Dale Munson, Dead At 81

Former WOWT weathercaster Dale Munson died of a heart attack Thanksgiving night in Lincoln while visiting his daughter. He was 81.

Munson's nearly 50-year career in broadcasting also included work as an announcer for radio station WOW and University of Nebraska at Omaha radio station, KVNO. He was also the voice of BRUNO ("Better Registration UNO"), the university's automated phone registration system.

In 2000, he received a lifetime achievement award from UNO's Department of Communication and was inducted into the Nebraska Radio Personalities Hall of Fame in 2004.

According to WOWT, a memorial service will be held Saturday, Dec. 1 at 11 a.m. at Lutheran Church of the Master, 114th and West Center Road. The station posted this video tribute on its website:

Election Kept UNO Communication Students Busy

University of Nebraska at Omaha professor Jeremy Lipschultz shares a behind-the-scenes account of the School of Communication's election night coverage in a story for the Huffington Post.

UNO sponsored a pair of DebateWatch events, which involved students meeting to live tweet quotes and comments, and hosted a lunchtime discussion with U.S. Senate candidate Bob Kerrey on the eve of the election.

"You cannot simulate this type of experience in a classroom exercise, but an engaged metropolitan university can offer such experiences to our students," Lipschultz writes. "A student reporter for our campus newspaper, the Gateway, had a front-row seat and filed a story on the event. A little more than a day later the paper was reporting on Kerrey's concession, in a Senate race that cost Democrats an important seat."

On election night, student reporters were sent to local campaign sites to cover victory and concession speeches and file stories on deadline.

In January, Lipschultz will mark his 24th year at UNO. Since 2004, his students have been televising and blogging on election night. In 2008, their coverage won a Northwest Broadcast News Association (NBNA) Award in Minneapolis.

"I've been Director of the School of Communication since 2004, so my job is to support and promote these efforts," Lipschultz said. "Mike Hilt and Chris Allen coordinate most of the election coverage."

Cue The Christmas Music

Jon Ellis's excellent Upper Midwest Broadcasting website reports that KSRZ (104.5 FM) is the first Omaha radio station (and first in Nebraska) to go to an all-Christmas format. The switch by "Star 104.5" occurred Monday.

Since 2001, Ellis has been tracking Midwest radio stations that have gone entirely to a Christmas format in advance of the holiday. Four stations in Nebraska made the change last year, down from the six stations that did it in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Ellis is currently an assistant news director at WDIO-TV (ABC) in Duluth, Minn.

Capturing The Moment: Tom Osborne's Tunnel Walk

Gwyneth Roberts' photo for the Lincoln Journal Star.

Omaha World-Herald sports columnist Tom Shatel might have written the column that memorialized the moment retiring Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne ran onto the field with the Husker football team, but Lincoln Journal Star photographer Gwyneth Roberts shot the photo that captured it best.

Roberts said she didn't actually select the photo herself from the more than 500 images she shot at Saturday's Nebraska-Minnesota game. That job was left to her boss, Journal Star Photo Editor Ted Kirk. He collected the memory card from her moments after she shot the photo from a standing position near the Husker band, just about 15 yards from where Osborne, head coach Bo Pelini and the team made their entrance.

Roberts was one of four still photographers Kirk had positioned around the stadium to capture the moment. One of them was even in the stands directly above the tunnel to get a bird's eye view of the moment that seems to have been more talked about than the game itself (which Nebraska won, 38-14).

"My personal strategy was to pick a position directly down from the tunnel and just hope nobody walked in front of him (Osborne)," Roberts said. "There were good odds, with everybody there, that someone was going to walk in front and block the whole thing."

Dave Weaver shot a similar photo for The Associated Press.

But standing over Associated Press photographer Dave Weaver – who was laying on his stomach to get a similar shot (shown at right) – and next to a Husker marching band member, Roberts got what she was looking for using a 300-millimeter telephoto lens.

"I wasn't sure what I had when I first took it, but I felt like I had good frames – very solid, tight compositions," she said. "I knew I had certainly taken enough frames to capture the moment."

Though not a native Nebraskan, Roberts was familiar with the Huskers before coming to work at the Journal Star six years ago. She grew up in northern Kansas, just south of Holdrege, and was a sophomore in high school when Osborne retired after the 1997 season.

Roberts says her photo reveals a bit of a role reversal for the man who led the team onto the field more than 300 times during his 25 years as the Huskers' head coach.

"I liked the moment when the players patted him on the back. He was almost kind of hesitant for a moment. But the players made him feel like he was welcome there."

Related links:
Purchase the photo from the Lincoln Journal Star.
View the Omaha World-Herald's online gallery.
View photos from Hail Varsity's online gallery.
Comprehensive game recap page from HuskerMax.

NET Televising Football Title Games

As it has since 1996, NET is televising the Nebraska School Activities Association state high school football championships at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.

Here is the schedule of games:

Monday
10 a.m.: Class D2, Humphrey St. Francis vs. Giltner
2:30 p.m.: Class D1, Elgin Public/Pope John vs. Exeter-Milliga
7 p.m.: Class A, Millard North vs. Omaha North

Tuesday
10 a.m.: Class C2, Aquinas Catholic vs. Sutton
2:30 p.m.: Class C1, Boone Central/Newman Grove vs. Norfolk Catholic
7 p.m.: Class B, Omaha Gross Catholic vs. Norris

NET is also streaming the games live on its website.

As Seen On TV: Nebraska vs. Minnesota

Many viewers of Saturday's Nebraska-Minnesota football watched BTN's pre-game coverage with high anticipation, knowing something special was planned to mark Dr. Tom Osborne's final home game as part of the Husker program. But after broadcasting an edited version of some of the senior player introductions, announcers Eric Collins and Derek Rackley totally missed the fact that Osborne did the tunnel walk next to head coach Bo Pelini. Here's Collins's voiceover:

"The tunnel walk, here at Memorial Stadium, such a special experience each and every time. Bo Pelini and the Nebraska Cornhuskers take to the field here at Memorial Stadium..."

The network did post the special halftime video shown in Memorial Stadium to its website, along with the pre-game card tribute to Osborne and his tunnel walk entrance.

From The Notebook
BTN's announcers repeatedly botched the pronunciation of Osborne's last name throughout the broadcast ... A good deal of the early game coverage focused on the strength of the wind (22-28 mph, according to an on-screen graphic). But native Nebraskans know that's pretty normal around these parts … Not counted, but likely more than 40: the number of cutaways to the Husker cheerleaders … Heard in the "Awful Announcing" category in the first half: "There was a lot of misconfusion there." ... Pelini, who obviously wasn't watching BTN's coverage, even remarked on the TV coverage in his post-game press conference, saying it seemed like "the longest fourth quarter I've ever been a part of." "Maybe it was just me because of the situation, but that clock...if there had been one more TV timeout I think I might have just taken it to the house," Pelini said.

Popular Photo

HuskerOnline.com Publisher Sean Callahan's photo (at right) of the pre-game stadium tribute to Tom Osborne was re-tweeted more than 300 times and made a "favorite" more than 120 times. Callahan's twitter feed also featured this quip: "Gangnam Style being played in Memorial Stadium on Tom Osborne's tribute day just don't go together."

From The Notebook

Tear-Filled Goodbye
Lincoln Journal Star features editor Jeff Korbelik reports KOLN/KGIN morning anchor Erika Tallan is leaving the station to take a morning reporter job at a still-to-be-announced TV station in Kansas City, Mo. The Arizona State University graduate was born in Scottsdale and has worked at the Lincoln CBS affiliate since Dec. 2008. Tallan reflected on "where the magic first happened" (her words, not ours) during a nearly three-minute, tear-filled farewell segment. Watch it here. 

Forgotten Steakhouses

In Friday afternoon's "Bluejay Talk Live" question-and-answer segment on Omaha.com, Creighton University beat writer Steven Pivovar was asked what his "favorite traditional steakhouse in town is." Pivovar, whose seventh floor office at the Omaha World-Herald virtually overlooks Piccolo Pete's (at 20th and Dorcas) and is a five-minute drive from Johnny's Cafe (at 27th and L) replied: "Didn't know we had any traditional steakhouses left."

Check the Schedule
KETV's weather tease in its 5 p.m. newscast mentioned how mild temperatures would make for pleasant conditions if you were heading out to "one of the high school football playoff games tonight." But the only games being played Friday involving teams remotely close to KETV's viewing area were happening indoors at the UNI-Dome on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, Iowa.