Meister back on Wednesday

KRDO/Channel 13 chief meteorologist Matt Meister will be back on the air on Wednesday after serving a week-long suspension.

A live microphone caught Meister complaining about a technical snafu following a weather update during "According to Jim" July 26. Meister apologized for the incident during the station's 10 p.m. newscast that night, then was suspended the following day by KRDO general manager Neil Klockziem.

KRDO news director Dave Rose said the station received hundreds of phone calls and e-mails from viewers asking that Meister not be fired. Rose said the station has taken both technical and procedural steps to make sure a similar accident doesn't happen again.

"Certainly, we're all happy to have Matt back," Rose said. "We understand that what happened shouldn't have happened. We're confident that we have taken both people-oriented and technically-oriented steps to make sure that it won't happen again."

KRDO could still face fines for indecency from the Federal Communications Commission of up to $325,000 for the incident.

KOAA will flip the HD switch tomorrow

KOAA/Channels 5&30's long-awaited move to high definition will happen tomorrow. When tomorrow? I dunno -- maybe midnight tonight, maybe at noon Tuesday.

Pre-season NFL football starts on Sunday (Philadelphia vs. Oakland), so you've still got time to scour the couch for change and pick yourself up a high-def TV*.

*This will require an extremely large couch.

Still no Meister news

Neil Klockziem and Dave Rose are maintaining radio silence over at KRDO. Morning guy Marty Ventincinque is filling in again. I hope they give him a cot or something to sleep on.

Serial killer coverage

Some interesting coverage of the press conference today announcing the killer of Heather Dawn Church is actually a serial killer who may be responsible for dozens of other murders.

All three of the locals broke in to cover the announcement. KRDO broke away first, then KKTV -- and KOAA stayed all the way through.

On a less serious note, the radio Arbitron ratings came out today. KCCY (96.9 FM) was on top again -- but this book didn't include the new "Cat Country" KATC (95.1 FM). With "The Peak" -- KATC's old incarnation -- gone, it promises to help KVUU (99.9 FM) and KSKX (105.5 FM) switching to news from smooth jazz, it should help KKLI (106.3 FM).
In other words, the next book promises to be more interesting than this one.

And another Meister note: KRDO news director Dave Rose said he's gotten hundreds of calls and e-mails and virtually all of them have said "This was a terrible thing. It should never have happened and don't fire Matt." He expect general manager Neil Klockziem to make a decision on Meister in the next day or so.

More more Meister

I went to the Wal-Mart down the street from KRDO to hear what people were saying about Matt's slip of the tongue and suspension. People there were in a pretty forgiving mood - I talked to maybe a dozen people and everyone said "He slipped, he apologized, that should be it."

Don't let their opinions stop you, though. Weigh in here with your thoughts.

More Meister

I can't repeat the language, but check out the comments on the post below the superhero one. Apparently, a bunch of my readers are "According to Jim" fans. Too funny. Well, probably not if you work at KRDO.

Matt's always been a cool guy when I've talked to him (and, I should probably mention, strictly PG with his language). It's certainly not the first time there's been a blooper on local TV, but because of the language, KRDO could potentially face a pretty serious fine. Still haven't heard boo from the station, so I guess I'll find out what's up at 5:30 with everyone else.

UPDATE: Station GM Neil Klockziem came on without warning and said Meister was suspended until further notice. He said the language was against station policy and unacceptable. Mark Nelson is filling in for Meister.

More "feedback" from our local Superhero, Matt Atherton

Got to talk to our local "Who Wants to be a Superhero?" contestant Matt Atherton, aka Feedback, yesterday (see Tuesday's TV Talk for more on the show).

I'll run that interview next week to spare readers who aren't so into comic books, but it turns out that Matt is just as earnest and sincere as he appears on the show (which premieres at 7 p.m. Thursday on Sci Fi).

Matt is married (sorry for the joke about the fight for truth, justice and a date on Friday night, Matt) and now lives in Rancho Cucamonga, near L.A., where he's a software designer. He does have stained-glass Spider-Man artwork in his office and a "Wall of Heroes" in his upstairs hallway, however, so when he talks about the show being the culmination of his life's work, he's totally serious.

Funny story: Entertainment reporter Linda Navarro's daughter, Leslie, went to high school with Atherton at Palmer. Linda was telling her that she'd have to watch the show because one of her classmates was on it and Leslie, after only a second's thought, said "Matt Atherton!"

Anyway, surprisingly fun show, check it out.

Meister on the mike

KRDO/Channel 13 meteorologist Matt Meister had some, um, choice words on the air last night when his mike stayed on after a weather update during "According to Jim." When the show started again, the mike picked up an f-bomb, and s-bomb and maybe a few miscellaneous linguistic hand grenades... for which Meister apologized profusely at the end of the 10 p.m. news.

No word on possible repercussions for Meister.

No word, either, on how many people actually watch "According to Jim" repeats.

Anybody actually hear this? I've been told a couple different versions of the, um, specific language.

TV Talk Tuesday

I think I'm writing about reality shows. Dave the Horn Guy got the boot from "America's Got Talent" last week, but another Springsian rises to take his place: Matthew Atherton is a prospective man of steel on Sci Fi's new, and really bizarre, reality show "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?"

I'm supposed to interview one or both of those guys, but we'll see.

TV Talk Tuesday

I think I'm writing about reality shows. Dave the Horn Guy got the boot from "America's Got Talent" last week, but another Springsian rises to take his place: Matthew Atherton is a prospective man of steel on Sci Fi's new, and really bizarre, reality show "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?"

I'm supposed to interview one or both of those guys, but we'll see.

America had talent

... and tragically let it go. I'm talking here about Colorado Springs' Dave the Horn Guy, who made it to the semi-finals of "America's Got Talent," only to be sent packing last night.

Toot a tear for us, Dave.

This is hilarious

From the LA Times:

ABC's debut of the reality show "The One: Making a Music Star," in which
young singing contestants live together in the same house, delivered the worst
ratings for any series premiere in the network's history and the second-worst in
broadcast TV history, according to Nielsen Media Research.

An average of 3.2 million viewers tuned in to the two-hour event Tuesday
night, or roughly one-third of the audience for a repeat of Fox's hit medical
drama "House" (9.1 million). The carnage among the target audience of adults
ages 18 to 49 was even worse, a miserable 3% of that crowd.

I almost never root for a show to fail, but if you're going to fail, fail spectacularly. It's like when Seattle nearly set a record last winter for consecutive days of rain. Yeah, it's miserable, but don't get close and then fall short. Embrace the misery!

"Eureka" promos

OK, I wasn't a big fan of Sci Fi's new show "Eureka" (see today's TV Talk in the Gazette), but I just stumbled across the Web advertising campaign for the show, and I love that.

They put up fake ads on various tech sites for products like the cryo-kennel (keep your pets in suspended animation while you're on vacation), microwave-emitting oven mitts and roll-up Macs. Pretty funny stuff - they even have user reviews.

Check it out at www.scifi.com/eureka/madeineureka

Updates all over the place

Super busy today. Here's the scoop:

KRDO (1240 AM) and KSKX (105.5 FM) will switch to a news format Aug. 14, with local morning and afternoon news shows and an hour of local news at noon. They were part of the Pikes Peak Broadcasting sale to the News-Press & Gazette that went through last month. The new owners are beefing up KRDO/Channel 13's news department (adding a 6 p.m. newscast, also on Aug. 14) and liked the idea of expanding the brand into radio. They're going to try to get the KRDO-FM call letters back from Citadel, which took over 95.1 FM, "The Peak" and turned it into "Cat Country." Get the whole story in business tomorrow.

Mario Valdes, who was KRCC (91.5 FM)'s station manager for 26 years, is out after Colorado College didn't renew his contract. Look for the rest of the story in Metro tomorrow.

And Rich Hawk, who has been the music director for KILO (94.3 FM) and the Eagle, KYZX (103.9 FM) for decades, is retiring. I'll get to that one tomorrow. I may get that into Life later in the week.

Whew. Local broadcasting has been making my head spin lately.

Coming this week...

TV Talk tomorrow will have a few more Katie thoughts and a call to readers to give me their input on what changes Couric and company ought to make to the institution of the network evening news, plus a little on Sci-Fi's new Eureka.

I'm meeting tomorrow with Gavin McInnen from the Parents Television Council to get an update on their push for a la carte cable and the group's other concerns.

"Fast Food Nation" author Eric Schlosser is at the Ranch Steakhouse Thursday to talk about dangers of the meatpacking industry, but you can probably pester him with Bruce Willis questions if you like (Willis is one of the stars in the film adaptation of "FFN" that was filming here last fall and opens in October).

And I need to get my cousin Kari a high school graduation present. Any ideas?

Katie Couric: Not as short as I expected

She also knows a lot of colonoscopy jokes.

Also: "The Sopranos"? Not returning until March.

And italics? Habit forming.

Couric in Denver

I'm headed up to Denver today to see what new CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric has to say for herself. She's on a nationwide listening tour and is stopping in Denver to listen and also do a charity lunch. Oddly, it's the lunch that's open to the press -- CBS' new top news woman wants to listen in private.

Are we all getting a little sick of Katie-mania? Yeah, but I'd still make the drive if it were Brian Williams or Dan Rather or Charlie Gibson, so it would be silly to skip it because I'm a little Katie'd out. Probably have a short story in tomorrow's paper and if there are some extra things going on, I'll come back to it in next Tuesday's TV Talk.

No NewsBlab no mo'

Colorado Springs' other TV blog, Mike Coletta's www.newsblab.com, is down, apparently for good. Mike says he was thinking about killing it for awhile and just decided to jump off the cliff yesterday.

Mike had been doing the blog for I think about four years. He made a hobby out of showing up where news was happening and reporting on what the news people were doing while the reported the news. The paparazzi pix, rumor-mongoring and behind-the-scenes info made NewsBlab an entertaining read for people interested in local news.

Before we chisel RIP on NewsBlab's tombstone, I should note that Mike killed the site once before, but couldn't resist bringing it back. So we'll keep an eye out.

South Park is out of the closet

Comedy Central is returning the Tom Cruise-spoofing "Trapped in the Closet" episode to the repeat rotation July 19.

You'll remember there was a whole big kerfluffle because Comedy Central yanked the episode in curious proximity to the release of Cruise's "Mission: Impossible 3" from corporate sibling Viacom. This also coincided with the Isaac Hayes leaving the show imbroglio and "The Return of Chef" episode that makes the "Trapped in the Closet" episode look like a love note to Scientology by comparison.

"South Park" knows how to generate controversy

Well, the movie's pretty much done and so it's apparently safe for Matt and Trey to once more mercilessly mock Scientology and Cruise's sexual orientation.Of course, the "Trapped in the Closet" episode was also just nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Animated Program, so there's all kinds of funny timing going on.

AWESOME

Warning: Soccer-related content.

http://www.isnichwahr.com/redirect12982.html

Kristin Key... out!

Comedian Kristin Key, who is performing this week at Loonee's (see Monday's Life section for my story), got the boot tonight on "Last Comic Standing."

Key actually finished second in the voting, behind Ty Barnett and ahead of Rebecca Corry, but the bottom two were sent packing tonight.

Based on the clips they showed of the performances, that order seems about right to me -- not that Kristin's bit about flaming private parts wasn't funny, but I could see the audience cringing while they laughed.

The show moves on to voting from the home audience next week. Given that Key is performing here through Sunday, that probably should have tipped me off about her fate. But it didn't.

Anyway, check Key out in person tonight through Sunday -- www.loonees.com -- and let me know what you think.

Ratings, ratings everywhere

FYI, the premiere of USA's "PSYCH" drew 6.1 million viewers. Pretty good for basic cable. Actually, the best debut for a new show of the year on cable.

Also, the World Cup final I was talking about in TV Talk today initially scored an 8.6 rating (about 12 million viewers) in the overnight Nielsens, but that fell to a 7.0 (about 10 million) when the fast ratings came out later on Monday. The final numbers should be out today. My point about soccer gaining on other sporting events still stands, however.

Webisodes, other thoughts

I'm such a geek to be so geeked about "The Office" mini-episodes NBC is streaming on its Web site (not 'til Thursday, though). They're 3-minute sketches featuring the supporting staff, like the first one is about the accountants. I don't even know what anyone's job is supposed to be on that show, but I'm all for it.

This fall is going to be all video on demand, all the time. I'm planning on taking a couple of weeks and only watching the Web versions of shows, just to see what the variety is.

Oh, and other geeky thought: New Mythbusters on Wednesday. Be there AND be square.

Psych

I'd meant to watch the premiere of USA's new P-I comedy "Psych" on Friday (OK, I'd meant to watch the DVD that's been on my desk for a month), but never quite got around to it. Thanks to today's daily deluge, however, I was able to catch a repeat Saturday afternoon.

And I really liked it. Something about it reminded me of those great '80s detective shows, like "Magnum P-I" or "Moonlighting." Nothing serious, or requiring serious thought, just a lot of wisecracking to go along with a little case cracking.

I think I may even watch it again.

Emmy-one for some awards picks?

OK, the Emmys have way, way too many categories (even if you don't consider the daytime Emmys. And I don't). I mean, "Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series," "Hairstyling for a Miniseries"? I am so not making those up.

And the list usually has too many familiar names on it, although a switch in the voting rules this year loosened things up a little.

Having said that, the Emmys are the only TV awards we've got, other than the People's Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, the Cable ACE Awards, and, heck I don't know, the TV Land Awards.

So how 'bout some wagering?

Actor in a Comedy Series -- Steve Carell, "The Office."
Carell is everybody's darlin' this year.

Actor in a Drama Series -- Martin Sheen, "The West Wing"
Kiefer Sutherland or Denis Leary deserves it more, but awards shows are always sentimental.

Actress in a Comedy Series -- Debra Messing, "Will & Grace"
See above.

Actress in a Drama -- Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer"
A vote here for a deserving candidate.

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series -- I mention it only because Jeremy Piven is such a mortal lock for "Entourage"

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series -- Gregory Itzin ought to be a mortal lock for his turn in "24" this year.

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series -- Well, Jean Smart ought to be nominated for playing the First Lady in "24," but that performance inexplicably ended up in drama, so Jaime Pressly, "My Name is Earl."

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series -- Did I mention Jean Smart? Well then.

Comedy Series -- Should win? "The Office." Will win? "Arrested Development."

Drama Series -- Should win? "Grey's Anatomy." Will win? I dunno, maybe "Anatomy," maybe "24."

Variety, Music or Comedy Series -- "The Colbert Report." No brainer.

Those are the ones I care about. Feel free to post your thoughts on Single-Camera Sound Mixing for a Series if you like.

Back again

Back from vacation now. Hope your Fourth was fun and not too soggy.

Naturally, I missed a few things while I was gone.

KRDO-FM went "Cat Country" while I was away, complete with their own theme song. This explains why Citadel ops manager Bobby Irwin kept chortling when he said they would "let the cat out of the bag" at the end of the week. They seem to be playing a different music mix than KCCY or KKCS. We'll have to see how that settles out.

KOAA/Channels 5&30 ran into more problems with high definition. Some $100,000 piece of equipment didn't work when they turned the system on on Thursday, so they need to order a new one. New target date is end of July.

Let me give you a target date of my own: The NFL Hall of Fame Game -- Oakland vs. Philadelphia -- 6 p.m. Aug. 6 on, you guessed it, NBC. Sure, it's a crappy pre-season game, but it will be NBC's first HD football game.

Any other fun going on?