Houston.BloggersPub

According to D Magazine, In-N-Out Burger is coming to Texas in the DFW Metroplex area. The lucky city is Garland, TX.

Now you obviously think of Los Angeles when you hear the name In-N-Out Burger, but the chain is also in a hand full of other states.

However this will be the first Texas location as far as I could tell from the burger restaurant’s website.

(Thanks Michael)

> Mike McGuff Blog

This video is supposedly from Van Halen’s earliest demo recording. It’s called Glitter and was recorded in the early 1970s.

(via Ultimate-Guitar)

> Mike McGuff Blog

The Houston Astros and Rockets could soon have a new TV home according to John Ourand of
Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal:

Comcast has emerged as the clear front-runner in the bid to obtain local TV rights for the Houston Astros and Rockets, according to several sources.

Comcast executives are expected in the next few weeks to fly to Houston, where they could finalize the deal. That agreement would lead to the launch of a new regional sports network in the market starting with the 2012-13 NBA season. READ THE REST

This would be quite a blow to Fox Sports Houston which currently has the rights to those broadcasts. Especially since Fox just signed on Fox Sports Houston a year ago.

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> Mike McGuff Blog

I saw it on CNBC and now the financial news sites are publishing like mad about the recent Disney employee arrest.   More from the New York Times:

Two people, including an employee of the Walt Disney Company, were arrested in Los Angeles on Wednesday on charges of insider trading tied to the entertainment giant.

The two individuals — Bonnie Hoxie, an executive assistant at Disney, and Yonni Sebbag, a friend — were accused of trying to sell confidential information about Disney to several investment firms, including hedge funds.

The information included quarterly earnings and purported tips on alleged efforts to sell the ABC television network to private equity firms. READ THE REST

Guess this explains where all the ABC for sale rumors are coming from that financial sites have been posting the last several months. Who knows if it is even true.

> Mike McGuff Blog

Let’s return to a magical time in television news when an army of staffers could be found in a TV newsroom, computers were a small part of the game, analog ruled and people still were hung over from the 1980s. I’m talking the early 1990s here.

So get out a photo of your favorite live truck operator and tape librarian to watch this video shot at the WXIA 11Alive newsroom in Atlanta on the evening of August 25, 1993. Maybe if we can continue to stay mentally in 1993, we can catch an old episode of Beavis and Butt-Head or something.

(via Live Apartment Fire)

> Mike McGuff Blog

Dallas station KDAF 33 tried to do a sexy sweeps story that was sure to bring in the ratings. The station recruited a DFW couple to see if they could have sex everyday for 30 days and report back about the experience.

Pastor Ed Young in Grapevine pushed his parishioners to try this a few years ago too. I saw him on Good Morning America talking about.

I am sure KDAF picked an attractive couple to talk about having sex on air…what could go wrong? Jacquielynn Floyd of the Dallas Morning News fills us in:

The young woman told me she and her husband were initially surprised when their all-in-fun TV appearance turned up on blogs and news headlines all over the Internet.

But then, she said, her son’s baby sitter, searching for sites that were talking about the story, came across an anonymous blogger who knew their family’s address and the name of their young son.

“He said he was going to shoot my 2-year-old son in the head,” she said, her voice shaking. READ THE REST

KDAF pulled the story from its website after that and ended the affair. You can still see the couple’s blog entries here. The perils of infotainment I guess.

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> Mike McGuff Blog

Last October I posted about how Houston was possibly picking up a Lingerie Football League expansion team in 2010. Well 2010 is here and I have not heard anymore about this.

Being that this is the blog “Where you come for news that matters to you,” (I paid a consultant on Madison Avenue for that tagline…Madison Avenue in Azle, TX that is.  They gave me a good price.) I contacted the Lingerie Football League and here is the Houston team’s status right now.

“We are currently seeking an ownership group in Houston, if we secure, we will announce and hopefully kickoff in Houston in Fall 2011,” a representative from LFL Media told the mikemcguff.com blog.

So come on. Who out there wants to own a Lingerie Football League team? Mattress Mack, Tillman Fertitta or (insert other rich Houstonian who buys big things for the city)?

Uh oh, here comes another Houston sports stadium fight. I would love to see Oliver Luck move to this team and wear a mauve colored jacket on Fox 26 to show support for the future Lingerie Stadium.

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Houston gets Lingerie Football League team

lflus.com/

> Mike McGuff Blog

Glad to see the New York Times reporting something about Houston other than the fact that we make some dumb nation’s fattest list (excuse me ice cream just dripped all over my keyboard, let me clean it).

Anyway, the former TVNewser himself Brian Stelter writes about how Houston is up there in HDTV usage and profiles KHOU 11’s digital efforts:

In Houston, which counts a higher proportion of HD viewers than any other market in the country, except for Washington, D.C., viewers rarely comment on the quality of KHOU’s signal, unless some sports event is not being carried in HD, that is.

“For the consumer, it was very easy,” Susan McEldoon, the station president, said of the transition.

KHOU was the first Houston station to upgrade to HD three years ago. “It’s such an expensive endeavor,” she said, with a multimillion-dollar investment in new cameras, computer servers and other equipment.

New sets for the newscasts were also built, and new graphics packages were created. Since then, KHOU’s competitors have all converted to HD, with the final station completing its transition this month. READ THE REST

Belo loves that high definition stuff. I remember in the late 90s when WFAA 8 in Dallas was all over that. Even if you could care less about HDTV, you should click on the NYT article just to see anchor Lucy Noland applying makeup. Us regular viewers don’t usually get that kind of access.

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> Mike McGuff Blog

Many of you know Michael Berry as the colorful afternoon 740 KTRH talk show host. You probably did not know he also served as AM operations manager for Clear Channel Houston.

Sources tell me that of last Friday the latter is no longer true. Longtime KTRH program director Bryan Erickson will be stepping into the operations manager role.

Berry stepping down from his management position does not surprise me. Why? Well he seems to be filling in on a lot of national shows lately. Then I noticed the debut of michaelberry.com…a site that could easily be made into a larger presence than just for Houston. So with more time for his show, is Michael Berry about to be a national radio show player?

“I’m now doing a longer show (4 full hours daily), and this takes all my time and energy.” Berry told the mikemcguff.com blog. “Our stations are performing well and Bryan Erickson was ready to step in and lead them. I don’t know if going national is the next step, but I’m flattered that there is interest in carrying my show in places outside our market. Only time will tell what that means for me and the show.”

Berry’s confession to me that his show could go outside Houston is the potential first step to a coast to coast broadcast. You can say you knew him when…

Just three years ago I interviewed Houston Councilman Michael Berry at city hall as he was leaving politics to enter radio management full time. How time flies.

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> Mike McGuff Blog

You decide the fate of six Houston media/chef/music celebrities. Who will be the one chosen to conduct the 95 member Texas Music Festival (TMF) Orchestra as participants in the Festival’s first-ever “Be A Conductor” contest.

The contest is going on now till June 9 on the Texas Music Festival Facebook Fan Page. The contestant who generates the greatest number of votes by the deadline will get to conduct the Festival Orchestra in the “Star Spangled Banner” at the Moores Opera House on Saturday, June 26, 7 p.m.

The candidates who are up for the conductor’s challenge are:
Nick Anderson, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist of the Houston Chronicle and in syndication
Brent Clanton, Host of the “CNN 650 AM Radio Morning Show”
Scott Gertner, Three-time GRAMMY Award nominee and owner of Scott Gertner’s SkyBar
Hugo Ortega, “Chef of the Year”/Houston Culinary Awards/executive chef of Hugo’s Mexican Restaurant and Backstreet Cafe
Monica Pope, Award-winning chef/owner of t’afia restaurant and recent BRAVO TV “Top Chef Masters” participant
Miya Shay, Reporter for KTRK-TV, ABC 13 whose main focus is government and politics

I’ve cast my vote!

The winner of the “Be A Conductor” contest will be announced on June 10 and will receive a one-half hour complimentary conducting lesson from UH Moores School of Music Conducting Professor Franz Anton Krager. Tickets to the June 26 performance, which will feature the Mitchell Young Artist Competition Winner, are included in the prize package for: Saturday, June 26, 2010; Moores Opera House, University of Houston, 7:30 p.m.

The Texas Music Festival is a summer music residency program at the University of Houston Moores School of Music now in its 21st season. Advanced music students from top music schools from all over the U.S. and several foreign countries audition for the 95 spots in the Festival Orchestra.

> Mike McGuff Blog