Thank you for visiting the former home of the Media Watch column and its look at TV, print and on-line media communications in the Omaha metropolitan area.

This site is no longer being updated and all comments are no longer accessible.

Did Anyone Mention Lucky?

The question being posed on Omaha sports talk shows this afternoon was why no one asked Nebraska football Coach Bill Callahan about running back Marlon Lucky's status during today's pre-spring practice press conference.

Lucky was hospitalized in mid-February after police were called to his apartment at 11:30 p.m. The 20-year-old was admitted to BryanLGH West hospital for "undisclosed medical reasons," according to the Nebraska Athletic Department. The department has since offered no further comment on the incident.

Matt Perrault, host of "The Big Show" on KXSP (590 AM) did not attend the press conference and neither did Kevin Kugler, co-host of "Unsportsmanlike Conduct" with Mike'l Severe on KOZN (1620 AM).

One caller wondered when the Nebraska media "are going to take off their skirts and start asking the tough questions."

KMTV Offers 'Edwards Trial Blog'

[Updated March 21, 2007]
KMTV (Cox Channel 5) is offering a blog to help viewers follow the court case of Christopher Edwards.

The "Edwards Trial Blog" will be written by Bill Kelly, a former WOWT (Cox Channel 8) reporter who is now a senior producer for NET Television (Cox Channel 12). Kelly is researching a documentary on criminal forensics.

Edwards is accused of murdering his former girlfriend, 19-year old Jessica O'Grady. She went missing May 10 and her body has not been found.

Last Call For Omaha Press Club Journalism Awards

Friday is the final opportunity to submit entries for the Omaha Press Club's Fourth Annual Excellence in Journalism Awards Competition.

Entries must be postmarked by 5 p.m. and there is no limit on the number of entries each individual or organization may submit.

Copies of the Call for Entries packet, including rules and categories of competition, are available by clicking here.

Entry categories include newspaper, magazine, television, radio, photography and public relations. All entries must have been published, broadcast or transmitted in Nebraska and/or the eight-county Omaha metropolitan area (including Cass, Douglas, Sarpy, Saunders and Washington counties in Nebraska and Harrison, Mills and Pottawattamie counties in Iowa) during the 2006 calendar year.

OPC individual and corporate members in good standing pay a $20 fee per entry. Nonmembers pay $35 per entry. Last-minute questions can be answered by Bridget Brooks, 393-4600.

Jays' Press Conference Will StreamLive On Action3News.com

KMTV (Cox Channel 5) will stream live coverage of the Creighton University men's basketball team's press conference today on its website, Action3News.com.

The press conference originates from New Orleans and begins at 12:05 p.m. The Jays will play their opening round NCAA Tournament game at 1:50 p.m. on Friday.

Nebraska Baseball Big 12 Opener On TV Thursday;NET - Not Cox - Will Carry Six Husker Games

Thursday's Big 12 Conference opener between the Nebraska baseball team and Texas Tech will be telecast live in Lincoln, Omaha and Grand Island.

In Omaha, the game will be carried on WOWT's digital carrier ("H20"), which is Cox Channel 248. In Lincoln and Grand Island, the game will be on MyTV, which in Lincoln is Time Warner Channel 110, Charter Channel 17 in Grand Island and DirecTV Channel 25 in both cities. The game will also be carried nationally on Fox College Sports.

On Wednesday, the University of Nebraska also announced that Nebraska baseball will return to the Nebraska Educational Television network. Five baseball games and one Husker softball contest will be carried live on NET this spring. On-air talent for those broadcasts has not yet been announced.

All six will also telecast in high definition on NET-HD, while the baseball games will be carried live on NET1 and the softball game will be telecast on NET2.

Last year's partnership between the University and Cox Communications came under fire because it did not provide statewide coverage of Nebraska baseball games. At the time, Nebraska Associate Athletic Director Chris Anderson said the broadcasts on Cox would provide the University with a unique opportunity to market its programs to new audiences utilizing cable.

"This will continue to increase the visibility of our nationally-ranked baseball program and could provide a new revenue stream in the future," Anderson was quoted as saying.

Greg Peterson Headed to NBC Station In Alabama

Former KMTV (Cox Channel 5) anchor Greg Peterson is headed to Mobile, Ala., to be a weekday evening news anchor at NBC affiliate WPMI.

Last week, WPMI fired its three primary news anchors in the midst of lackluster ratings and management changes. The station is one of a number of Clear Channel Communications properties up for sale.

Peterson starts Monday and will anchor at 5, 6 and 10 p.m., beginning March 26.

"We hate to leave Omaha because my wife, Jill, is from here," Peterson said. "But it's golf 12 months a year there and that was a big factor."

Last December, Peterson's contract at KMTV was not renewed after nearly five years, along with that of veteran co-anchor Deborah Ward. She has since become the director of public relations and marketing for the Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Peterson said he enjoyed his three months of "retirement."

"I got to spend some great time with my family," he said. "It was also the first ratings period I haven't participated in in 25 years, so that was kind of odd. It's been a great break but I'm chomping at the bit to get back at it."

Nielsen Media Research groups the Mobile market with Pensacola, Fla., and lists it as the 59th largest in the country (Omaha is No. 75).

In a press release issued today by WPMI, Station Vice President and General Manager Bob Franklin attempted to control the negative publicity that sometimes occurs when veteran anchor teams are abrubtly terminated. Peterson's co-anchor is expected to be named in the coming weeks.

"NBC 15 recently made a commitment to institute some significant changes to our local news programs in an effort to make them even more relevant for our viewers," Franklin said. "We're thrilled to welcome Greg and are confident in his ability to bring our viewers the day's top stories with the most informative and entertaining delivery in town."

Unsportsmanlike Conduct Features 'Hot Chick Picks'

Who says female TV personalities don't know much about sports?

Four on-air female reporters and anchors from two Omaha TV stations will announce their picks for the NCAA Tournament during today's edition of "Unsportsmanlike Conduct" on KOZN (1620 AM).

Brandi Petersen and Lisa Stites of KETV (Cox Channel 9) will square off against Amanda Mueller and Calvert Collins from KPTM (Cox Channel 10).

"I was flattered to be asked to pick brackets on the air," Collins said. "Now I can add 'Blonde Bracketologist' to my repetoire of few talents. Hopefully, my analysis will be sufficient enough to land me a seat next to Dick Vitale, but I'm not counting on it. It's all in good fun."

Collins and Mueller will make their selections at 5:30 p.m., while Petersen and Stites get to announce their picks at 3:30 p.m.

In related NCAA Tournament news, Unsportsmanlike Conduct co-host Mike'l Severe says more than 300 people have signed up for the show's ESPN Tournament Challenge group. Entries are accepted until the tipoff of scheduled games on Thursday. The keyword to enter the station's group is "unsportsmanlike."

Kugler Will Call NCAA Tourney Games in Columbus

Westwood One radio broadcaster Kevin Kugler hits the road tonight to begin two weeks of calling the NCAA Tournament.

Kugler, who also serves as co-host for "Unsportsmanlike Conduct" on KOZN (1620 AM), will be in Columbus, Ohio, Thursday to do the play-by-play for first and second round games - four on Friday and two on Sunday.

Next week, he heads to San Antonio, Texas, to call the South Regional from the Alamodome. His season as basketball play-by-play announcer ends there, though, as Kevin Harlan will handle the play-by-play of the Final Four for Westwood One.

This past fall was Kugler's first season of announcing football for Westwood One. Later this year, the four-time Nebraska Sportscaster of the Year will once again call the College World Series for the network.

Behind The World-Herald's Creighton U. Coverage

From top: Omaha World-Herald cover page (design by Josh Crutchmer), back page (design by Tim Parks), cover story (design by Ben Vankat), inside photo page (design by Tim Parks) and inside double truck (Crutchmer).
On SportsDesigner.com, Josh Crutchmer explains the collaboration behind the Omaha World-Herald's special sports section which previews the Creighton University men's basketball team's NCAA Tournament games.

Crutchmer writes: "Among the highlights: Tim Parks getting the white type atop registration black on the Nick Porter poster to read as though it came from a laser-jet printer ... Ben Vankat wrestling a 35-inch story to the ground with little help from me ... and Dave Elsesser, me and photographer Rebecca S. Gratz cutting out the masks from foam board the night before Friday's photo shoot ... the pop-culture page toppers, which include the Bluejay mascot ('What's your best pick-up line? I usually just wing it.') ... and getting buy-in on the theme from the entire Creighton team."

Unfortunately, even the World-Herald's state-of-the-art printing presses cannot do justice to the excellent design. Saavy marketers at the newspaper would be wise to have the section printed on high-quality gloss paper stock and sell it as a souvenir collectible.

Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal StarRecognized For Sports Sections

The Omaha World-Herald and Lincoln Journal Star newspapers each came away with several awards at the recent Associated Press Sports Editors' (APSE) writing and section contests.

The World-Herald, Nebraska's largest newspaper, competed in the 100,000-250,000 circulation division. The Journal Star slotted into the 40,000-100,000 division.

The Journal Star won for its daily sports section and special sports section, while its Sunday sports section garnered honorable mention.

The World-Herald garnered honorable mentions for its Sunday section and for its special sports section, as well as a win in the investigative category (for newspapers of all sizes) for an entry by Rob White, Henry Cordes and Matthew Hanson.

Two other winners with ties to Nebraska are former Nebraska Sports Magazine editor Kalani Simpson, who is now a sports columnist for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Simpson won for sports column. And former Omaha World-Herald sportswriter Elizabeth Merrill won for feature story. She now writes for the Kansas City Star.

The winners will receive their awards in June at the APSE convention in St. Louis.

Two Native Omahans Among Radio Ink'sMost Influential African Americans In Radio

A pair of native Omahans are among Radio Ink's list of the "Most Influential African Americans In Radio."

Published in the March 5 edition of the magazine, Alfred Charles Liggins III is listed as No. 1 and Catherine Hughes is second.

Liggins was born in Omaha but moved to Washington, D.C. at the age of seven when his mother, radio mogul Catherine Hughes, took a job at Howard University. He hosted a talk show on WOL when he was 16 and worked in sales and management for Light Records and as a production coordinator for singer Patrick Anderson in 1983 and 1984.

He later returned to WOL behind the scenes and rose to sales manager while purchasing FM stations in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, M.D., to form the beginnings of the Radio One Empire. In 1999, Radio One went public and made history as the first female African American owned company on the stock exchange. In 2004, he expanded Radio One's media sphere when he launched TV One, a cable network for African American adults.

Hughes began her career in radio in 1969 at KOWH, a black radio station in Omaha. Her success there led to a teaching position at the Howard University School of Communications. In 1973, she was named general sales manager at WHUR in Washington, D.C, and eventually became the station's general manager. Under her guidance, it increased its annual revenues several times over - to more than $3.5 million. In 1978, she left for WYCB, where she served as the vice president and general manager of the station.

She, too, helped found Radio One, the largest black-owned radio chain in the nation (65 stations).

Two Nebraska Stations Up For Crystal Radio Awards

The National Association of Broadcasters is out with its 2007 finalists for the Crystal Radio Awards. Since 1987, the Crystal Radio Awards have recognized radio stations for their outstanding commitment to community service.

Among the 50 finalists are two stations from Nebraska: KFOR (1240 AM) in Lincoln and KCSR (610 AM) in Chadron.

The finalists were chosen by a panel of judges representing broadcasting, community service organizations and public relations firms. The winners will be announced at a luncheon on April 17 during the NAB convention in Las Vegas.

Last year, Omaha radio station KBBX (1420 AM) was one of 10 stations to win a Crystal Radio Award. KFOR has won two Crystals previously, in 1991 and 2004.

KETV News Director Weighs In With 'What's News'

KETV (Cox Channel 9) News Director Rose Ann Shannon is the author of this month's "Profiles in Journalism" feature in March issue of the Omaha Press Club newsletter.

Shannon poses the question of whether the death of Anna Nicole Smith was a "big news story."

You really don't have to tell me what you think," Shannon writes. "I have a pretty good idea. It used to be when somebody told you they only watched public television or 'MacNeil /Lehrer NewsHour' or 'the Hallmark Hall of Fame,' you pretty much had to take them at their word. Not anymore. That was before the Internet -- before you had the ability to choose what your own personal newscast or newspaper would look like."

Shannon relates her personal experience of the afternoon when The Associated Press sent a news alert that Smith had died.

"I relayed the news to a couple of people in the newsroom," Shannon writes. "I saw jaws drop. Let me say that again: I saw jaws drop. It is not often as a journalist you can report something that causes jaws to drop. In fact, I may be able to count those moments on one hand."

To read more of "Profiles in Journalism: What's News? You Decide," click here and scroll to page 3.

KXSP 'Big Sports' Forum Offline

The much-maligned forum on the KXSP (590 AM) "Big Sports 590" website is no longer online.

Instead, a message tells site visitors the web space is "under construction."

The forum, which featured sections such as the "Big Sports Big Forum," "The Big Show w/Matt Perrault" and "The Travis Justice Show," seemed to be visited by spammers as often as the station's listeners.

Some sample threads before the plug was pulled: "Hey sweetie, hope you're well," "Come get some kinky lovin" and "Any useful ideas?"