First do you recognize the teacher or any of the students in the above picture? Think WKGN, Fulton, The Duck, The Dr. and then let me know who you think it is! As always the winner gets nothing.



A few changes, thoughts, and surprises materialized in our local media camps last week. Years ago when I wrote for the "big" paper the former head man said the part of my column he liked the best was bullet points. Being a budding newspaper scribbler packing a mega radio ego I naturally assumed his reasoning was based on said bullets being short. Short is not good, short does not let the journalist inject his or her style, flavor, verve, and vast literary background into their masterpiece. Because the guy also hated stories that had a jump in them and was so terrified by snakes he would not even allow a picture of one from the zoo in his paper I naturally filed his bullet thought in the eccentric bucket and kept them to a minimum. All that said, here are a few bullets from last week.

1. Here is a thought (from someone both in the business and highly respected by me) on the mega slide to ratings hell by WATE…"Considering that the Fox News at 10:00 (produced by WATE) is one of the "late" newscasts -- the WATE 11:00 news is in FOURTH PLACE."

2. Another thought on WATE flew in over the cyber transom.
"Just in case you haven't heard, Ch 10 has a new anchor/reporter. She is Evette Martinez (SP?) She will be reporting three days a week and anchoring the weekend news. She used to be at ch 6 and left to pursue other interests in the business."
Two fast footnotes, first WBIR seldom hires anyone from across town, even if they sandwiched another job outside the business into their résumé before they joined the 10 team. Second, it was rumored by more than a few insiders at 6 that Martinez got a rather "raw" deal when she left 6. Again the key word is rumored so don't tag me with "creating" a fact on this one.


3. NEWSTALK Traffic/Talk Show Host is leaving. "I have been presented with an exciting opportunity for my career. However, to pursue this we need to move. I have accepted a position as the morning talk show host on KLIK-AM in Jefferson City, Missouri. The station is respected and its location in a state capitol could lead to bigger and better things down the road. I start at KLIK on January 2, 2007, and I will be heading out there between Christmas and New Year.
Jay Kersting


4. When Harold Ford Jr. was in town being congratulated by the libs and the dems for his fine run in November his Uncle was being sentenced to the slammer. Interesting that not one journalist attending the tainted (the guy lost) celebration party had the backbone to ask the man about his Uncle?


I checked a comment in the "guest book" at Southern Roots Radio asking why I had no information on a reportedly purloined web cam, allegedly missing from their control room. I was informed of the missing cam a few weeks back and because the few times I have had the opportunity to be on the station either it was not working or the viewing of it was tied to e mailers actually requesting the operator to turn it on, I assumed they just scrapped it? Turns out a controversy of biblical proportions has erupted over the thing and if you care to follow the history of the disappearance dash over to http://southernrootsradio.com and click first on the programming links (try political) and then on the guest book. If the big paper gets behind the story and one of the public service TV channels pile into the mix, this thing could grow legs and become of major importance, or not.