KOAA - no HD

They're saying their transmitter is down. Couldn't happen at a better time - after the Olympics and the convention on Labor Day weekend. Still, this probably puts the hurt on their engineers' holiday plans.

Do not adjust your television set

Just got this message from Fox...

FOX21 will be conducting a test of the DTV Transition on Thursday, September 4th during FOX21 News @ Nine. This will be an opportunity for viewers to find out if they are equipped for the Digital Transition that will occur on February 17, 2009.

Not sure who's going to be watching Labor Day weekend, but I guess you gotta start sometime.

DNC 180 - final night draw record ratings

38 million watch Obama's speech and the overall convention ratings grow to record highs.

DNC off to a CW-like start

Which is to say, poorly rated.

UPDATE: A second opinion - that viewers are just spread out more than ever.

Grab bag

A fourth "Idol" judge, the Olympics closing ceremonies, "Pushing Daisies" breaks my heart, and the most awesomely ridiculous "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" story I've read in weeks.

That is all.

Fox at the convention

There are 15,000 journalists in Denver this week covering the Democratic National Convention. What the heck will they all be doing?

I spoke with Jon Scott, co-anchor of Fox News' midday show, "Happening Now," about what he was hoping to accomplish that 14,999 other journalists couldn't.

For Scott, the Democratic National Convention in Denver will be a homecoming.That’s not a political statement, it’s literal: Scott grew up in Lakewood and Englewood.

He hasn’t covered a convention before, but was beating down the brass’ door to help out at the big show in his hometown.

“I think it’s going to be fascinating to see what happens with the Hillary delegates,” Scott said. “Are there going to be bruised feelings?”

Although polls show the national race to be nearly a tie, the Democratic convention in Denver certainly seems to be attracting more attention than its Republican rival in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Scott thinks there’s simply more drama happening at the Democratic convention.

“I still think that because you had two such historic candidacies on the democratic side — the first African-American and the first woman who had a legitimate shot,” he said. “It’s not a better story, but there is more drama and more unanswered questions.”

While story assignments are still being sorted out — and to some extent will depend on what’s actually happening at the convention, Scott does have some ideas he hopes to follow up on.

“I think back to the (2004) convention that launched Obama into national prominence,” he said. “I’d like to do the backstory on that, how it was that a relatively obscure state senator from Illinois gets thrown into that role.”

And he’s hoping to get out and show viewers some of his hometown.

“I’m excited about the fact that I get to help show off my home city and my home state to a worldwide audience,” Scott said.

The Sports Animal now requires a mouse

If you missed it in today's Sports section, I had a story on Tony D taking his show to the Web. It's not on our Web site for some friggin' reason, but if you plunk down your 50 cents, you can check it out.

If this thing works out, I'll probably do a business story on the idea. It's intriguing - why buy radio ads when you could just start your own (Internet) radio station for the same money? I'm not sure it will work, but it's worth a shot.

This breaks my heart a little

"The Office" is definitely going to drop a notch with Daryl behind bars.

UPDATE: He's pleading guilty.

My net worth: About a used Ford Focus

Just saw this:

My blog is worth $11,855.34.
How much is your blog worth?

Funny. I'd feel bad, but the official Gazette version is worth a whopping $0.00, so we're not doing too bad on the ol' Blogger site (although it's still going away soon, so change your darn bookmarks already).

On the plus side, the Out There blog is worth $11,290.08, so sedentary TV watchers have once more triumphed over fit, outdoorsy types. Yeah!

Is staring at the TV an Olympic event?

Sorry, sorry. I haven't been blogging much. I've been busy with non-TV stuff at work and there was bupkus on the toob until the Olympics.

I was thinking about this last night: I've probably watched more high def TV in the last week than I have in the six months leading up to the Games.

I think the majority of my summertime TV viewing is cable channels, and I don't shell out for Dish's HD package, so even when I'm watching network programs, I usually don't bother to flip over to the HD OTA broadcast. But when I can park on 5&30 for an entire week and watch a bunch of stuff that looks great in HD, naturally I will. Although my wife was getting irritated last night that I wouldn't go back to Dish so we could record the end of the women's gymnastics and get some sleep.

Meanwhile, fall TV is now just a month away! Yay.

New KKTV morning anchor starts Monday

Stacia Naquin takes the desk as John Harding's co-anchor on KKTV/Channel 11's morning and noon news.

Naquin comes from Lawton, Okla., where she was an anchor and producer. She's got a masters from the University of Oklahoma.

DirecTV bringing HD local channels by 2009

DirecTV announced that Colorado Springs will be among the 44 cities where it's adding local high definition content to its lineup. Right now, you can get high def cable channels like Discovery and ESPN, but not the broadcast networks like ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox.

DirecTV said it would begin the roll-out in August. Which would be... now.

Dish and DirecTV have both been promising more HD locals for years, but now, with the digital conversion coming up quickly, they seem to be picking up the pace. Having said that, still no word on Dish's plans for Colorado Springs.

And the winner is...

Not Matt Locke.

Really. Really?

I'd call that a major-league upset, right? I mean, Matt was the frontrunner pretty well from the get-go. And, I'd argue, his New Orleans design was hella better than hers.

So what happened? Was Jennifer just more fan-friendly? More accessible? Did Matt not stand out enough personality-wise? Was it simply luck-of-the-draw? Did the snoring do him in?

I have no idea at all. But I'm a little sad I won't get to see what kind of show Matt would have come up with.

On the show itself...

Goodness gracious that was a drawn-out finale. And where the hey was Mikey V?

I think "Next Food Network Star" has a better schtick, where the winner's show premieres a week after the finale (Jennifer Bertrand's show won't show up until January). Of course, "Next Food Network Star" was taped back in like February, so they couldn't do the viewer voting thing.

Updates, we've got updates

Local golfer Ashley Davis is on the verge of elimination on the Golf Channel reality show "Highway 18." We'll see what happens Tuesday, Aug. 5.

Local designer Matt Locke will find out his fate Sunday night on "Design Star" on HGTV.

Eat your heart out Lisa Lyden... just saw this in my hometown paper.

If you missed it, I had a story in today's paper on NBC's Senior Open coverage... although I can't for the life of me find it on my own paper's Web site. Guess you have to buy a copy.

If you've ever wondered how good a job a TV writer might do at shooting his own video, the answer is about what you'd expect.

Somebody on News Blab was wondering why my story on KRDO going HD didn't say what KOAA and KXRM's plans were. KOAA says they'll switch to high def for local newscasts "eventually," and KXRM did not return phone calls. Interpret that how you like.

That's all I got. I miss anything?