Oregon Media Insiders

This video has made the rounds, but I think it should be also put down for posterity here:
(warning: you can not unsee what you has seen)

And now, the short, strange story of Cathy Cheek, reporting for WXII, Greensboro NC:

Hazard pay for that, we wonder?

Not very long ago, POJ-fans were surprised by the sudden disappearance of a fond morning voice. Heidi Tauber, KPOJ's AM news voice, abruptly disappeared without warning or explanation; one day, they ID'd by their familiar and playful "THC-Thom, Heidi, and Carl", and the next day – "Carl Wolfson and Friends".

It's all over the news today, and to be honest, this inexperienced pundit still doesn't know if it promises good ... or rather less bad. But it looks to me like some sanity might have taken root on Capitol HIll.

In 2007, the FCC (despite overwhelming public comment to the contrary) voted to allow media companies to own both a major TV or radio station and a major newspaper in the same city. This could be seen to encourage further consolidation of a media industry many seem to see as too consolidated as it is.

I'll put my cards on the table right up front here; I am a fan of the Randi Rhodes, and what follows is perforce extremely personal opinion.

When I heard she was being suspended for remarks made in poor taste (but not on the air, and certainly no worse than some who get prominent air-time and endless passes for their behavior get (the gentle reader can compile their own lists)) I was dismayed, and when it happened that she was cashiered from Air America for those remarks, I was sorely disappointed.

Walking down the street with The Wife™ and seeing the sky reflected in the puddles as the raindrops splash in, I couldn't keep a little Ray Summers voice from starting to narrate the scent ...

"What sorts of things do we think about in the spring rain ... ... ... looking at the raindrops splashing in the puddles ... ... "

God, I miss that guy.

"Ray Summers .. ... ... channel 6."

Though this isn't about Oregon media, it does highlight something that we'll bet a lot of OMI's regular readers and occasional bloggers (me and me and hopefully you and you) wonder and think about from time to time.

Many of you may be aware of Brittney Gilbert. She rose to prominence as a local-level media-political 'bloglebrity" (if readers will excuse the portmanteau) in Nashville a few years back. From there she got into local television, came from Tennessee to California, and now works for KPIX, the CBS O&O in SF. The ID is "CBS 5", in accordance with the CBS Mandate.

A Friday Dance party works pretty well for WKRC-12 in Cincinnati:

C'mon, Wayne, Shauna, you guys ... you know you want to!

From Lynn: This is your weekend open thread. Can't really top this one. :)

Being a science fiction fan of long standing, I'm used to the vox populi passing some sort of less-than-respectful judgement on me, my friends, the lifestyle I lead...I'm usually a socially inept loser who blogs from their parent's basement, obsessed with statistics and trivia and delusions of being a spaceship captain.

For the purpose of disclosure, I am blogging from a basement, but it's my basement in my house.

In what may seem a minor point to some, about a week and a half back on my own personal blog (The Zehnkatzen Times), I (meekly and respectably) pointed out how the KVAL on-screen graphics for their lead stories had a minor yet quite arresting error to them.

The graphics, which were presumably supposed to read out "First at 6" or "First at 11" were typeset to read "First @ at 6" and "First @ at 11"-with both the "commercial-at" symbol as well as the actual word "at".