Jewelry. "People still come in the store and remember him from TV," his wife said. "Even when he was very sick, he'd come down and sit in the back of the store, and people would come in and talk about Ed Marten and his TV days."

In addition to his wife, Marten is survived by two sons, a daughter and five grandchildren.

NATIONAL NEWS

31st ANNUAL NEWS & DOCUMENTARY
EMMY® AWARDS ANNOUNCED

The News & Documentary Emmy® Awards will be presented on Monday, September 27 at a ceremony at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, located in the Time Warner Center in New York City. The event will be attended by more than 1,000 television and news media industry executives, news and documentary producers and journalists. Emmy® Awards will be presented in 41 categories, including Breaking News, Investigative Reporting, Outstanding Interview, and Best Documentary, among others.

This year's presenters include Diane Sawyer, anchor, ABC’s World News, Lester Holt, weekend anchor, NBC’s Nightly News, and weekend co-anchor, Today, Sheila Nevins, President, HBO Documentary Films, Dan Rather, anchor and managing editor, HDNet’s Dan Rather Reports, Bob Simon, correspondent, CBS’ 60 Minutes, Paula Zahn, Executive Producer/Host, On the Case with Paula Zahn, Investigation Discovery Network.

The Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Documentarian, Frederick Wiseman, one of the most accomplished documentarians in the history of the medium, presented by Paula A. Kerger, President and CEO, PBS.

In addition, the prestigious Chairman’s Award will be given to the PBS NewsHour. Roger Mudd, former Washington correspondent for CBS News, NBC News and the McNeil/Lehrer Newshour on PBS, will present the award to Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, longtime executive producer Les Crystal, and current executive producer Linda Winslow.

TRIBUNE COMPANY TRIES TO CREATE
WEB-LIKE EXPERIENCE
WITH ANCHORLESS NEWSCAST

"For a station that's not doing well up against established traditional competition, it was time to do something radical, something dramatic," Tribune Senior Vice President and Chief Innovations Officer Lee Abrams told Variety. "We're trying to get away from Barbie and Ken sitting behind a desk chit-chatting with each other with their nice teeth."

It's not surprising that Abrams is aspiring to create a radical and dramatic broadcast, because those adjectives describe Abrams himself. A former rock-and-roll radio programmer, Abrams' controversial ideas to remake the news business have led some to praise him as an outside-the-box innovator, and others to fear him as an out-of-control threat to journalistic values.

Since he joined the once-staid company in 2008, Abrams has become well-known among journalists for churning out long, typo-ridden, stream-of-consciousness memos to employees of Tribune's nine daily newspapers and 24 broadcast stations. (One memo rhetorically asked the company’s on-camera TV reporters, "What with the suits and ties?" [sic] and suggested that a crime reporter dress in a "Columbo styled rumpled sweater." Another memo screamed to news managers: "SEX AND RELIGION ARE THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT TOPICS ION [sic] THE WORLD!")

The Houston project seems to make good on Abrams, promise to "isolate a station that is NOT doing well and do a complete re-think." KIAH, an affiliate of the CW network, is dead last in Houston’s news ratings, despite a provocative ad campaign spotlighting current anchor Mia Gradney. So while the new format seems designed to attract younger, Internet-savvy viewers, it might be considered a success if it attracts any significant audience at all.

"There's nowhere to go but up," said University of North Texas journalism lecturer John Sparks, a former reporter and news executive at several of the state's TV stations. Still, Sparks is unsure about NewsFix. He worries that its irreverent tone "undermines the principles of journalism," and he doubts viewers will be attracted to a newscast narrated by an off-camera voice. "Television is an intimate, emotional medium," he said. "People identify not so much with the call letters or the number on the dial. They identify with that news anchor."

Indeed, the anchor-behind-a-desk format is perhaps the most enduring element of television news. It's one of the few conventions to remain constant from television's earliest newscasts of the 1950's to today's splashy exhibitions of "live and local team coverage." Previous efforts to de-emphasize the role of anchors typically have been unsuccessful and short-lived. And research by the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation (now the Radio Television Digital News Foundation) suggested that anchors are even more important to younger viewers than older ones.

"Young people want someone to help tell them what's important, and as far as they know, that's what an anchor does," said Hofstra University journalism professor Bob Papper, who conducted RTNDF's 2006 Future of News survey. The survey found that about two-thirds of respondents younger than 35 agreed that "news is better with anchors," while only about half of those 35 and older agreed with that statement.

"I'm not sure the absence of anchors is going to be attractive" to younger viewers, said Alison Stewart, the co-host of the PBS program "Need to Know." Stewart has hosted several news programs targeted at young adults, including MTV’s "Choose or Lose" and NPR's "The Bryant Park Project." She said the anchors on those shows served as "conduits" to the audience, and she's uncertain that a newscast can survive without them.

Online, "I understand the idea that people are choosing their own news," Stewart said. "But on television, they're not really choosing their own news. They're choosing news you chose for them, and there's nobody to identify with who did the choosing."

Tribune seemed to anticipate the skepticism that NewsFix is attracting in the industry. The "imaginator" job listing discourages "old school TV news types" from applying and says experience running a TV newsroom "might actually be detrimental."

If nothing else, NewsFix has already succeeded in creating buzz for a small news operation that up until now has managed to remain virtually invisible in the nation's 10th largest market. Tribune has said that if the anchorless format thrives in Houston, it could be exported to the company's other underperforming stations. And though management insists the experiment is not a cost-cutting move, its success could provide a financial boost as Tribune struggles to emerge from bankruptcy.

Even outside the Tribune chain, broadcast executives likely will be paying attention to whether the program reinvigorates KIAH and whether it could portend a new trend in television news.

"There's no question that local news for a long time has been broken," said John Sparks, the North Texas journalism instructor. "Everybody is trying to figure out how to make money at it."

PEOPLE MOVES

MIKE BARZ joins WAWS-TV and WTEV-TV in Jacksonville as a weekday morning anchor.

JOSH BENSON joins WFTV in Orlando as an anchor/reporter from his anchor position at KVOA-TV in Tucson.

JEFF MALONEY to General Manager, WTVT, Tampa-St. Petersburg from General Sales Manager, WTVT.

KRISTINA PINK joins WGNO-TV in New Orleans as weekend sportscaster from WDBD-TV in Jackson, Mississippi.

BILL SCHNEIDER to General Manager, WAGA-TV, Atlanta from General Manager, WTVT, Tampa-St. Petersburg.

Reporter BIGAD SHABAN moves to another station in New Orleans, jumping from CBS-affiliate WWL to Fox-affiliate WVUE. Shaban will have to wait out a 6-month non-compete clause before he can be on-air for WVUE.

Meteorologist KEENAN SMITH joins WXYZ in Detroit. Smith comes to WXYZ from WPTV in West Palm Beach, FL.

Reporter BRENT SOLOMON to WTVJ, Miami from KLRT, Little Rock, Arkansas.

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
Victor Montilla, Vice President Puerto Rico, President, More Than Media,
San Juan
Karla MacDonald, Secretary, Suncoast Chapter Administrator
Betsy Behrens, Treasurer, retired television producer
Bob Behrens, Executive Director and Trustee, retired television producer

Board of Governors

Frank Adelson, Editor, NBC6/WTVJ, Miami
Manny Alvarez, Photojournalist,WFOR/CBS4,Miami
Fabio Apelbaum, Graphic Designer, Sherjan Broadcasting,Miami
Teri Arvesu, Executive Producer,Noticias23 Univision
Giovani Benitez, Investigative Producer,WFOR/CBS4
Terry Bloom, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Miami
Holly Brobst, 11pm News Producer,WSVN-TV/7
Jeff Burnside, Special Projects Reporter, NBC6/WTVJ
Abel Castillo, News Photojournalist,WFOR/CBS4
Tammy Darling, Director, WSVN-TV, Miami
Wendie Feinberg, Managing Editor, Nightly Business Report,PBS/WPBT-TV/2
Steve Greenberg, Independent Producer/Reporter
Jack Kelly, VP for Production,WPBT,Miami
Reizel Larrea-Alvarez, Producer, I-Zoom
Kevin Layne, Producer & Cinematographer, Forti/Layne Entertainment,Miami
Spears Mallis, Mallis Enterprises, Inc., Miami
John Mays, Production Manager, WFOR/CBS4, Miami
Richard S.Maher, Technical Manager, David Brinkley Studios,Barry University, Miami Shores
Angela Gonzalez Ramos, Programming & Public Affairs Director, WLTV/Univision23
Carmelo Rodriguez, Supervisor, Production Services for WPBT-TV, Senior Director for Nightly Business Report
Dan Roujansky, President, Spotlight Media Group, Inc.,Miami
Laurie Stein, Producer, I-Zoom
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 Manager, WFOR/CBS4

Emmys On The Road
Craig Stevens, News Anchor, WSVN-TV, Miami

Membership Development
Tammy Darling, Director, 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/Internet,
WFOR-TV/CBS4

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

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TUBE TALK is written and published by newsletter editor, Bob Behrens who also is Executive Director of the Suncoast Chapter with designand layout produced by Stacey Panson who also is Chairman of the Art & Design Committee for 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