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> Mike McGuff Blog

Summer is quickly approaching and I am sure there are students out there wondering where they should do the all important internship. I interned at KTRK 13 as a youngster and ended up getting a job there so it does work. But where to begin?

A new site aptly called internships.com has just launched that helps you sort it all out. It actually works on different levels:

Employers
Post internships, Search for candidates, Manage your listings, Manage your interns and internship program

Interns
Identify the type of internship that meets your goals with the Internship Predictor, Build your resume, Learn how to be effective in an interview and how to dress for success, Search for internships

Higher Education
Post internship opportunities that are exclusive to your students, Customize and send materials about your students to prospective employers, Review and track the success of your student interns

I scanned around and found internship listings for MTV, ABC, NBC…etc, but it is not just a media site. If you type in Houston as the location, you will see listings for The Chronicle, NASA, Aeros, Dynamo…etc.

RELATED
- Rapping to be a Colbert Report intern
- More on interning in television

> Mike McGuff Blog

Margaret Downing posted on Hair Balls a few weeks ago how HISD is starting an Internet radio station for parents and students. I totally forgot to post this and now it is showing up all over the place.

Interesting concept.

I am more interested in Pat Fant, the man behind the new station. I’ve been blogging about Fant for years. He was one of the driving forces behind Rock 101 KLOL in its glory years. He then packed up and started 94.5 KTBZ The Buzz in the early 90s which was an amazing alternative station when it first signed on. He also tried to bring the KLOL spirit back with Rock 103.7 KIOL. That didn’t work, but I am not sure he was the reason for the failure.

We should watch what he does this time.

And speaking of Rock 101 KLOL, I talked about putting together a DJ reunion, but Lanny Griffith suggested a better idea. A documentary. I have already been offered a great amount of material about the former rock station. It’s the money that is the hard part. I would want to hire professional TV folks to help me like I did for the Mayor Annise Parker social media interview I recently conducted. A 15 minute interview is one thing, an entire documentary will cost a bit more. My 30 minute TV specials have been Emmy nominated so I can do this.  Know anyone who wants to sponsor something like this?

Pat Fant would be someone I would want to interview for sure - he along with Stevens and Pruett and gang, Outlaw Dave, Dayna Steele, Wendy Miller, Lanny Griffith and anyone else I could find.

> Mike McGuff Blog

I can’t begin to tell you how many people come to my blog looking for news on Sam Malone (formerly of 104.1 KRBE, Mix 96.5 KHMX, 740 KTRH). This has gotten bigger as Maria Todd returned to Mix 96.5.

Malone has been filling in on 700 KSEV here and there but he has a bio on the station’s Web site and a more apparent permanent presence now. He is on the 4 to 6pm slot that is labeled as Dan Patrick’s show on KSEVradio.com.

I was supposed to interview Malone via telephone Monday but my voice is totally gone. Instead I am waiting on email questions.

I believe he is on again from 4 to 6pm on 700 KSEV today.

RELATED
- Maria Todd and Brad Booker team up for Mix 96.5 KHMX mornings
- Maria Todd on Mix 96.5 KHMX, but where’s Sam Malone?
- Sam Malone and Maria Todd still have an audience in Houston
- Is Sam Malone going to 700 KSEV?
- Hear Houston radio’s Sam Malone again
- Sam Malone of KRBE, KHMX talks to Mike McGuff

> Mike McGuff Blog

The winners have been selected in the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters 2009-2010 Television Contest. SEE THEM HERE

Congrats to all.

RELATED
Mike McGuff wins at TAPB 2008-2009

> Mike McGuff Blog

Looks like the Houston Press got a new Web site. Very nice. The blogs are very nicely profiled. The only issue I have is that the blog headlines under the rotating main section are little smashed together.

http://www.houstonpress.com/

> Mike McGuff Blog

Dallas-Fort Worth radio station 102.1 The Edge announces the mega line up playing EdgeFest 20:

Monday, March 8th 102.1 The Edge announces the mega line up playing EdgeFest 20!
At 5 pm today, afternoon host Jessie announced EdgeFest 20 will have Frisco, TX rocking on Saturday, May 1st. Pizza Hut Park will again play host to this all day, two stage musical festival. Artists like Limp Bizkit, Three Days Grace, 30 Seconds to Mars, Deftones, Flyleaf, Switchfoot, 10 Years, Phoenix, Metric, Cage the Elephant, Violent Soho, The Crash Kings, Neon Trees and more will give DFW residents a day full of rock & roll!
Tickets on sale this Friday, March 12th at 4pm at all Ticketmaster outlets.
Pizza Hut Park is located at 6000 Main Street in Frisco.
Log on to www.KDGE.com for all things EdgeFest 20!

> Mike McGuff Blog

We haven’t heard much out of 1560 The Game KGOW in Houston lately. Seems the radio station has a no clothing policy for some employees as seen during the John Granato and Lance Zierlein morning show (notice the radio station banners in the studio).

> Mike McGuff Blog

Former KTRK 13 anchor Mark Garay guest blogs this post on the mikemcguff.com blog:

The Changing Interview

Without question, a major part of news gathering has always been the interview. You really can’t tell a story without talking to the people upon whom any given story is based or at the very least, related. There are also advantages, actual golden moments which happen off camera during interview settings. Often, as the crew was setting up, I used to talk to interview subjects to make them feel comfortable and discuss the questions I planned to ask. These moments produced GOLD more often than I can count. Knowing they were off camera, interview subjects would open up a bit. Sometimes more than a bit. Much more. I’ve gotten details off camera I never could have with the tape rolling. Sometimes, an interview subject would lean forward to reach my ear, and whisper some wonderful nugget of information or gossip. Other times, my interviewee might mention something he or she felt was completely irrelevant, but was actually a fascinating direction for my story to go. Producing a news story without interviews is like playing baseball without bases. You can still participate in the game, but there’s no structure.

INTERVIEWS ARE CHANGING

Increasingly, we are seeing Network Correspondents interviewing people through live internet video connection services. I saw one such interview recently, with the correspondent actually saying, “We interviewed (Mr. Johnson) over the (name) web service.”

The reasons here are fairly obvious.

-Costs

TV News Networks are handcuffed in many areas, because of… well… the areas. Networks aren’t covering one town or one country. They are trying to cover the world. And as such, it’s very expensive to properly tell the stories network audiences have come to expect. Network News Bureaus used to help by covering national regions or foreign beats. But with the bulldozing emergence of cable and internet technologies, Network Bureaus have had to close down due to cost saving efforts by tower “officed” executives who may know as little about news as they do about priorities. It’s very expensive to staff network bureaus. You have on air “talent”, videographers, editors, assignment managers, producers and administrators to pay, equipment to maintain, and office space to lease or buy. And that’s just the beginning. As a result, networks have had to compromise the product upon which they relied so heavily to pay the bills. They can’t compete with audience segmentation and the inexpensive resources employed by their media competitors. To loosely quote a line from the movie Cinderella Man, “it is a sad death to a once flourishing success, with the body still breathing.”

-Immediacy

Even if the networks still had the resources they’ve been forced to sacrifice, getting news crews to the interviews takes time. Here’s an example: It’s a Tuesday. In Washington, there are Senate hearings unfolding about the fatal gas pedal problems with Toyota. A high ranking company official is telling our elected officials that the problem has been taken care of, and that the American public should continue buying Toyotas with full confidence in safety and reliability. At the same time, in Pocatello Idaho, a woman and her 9 year old child are killed in a Toyota on their way home from school. Obviously, these two stories might be connected. And if it turns out they are, getting a network crew to Idaho in time for that day’s broadcast would likely be impossible. Used to be they could fly a crew post haste from the Denver bureau, or maybe the Seattle bureau. Not anymore. Instead, the stories are told through the blinding speed of the internet. No one is making a whole lot of money by covering this story on the web, but who cares? The story is being told and the public is getting what it wants. Who cares if the network isn’t the messenger, aside from the network?

My friends, reality is a bitch. Information is constantly finding ways to reach people quicker and cheaper. The networks are battling Abrams tanks with spears and swords. They cannot compete. It is this former news reporter’s opinion that instead of seeing news professionals sitting next to their interview subjects, you will start seeing more of them looking at their interview subjects through a monitor.

And remember all those “golden moments” I discussed earlier in this piece? You can’t find gold without searching for it in person. And it simply won’t land in your lap through a computer monitor.

- Mark Garay

Find out more about Garay’s latest work at CodeMark Poductions LLC.

> Mike McGuff Blog

Austin TV gets a new reporter with Jade Mingus’ arrival to KVUE 24. She was just a reporter at KCEN Channel 6 in the Waco/Temple/Killeen market. I imagine making a live appearance on NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams does great things for your career.

http://jademingus.com/

> Mike McGuff Blog