Houston.BloggersPub

Cowboy Texas Stadium in Irving, TX is about to get imploded. Right now crews are filling it with a lot of dirt in preparation. Story above from WFAA 8 gives us an inside look.

April 11 is the day of destruction. Details on how you can see it here.

> Mike McGuff Blog

Unfreaking believable! After just winning the prestigious IRE Medal award, KHOU 11 News Defenders picked up a 69th annual Peabody Award! This is really big:

Under Fire: Discrimination and Corruption in the Texas National Guard (KHOU-TV)
KHOU-TV, Houston, Tex., Belo, Inc.
Dogged work by the Houston station’s investigative reporters found such blatant discriminatory treatment of female soldiers that three top Texas Guard generals were fired and a new commanding officer was appointed. SEE FULL LIST OF WINNERS

Congrats again to KHOU’s Mark Greenblatt, David Raziq, Keith Tomshe, Chris Henao, Robyn Hughes, Keith Connors. Job well done.

I want to walk through the KHOU 11 studios now. I want to drink from their water fountains. Touch their desks. Eat from the station snack machine. Maybe some of it will rub off on me.

RELATED
- KHOU 11 does it again
- Texas winners at the 76th annual National Headliner Awards
- 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

There has been a lot written about the upcoming Houston Independent School District online radio station going live next school year. The Internet station is called K12RadioHouston and will target student’s parents with music and news about the school district. It will be the first of its kind in the nation.

But only on mikemcguff.com will you find out about RFC Media - the company behind it. The story starts several decades ago in the early 70s when a 21-year-old Pat Fant spun The Who’s I’m Free on 101 KLOL. Most know that radio station became one of the top rated rock outlets in the country under Fant’s leadership. But that was then.

“Broadcast radio is in my rear view mirror,” Fant told the mikemcguff.com blog. “I’m taking everything I learned from doing compelling, one of a kind radio and offering it on a different kind of delivery system.”

Thanks to well publicized decline in listenership and subsequent advertising rates, traditional broadcast radio is searching for a new direction. But after starting the station that became 94.5 The Buzz KTBZ in the 1990s, plus an FM news station and rock station in the 2000s, Fant is now looking to what he considers the real future of radio - the Internet.

“Forces today have taken radio off the table as a provider,” Fant told me.

Around a year ago when he left Cumulus Media in Houston, he started RFC Media. It’s a company that specializes in building online and in-store radio stations for businesses. Fant says the concept is called “brandcasting” or targeting listeners around a common interest.

You could say it all started with a drink. RFC Media’s first client was Spec’s Wines, Spirits, and Finer Foods - a Texas based store selling all things alcohol related. Fant, along with former KTBZ Program Director and DJ, Cruze, began programming a radio station that matched the Spec’s brand. That means the music, the voices and what they talk about are there to promote the stores’ identity. Spec’s Radio plays on the Spec’s Web site and inside every Spec’s store across Texas. Listeners hear a wide playlist of music everyday, but will also get snippets of an interview with Spec’s wine manager Bear Dalton on one day or a special mix of country acts during Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo time the next day. The music and programming change on a daily bases but each day will promote the stores and brand Spec’s. In special situations, a DJ could actually broadcast live to the station.

Every RFC Media client radio station will be different. The music and topics are targeted to that brand. Fant and crew have also built online radio stations for Lexus of Las Vegas, Radio Free Cruze and the next project will be the already mentioned K12RadioHouston. Fant stresses the music and programing changes daily for each brand.

Why would a business want its own radio station? Fant says it is to connect with customers in a new way. The online radio station keeps listeners coming back to a company Web site. He says the music his company programs is not commonly found on today’s commercial radio. Meanwhile the content is of interest to a customer who buys from the business.

“You’ve opened a new pipeline of communication with your core customers,” Fant said. “That beats old fashioned reach from radio any day. We can do a lot more for our customers by building digital music channels for them that sit on their Web site and pulls in a greater number of Web visitors and longer hang time.”

Fant also is counting on the fact that today’s radio stations are the last resort for a music lover thanks to iPods, satellite radio and the Internet. He says while his product is essentially a promotion with songs mixed in, it has the fraction of ads that a commercial radio station runs.

“I don’t have to pay the penalty of 18 minutes an hour of commercials for a Journey, Foreigner or Bad Company record,” he added. “Why would I sit through that?”

Even though Internet radio stations have been around for more than a decade without a breakout business model, Fant feels he has the winning formula to make money with online stations. He says it’s about the client, programming and technology powering the project. In his opinion, simply redoing a traditional music radio station online with commercials thrown in will not be successful. Fant believes the future of brandcasting will only grow with portable media players (Spec’s for example has an iPhone app), 4G networks and Internet connections available in vehicles.

As the potential market grows, Fant has started working with former Rock 101 KLOL on air talent like Laurie Kendrick, Lanny Griffith and David Sadof.

As for K12RadioHouston, the decision is currently being made on which HISD student designed logo will be used for the online station’s August launch. Fant tells me he’s already received interest from an out of state district about the concept.

> Mike McGuff Blog

You might remember how I have been writing about Abby’s Book Corner in Dallas (and now San Antonio). Abigail “Abby” Kearney was my goddaughter who passed away from meningitis in 2008. Her parents have been working to build a library in her honor.

Stuart Boslow, the special projects producer at CBS 11 KTVT, and anchor Tracy Kornet just did a tremendous story about the dedication of Abby’s Book Corner at Medical City Children’s Hospital.

No video embed available so CLICK HERE for video.

www.abbysbookcorner.com/

RELATED
- VIDEO: Abby’s Book Corner a success
- Update on Abby’s Book Drive
- A Dallas baby’s death inspires giving — one book at a time
- Abby’s book drive, how you can help

> Mike McGuff Blog

Macon.com reports that Dallas 570 KLIF is about to get a new talk show host from WMAC-AM 940 that knows how to heat things up:

Controversial Macon radio talk show host Chris Krok is leaving town.

Krok announced after 8 a.m. Friday that Tuesday will be his last day at WMAC-AM 940 because he has accepted a job in Dallas, Texas, at radio station KLIF, where he has been filling in off and on. That station is also a Cumulus station and is in the fifth-largest radio market in the country. READ THE REST

> Mike McGuff Blog

I told you in February how rocker Ronnie James Dio (Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio) is in Houston fighting stomach cancer at M.D. Anderson. Now 39 KIAH landed an exclusive interview with the heavy metal singer on a recent cancer therapy in Houston. Dio says he will fight the cancer and win:

Getting on with life means flying in from Los Angeles, five hours of chemotherapy, then flying back home. Sometimes band members, like bass player Geezer Butler, come for support.

Wendy Dio is always with him. The treatment seems to be working, Wendy Dio said the tumor is getting smaller, all of this in a man with a very big voice who expects to go back on tour soon.

“The fans have been incredible, it proves to me that I’ve done something right with my life,” said Dio. READ FULL STORY

I wrote earlier this year when assignments manager Joe Segura showed up at 39 KIAH, you’d see some exclusives. This is the only video or interview anywhere I know of with Dio after his diagnosis.

> Mike McGuff Blog

KHOU 11 in Houston just won the prestigious IRE Medal award. That’s as high as it gets in this contest:

Under Fire: Discrimination & Corruption in the Texas National Guard — KHOU-Houston; Mark Greenblatt, David Raziq, Keith Tomshe, Chris Henao, Robyn Hughes, Keith Connors
- Judges’ comments: No system can be more impenetrable for a team of reporters than the military “old boys” network, but that’s exactly what reporter Mark Greenblatt and producers David Raziq and Chris Henao took on when they followed up on a tip to check out the “Vagisil Award” being given to women in the Texas National Guard. From that one tip, the team – which also included photographer/editor Keith Tomshe and graphic artist Robyn Hughes – found a system of misogynistic actions that went beyond humiliation. In some cases, female officers were being disciplined or even discharged despite exemplary service records. Data and documents gathered by the team showed a systematic refusal to consider women for top posts, and swift punishment for any who complained about the male power structure. In the end, this two-year investigation resulted in the Texas governor firing three top generals in the Texas National Guard and the state legislature changing the way it oversees Texas Guard operations.

- FINALISTS:
- 33 Minutes to 34 Right — KMGH-Denver; Jeff Harris, Tony Kovaleski, Tom Burke, Arthur Kane, Jason Foster
- Beyond the Verdict — KMSP-Minneapolis; Jeff Baillon, Brad Swagger, Eric Gedrose, Spencer Driskill
- Deporting Justice — WFAA-Dallas; David Schechter, Mark Smith, Kraig Kirchem
- Safety for Sale — WFAA-Dallas; Byron Harris, Mark Smith, Sasha Gurevich, Kraig Kirchem, Billy Bryant, Greg Johnson

Yeah and by the way, the other winner was a little newspaper up East. You might have heard of it. It’s called The New York Times.

SEE THE OTHER WINNERS

RELATED
- Texas winners at the 76th annual National Headliner Awards
- 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

TVspy.com’s ShopTalk reports that Native Houstonian Julie Tam is heading to KXAS NBC 5 from WDRB-TV FOX 41:

JULIE TAM is returning home to Texas to work for NBC as a news reporter at its Dallas-Fort Worth TV station, KXAS channel 5. She makes the jump to the nation’s 5th largest market from Louisville, KY, where she spent more than four years at WDRB-TV FOX 41 as a news anchor/reporter.

http://julietam.com/jt/

> Mike McGuff Blog

Houston now has 4G wireless coverage. What the hell does that mean? Think a high speed Wi-Fi signal that covers 1,090 square miles and approximately 5 million people.

The Clear 4G service blankets Houston and goes all the way from the northern areas of Conroe to Kingwood, all the way west to Katy, and to the southern regions of Richmond/Rosenburg, Alvin, Clear Lake and Baytown. Lake Jackson will get service soon supposedly.

“CLEAR is thrilled to bring to Houston residents, businesses and visitors an Internet experience similar to what they’re used to having at home or the office, anywhere around town or on the go,” said John Smith, Clearwire general manager, Houston.

So remember that wireless plan the city of Houston had a few years ago that never materialized? Well, this is actually active.

So now Clear says you can access Pandora while driving to and from work. Maybe catch The Office on Hulu while riding as a passenger in the HOV lane (I am stressing watching WHILE BEING A PASSENGER!).

There are a bunch of modems and eventually phones coming out that work on the 4G network. I have been drooling over Sprint’s new HTC EVO 4G smartphone that will supposedly come out this summer since I first laid eyes on the release news last week.

You can see the 4G stuff for yourself at CLEAR retail stores in Houston. They are now open at First Colony Mall, Kay Mills Mall, Willowbrook Mall, The Woodlands Mall and Baybrook Mall. Additional stores will open later this Spring at the Galleria and Memorial City Mall.
CLEAR service is also available from a number of other outlets including Best Buy, Frys, MicroCenter and RadioShack.

CLEAR’s mobile and residential plans can be purchased by the day or by the month, with several no-service-contract options available. Home Internet service plans start at $30 (USD) per month. CLEAR 4G mobile Internet plans start at $40 per month. For a limited time, customers in Houston can take advantage of CLEAR’s online-only mobile Internet promotion with plans starting at $15 per month for the first two months after a $50 service credit with a two-year service agreement. This online promotion is available at clear.com.

The cool thing is that Houston got something early for once. While we are not the first city with 4G coverage from Clear, cities like New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, Denver, Minneapolis, and the San Francisco Bay Area are getting service after us later this year.

> Mike McGuff Blog

Lenslinger found a hilarious feature on WGN Chicago’s channel 9 where sports anchor Pat Tomasulo makes fun of live shot crashers. He’s made it a morning show feature. For those of you who do not know, live shot crashers are the fools in the background waving and trying to get on TV.

Apparently what Tomasulo does is pretend to be doing a live shot in a public setting and wait for someone to do something in the background (obviously his photographer gives him a signal). He then chases the crasher down and asks them to be on “live TV” (it is actually going to tape.

Tomasulo then asks a series of embarrassing questions. It could be on sexual dysfunction, jock itch, men who wear ladies panties…etc. In one instance I saw he insults a couples baby and says he’s doing a story on “average looking” children. He’s brilliant.

The Web site and morning newscast feature is called “Pat-Down” and even has a snazzy open. I can’t believe a TV station is this cool to allow a segment like this on. It is pretty funny and I am sure brings a laugh to morning show and Web viewers in between kidnapping and murder stories. I have an example segment below. The segment’s page is here.

> Mike McGuff Blog