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Reporting President Kennedy's Murder

Pick debate winners instantaneously
If you can learn something about which candidate viewers feel did the best in a debate you will be offering information beyond a simple summarization of their carefully rehearsed statements.  An innovative project was explained by Jim Boyer, News Director of KOMO-TV, Seattle.

Help people survive in hard times
Viewers were urged to help tackle hunger in a campaign created by WFMJ-TV, Youngstown. The details were explained by News Director Mona Alexander and General Manager John Grdic.

Newscast expanded
at 10 p.m.
KOAT-TV, Albuquerque, expanded the 10 p.m. weekday newscasts to an hour, and quickly saw audience growth. The plan was explained by Mary Lynn Roper, President and General Manager.

Officers raiding meth labs: Many are ill from exposure
Former Utah narcotics officers, who put their lives on the line when they raided illegal meth labs a decade or two earlier, have died or are battling unusual illnesses.
The chemicals used to make the meth are deadly.
The story was investigated by the team at KSL-TV, Salt Lake City. Reporter Debbie Dujanovic found 58 police officers who had investigated meth labs in the previous two decades.
News Director Con Psarras explained how they put the project together, and told us, "We only found a few officers who didn't have a serious health problem. When compared to the average rates of illness and cancer among that age group, the statistics were indicative of a pretty big problem."
Of the 58 officers, 40 were sick or dead.

High on meth, speeding, killing --- and still driving
A log truck driver kept on rolling, in spite of overloading his truck and causing a fatal accident. The driver was off the road for only about one week after the accident. KING-TV's Chris Ingalls found there was no penalty, no suspension of his license, nothing ---he just went right back to driving. There should have been three strikes against him. He was speeding. His truck was overloaded. He tested positive for meth.

Changing the culture: A 24-Hour web channel
Web sales more than doubled in one year at WIBW-TV, Topeka. General Manager Jim Ogle shared with us the strategy that is working for his team.

Web Video Journalist Hired
A photographer has become talent and is producing stories for the Web site of WPRI-TV, Providence. He shoots, writes, and narrates the pieces. News Director Joe Abouzeid and his team explain how it works.

When Help Doesn't Arrive In Time  
Have a serious heart attack on the streets of Cleveland and the chances of being successfully recuscitate are slim.  WJW-TV's Tom Merriman broke this.   Meanwhile, they don't have enough ambulances in Cincinnati.  WCPO-TV's Hagit Limor reported that story.

Financial Fitness
Boot Camp   
A major project combining financial information and advice aired on WCNC-TV, Charlotte.   News Director Mary Alvarez and reporter Anna Crowley explained how it was executed.

Broken School Buses
Kept Rolling
Safety violations in the Indianapolis school bus fleet were so severe that the state police began an immediate investigation after they were contacted by WTHR-TV. News Director Carolyn Williams and investigative reporter Bob Segall explained how they executed their project.

Rare Interviews, SWAT Team Tapes Give Depth to School Shooting Anniversary Special
A deranged, armed drifter entered a Colorado high school. He took seven students hostage. A special on the hostage drama was produced by KMGH-TV, Denver.
It featured interviews with people who had never talked about it publicly.
"If we were going to do something, we wanted to do something significant and impactful, and that meant we needed to get a lot of players involved," said News Director Byron Grandy.

Columbine: Viewer Sensitivities Were Key
The live images were monitored carefully when two young men killed 12 other students, a teacher and themselves at Columbine.
Patti Dennis, KUSA-TV's News Director, told us, "We had pictures coming in from hospitals that I told them absolutely, positively, I did not want to see on our air. I forbid it!"

Some violent criminals
get a break because of loopholes
Because of plea bargains and bureaucratic mistakes, sex offenders are not being classified in the most serious categories and notification is not required --- even for some of the most dangerous offenders. And in Maryland, judges have the power to modify an offender's sentence at any time. WEWS-TV, Cleveland. WBFF-TV, Baltimore.

Protecting Crews and Gear From Unruly Crowds 
Jubilant fans of the Los Angeles Lakers set fire to two police cars and damaged news vans during an unruly celebration after the team's championship victory.   It didn't particularly appear there was going to be vandalism and violence.  But it grew.
At one point, a photographer told his reporter, "Run for your life!"

Choose Your News:
The Ultimate Interactivity

A new franchise is taking interactive news to a whole new level.
Here's how viewers are choosing their news and participating in an innovative newsgathering experiment underway at KATV-TV, Little Rock.

Viewers pick stories, communicate all day with reporter

Choose Your News is a convergence of several of the new technologies and a young staff that is eager to embrace the future.
Viewers use e-mail, Instant Messaging or Twitter to suggest stories. They then vote on online. The winning story idea is covered by the Choose Your News reporter, Kristin Fisher. (You can see it by going to katv.com, and clicking the "Hot Spots" link in the top center of the homepage.)

What's unique about this interactive franchise is that Fisher is live online for almost her entire workday --- both in the newsroom and out in the field.
She constantly interacts with viewers.

"People e-mail her with questions as she is driving along. People are able to communicate with her almost immediately instead of after the fact. They can involve themselves in the newsgathering process, but still leave it up to the professionals," says News Director Randy Dixon.

Here's how it works

This is a multi-faceted project that can be very interesting as you watch the segments unfold online.

Reporter is live at her desk.
Her newsroom desk is wired with a web camera. When Fisher arrives at work, the camera is turned on.

She can go live on camera in the moving news vehicle.
The Choose Your News car is equipped with a wireless broadband card and dash camera.
"By using wireless broadband, we can stream that camera as she is driving around covering her stories. You can follow her progress all day," says Dixon.
She talks to the audience and discusses the story with the photographer as they drive along the highway.
If the crew is diverted to a breaking news story, they can swing the camera around to show the event live as they pull up to the scene (such as they did when going to an apartment fire recently).

She can be live with images on her cell phone.
Her phone connects to the website. On the Choose Your News page, there is a screen below the desk cam that is labeled "Qik Phone Stream."
Once Fisher arrives at the story she is covering, she can use her phone to send back live video from the scene.

People can watch her and interact with her through most of the day.
"She has a wireless laptop in the car with her, and she can Twitter," says Dixon.
Viewers communicate in real time. She reads messages out loud and talks to the camera as she types responses.
She writes a blog during the day about what she is doing as she puts the story together.

Story reaction follows airplay

The CYN report runs on the 6 p.m. show.
"To see the final product that you have been watching her work on all day, people must watch our newscast," Dixon stresses.

After her story airs at 6, she returns to her desk and talks about the day with a guest.
The Daily De-Brief online gives people another behind-the-scenes look at the process. One night, the guest was the top aide to the governor of Arkansas. Another night News Director Dixon was the guest, and he talked about how the CYN concept came about and how it has gone so far.
She offers viewers three story possibilities for the next day. Many of these have been suggested by the audience. They vote online and choose her assignment.

Subscribers: For the rest of this story --- including the technical details --- please pick this up in our archives.   Thank you.

Covering Ike On Air, Online, On PDAs, On Cells
		The Houston television stations became information powerhouses as Hurricane Ike neared, delivering news and information on all platforms.
"We are not just a TV station or a Web operation. We are a provider of local information and local content. We are going to put it out wherever we can, however we can," explained Susan McEldoon, President & General Manager of KHOU-TV. The web was vital to keeping people informed. It was heavily used by local residents, as well as people around the world. The mobile platform went from relatively little usage to nearly one-half million page views. People who didn't have power used their cells and PDAs to access the Internet. Their goal was to be as reliable as a utility when you throw a switch and have instantly have light, said News Director Keith Connors.
		AR&D's new book, Re-Engineering Local TV, by the Senior Strategists at AR&D, will be available shortly on Amazon.com. Or you can order it through their website, http://www.ar-d.com For more information please contact: Audience Research & Development, LLC 2440 Lofton Terrace Fort Worth, TX 76109 v 817.924.6922 info@ar-d.com

Make Your Station's Web Site A Powerful Asset Your station's reputation and brand do not automatically move from the broadcast to the broadband media. Here is advice on how to compete from top consultants and award-winning Web managers. Newslab training workshops NewsLab is an online resource center for television and radio newsrooms, focused on improving journalism. This organization offers workshops for newsrooms and journalism groups around the world. Museum Broadcast Communications The MBC is a not-for-profit organization that has offered opportunities for public learning to a diverse population since 1987 in Chicago. Its mission is to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform, and entertain through our archives, public programs, screenings, exhibits, publications and online access.

Free 45-page Report

Hostage Crises:
Do You Let Gunmen Control Your Air?

When an upset, armed individual is threatening to kill someone, the police commanders supervising the emergency response and the news executives in charge of covering the confrontation have many sensitive decisions.  
Here's how broadcast executives have dealt with these dangerous emergencies.

Terrorism Threat: Manhole Covers Left Unlocked
Underground cables carrying electricity and computer data --- the lifelines for America's cities --- are exposed. WABC-TV's Jim Hoffer discovered that Con Ed has not locked its manhole covers --- despite Homeland Security recommendations.

Attack On America
At first it appeared to be a terrible aviation accident at the World Trade Center.  It turned out to be much more.  Here is how it was covered by the news teams on the scene.

Security gaps are many
Long before, and then after, the terrorist attacks of September, 2001, several television stations conducted investigations into lax security at airports and other major public facilities. Most of these reports were prepared after the 2001 attacks. In some cases, the broadcasters were credited with helping to make positive changes.

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The Rundown has reported weekly on local television news, programming, and community service projects since 1981. This material now fills a massive hard copy archive of 7,000 pages --- easily the largest record of hometown television's activities.  Key articles are available in our online archives.

A Young Kennedy Dies
When John Kennedy, Jr. and his wife vanished off Massachusetts, hometown TV stations provided long hours of coverage, serving viewers anxious for any news of the president's son.

The Crash of Flight 191:
Tragedy at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport
The news crews had close access to the scene.  They were searching for accurate information, but had to be very careful about what they showed.

Winter Weather Hampers Rescue at Denver Crash
A Continental jet flipped and broke apart on a snowy runway at Stapleton Airport. The blizzard-like conditions which may have contributed to the accident made coverage particularly difficult.

Media In Montoursville: 
Trying To Be Very Sensitive  
When TWA Flight 800 exploded in 1996, more than 20 victims were from one small town in Pennsylvania.  Newspeople tried to be sensitive to the grieving relatives, friends and townspeople.  At the same time, the reporters and photographers were dealing with their own feelings of sadness and shock.

The White Bronco Chase
Accused of murder, O.J. Simpson travelled  along the highways of Los Angeles, and one of the largest television audiences ever watched it live.

Murders at School:
San Diego Shootings
Accurate information was difficult to obtain.  Students were interviewed with care.  

Oklahoma City Explosion: Covering the Terror
That this could happen in America's heartland was unthinkable.  Even more astounding was the news that Americans had unleashed this violence on fellow Americans, murdering more than 150 innocent men, women and children.

Two reporters, four stories, one big award
The judges awarded a Peabody to the investigative unit of WFAA-TV, Dallas, for the overall quality of its work. The station won for four separate stories submitted by investigative reporters Brett Shipp and Byron Harris.
The Peabodys do not recognize categories, nor are there a set number of awards given each year. Although the entries were submitted separately, Executive News Director Michael Valentine said it was the caliber of the work by the unit as a whole that made it a winner.

Students drinking contaminated water
Youngsters are being exposed to lead every day in Los Angeles. The surprising source --- the drinking fountains at their schools -- - was revealed by KNBC-TV's Joel Grover.

 Schoolhouse Outrage:
Filthy Bathrooms
Schools in Southern California were checked to see how sanitary --- or unsanitary --- the bathrooms were.  KCBS-TV   investigators  spent three months and visited more than 50 buildings, some of them more than once.  Many bathrooms were locked or unavailable to students.   Many were missing essential supplies.

Roughed Up At Recess: Violence On The Playground
Teachers stood by doing nothing while bullies beat up other children on the school playgrounds.  News team members at WITI-TV, Milwaukee were surprised that it was so blatant and out of control. They followed up with a project that offered solutions for parents and educators.

Room 104:
The Overcrowding Crisis
By focusing on students and teachers, an initially boring subject was brought to life. Viewers could see how children are shortchanged when the instructor is simply lucky to keep control, never mind teaching and helping individuals having problems. This was a duPont winner for WABC-TV, New York.

Juvenile sexual offenders attending schools
Not only are juvenile sexual offenders attending schools, often the school officials don't know it.   The offender changes schools, but his record may not follow him. In St. Louis, KSDK-TV investigated.