Houston.BloggersPub

Star of Discovery’s Deadliest Catch is in the hospital:

Phil Harris suffered a stroke while in port off-loading from the F/V Cornelia Marie. He has been transported to a medical facility and is receiving the best care possible. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and we will make more information available as we know it. READ IT

To leave a message for Phil, please visit the channel’s message boards.

(Thanks Michael P.)

> Mike McGuff Blog

If you read this blog you’ve noticed that KHOU’s Mark Greenblatt and the 11 News Defenders have walked away with a lot of honors this year. Here is one more. Just today it was announced that Greenblatt is one out of six finalists for an investigative reporting prize handed out by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government:

Mark Greenblatt
KHOU‐TV, Houston, TX
“Under Fire: Discrimination and Corruption in the Texas National Guard”
KHOU‐TV exposed rampant sexual discrimination, abuses of power, cover‐ups to Congress, financial corruption and theft by the National Guard’s top commanding generals. As a result, the Texas governor fired the accused commanders, the FBI and DA have launched criminal probes and three new state laws have been passed, requiring better oversight of the Guard by both the Governor’s office and the state assembly.

This is a big deal because he will be up against newspapers. Typically newspapers and TV do not compete in these type of honors. So congrats to him.

RELATED
- KHOU 11 wins 2010 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award
- KHOU 11’s Mark Greenblatt wins national Emmy
- Poynter Online interviews KHOU about “Under Fire” investigation

> Mike McGuff Blog

Congrats to former KTRK 13 and KHOU 11 assignments editor Joe Segura. It was just announced he is the new assignments manager for KIAH Channel 39.

“I have had the pleasure to work at two top TV stations in the country and learn from some legendary journalist along the way,” Segura told the mikemcguff.com blog. “I am excited and ready this next step in my life. Hopefully I can pass some of that knowledge down to future journalists.”

Segura starts the new gig February 3rd and wants to remind everyone you can reach him through the KIAH 39 tipline at 713-847-9239 (He is already soliciting stories!).

 Joe is a great guy. I’ve worked with him before and found him to be a hard worker AND a nice person. Two great attributes in the TV biz.

> Mike McGuff Blog

It’s Friday…let’s go wild. The way to do that legally at your office is to view these very eye catching optical illusions. Do not sniff any glue while doing this. It won’t be necessary.

SEE THEM

> Mike McGuff Blog

I always wondered why some former Starbucks kiosks became Seattle’s Best kiosks over the last year…now I know why from an interview with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in Time Mag:

You’ve started selling another of your brands, Seattle’s Best, in Subway sandwich shops. What’s the strategy there?
Seattle’s Best has been under the shadow of Starbucks, and as we began to transform the company, we realized that it should be managed for its own destiny. We think we’re sitting on a billion-dollar brand, and we want to unleash Seattle’s Best to do things that Starbucks can’t do. It has more of a mass appeal. It’s a more approachable coffee in terms of its taste. There are a number of [fast-food] companies that want to get into the breakfast business and don’t have a coffee solution. Subway is just the first. READ THE REST

RELATED
- Coffee foam made into art
- 5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

> Mike McGuff Blog

Uncle Barky reports that WFAA 8’s new iPhone app is in the top 10 of free news apps according to iTunes (number 7 as I am writing this). That’s impressive. Its company includes apps like The White House, Engadget, NPR and USA Today. In fact WFAA’s app is now ahead of ABC News and AP.

That got me thinking about other news app rankings. The next local news station app we find is from Texas - KCBD newschannel 11 iPhone app at number 21. Good for them.

Then we get to KHOU 11’s Houston news app at number 24. Once again impressive. At 25 is KABC abc7 Los Angeles. There are more stations across the country after that mixed in with other types of news apps.

We get back to Texas news apps at number 50 with KTVT CBS 11. That’s followed by KTRK abc13 at number 52. The last Texas news app is The Dallas Morning News at number 72 (where is the Houston Chronicle?).

So to break the Texas media iPhone apps down in a list as of Friday 1/29 (naturally rankings will change after I post this based on downloads):

7. WFAA 8
21. KCBD newschannel 11
24. KHOU 11
50. KTVT CBS 11
52. KTRK abc13
72. The Dallas Morning News

iTunes only publicly tracks the top 100 news apps.

You can find the rankings by:
- Opening the iTunes store
- Clicking the app link at the top
- When the drop down menu appears click news
- On the next page you will see top free news apps (right side of screen)
- Click the arrow on the title bar to display top 100 rankings

> Mike McGuff Blog

David Barron tells us that Calvin Murphy is out of his show at 97.5 KFNC, but will remain at the station:

Murphy, who hosted the show with KFNC program director Dave Tepper and Julie Takahashi, joined KFNC in July 2007. KFNC rarely polled above 1 percent of the listening audience for men 25-54 in afternoon drive and was generally in fourth place among the four Houston sports stations.
With Murphy’s departure, Fred Faour and Matt Dean now will host from 1 to 4 p.m. Carl Dukes will host solo from 4 to 5 p.m. and with Tepper and Takahashi from 5 to 7 p.m. READ MORE

Speaking of sports radio, Barron also notes that we’re seeing changes in the morning ratings of Houston’s four sports talkers.

RELATED
- More changes at 790 KBME
- 610 KILT’s Matt Jackson and Adam Wexler are new 790 KBME morning show
- John Lopez leaves 790 KBME The Sports Animal, joins 610 KILT mornings

> Mike McGuff Blog

Reader Art Smart facebooked me this note about some audio difficulties KTRK 13 had today:

“KTRK-DT channel 13.1 broadcast no audio from 11:25 until 11:57 AM today. I don’t know about 13.2 or 13.3, or about the cable feed. A lower third graphic “Temporary Audio Difficulties” ran from 11:51 until 11:57 AM. I wonder if it took them upwards of 26 minutes to discover they had a problem. I also wonder if advertisers will get refunds.”

After seeing how complicated TV station can be technologically, I am surprised we don’t see this kind of thing more often. It does not happen in Houston, but go to a small TV market and you see all kinds of bizarre technical problems.

> Mike McGuff Blog

PandaLabs warns that a fake virus alert has surfaced among Facebook users recently. Now you say ,”ho cares about a fake virus alert? If it is fake then what does it matter?” According to the company, it’s what you are urged to do to fix the fake virus that causes the trouble my friend:

PandaLabs, Panda Security’s malware analysis and detection laboratory, has detected the massive propagation of a fake virus alert among Facebook users in the last 24 hours. According to the company, this is another attempt by cybercriminals to infect users with fake antivirus programs.

The fake warning is being distributed via email and users are forwarding it or publishing it on Facebook walls, further spreading the hoax. The text of the fake warning reads as follows:

ALERT >>>>> Has your facebook been running slow lately? Go to “Settings” and select “application settings”, change the dropdown box to “added to profile”. If you see one in there called “un named app” delete it… Its an internal spybot. Pass it on. about a minute ago….i checked and it was on mine.

There is no associated link, but if users search the Web for more information, they will encounter numerous malicious websites designed to download fake antiviruses. For examples of what these look like, please visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/panda_security/4309557914/.

The fake antivirus (or rogueware) used in this fake virus alert is called LivePcCare. Following are additional screenshots that demonstrate what these warnings look like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/panda_security/4308821513/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/panda_security/4309558036/.

Here is more you can read about the fake virus. And here I thought the only ones who developed fake viruses were bad coworkers!

> Mike McGuff Blog

It doesn’t take a genius to know that former Enron CEO Ken Lay and his wife Linda lived in a swanky pad at the River Oaks high rise The Huntingdon.

I remember when fellow residents defended Lay’s name by throwing eggs at the TV and print photographers who waited outside the gates for him  while the company fell apart in 2001. We all know what happened to Lay.

Now Swamplot has photos of the condo that takes up an entire floor of the building. SEE THE PHOTOS

Unbelievable.

> Mike McGuff Blog