10 in HD

Last night News10 debuted their new set and went in High Definition. Here are a couple pictures, more on their facebook page. There are still some equipment used on the set from the previous one, but overall it's a new look for them. It slightly reminds me of KUSA's Denver's set and KING-TV's from Seattle.

News10 Going in HD!

Finally, News10 is getting a chance broadcast in High Definition. The HD package includes a brand new set which will reflect on our community, they will still continue to broadcast field reports in standard definition digitall, the CG graphics will slighty change because of the 16x9 format, and no word yet if new music is included, and according to the president of News10, they will have the most dynamic 3D weather graphics in the market. But for now this is a big and exciting change for News10 and it's long time viewers. We can expect to see the change in just a few weeks now in mid-December... a great way to go into 2010. But for now, all newscast will be broadcast from the Information Center in the newsroom. (personally, I would like to see more breaking news coverage)

If you like to see the timelas of News10's old set getting teared down, click on the link below and the video will be on the right hand side of the page.

http://www.news10.net/life/entertainment/local-entertainment/story.aspx?storyid=70620&catid=103

The set being 'teared down'

FX Group is the creator of News10's Set

FX Group has been chosen to design News10's set and in just a few days it will debt on News10 at 11! Just a few days ago, anchors went shopping with consultants to find outfits that will best suit the colors of the set and they also have done some practicing with the anchors on lighting and camera shots. Below are a few examples of what we can expect to see for the new set. Some interesting fact's... FX also brought in KCRA's HD set almost three years ago, so they all pretty much look the same. And usually sets are transfered to city to city.

November Sweeps

November - traditionally the top TV ratings month - proved to be a good one for KCRA 3, which maintained its usual spot on top the local news rankings as reported by Nielsen.

November, because of weather and sweeps programming outside the news hours, tends to draw more viewers, leading broadcasters to compare year to year, rather than November to July, when viewership was much lower at every time slot.

Though other stations continue to challenge KCRA, it still has the best numbers when measured in average numbers of households watching during five time frames: 6-7 a.m., mid-day news, 5-5:30 p.m. newscasts, 6-6:30 p.m. shows and late news - shows appearing between 10 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.

KCRA saw its greatest dominance in evening news, with 118,900 households at 5 p.m. and 104,400 at 6 p.m. Those numbers represent averages throughout the sweeps month, which went from Oct. 29 to Nov. 25.

At 6 p.m. KCRA was followed by KXTV 10 with 41,100 viewers, KOVR 13 with 35,800 viewers and KUVS 19 (Univision) with 31,300 viewers.

Other stations continue to pose their biggest challenges to the leader in the late news bracket.

KOVR, which broadcasts at 10 p.m. and therefore doesn't go head-to-head with KCRA's main late news at 11 p.m., got 57,500 viewers to KCRA's 62,600.

Those two were followed by KTXL 40 (Fox) with 38,600 at 10 p.m., KXTV with 35,900 at 11 p.m., KQCA 58 (KCRA's sister station) with 21,800 at 10 p.m. and KUVS with 18,700 at 11 p.m.

Source: Sacbee.com/21q

Weather Tower Getting "TLC"

After 10 years of the beating sun, and rain... The News10 Weather Tower is slowly getting retouched. In 2007, I wrote about this problem and finally I'm glad it's getting taken care of. As of now most of the lights do not work on the tower... including the color indicator on the top.

This is a before and after look of the tower. 2007 vs. 2009

Excuse me

I notice I have had some simple errors on here, and it's sad I don't catch them. One of the main reasons is because as you can tell, I don't do much updates as I did before. So when I am on here I quickly write up what I'm going to say. Thankfully, it's just for practice =)

Switching Over...

Reporter Suzanne Phan is now freelancing for News10! It was kind of a shock for me to see her on Monday reporting for News10 from the Auburn fire aftermath. Suzanne had been with KCRA since 2000 and graduated from UC San Diego.

And Louisa Hodge is now reporting for News10. I was surprised to see her today at 5 p.m. If you remember she was over at Fox40. Who knows, since Louisa has weather experience she could be replacing someone's position in the future for weather.

Patty resigns/ Gannett

I found this out moments it was posted online Tuesday night, but I'm getting a chance to write about it just now.

Patty Souza has been in Sacramento for 7 years, and at News10 for 3 years. Earlier this week she made a difficult decision to leave the station stating that she was going pursue other interests and life dreams. However, she plans to stay in Sacramento. You can read the full statement left for the viewers by clicking on this link.

http://origin.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=67852&provider=top#

Also, I just thought I write this too.

The owner company of News10, Gannett has been going through some problems financially. It's one of the reasons why most of the News10 staff have left because of lower salaries and everyone having to do double the work. Gannett owns 12 TV stations in the U.S. and only 7 stations are airing their news broadcast in high definition. News10, is not one of them. In the past Gannett's profits went down and were forced to layoff a few thousand employee's. However, they are still considered one of the largest newspaper publishers in the country. Hopefully things will turn around for Gannett sooner or later.

Newcomers to Sacramento!

Mae Fesai, newest on-air talent at KCRA. She anchors and reports when needed usually in the mornings. She comes from KSBW in the Salinas/ Monterey market.


Nick Monacelli is new t0 News10, he comes from WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids, MI. The same station where Tim Geraghty (News10 news director) came from.


Kenny Lopez joins FOX40 from KVEO-23 in Brownsville, Texas. He is one of the youngest reporters I've seen in this market. I'm guessing 24?


Neda Iranpour joins CBS 13 as a general assignment reporter from Reno, Nevada.


Amanda Sanchez comes from the ABC affiliate in Las Vegas, Nevada. She will take over Anny Hong's position... which was weather anchoring/ and reporting. As for Anny, from what I've heard she's moved to Paris. But have no other information than that. I will definitely update this when I do.


Her name is Laura Skride, and she comes from the NBC affiliate in Austin, Texas! Se will be 'weathering' the forecast Weekdays on CBS 13 from 5-7 a.m. and at noon as well. A little bit about Laura, she graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in the mid 90s and earned her Certificate of Broadcast Meteorology from Mississippi State University in the early 2000's.


News10 has hired a new freelance reporter! Her name is Patricia Kakridas and she comes from the NBC affiliate in Decatur, IL where she co-anchored. Patricia graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Political Science and Communications. She's a local! And was a producer/ write for FOX40. An interesting fact she speaks Greek and Spanish! Welcome Patricia


Ben Deci joins FOX40 from ABC in Las Vegas where we worked mainly as an investigative reporter. He graduated from the University of Michigan.


Ama Daetz joins FOX40 as a fill-in anchor from WDIV in Detroit! She's a native from San Jose and graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

-Danielle Leigh joins KCRA 3 on the "Night team"

Angel Cardenas is officially doing traffic for News10 Good Morning. Melissa Crowley, who had done traffic for the show since November 2001, is going to continue to focus on hosting Sacramento & Company along with Guy Ferris. 4 years ago this month, the show went on air taking over what the Midday show used to do... i.e cooking segments, interviews.

She'll be back!

If you're a regular News10 viewer, then you probably notice Patty Souza has been off air for quite sometime. Don't worry, she didn't leave News10, but will be back in September. According to her Twitter page she was on leave and will be back shortly! They had to call Harry Stockman (freelance meteorologist, who also used to work for News10 in the past back in).

A Mini Switch

KCRA has decided to switch anchor's Chris Riva and Teo Torres to each other's positions. Teo for sometime anchored the weekend night editions of the newscast and reported a few days a week. Chris Riva anchored the My58 segments weekdays and also reported as well. Now, Chris is doing the weekends and Teo is co-anchoring with Deirdre.

And! Walt Gray is back to anchoring the noon newscast solo!

Northern California Anchor Co-Host's "Live with Regis & Kelly:"

After winning an online contest where viewers nationwide voted for her... San Francisco TV Journalist Janelle Wang got to co-host the Regis & Kelly show on Tuesday August 18th in New York. On the show Wang talked about what she plans to do next in the future and expressed how San Francisco will always be her home. Wang gave Regis a signed 49ers Joe Montana jersey as a gift and later interviewed actor James Spader.

Wang currently co-host ABC 7's "The View from the Bay" which airs weekdays at 3 p.m. along with Spencer Christian who used to forecast the weather on ABC's Good Morning America in the mid-late 90s.

You can watch a small clip of Janelle with Regis on the link provided below.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay&id=6938653

Interview goes wrong on Good Day Sacramento

A live interview on Good Day Sacramento with Joan Rivers did not go so well after entertainment reporter Mark S. Allen accidentally made Rivers upset after making a joke about her daughter. Rivers then decided to end the interview and said the F word on air. Everything went by quickly towards it end, it almost seemed like it was edited. The clip made it on TMZ.com and can be viewed by clicking on the link below.

http://www.tmz.com/videos?autoplay=true&mediaKey=a471a4d5-31b6-4b01-871e-880e79a6a508

Back in CA

Remember Jeff Raineri? Jeff worked at KCRA for a few years as the weekend morning meteorologist and left in 2005 to MSNBC and NBC Weather Plus to forecast on national TV. After working in Chicago for a while and New York City. Jeff is now back in California, and he's the Chief Meteorologist for KNTV- NBC 11 in San Jose, California. Welcome back Jeff.

KCRA Weather

If you watch KCRA constantly, then you probably have noticed a few unfamilar meteorologist's. Jeff Martinez is the newest member to join the Weather Plus team. He currently appears on the weekend morning editions and will fill in during the work week. He freelanced for KCRA back in 2005 for a while, and recently came from ABC in San Francisco where he freelanced as well.

Some changes at News10

Jennifer Smith, long time news anchor has stepped down from the Midday and Sunday night shows to a Multimedia Journalist position. She will on occasion fill-in anchoring, but her main duties will be to go out and report on stories. Also, according to some sources she is expected to retire sometime next year.

Cristi Jessee, one of News10's first Multimedia Journalist has decided to take a position as news director in Minnesota. Her last day will be on August 3rd.

News10's Nicole Chavez and Gregg Lalka will be leaving the station. They both joined in 2005 and will be headed to the central coast of California. They both are engaged and met while working together in Reno, NV.

Deborah Hoffman left the station in early July to work as the Communications Director for Senator Fran Pavley at the State Capitol. And yes, thats my arm.

So we can expect a few new faces at News10 in the Fall.

News10, only hiring Multimedia Journalist!

Since 2008, News10 has decided to take an approach to have every reporter shoot, edit, write their own stories instead of having 'crews' go out. Stacy Owen, former news director at News10 decided to take this path before she left the station earlier this year. KRON 4 in San Francisco also does the same thing and it's where Stacy Owen came from before joining News10.

So how does this all work? The reporters get assigned a story at the beginning of their shift, they grab a camera that is smaller from a regular field camera, and go off to shoot their interviews and "b-roll". Once they finish, they return back to write and edit their story and once it's time for a live shot, they go out with an actual photographer into the field. Usually, the photographers go out to the breaking news stories and if the story is huge, they will dispatch a reporter right away. Normally, if it's big like a protest or capitol budget story, both photog's and the reporter will be there. Slowly, more and more stations are doing this. FOX40 is looking to hire a few Multimedia Journalist, and when most reporters start off out from college they are required to do the whole shanagans.

Hope's to free Laura Ling & Euna Lee...

Lisa Ling will be in Sacramento Thursday July 9th for a vigil that will be held at the State Capitol to bring her sister Laura Ling, and Euna Lee of "Current TV" back home from North Korea after being arrested and sentenced for 12 years of "Harbor Labor". Lisa was featured Live_Online on News10.net discussing the event at the capitol and answering viewer questions. Moments after, she did a live interview outside the News10 studios for KCRA's 6:30 pm newscast.

The event will take place from 6:30pm- 8pm on the west steps of the State Capitol. The mayor and governor are expected to be there and Sharon Ito will MC the event. If you would like to send your support or help out, you can visit the website just lunched today below.

http://www.lauraandeuna.com/

Mini Update's

Mike Bond recently left FOX40 in May. He still plans to stay in Sacramento.

Edmundo Aguliar, CBS13 Stockton bureau reporter's contract was up and was not renewed. Andrea Menniti, is now covering stories in the Stockton area.

Amity Addrisi, is currently freelancing for FOX40.

Danny Pommels contract was not renewed, KCRA is decided to shorten their sports staff.

Rick Boone is now co-anchoring the weekends with Terri Cox at FOX40, Joe Orlando is now working on the FOX40 Live Morning Show.

Update

Hi everyone,

I know it's been a while since I've updated my site, but I've been busy with school, and since applying for a job position at a TV station, it's kind of in a way stop me from continuing to write more. But, I will be updating it soon.

New News Director

Gannett, the owner of News10, recently picked Tim Geraghty from the ABC affiliate in Grand Rapids, Michigan to be the vice president and information director for News10.

"My family and I are excited to go to Sacramento," Geraghty stated in a news release. "I am looking forward to connecting with my new community and leading the News 10 Information Center. Geraghty is expected to start in late May.

As for Stacy Owen, former News director (2005-2009) she recently started her own company in Sacramento.... "Owen Media Group" which is a multimedia consulting company.

Check out her website:

http://www.owenmedia.com/

Call Kurtis Story Goes to Judge Judy....

A wedding is suppose to be a special day to remember, but that wasn't the case for a Roseville couple. The only thing their guest's remembered was the heat during the reception.

The Roseville couple said the air conditioning was not working in the hall, and it was a 100+ degree day.They decided to take their case to Call Kurtis, and later to Judy Judy after the owner of the hall faxed a contract to the Call Kurtis team that was different than the one Kurtis received from the newly weds.

At the end, the owner of the hall was fined $1,400. You can watch the story, and the full interview's of Judge Judy and her bailiff by clicking on the link below.

http://cbs13.com/consumer/judge.judy.interview.2.1007397.html

Sports Show on Hiatus

The Sports Show that airs Saturday and Sunday at 10:45 p.m. is on hiatus for the moment while CBS13 redevlopes their sports coverage, according to news director Cameryn Beck. And with that Arran Anderson's contract recently expired. In the meantime, Beck also stated they do plan to cover sports when it makes news. As for Arran, he plans to stay locally.

Local Anchor Survives Cancer Treatment...

Good Day Sacramento traffic anchor Tina Macuha recently found out she had Stage Zero breast cancer. According to her colleagues, she has always been very proactive about her health and because of that she was able to catch it early before it could spreed. Tina has undergone surgery to remove her breast's and she is currently resting at home making a full recovery before she returns back to the show. Recently a car was was held in Carmichael to help raise money to benefit the Susan G. Koman race for the cure of breast cancer awareness program. $5 from every car wash was donated. Tina plans to be return sometime in June 2009.
A special page has been set up to keep viewers informed about Tina's recovery and what you can do if your a female wanting to know more.

http://gooddaysacramento.com/tina

Temporary Change...

You may have notice a slight change during FOX40 News. Dennis Shanahan is now weather anchoring for the weekend night editions (as he did before, but now frequently), and Louisa Hodge, who weather anchored the weekend nights, is now reporting! And I did some investigation (well kind of)

News Director Brandon Mercer says it's a temporary change. "Dennis and Louisa both continue to do weather for FOX40." Mercer said. "Recently, Louisa discovered some fantastic story ideas about very unusual ways social networking is changing our lives from crime fighting to health, job finding to science. We wanted to give her more days to work on this series we're calling Louisa OnLine. You'll see some eye-opening stories soon on this, and you'll also continue seeing her doing weather from time to time."

NBC's Bureau Leaves Sacramento

Mike Luery has been the capitol correspondent in California appearing for NBC affiliates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego for several years, and that came to an end on Friday April 24. Luery released an e-mail going around about his journey.

"The Sacramento Bureau is closing down this week. My photographer Mykie Vang and I want you to know how much we've enjoyed working with you over the past three years.

As a reporter, you couldn't ask for a better beat than to cover demonstrations at the Capitol, political campaigns for president and of course the "Governator" Arnold Schwarzenegger. We've also followed important issues like education, jobs, gay rights, the environment and government, with a critical look at whether our tax dollars are being spent wisely or unwisely. And along the way, we've had the opportunity to cover stories on wildfires at Lake Tahoe, wild bears in the woods and even some wayward whales in the Delta.

It's been a great ride and I feel honored and privileged to have been given the chance to cover these stories for you over the past three years. I am an eternal optimist and believe that when a door closes, a window will open up for a new opportunity. Mykie and I would like very much to stay in touch, so I am providing our contact information below."

Mike Luery

No word yet where Mike and his photographer are headed to. The only major affiliate in California with a capitol correspondent is Nannette Miranda with ABC.

Senior Reporter leaves News10

Mark Hedlund joined News10 on March 30, 1981... the day President Reagan was shot. Hedlund has covered all sorts of stories throughout Northern California including floods, fires, and his speciality... court appearance's.

Most people don't know this, but coincidentally Hedlund's son is also a general assignment reporter working for CBS in the Washington/ Idaho market since 2006.

Working almost 30 years in Sacramento, Hedlund has decided to leave. His last appearance was Friday April 17 on News10 at 5. He will continue to reside in Sacramento along with his wife, Beth. Hedlund will now be working at the state assembly speakers office.