Reynolds Has Likely CalledHis Last CWS Game

Former ESPN baseball analyst Harold Reynolds maintains he did not do anything to warrant his dismissal from the "worldwide leader in sports" television.

But after allegations of sexual harassment were published Tuesday, ESPN was not commenting, while another cable network, TBS, weighed its options of adding Reynolds to its baseball broadcasting team.

Reynolds, 45, has worked at ESPN for 11 years and has annually been in Omaha to analyze the College World Series. He is married to model Kelley Browne (seen at right) and the couple have a two-month-old daughter, Sophia.

Reynolds' replacement on "Baseball Tonight" is Steve Phillips, who himself faced a sexual harassment lawsuit as the general manager of the New York Mets in 1998

KPTM (Cox Channel 10) weekend sports anchor Jeff Radcliffe was expected to be released from the hospital today after being rushed to the emergency room last Tuesday.

Radcliffe had been receiving treatment for hepatitis for about two weeks, said KPTM News Director Allen Beckner, when he suddenly had to be hospitalized. Tests revealed his liver and kidneys were failing.

"Today, Jeff tells me that things are getting back to normal," Beckner said. "His liver and kidneys appear to be functioning well. He'll still be off work for a couple of weeks, but at least he's home and feeling better."

In Radcliffe's absence, Matt Kelly is handling KPTM's weekend sports anchor duties.

Home of Former WOWT Meteorologist Burglarized

Former WOWT (Cox Channel 8) meteorologist Dale Munson recently had a scare with a burglar.

Munson was doing yard work outside his home near 90th & West Center Road. He had left the garage open for his wife, who was not home at the time. When she returned, she drove into the garage and closed the door.

Inside the house, she heard a noise just before being confronted by a strange man, who quickly bolted out of the house and down the street. A neighbor who saw the man running from the house followed in his car and spotted the would-be burglar getting in a car at a nearby shopping center.

Omaha Police were able to catch up with the man - who was accompanied by another man - within the hour. Police say both men had recently been released from prison. They were found to be in possession of Munson's wallet, a money clip, a jewelry box, blank checks and a few other items.

KETV, KMTV General ManagersWeigh In On Latest TV Ratings

Not long after the print edition of this column was published last week did messages come in from two general managers of stations that finished behind WOWT (Cox Channel 8) in the 10 p.m. Omaha TV news ratings for May.

"Your statement, 'KMTV's new Action News format, which launched in February, has been slow to catch on with morning and evening viewers,' couldn't be farther from the truth," wrote KMTV (Cox Channel 5) General Manager Steve Wexler. "In fact, the station has now posted its best back-to-back ratings at 10 p.m. in over 10 years."

From KETV (Cox Channel 9) General Manager Joel Vilmenay: "KETV grew by more than two full rating points and experienced a 20 percent increase as compared to May 2005. In fact, KETV experienced the largest measure of growth at 10 p.m. In light of this fact, I hope that you are interested in setting the record straight."

Certainly, this column strives to be accurate and fair. But interpretation of Nielsen Media Research ratings is not so black-and-white. In addition to the household ratings (sheer numbers of viewers), there are also numerous demographic categories, broken out by age group and gender. For the past five years, this column has used household ratings as the standard for measuring a station's performance.

That, according to Vilmenay, is a mistake.

"As a former broadcast journalist, I'm sure you know that television broadcasters are not measured on "Household" ratings performance," he said in a phone interview. "In fact, the overwhelming majority of advertisers, if not all, measure the performance of all broadcast stations on some demographic age cell. That includes local, regional and national clients. If our household ratings go down, it doesn't matter. All we care about is our share of adults 25-54. If we grow that, we'll grow."

Wexler, too, weighed in with proof that KMTV covets the adult 25-54 demographic more than it does its household numbers.

"In February 2005, No. 3 KMTV trailed No. 1 WOWT by 5.6 (ratings points)," he wrote. "In February 2006, KMTV trailed WOWT by 4.6 - a gain of a whole ratings point. In May 2005, KMTV trailed WOWT by 9.6 ratings points. (But) in May 2006, we trailed WOWT by only 5.4 ratings points - a gain of 4.2 points.

"Clearly, the race at 10 p.m. is closer than it's been in a long, long time," Wexler said.

Both general managers make valid arguments for analyzing demographic, rather than household, ratings. (WOWT General Manager Frank Jonas could not be reached for comment.) The Reader's Media Notes will strongly consider including demographic information in future stories about Omaha TV news ratings.

Meuret Still Pondering Next Opportunity

[Updated July 19, 7:30 a.m.]

The Reader has yet to catch up with former KETV (Cox Channel 9) reporter Trisha Meuret about her departure from Pete Ricketts' Senate campaign. However, she did offer some insight into the situation during an appearance on KEZO (92.3 FM) last week.

Here is a transcript of her conversation with morning co-hosts, Todd Brandt and Mike Tyler, courtesy of Nebraskademocrats.org.

T&T = Todd & Tyler
TM = Trisha Meuret

T&T: The main issue is they're attacking Nelson and there's really nothing to attack.

TM: I don't know about that, either.

T&T: We're gonna get it out of you one way or another. Personality conflicts? No, that's not it. Were there personality conflicts?

TM: No, not with Pete. Pete's a...you guys have met him. He's a really nice...

T&T: So not with Pete, but were there personality conflicts?

TM: You know, I think that's a...don't you guys have personality conflicts in your workplace?

T&T: Pretty much. We hate each other.

TM: Not between the two of you, but...

T&T: We get over it because the only way we can make money is to hang out with each other.

T&T: How about, the way he's running his campaign, you don't like any of the attack ads?

T&T: Oh, the fake TV ads.

TM: You know, I think, I don't like attack ads in general no matter who's doing them, Pete or Nelson or anybody. That's just not really my style.

T&T: Hey Channel 3, Action 3 has an opening. You got any tapes laying around?

T&T: They know what she does. You're not concerned about getting back on TV. You told us off the air you're not really sure what you want to do, but uh...

TM: Unemployment's pretty nice, I gotta tell you, the month of July is not a bad month to not have a job.

T&T: I've been fired any number of times, and I always enjoyed being fired in the summer.

T&T: The thing about Trisha is she has these things called options. You and I can do this, and you're young, you're intelligent, you can do anything you want to do. And you've got lawyer boy to fall back on. But he probably wants you to start getting a job. Right now he's layin' around bitching about his toothbrush not being, you know...

T&T: So when you walked out, was it "See you later, Pete, good luck!" or was it, "Get the hell out; don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out?"

TM: No, no, no. It was totally amicable. I've been back, uh, since I left, I go back and help out, you know. I knew a lot of technical things that I need to train other people on. I've been back a few times. It's totally amicable.

T&T: Trish, I guess you're not...we're not stupid, there's more to this than you're telling us.

TM: Absolutely.

T&T: Okay, if I promise...why won't you talk about it on the air? First of all, promise you I wouldn't talk about it.

T&T: You say, "hey, it's personal information," but you got really personal with us over the years.

TM: Yeah, and so when we're talking in a personal setting, I'm sure I will tell you guys more of it, but, no, it really is personal reasons. I just decided that it wasn't a good fit for me anymore.

T&T: Well, I could tell, the last time you were here, been here off the air, and I could tell the last time you were here, I don't think you were happy with the way things were going.

TM: Yeah.

T&T: Especially when he challenged his own property taxes. That was a big screwup, since he's a zillionaire, and six thousand dollars.

T&T: And by the way, one of his advisors, I think his communications director, advised against that. That'd be Trish.

TM: I certainly don't take the fall for that. But I, you know, he absolutely believes that taxes are too high, and he's going to stand by that.

T&T: Who ya votin' for?

TM: I don't know. It's a long time away.

T&T: Who ya votin' for?

TM: I really like Pete, and, at this point, it's gotta be Pete. He's a nice person; I think he'll do a good job.

T&T: He can't do any job; he's gonna lose. He's gonna get his ass kicked.

TM: Well, he's not going to lose by losing my vote.

T&T: Well, your vote won't count. Don't worry about one vote. He needs more than that, because Todd and I have two votes for Nelson, so right there we cancel you out, and beat you. So you're vote means nothing, so why even vote for him? Craig's voting for Nelson too, so we got four votes to one, your vote means dick.

TM: So maybe we should just all agree to stay home then.

T&T: No, no, no, I'm voting. We just countered you three-to-one. And I'm guessing your husband, who's a registered Democrat...

T&T: No, no, he switched parties just to vote in the election, but he was a registered Democrat, is gonna vote for Ben, right?

TM: No, absolutely, I think he's going to vote for Pete. He really likes Pete.

T&T: I thought you had a falling out, how are you going to vote for the guy?

TM: We didn't have a falling out. Pete and I are fine.

T&T: Why'd you leave the campaign?

TM: Personal reasons.

T&T: We're off the air, we're off the air, we're in a commercial. Why'd you leave?

TM: I know better than that.

T&T: Has anybody from the Tom Osborne write-in campaign contacted you?

TM: I actually know that attorney who filed the brief. I have not talked with him yet. He's a friend of Joe's.

T&T: You're joining the Tom Osborne write-in campaign.

T&T: No, I'm completely serious about, I know that you're worried about TV hours and stuff when you were talking off the air with us, but I'm not messing with you, Michelle asked me off the air yesterday, they have an opening over there, so I don't know if you...

TM: Well, thank you. I'm considering all of my options, and I certainly appreciate any options that come my way.

T&T: We'll go to bat for you...pick your own hours...if you want to do a report at 9 in the morning, we'll find one for you. And no Pet Psychic crap or anything like that.

TM: Oh, that sounds good.

T&T: I actually think they have a fine reporter stable over there at Channel 3, and they have an opening. I think it's the best in town. And if Trisha joined, it would be even better. It'd be over the top.

TM: Well, thank you.

T&T: She won't tell us anything.

TM: I do too, and I'm serious, it's personal reasons.

T&T: But personal reasons always sounds like "I'm pregnant or something."

TM: And that was my fear. I thought everybody would think, "oh my Gosh, she's pregnant," which I'm not.

T&T: Personal reasons with your job with him. Then I'll buy it.

T&T: When you say personal reasons, then it's like, "well, my aunt died, I had to quit.

TM: Right.

T&T: It was more personal reasons with the campaign, correct?

TM: Well it's totally, it's just not a good fit for me, personally. Like, haven't you ever had a job where you're just like, "yeah, it just doesn't work out for me?"

T&T: Sure. We have personality conflicts around this building all the time, but they're not enough to make us quit.

TM: And it's not a personality...I told you, Pete and I are absolutely fine.

T&T: Alright, alright.

TM: And I haven't been dodging you, by the way.

T&T: Well, I didn't like, I didn't like that the World-Herald wrote the story.

TM: I didn't like that they wrote it either, I thought...

T&T: You told Jeremy on Friday, "Don't let the guys say anything," and we obliged...

TM: I appreciate that.

T&T: But that's done. Because anytime you get another job, we're announcing it on the radio.

TM: Ok, that sounds good.

T&T: And we expect you to call us, and announce it right here on the radio.

TM: I will call you.

T&T: Hey, we're busy the rest of this week, but next week, swing in some day, call Jeremy, and just sit here with us and BS a little bit with us, alright?

TM: Sounds good.

T&T: We do need her next week sometime?

Jeremy: On the 31st, I do believe we need her.

TM: Okay.

T&T: I don't wanna wait that long.

T&T: Put her on hold?

T&T: Yeah, and make the arrangements, but I want her on before that, too.

TM: Alright.

T&T: Ok, Trish, we're on hold and commercials now, what really happened?

TM: That is what really happened, I swear.

T&T: Eh, you're lying.

TM: It just wasn't a good fit.

T&T: All right, thank you Trish, we love you.

Creator of Nebraskaradio.com,David Daugherty, Dead At Age 40

David Daugherty, creator of the popular Nebraskaradio.com online forum, died last Thursday at home.

The 40-year-old was a graduate of McCook High School and the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota. He was previously employed in radio as "Dave Matthews" in Sioux Falls, S.D., McCook, Kearney and Lincoln, at KBRL, KICX, KPAT/KSOO, KICX, KKPR, KLIN/KEZG, KFMQ and KZKX. He was most recently worked for G-Tech.

Services are 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Lincoln Memorial Funeral Home, 6800 S. 14th St. Lincoln Memorial Park. Visitation is from 4 to 9 p.m. Monday, with family greeting friends and relatives from 6 to 8 p.m.

Memorials in care of the family. Condolences may be left at www.lincolnmemorialparkandfuneralhome.com.

Nebraska Broadcasting CompanyRenews Agreement With Pinnacle

Nebraska Broadcasting Co. in Lincoln and Beatrice have signed a new five-year radio network affiliate agreement with Pinnacle Sports Productions to continue play-by-play broadcasts of University of Nebraska-Lincoln football, basketball, volleyball and baseball games.

The market-exclusive agreements go into effect in August and run through July 2011 for radio stations KLIN, KFGE, KBBK, and KWBE.

"We're delighted to renew our affiliation for the next five years, and we look forward to bringing our listeners and clients all the excitement of Husker sports," Nebraska Broadcasting Vice President and General Manager Mark Halverson said in a press release. "We are pleased to continue our involvement in the tradition of excellent athletics and academics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln."

Halverson said the stations have been the consistent voice of the Huskers since 1993.

The agreement also renews other Husker-related programming such as the "Sports Nightly" and "Meet the Huskers" programs.

Storm Pounds Metro

KETV (Cox Channel 9), KMTV (Cox Channel 5) and KPTM (Cox Channel 10) interrupted regular programming to provide extensive coverage of the powerful thunderstorm that made its way through the Omaha metropolitan area Thursday afternoon.

KMTV Chief Meteorologist Ryan McPike was first to begin special storm coverage, followed by KETV Chief Meteorologist Bill Randby about five minutes later. KPTM meteorologist Tyson Pearsall also broke in for several segments several times between 3:15 and 4:15 p.m.

WOWT (Cox Channel 8) Chief Meteorologist Jim Flowers briefly interrupted "Ellen" about 10 minutes after KETV and KMTV began their special storm coverage and a few minutes after KPTM. Later, WOWT began its 4 p.m. newscast with a weather segment by meteorologist Jeff Jensen but then continued with its standard newscast format.

KETV provided continuous coverage for more than 75 minutes, tracking the storm as it made its way into Southwest Iowa and Lincoln. Viewers were returned to regular programming about 4:40 p.m. KMTV signed off from its wall-to-wall coverage about a half-hour earlier, following nearly an hour of continuous coverage.


KETV's camera shows darkness covering Downtown Omaha.

Radar image courtesy KPTM.

Radar image courtesy WOWT.

Radar image courtesy KMTV.

Radar image courtesy KETV.

KETV Coverage Live On The Web

KETV (Cox Channel 9) provided live streaming video of its continuous storm coverage on its website, KETV.com.


Screen Grab courtesy KETV.com

Not John Madden

The 1994 trading card referenced by WOWT reporter Brian Mastre Wednesday night in his report on the popularity of ebay auctions. It sold for 10 cents on the "buy it now" option.

Dwight Lane Signs Off Friday

Dwight Lane will end a 31-year career in radio Friday when he signs off from "Lincoln's Morning News" on KLIN (1400 AM) for the final time.

Lane is leaving the business to take a job as a Family Counselor with Stewart Enterprises in Omaha, which operates Westlawn Hillcrest at 57th and Center.

KETV Sportcaster Debuts Blog

KETV (Cox Channel 9) continues to set the standard for online features related to Omaha TV news.

Its latest offering on KETV.com is a blog by sportscaster Matt Schick. "Schick's Shtick" is advertised as offering the "the story behind the sports story."

KETV.com was the first (and is still the only Omaha station) to provide podcasts. It also offers visitors the opportunity to comment on stories.

WOWT Maintains LeadIn Omaha TV News Ratings

A year ago, WOWT (Cox Channel 8) lost veteran anchor Pat Persaud to retirement, yet its weekday evening newscast ratings remain virtually as strong today with Tracy Madden joining the team of co-anchor John Knicely, chief meteorologist Jim Flowers and sports director Dave Webber.

According to the May 2006 ratings issued by Nielsen Media Research, WOWT continues to attract the most viewers in newscasts at 6 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on weekdays.

Nielsen ratings are the single most important element in determining advertising rates. WOWT's lead over KETV (Cox Channel 9) is most decisive at 10 p.m., when advertising rates are the highest. WOWT garnered a 17 rating and 33 share for its 10 p.m. newscast (approximately 53,500 viewers) while KETV had a 14/27 (44,000 viewers). Late-evening news on KMTV scored a 7/13 (22,000 viewers).

The numbers reflect the viewing habits of the 314,610 TV households in the Omaha metropolitan area, which includes Douglas, Washington, Cass and Sarpy Counties in Nebraska and Pottawattamie County in Iowa. A single ratings point represents one percent of the households while share is the percentage of television sets in use tuned to a specific program. Nielsen surveyed viewers between April 27 and May 24 by asking them to write down the station they watched for news in a diary.

Local news viewership is strongest on Sunday nights. Buoyed by healthy lead-ins from network prime-time programming ("Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy"), KETV dominates with 66,000 viewers (and a whopping 39 percent share) to WOWT's 50,300. On Saturday nights at 10, WOWT pulls in 40,900 viewers to KETV's 25,200.

In the weekday morning newscast ratings, KETV had a better rating than WOWT from 5-6 a.m., but WOWT enjoyed a two ratings point lead from 6-7 a.m. At 11:30 a.m., WOWT also enjoys a two-point lead over KETV. KMTV, which airs its midday news at noon, has the most viewers of all three.

KMTV Still Distant Third

KMTV's new "Action News" format, which launched in February, has been slow to catch on with morning and evening viewers. KMTV is a distant third place at 10 o'clock and its 5 p.m ratings have sagged considerably (9,400 viewers, compared to WOWT's 31,400 and 22,000 for KETV). Weekday morning ratings for the station held steady, but remain considerably behind WOWT and KETV.

KMTV will also have the challenge of regaining an audience at 6 p.m. when it relaunches news for the first time in three years in that time slot. Having new CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric as a lead-in will certainly help, though there is a lot of ground to make up. WOWT attracts 31,500 viewers for its six o'clock news, KETV gets 28,300 and KMTV draws 6,300 with the syndicated program, "Insider."

Ratings for KPTM (Cox Channel 10) and its one-hour newscast at 9 p.m. remained steady with 15,700 viewers.

New Newscasts Struggling

KXVO's bold move to launch a 10 p.m. newscast late last year has yet to register a single rating point while KETV has had a little better success with its weekend morning newscast. Airing from 7-8:30 a.m. with anchors Brandi Peterson and Todd Andrews, it attracted 6,300 viewers while WOWT's more established weekend morning newscast (with new anchors Rachel Pierce and Mike Cronemeyer) airs from 8-9 a.m. and averages roughly four times that amount (25,200).

KETV's new 11 a.m. weekend newscast garners only 3,200 viewers in a time slot that has traditionally not included news.

JJ Davis Will Continue KXVOHosting Duties Through July

The search for a new host of the "KXVO 15 10:00 News" continues, according to KXVO/KPTM News Director Allen Beckner.

For now, though, JJ Davis will continue as host of the newscast Monday through Friday, in addition to performing his duties as sports director for sister station KPTM.

"He (Davis) certainly is a candidate for the position, but at this point, it's still open," Beckner said. "It's a personality-driven show and JJ has the personality for it."

Beckner said if Davis would be named the new host, he would focus solely on the newscast, leaving the KPTM sports director position open.

"That's another chapter," Beckner said. "JJ is still the sports director for KPTM."

Coming Monday...

Look for a review of the Nielsen Media Research ratings for Omaha TV stations to appear in this space on Monday, July 10. A more condensed version will appear in print editions of The Reader next week.

Omaha.com Getting A Makeover

[Updated July 10, 2006, 12:35 p.m.]

The Omaha World-Herald's online edition, Omaha.com, is in the midst of a major site redesign. When it relaunches, one new feature will be a database of local bands, including member rosters, descriptions, photos, MP3s and discographies.

In an e-mail to local bands, Omaha.com Entertainment Editor Kevin Coffey says the database of bands will also cross-reference upcoming performances, which will also be displayed in a new calendar section.

Coffey says Omaha.com has 250,000 registered users and about 12 million page views each month. By comparison, KETV (Cox Channel 9) averages approximately 5.9 million pages views per month for its website, KETV.com.

Editor's Note: The number of page views Omaha.com receives was updated from two million to 12 million, due to incorrect information supplied by Omaha.com.

Several Media Outlets On myspace.com

Several Omaha-area media outlets are part of the myspace.com landscape, though not all are easy to find.

For example, KXVO (Cox Channel 11) initially had myspace.com/kxvo, but when "KXVO 15 10:00 News" host Brian McFayden left the station, he maintained control of the page. The station's new link is myspace.com/kxvo15.

The Omaha World-Herald is also up with its myspace.com/omaha_dot_com page.

The address for myspace.com/wowt is listed as "Tara," a 24-year-old female from Orange, Calif., while myspace.com/kptm shows up as a 102-year-old male from Malaysia.

Like KXVO, radio station KQKQ (98.5 FM) has a twist on its URL. Visit myspace.com/q98five, not myspace.com/kqkq, which is a page for "Kelly," a 19-year-old female from Elgin, Ill.

As of this writing, URLs for myspace.com/ketv and myspace.com/kmtv are not in use.

'Don't Touch That Dial'Recalls Nebraska's TV History

A new NET Television production titled, "Don't Touch That Dial" will explore the rich legacy of how television came to Nebraska and the names the many Nebraskans recognize: Johnny Carson. Tom Brokaw. Martha Bohlsen.

The 60-minute program will have its premier screening Thursday, July 20, at 7 p.m. at Omaha's Scott Conference Center, 6450 Pine Street. Included in the program are new and archival interviews, behind-the-scenes photographs and vintage film -- some of which haven't been seen for more than 50 years, according to an NET press release.

"Omaha and Lincoln television stations were extremely cooperative in the providing of archival footage for use in this program," said NET Producer Bill Kelly. "It's great that they have supported sharing their history in this documentary."

The Omaha screening of "Don't Touch That Dial" is free and open to the public. For more information about the screening, contact Amanda Garner at (800) 634-6788 or e-mail agarner@netnebraska.org.

"Don't Touch That Dial" is scheduled to air statewide on NET1 and NET-HD on Saturday, Aug. 5, at 5:30 p.m. CT and repeating on Monday, Aug. 7, at 7 p.m. CT.