Showing posts with label DirecTV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DirecTV. Show all posts

Thursday, April 19, 2012

2012 ACC Lacrosse Tourney TV schedule for Men & Women, other NCAA Lacrosse matches on TV, Friday thru Sunday, April 20-22, 2012



The Big Game: Duke at Virginia Men's Lacrosse, Episode One. April 19, 2012.
http://youtu.be/fXoo-3OYQ1o

2012 ACC Lacrosse Tourney TV schedule for Men & Women, other NCAA Lacrosse matches on TV, Friday thru Sunday, April 20-22, 2012
The 2012 ACC Womens Lacrosse tourney is in Cary, N.C. this weekend, hosted by Duke, and games will be available online at ESPN3 and on certain RSN affiliates.


Check your area to see if you will get this on TV or have to go online. Here in South Florida, I will watch via Sun Sports, DirecTV Channel 653 to see thr two games on Friday and Saturday:
http://www.theacc.com/championships/12-womens-lacrosse-championship.html



Friday, April 20, 2012 - Quarterfinals


Noon ET – Boston College vs Virginia
- FS South 
- Sun Sports 
- CSN Mid-Atlantic 
- NESN – delay broadcast @ 10:30pm ET


2pm ET – Virginia Tech vs. Maryland
- FS South 
- Sun Sports 
- CSN Mid-Atlantic


Saturday, April 21, 2012 - Semifinals


1pm – UNC vs BC/UVA winner 
- FS South 
- Sun Sports 
- CSN Mid-Atlantic 
- NESN – delay broadcast @ 3pm ET


3pm – Duke vs UMD/VT winner 
- FS South 
- Sun Sports 
- CSN Mid-Atlantic 
- NESN – delay broadcast @ 7pm ET


Monday, April 23, 2012 -Championship Game
ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208  amd at ESPN3.com
7 p.m. Winners of the two Semifinals on Saturday


------------------------------------------------------------------------


http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2012/04/19/acc-tournament-provides-big-stage-tough-competition-ahead-ncaas



Friday, April 20th, 2012  

ACC Mens Tourney in Charlottesville/UVA on ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208  
5 p.m. Duke vs. Maryland 
Last weekend Duke beat UVA at UVA, and Maryland knocked-off Johns Hopkins at Baltimore. 

7:30 p.m. North Carolina vs. Virgina

7 p.m. CBS Sports Network, DirecTV Channel 613 
Colgate at Bucknell


Saturday, April 21st, 2012

BigTenNetwork, DirecTV Channel 610
11 a.m. Air Force at Ohio State 

CBS Sports Network, DirecTV Channel 613 
Noon Johns Hopkins at Navy

CBS Sports Network, DirecTV Channel 613 
2:30 p.m. Women - #7 Notre Dame at #15 Georgetown
Georgetown is only team to defeat North Carolina this year.
Sheehan Stanwick Burch and Todd Harris will be doing color commentary and play-by-play here and you know how I love Sheehan. She's a keeper!

ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 
3 p.m. Georgetown at Syracuse

BigTenNetwork, DirecTV Channel 610
5 p.m. Women - #4 Florida at #1 Northwestern (Tape Delay)
Combining two of my favorite names, Shannon Smith of Northwestern, odds-on favorite to repeat as Tewaarton Award winner, lead the Wildcats against the young and speedy Gators, still reveling in their overtime win at Johns Hopkins last week.

usalacrosse8 video: WD1: Florida Sneaks Past Johns Hopkins in Sudden Death 13-12.  http://youtu.be/HV-G6gOKpIY

ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 
5:30 p.m. Notre Dame at Villanova


Sunday, April 22, 2012

ACC Mens Championship at Klöckner Stadium in Charlottesville/UVA
ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208  
3 p.m. Winners of Friday's Semifinals

Head's-up for Women's lacrosse fans in the Baltimore/DC area
Ohio State's Women's Lacrosse team will be playing in Baltimore on Saturday April 28th against Johns Hopkins at 1 p.m. 
Glenelg High School grads Alayna Markwordt and Katie Chase are on the Buckeyes LAX team, as are Cara Facchina and her younger sister, Mary Kate, from Mount de Sales Academy. Katie and Cara also both played for Hero's.

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Breaking News: Mannix Marathon on Cloo until 6 am Eastern Sunday


CBS-TV - Mannix  (1969) Intro credits. 
Music composed by Lalo Schifrin.
http://youtu.be/vyZL_3bxD68


Breaking News: Mannix Marathon on Cloo until 6 a.m. Eastern Sunday, DirecTV Channel 308. Be there! 


Back in the day before we all knew what CSIs and mass spectrometers were, all you needed when you were in a real tight pinch was to call your ex-Army pal from Korea out in LA named Joe Mannix.
Mannix would get us the answers we need!


Mannix wasn't just a crime-fighting gumshoe, a top-shelf detective with a keen eye for clues, beautiful women and people who got the shaft from the system, but someone who wasn't afraid a of a fight.
Joe Mannix also had a deeply ingrained sense of integrity and righting wrongs.
Remember that, integrity?


Joe Mannix for Broward Sheriff, Al Lamberti for Media Photo Ops!



Longer version of theme song.
http://youtu.be/mznUMYY7YC8



Yes, strings, woodwinds and brass in perfect harmony!
It's why Lalo Schifrin was a genius.

http://www.televisiontunes.com/Mannix_-_Long.html


If you play the extended version above now for any half-normal kid in elementary school -like one of my teachers once did at Fulford Elementary in North Miami Beach, back when the show was still on the air- I absolutely guarantee you that their eyes will light up.



rook88 video: Castle like Mannix. October 16, 2010.
http://youtu.be/nMntqvijI-Q


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http://www.schifrin.com/

Lalo Schifrin samples: http://dougpayne.com/samples.htm

http://www.cloo.com/

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/castle

Saturday, October 22, 2011

The prescient wisdom of N.Y. Post sports columnist Phil Mushnick, longtime HBB favorite, reveals itself yet again as 'Thermal Cam' enters our lexicon

Whether you call it "Hot Spot" or -mockingly- "Thermal Cam," Fox Sports' latest borrowed tool is yet another thing the American sports fan does NOT want to see polluting the TV screen during a telecast.
The prescient wisdom of N.Y. Post sports columnist Phil Mushnick, longtime HBB favorite, reveals itself yet again as 'Thermal Cam' enters our lexicon
So, speaking of the Herald's perfectly dreadful and half-assed coverage of the 2011 World Series between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals as we were in our last post, I wanted very much to share something with you Sunday night and yet my oversight, and the sudden emergence Wednesday night of this latest bit of sports porn in the first game of the series -that quickly became a sore subject for sports fans, national sports radio personalities and sportswriters- only re-emphasizes the need to share what I'd meant to do Sunday in this space: share some wisdom not my own.

Sportscaster Dan Patrick of DirecTV's weekday "Dan Patrick Show" on the discussed the camera on his show Thursday morning and came down very negatively on the subject, as did Michael Wilbon on "Pardon the Interruption" later in the afternoon on ESPN, a.k.a. "The Mother Ship," labeling it "JUNK."
October 20, 2011 screen-grab by South Beach Hoosier.

That wisdom not my own comes from a great source, a longtime Hallandale Beach Blog favorite and font of information, knowing analysis, common sense and prescience: sports media columnist Phil Mushnick of the New York Post.
He warned against this sort of dog-chasing-its-tail sports clutter on the TV screen even before ever seeing it!

Now that's the kind of insight I like!

Last Sunday afternoon, I read that column myself while munching on an Asiago bagel and some Hazelnut coffee at the local Panera Bread, my first time there on a Sunday afternoon in quite a while, since the Dolphins at Jets ballgame was on Monday night, so I didn't have to worry about missing it.
Let Phil Mushnick's column's internal logic and wisdom now wash over you as it did me...

New York Post
Time for sports TV to ‘go another direction’
By Phil Mushnick
Last Updated: 6:59 AM, October 16, 2011
Posted: 12:47 AM, October 16, 2011

What would happen — the worst that could happen — if one of the NFL’s or MLB’s partner TV networks truly decided to “go in another direction.”

What possible down side would there be if a network committed itself to eliminating the worsening on-screen and in-ear clutter that now systemically make so many live telecasts insufferable as a matter of mindless, follow-the-leader excess?
Read the rest of the spot-on column at:

I alluded in my last blog post to having to be at an ER facility Thursday night due to a medical situation involving my family, where I needed to transport someone to the Aventura ER facility of Mount Sinai Hospital, just north of Aventura Mall at 2845 Aventura Blvd., which is, literally, a million times faster than the ER situation at nearby HCA's Aventura Hospital, farther north on U.S.-1 & N.E. 209th Street, whose bureaucratic snails-pace horror stories I have first-hand experience with that I don't even want to have to relive here, no matter how instructive to you they'd be.

That glacial pace in treating patients -and getting them rooms if necessary- at Aventura Hospital is THE very reason we didn't go there Thursday night, and why I have been advising friends in the area for many months to go to Mount Sinai if you have a choice in the matter.

This Mount Sinai facility is where I watched the masterful pitching performances in game two of the World Series on an amazing PDI Communications Systems brand Persona LCD TV, which are mounted on a movable, flexible lightweight swing arm that allows you to bring the action and the sound as close to you as you want.
They're amazing, and while the photos I have posted here have it located just a few inches from the wall, you can actually move it so that it's right in front or above you on the hospital bed if you like.
I could really go for one of these when I'm lying on the couch at home!

And, best of all, they're Made in America - Springboro, Ohio!

October 20, 2011 screen-grab by South Beach Hoosier.
October 20, 2011 screen-grab by South Beach Hoosier.
October 20, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand: When the All Blacks were expected to win, what usually happened? Just ask "Sonny Wool"


Rugby World Cup 2011 New Zealand: rugby star ad tribute
Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand: When the All Blacks were expected to win, what usually happened? Just ask "Sonny Wool"
At 5:45 a.m. Eastern, I'm currently watching the first game between New Zealand and Tonga -from Eden Park- on Universal Sports, DirecTV Channel 625, and the game will be repeated from 5-8 p.m. U.S. Eastern later on Friday.

(Universal Sports is currently being shown on a Free Preview basis on DirecTV thru September 30th, and starting October 1st, it will be offered as part of the Sports Pack, which I already subscribe to. Since the Rugby World Cup will still be going strong, there's the possibility of seeing lots of high-quality action.)

The U.S. plays Ireland in New Plymouth on Sunday, New Zealand time, which will be televised on a taped-delay basis in the U.S. on Sunday from 5-8 p.m. Eastern and repeated from 10 p.m.-1 a.m.
Reminder: Auckland is 16 hours ahead of Miami/Eastern US


The Telegraph
Rugby World Cup 2011: let battle commence
Rugby’s World Cup will be about thunderous combat, with none of football’s petulance.
By Ian Chadband
9:10PM BST 07 Sep 2011

Here are some things you should know about the Rugby World Cup, which will kick off in New Zealand tomorrow. It will be interminable, running on and on for some seven weeks; it will be predictable, with the chances of a new winner’s name being inscribed on the trophy minimal; and it will be peppered with lots of awful mismatches, taking its cue from tomorrow’s opening game, when New Zealand will roll over plucky little Tonga like 15 big All Black bulldozers.
Read the rest of the article at


Meanwhile, in the world of psychic animals and sports predictions... AFP is reporting that:
A rugby-mad sheep touted as the world's latest animal pyschic picked the All Blacks to win their opening World Cup match Friday, in New Zealand's answer to the late, great Paul the Octopus.
Read the rest of the article at:


Telegraph video: Rugby World Cup 2011: England arrive to haka welcome in New Zealand

And despite what the Kiwis say, don't sleep on Martin Johnson's England side.
They play their first match of the WC against Argentina on Saturday, though team captain Lewis Moody will not see any action in Dunedin.




AFP video: England rugby squad named for 2011 World Cup

-----



Saturday, August 27, 2011

Follow Local TV News coverage of Hurricane Irene all weekend on DirectTV Channels 259, 325 & 349

Anna Bulszewcz of of Channel 12/WCTI-TV

Per my last post, both honest yet somewhat tongue-in-cheek, do yourself a big favor and stop watching the TV cablenets' hysterical New York-centric coverage of Hurricane Irene and see what's going on at the local level.

Follow Local News coverage of Hurricane Irene all weekend as it makes its way north along the Eastern Seaboard via DirectTV Channels 259, 325 & 349.
Cities scheduled to participate include Greenville/New Bern/Jacksonville, NC, New York City, Norfolk, VA. Richmond, VA, Roanoke, VA, Washington, D.C.

Even if it's for no other reason that you're tired of watching video of Mayor Bloomberg's press conferences where people behind him -and why do they have to be standing behind him?- always have a look on their face like they have hemorrhoids, and we get to hear dopey questions from the local wise guy press corps.

Did you hear that stupid question today about whether the mayor was over-reacting by closing down the transportation system at Noon on Saturday?
What, like you're going to just leave everything out where it can be exposed to hurricane-force wind and rain for hours when you don't have to?
Yet another low moment for journalism as the NYC press corps continue to play follow-the-leader.
You'd almost think the reporters asking the questions don't live there, and were just helicoptered in.

I've been watching Channel 12/WCTI-TV out of Greenville/New Bern/Jacksonville, NC -the home of lots of military bases and military families, like Camp Lejeune- since about 1 a.m., and they have remained a lot more measured and calm while the storm is causing massive blackouts, than some of the network correspondents I saw earlier where nothing was happening -yet.
Just a constructive suggestion...

Amanda Brannon of Channel 12/WCTI-TV


And poor Boston, they are being completely ignored by the East Coast's Mainstream Media.
Once the storm passes NYC, the MSM are going to leave their studios in Manhattan and Fort Lee, go home and knock a few drinks back and call it a night.
Boston, you are on your own!

*And brainy, beautiful balletomane Robyn Hunter, formerly of Fort Smith, AR, my friend from D.C., if you are still in the Boston area, please be careful this weekend!
You have an amazing future ahead of you, so don't play hero trying to save people who use bad judgment. You can't save everyone.


3:35 am

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Things to look for in the future on The Real World: D.C.; no future for "Blonde Charity Mafia"

Tonight, at 10 p.m. Eastern, is the
premiere of the 23rd incarnation of
MTV's The Real World, a show
I once followed very closely but
have not watched in quite a while,
much like this season's Desperate
Housewives
or Heroes, despite
having invested a lot of quality prime
time with them in the past.



Video from The Washington Post:
D.C. cast members of 'The
Real World' show off their house
,


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2009/10/28/VI2009102804296.html

Washington's Newest Monument, Courtesy of MTV
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2009/08/14/VI2009081402016.html

In fact, I hadn't watched a second
of MTV at all this year until I went
to check out their coverage of the death
of Michael Jackson just moments
after TMZ first reported it, even while
the LA Times dawdled and kept their
online version of the story the same until
even lame MSNBC was reporting the
Breaking News of his death and
not merely word of his hospitalization.

(I was on my computer at the time
TMZ broke the news, which is why
I mention that pertinent fact about
the slow-poke
LAT.)

My interest in flipping over to MTV
was simply the curiosity factor to see
what their Breaking News coverage
might consist of on a day when their
audience numbers ought to have been
huge.

Would it simply be old clips or would
they actually conduct live interviews
with some serious and thoughtful music
professionals and journalists
-like certain IU grads I could name-
or would it consist largely of cringe-worthy
blather audio/texts from teenage girls,
run over countless video shots of guys
Moonwalking outside the Apollo Theater
and other well-known international locales,
as long as the TV camera lights were on?

What makes me mention The Real World
at all, of course, is that this season will be
based out of a former mansion in Washington's
quirky and often exasperating Dupont Circle
neighborhood, north of the downtown core
where I and most of my friends worked,
along K Street and Connecticut Avenue.

That's an area I know very well from having
lived in Washington and Arlington County
for 15 years, and since that's the case,
I wanted to share a few thoughts here
and mention some things you may want
to look for, because of where they've
chosen to situate the show, knowing that
the producers cast it with certain plot
narratives and sub-plots clearly in mind,
or, at least, with fingers crossed..

So, that said, based on my own experiences
and those of friends and former colleagues,
here are a few things you might want to
be on the lookout look for in the weeks
ahead, which might tell you if the show is
even more heavily edited than usual, say,
if by the fourth or fifth episode:

a.) Someone in the house is not shown
bitching or cracking wise about how
f----ed-up the local D.C. govt. is, with
a glaring example of the nonsensical
outrage, and everyone else in the house
finally realizing that the horror stories
they'd heard about D.C. govt. were
all too true.
Welcome to D.C.!

b.) Some friend of theirs arrives for a
weekend visit -and someone always is!-
and when they drive over to the Adams
Morgan area to go to a bar or restaurant
after driving around DC showing their
friend the sights, they don't show some
unknown guys, either African-American
or Salvadoran, suddenly jumping out
of nowhere and suddenly standing in a
street parking space -IF they can find
one
- who want to be paid for finding
and/or watching the spot, as if they're
Columbus or The Secret Service.

The implicit warning: If they don't pay,
something WILL happen to the car.
Welcome to D.C.!

It'll no doubt remind some of you of the
famous "No Radio Inside" sign days
in New York of the '80's, sometimes
punctuated by a note near the broken car
window, hours later, with someone having
thoughtfully scrawled, "Just checking!"

c.) There isn't at least one segment or
two of a cast member discussing something
of theirs that was stolen, and the DC Police
telling him or her that it was their own fault.
Welcome to D.C.!

d.) Someone doesn't say in a condescending
way that DC's Chinatown, while perhaps
having a few very good restaurants, isn't
as nice as New York or San Francisco's
Chinatown.
Yes, because it's MUCH, MUCH
smaller,
dummies!

On the other hand, Arlington County's
Little Saigon area on Wilson Blvd.,
next to the Clarendon Metro, couldn't
be beat for VERY GOOD and inexpensive
Vietnamese food, and very friendly
service, to boot.

That was a Day-after-Thanksgiving
tradition for me if I and my friends
were hanging around town and weren't
out-of-town with family or significant
others doing the turkey thing.

After which, thoroughly stuffed, we'd
head back to my place to watch the
annual grudge match between
Texas-Texas A&M, with yours truly
playing navigator, and explaining
to the others where these small Texas
towns the players were actually located.

Talk about something from my
regular routine
in DC that I really
miss here in South Florida
-Little
Saigon.
http://blogs.nationaltrust.org/preservationnation/?p=4519
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/08/17/tidbits9.html


(Two weeks ago, thanks to the wonders
of
DirecTV, I watched the Abiline-Katy
Texas
5A High School football championship
game
at The Alamodome, LIVE on
Fox Sports
Southwest, Channel 676.
Their excellent coverage and production
values put that of of the
Miramar -Deland
FL 4A state title game in Lakeland over
on
Fox Sports Florida/SUN to shame.
It was night-and-day, like the difference
between MLB and the
low minors.)


For more on The Real World, see:

http://www.mtv.com/shows/real_world/Washingtondc/series.jhtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/29/AR2009122902739.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/13/AR2009081304164.html

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-real-world30-2009dec30,0,5130304.story

http://jezebel.com/5436535/meet-the-new-8-strangers-of-the-real-world-dc/gallery/


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/08/14/DI2009081401732.html?sid=ST2009081403688

Also, in other Washington area reality news,
TheWrap TV Editor Josef Adalian reported
yesterday that, as he aptly put it,

CW's 'Blond Charity Mafia' Sleeps With the Fishes

America's distaste for all things Washington apparently extends to "Blonde Charity Mafia."

After months of delays, the CW Tuesday confirmed that it will not be airing the soapy reality docusoap after all. The decision isn't much of a surprise: After originally slotting the show for a six-week run in July and August, the network then pushed the show to "the fourth quarter."

Said quarter ends Thursday. And there's no sign of the "BCM."

Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/cws-blond-charity-mafia-sleeps-fishes-12332

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

June 3 is 'IU Day' on the Big Ten Network; Isiah Thomas

June 3 is 'IU Day' on the Big Ten Network, DirecTV Channel 610
TV schedule is below some of my icons borrowed from my
South Beach Hoosier blog,

GREAT SCOTT, IT'S INDIANA!

Great Scott, It\
Scott May Shoots Down Michigan, April 5, 1976

THE CHAMPS!

The Champs!
Hoosier Hero Isiah Thomas, April 4, 1981


IU All-American and Olympian StevE Alford on the cover of the 1987 Media guide

INDIANA HOOSIER SPIRIT AT ASSEMBLY HALL

Indiana Hoosier Spirit at Assembly Hall
IU cheerleaders doing a 360° circle turn at half-court.


IU head basketball coach Tom Crean at his press conference
in Bloomington. With his hiring, South Beach Hoosier's prediction
-and wish- came true!
Now, we can finally get back to the IU tradition: an emphasis on
playing smart, playing hard, playing as a team -and winning with class.
And graduating!
No more one-and-done recruits!


The Championship Banners: 1940, 1953, 1976, 1981, 1987
Assembly Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

------------------------------------

http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/c-varsityclub/spec-rel/060309aab.html

Today is 'IU Day' on the Big Ten Network

June 3, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - June 3rd on the Big Ten Network has been named "IU Day,"

and all programming on Wednesday will be involving the Indiana Hoosiers!

COMPLETE PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE
6:00 a.m.- The Big Ten's Greatest Games: 1990 - Kentucky @ Indiana [Basketball]
8:00 a.m.- The Big Ten's Greatest Games: 2006 - Iowa @ Indiana [Football]
10:00 a.m.- Big Ten Short Stories: Indiana Hoosiers
10:30 a.m.- #1 NBA Draft Picks
11:00 a.m.- Men's Soccer: Indiana @ Ohio State
1:00 p.m.- Big Ten Friday Night Tailgate: Indiana
2:30 p.m.- Big Ten Short Stories: Indiana Hoosiers
3:00 p.m.- The Big Ten's Greatest Games: 1999 - Illinois @ Indiana [Football]
5:00 p.m.- Men's Golf: Match Play Championship
8:00 p.m.- The Big Ten's Greatest Games: 1987 NCAA Tournament Championship - Indiana vs. Syracuse
9:30 p.m.- Big Ten Short Stories: Indiana Hoosiers
10:00 p.m.- The Big Ten's Greatest Games: 1981 NCAA Tournament Championship - IU vs. North Carolina
12:00 a.m.- The Big Ten's Greatest Games: 2007 - Purdue @ Indiana [Football]
2:00 a.m.- Big Ten Short Stories: Indiana Hoosiers
2:30 a.m.- #1 NBA Draft Picks
3:00 a.m.- Men's Golf: Match Play Championship


In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation
"In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation." -South Beach Hoosier, 2007

Those of you who have written, called or wondered
when I was FINALLY going to be writing something
about Isiah being hired as head coach at FIU, and
the Miami media's tempest-in-a-teapot over his hiring,
should know that something was already written weeks
ago on him and the over-the-top media coverage,
where lots of usually sober TV and print reporters
were sloppy with facts and heavy with insinuations
in ways that you rarely see on local news coverage
-even in Miami!

It's in cold storage right now, waiting for the right time
to bring it out, a day that is fast approaching.

South Beach Hoosier/Hallandale Beach Blog
South Beach Hoosier/Hallandale Beach Blog

Monday, September 15, 2008

KHOU-TV anchor rips Entergy media rep for Houston power outage

Based on something I observed myself on the tube this morning, I sent this head's-up email earlier this afternoon to longtime South Beach Hoosier favorite Aaron Barnhart, TV critic of the Kansas City Star and the genius creator of the TV Barn website, http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/index.html one of the top TV sites in the country for the thoughtful and discerning TV viewer.
It doesn't really require much explanation to see where I'm coming from here.
________________________________
September 15th, 2008

Dear Aaron:

Just a head's-up for something you'll likely be hearing about and maybe even seeing video of in the next few days.

Last night, thanks to DirecTV airing KHOU-TV 11 telecasts of Hurricane Ike coverage on Channel 361, discontinued as of today, I was able to watch something you rarely see any more on live TV: angry personal invective by a reporter/anchor who felt unencumbered by either common sense or ethics.

Naturally, this blow-up was completely misplaced and a real classic example of 'shooting the messenger,' something that you'd think someone in the TV news business would appreciate better than most folks.

Last night/early this morning, one of KHOU-TV's male anchors hosting their Hurricane Ike coverage from the studio really lit into the media rep for Entergy for the Houston area still largely being in the dark, his seeming to think it was a matter of simple incompetency, not pure logistics and manpower.

The rep said the company had aid agreements with other power companies and that people were coming in from 19 other states to help Texans get their power restored, had planes flying people around the state to get them in a position to do their job first thing Monday morning, were doing aerial surveys and had everyone in the company out in the field.

But he also admitted that it would likely be Monday or even Tuesday morning before they could add up all the disparate info and get a realistic idea of when power would be restored.

Obviously, here in South Florida, it's drilled into people that you have to be responsible for yourself and your own family for at least the first 72-96 hours after a disaster.
(Not that people are!)

There's no cavalry coming into town to knock on your door after a day or so to ask you if you want some grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup with your drums of drinking water, like a waiter. (After Hurricane Wilma in 2005, I was out of power for over 11 days.)

So, less than 48 hours after Ike hits, this anchor at Channel 11 is giving the Entergy guy enormous grief for everything not moving fast enough to suit him.

Finally after a few minutes of this, the Entergy media rep said that he'd had enough, that he wasn't going to put up with any more negative media reporting not based on the facts on the ground, when everybody in the company was doing their best under trying circumstances to get power restored. (Their homes are out, too!)

And the anchor just kept going on and on about what a poor job Entergy was doing...

It was pretty wild drama to stumble upon by accident, but made worse by my not being able to tape it right away, and the station not showing the name graphic of the anchor while he was on his tangent, which is why I can't tell you his name or the name of the female anchor at the studio desk with him. (Ed. Note: Or if they did, I was too stunned to notice it.)
Sorry about that!

The power rep explained that his company's customers were not all clustered in just a few easy-to-resolve urban areas like CenterPoint Energy Inc., but were instead spread out over a much larger geographical area, including most of the rural communities affected by Ike.

The anchor couldn't care less.

He repeated his claim that Centerpoint was clearly doing a much better job, and then it got even more heated.

Despite the fact that from the very beginning, and to their great credit, KHOU was posting nearly everything they broadcast onto videos you could see on their website, not surprisingly, this particular encounter is not yet on the station's website.
At least not yet, as of 12:30 p.m. Eastern

http://www.khou.com/blcS.sc?search=Entergy&sorder=S&rep=&act=&cat=multi
Your search - Entergy - did not match any documents. No pages were found containing "Entergy".

Best video I've seen thus far is this one, which has a lot more than what is officially described here, including the dozens of oil barges in the Gulf waiting to get into port, who had to stay away from the area while the hurricane was on the way.
It starts repeating after about 18 minutes into the video, with VO descriptions of Blackhawk helicopters landing and President Bush coming Houston on Tuesday:

http://www.khou.com/video/topstories-index.html?nvid=282706&shu=1
Raw video: Bolivar Peninsula devastated
September 14th, 2008, The communities of Crystal Beach, Bolivar and High Island suffered the worst damage we have seen from Hurricane Ike.

Below is a perfect example of what has everyone down there upset, with most of the coverage being too urban/Houston-based, even while there are towns and completely underwater or destroyed. Just like Katrina and media fascination with New Orleans!http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou080915_tnt_guardsmen_food.7a5e7c1f.html

See bayousinker's comments! I concur 100%.

Meanwhile, the best spot-on column of the weekend is this one in yesterday's Houston Chronicle by Lisa Falkenberg Maybe some live and never learn, along with the reader comments.

That could just as well describe people in South Florida and the Keys in particular, where alcoholics at Key West bars uttering their philosophical banalities during hurricane evacuations draw Miami TV cameras like flies -over and over and over!
It never ends!
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/falkenberg/6000302.html

By the way, my interest in this hurricane hitting Galveston and Houston is more than passing, since just before Christmas in 1855, my maternal ancestors arrived in America via Galveston by ship from Prussian-controlled Poland.
They put all their belongings in an ox-driven wagon and walked for days to get to the Texas Hill Country they'd heard about in Poland, becoming Texas Hill Country pioneers in the process.
My family has lived in the Cowboy Capital of Bandera ever since then.

Aaron, I hope that you can use your great industry connections to get and post the video of that KHOU reporter losing his cool to your great TV Barn site sometime soon.
As always, your website continues to rock!

Adios!
Dave
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If I get any info on that TV encounter from this morning, I'll post it here so you can see it for yourself.

By the way, two of my favorite financial reporters will be on Charlie Rose tonight talking about all the ramifications of the Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch stories, Charles Gasparino of Newsweek and Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times., who edits their great daily financial e-mail newsletter DealBook. His column archives are at: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/andrew_ross_sorkin/index.html

Watch it on Channel 17 at midnight, since you never really know when WPBT-2 is going to air it, despite their schedule, just one of the reason's it's the country's worst PBS station.