13 NOV 07: HAWKEYES ON THE PEACOCK

So did you watch the opening night of WLTZ's evening newscasts? If you knew it was coming, perhaps you did. If you didn't know it was coming, let me give you some important guidance -- Dr. Phil has moved to 4:00 p.m. ET.

Months of planning culminated Monday night, with the first local newscasts on WLTZ NBC-38 in 14 years. The Ledger-Enquirer made it a front page story - and it's a shame that it took the newspaper almost 12 weeks to confirm what we first reported here [22 Aug]....

In reality, the Ledger-Enquirer probably kept quiet because it's partnering with WLTZ for its three evening newscasts. Well, make that two-and-a-half - as The 6:00 Report was replayed in large sections at 7:00 p.m. It's a wonder they didn't simply call it The 6:00 Central Time Report.

WLTZ certainly kept its premiere of local news low-key. If not for the front-page newspaper article, most people never would have known it was coming. The station's web site wasn't even updated to announce it - instead promoting Dr. Phil broadcasts at two times of day when you can't see him anymore.

If WLTZ actually has own local news set, it wasn't on display Monday night. Maybe when a source told me about the fancy new set weeks ago, that person forgot to tell me it was in Iowa.

Almost the entire WLTZ newscast Monday evening came from Davenport, Iowa. Yet the anchors tried to make the news as local as possible - and never once brought up the presidential candidates campaigning all around them.

The top story for WLTZ's opening night of news was the federal holiday for Veterans Day. Trouble is, their report consisted entirely of Friday's memorial service outside the Government Center. You'll notice NBC-38 isn't promising "late-breaking" news - simply late.

If watching three-day-old news wasn't curious enough, a reporter claimed during the Veterans Day program, "Songs were SANG." Not sung - sang. So much for English teachers leading classes on WLTZ station tours for awhile....

WLTZ's newscast has fancy graphics and an impressive-looking set. But after weeks of rehearsals and a sample newscast shown to the Columbus Kiwanis Club, the start of the opening night news was sadly disappointing. And trying to connect someone at the Springer Opera House with Celine Dion and Oprah Winfrey was absurd - especially when we saw photos of Jimmy Carter.

The best part for me about the WLTZ Monday night newscast came at the one point when the Ledger-Enquirer's staff clearly was used. Action photos illustrated Columbus State's Sunday win in the women's soccer playoffs. If only those photographers had been used during the top story, we might actually have seen some expression on Mayor Jim Wetherington's face.

Al Fleming offered a commentary during WLTZ's 7:00 Report - but by then I was out jogging. I assume he patted his station on the back for launching a daily newscast, and bragged about how wonderfully different it will be from the other stations. Someone should challenge Fleming to name the other "Quad Cities" around Davenport.

The opening night of WLTZ news ended with a short late-night program called "11 @ 11." It repeated the top three stories from 6:00 (with songs still "sang"), gave you a short weather report - and included four-and-a-half minutes of commercials. The biggest news for me was the ad about a jewelry store going out of business.

It's probably not fair to rate a newscast or TV station by one evening. Things are bound to improve over time. But Monday's premiere of news on WLTZ probably left people smiling at WRBL - because there's finally a 6:00 and 11:00 newscast that's worse in the ratings than they are.

E-MAIL UPDATE: How can you watch all the local broadcast stations on satellite TV? A reader raised that question Monday, and another reader now responds:

Tell the Directv customer to be patient as locals will probably appear in 2008. They have launched one satellite (D10) successfully and another (D11) is scheduled for the 1st of the year that together with 2 other satelites (spaceway 1 & 2), there is supposed to be capacity for 1500 HD local stations. That should just about guarentee the Columbus stations will have an opportunity to be carried.

However, there are more pieces to the puzzle. While Directv may have the capacity, there has to be a local uplink center for the stations and there has to be an agreement between the local stations and Directv to carry them. Many large cities have missing HD locals due to disputes in compensation between them and Directv. You have to remember that Columbus is the #128 market out of #210, so there are some other larger markets ahead of us.

J.M.

This person comes across like he/she knows this topic well. If someone told me about a "spaceway," I'd guess that's where the Jetsons go to watch NASCAR races.

Now let's take off the "TV Critic" label and consider some news items TV newsrooms probably discussed on Monday:

+ WRBL reported the Columbus Water Board voted against tougher penalties, for customers who violate Georgia's watering restrictions. Maybe they plan a more secretive approach to punishment - like showing up late at night and spraying Krazy Glue over garden hoses.

+ SOA Watch announced Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich will appear at its rally outside Fort Benning next weekend. The "over-and-under" for how many UFO's Kucinich sees there is three-and-a-half.

+ TV preacher Creflo Dollar disclosed his Atlanta-area megachurch had about 69 million dollars in income last year. And then you wonder why some other ministers label him as a "prosperity gospel" preacher....

(Creflo Dollar told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution his congregation gave him a Rolls-Royce to drive. In Dollar's words: "Just because something is excessive doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong." This preacher obviously doesn't have Al Gore as a member.)

+ The Columbus Cottonmouths signed veteran defenseman Tom Wilson to a short-term contract. Wilson can't play Thursday or Friday nights, because he's working with the Columbus EMS. Then Saturday night, he may slug a Knoxville player right into his assigned ambulance.

+ Instant Message to the Atlanta Freethought Society: OK, so you oppose Governor Perdue holding an outdoor prayer meeting today. You probably oppose the one outside the Columbus Government Center, too. So what are YOU doing to bring rain?

THE BLOG OF AMERICA: Roman Catholic officials announced Monday that Pope Benedict XVI will visit the Northeast U.S. next April. Some parts of the schedule remain uncertain. If the Writers' Guild strike isn't settled, the pope will have to find an alternative to appearing on "The Daily Show."

(Pope Benedict's U.S. tour will include a welcome at the White House, and an open-air mass at New York's Yankee Stadium. We're waiting for word about whether the New York Mets will postpone their baseball game that day, to obtain a special blessing.)

+ In another sign that the Writers' Guild strike could be lengthy, NBC's "Tonight Show" began showing reruns with Edd Hall as the announcer. I've lost track of Hall since he left Jay Leno - so has he won any reality game shows on cable?

+ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for Congressional hearings into a big oil spill in San Francisco Bay. San Francisco is Pelosi's home city - so could it be that she'll now prefer spills in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge instead?

+ A large fire broke out on the site of the 2012 London Olympics. There must be a better way to train British sprinters for the 100-meter dash....

+ Executives with E-Trade rejected financial analysts' suggestions that the company might have to file for bankruptcy. If it happens, I move the company be ordered to change its name downward to F-Trade.

+ Former Vice President Al Gore was hired by a venture capital firm in California's Silicon Valley. Maybe this means he'll get to put the "Energy Star" stickers on new computers.

(Al Gore admitted to National Public Radio he's concerned about television news giving more attention to "Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears" than to "complex choices" involved with climate change. He raises a valid point, you know. Who IS Spears endorsing for President, anyway?)

+ A CareerBuilder employee survey revealed one-third of the workers have called out sick during the last year, when they were really well. In related news, Republican Presidential candidates called on Democratic candidates to reduce their health care plans by 33 percent.

+ American Red Cross workers marked Veterans Day by handing out free doughnuts on the National Mall in Washington. NBC News explained the Red Cross was trying to atone for selling doughnuts to soldiers during World War II. That's funny - the Red Cross doesn't seem to apologize today, for selling donated blood to hospitals.

+ Elizabeth Hasselbeck called "The View," and announced her new baby boy is named Taylor. For a conservative Republican like Hasselbeck, this is simply shocking! That boy could grow up watching Taylor Swift sing country songs, and develop serious gender questions.

+ Country singer Toby Keith has been inducted into the Oklahoma state Hall of Fame. Don't bother asking anymore, Toby - they like you now.

+ The University of Wyoming's head football coach apologized, for making an obscene gesture with his hand toward the Utah bench last weekend. Let there be no doubt: this is NOT the way to tell your opponent they're the number-one team.

(Joe Glenn publicly guaranteed his Wyoming team would beat Utah last Saturday -- and Utah won 50-0. Let's all hope no one suggests Glenn give up coaching, and run for Congress.)

+ Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia was named the American League Rookie of the Year. Pedroia reportedly played the last two months of the season with a broken bone in one hand -- which it turns out was better than the New York Yankees playing with a broken pitching staff.

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