KHOU 11 meteorologist Dan Meador loses cancer battle

Sad news to report tonight. Former KHOU 11 meteorologist Dan Meador passed away after losing a battle to cancer. He was 59 years old.  I always heard good things about Meador.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family. Here is the notice that was emailed to me tonight from those close to him:

Dan Meador passed away this evening, September 3, 2010 at approximately 8:00 PM.

For those of you who may not be aware, Dan was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. Being a very private person, Dan told only a few close family and friends, and those of us who were close to Dan did our best to respect his wishes.

Dan made the personal decision to forego traditional treatment for his cancer, and live his remaining days to the fullest. I am proud to say he did so, as he did every day of his life.

Dan departed surrounded by the love of his close friends and countless members of our community. Whether through his music, his on-air personality, or simply his smile, Dan brought joy to everyone who met him. He will be greatly missed.

Arrangements for a celebration of Dan's life are pending. The details will be communicated as soon as they are finalized. Peace and love be with you all.

UPDATE
Dontryl sent me this video of Dan Meador doing a weather update in 1991:




RELATED
Channel 11 coverage

VIDEO: Carson on 104.1 KRBE in 2005

We watched Atom Smasher formerly of 104.1 KRBE do his thing last week, now lets look at his successor at night, Carson.

Bonus:  Here is Carson doing his show in Tampa in 2002.

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KTRK 13 reporter Jeff Ehling has been in Hoffman's column before

KTRK 13 Jeff Ehling was the only Houston TV reporter to cover the Pearland team in Williamsport last week and Ken Hoffman mentioned the fact in his Houston Chronicle column:

Reporter Jeff Ehling was in Williamsport covering the Little Leaguers for Channel 13. He told me that his name has never been in my column. I was all set to mention him - then I heard that Channel 13 bragged that it had the only Houston reporter in Williamsport. What am I, pastrami on rye? Bye-bye, Jeff Ehling mention. READ THE REST

Oh, but I must point out that Ehling has been in Hoffman's column before...twice. How do I know? Because as Ehling's producer I did everything I could to get him in there!

Here you go:
Mention 1 and Mention 2

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“Still A Virgin?” billboard erected in Houston

So there is a new billboard that will probably really stick out in southwest Houston near Highway 59 and 610. It asks “Still A Virgin?” and then gives a phone number with an offer to help you out. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE BILLBOARD

KPRC 2 reporter Mary Benton found out the real deal. She called the number and found out it is actually a promotion for a new Will Ferrell backed movie called The Virginity Hit.

http://www.thevirginityhit.com/

Where is 1560 KGOW The Game's David Nuno going?

Last night I blogged how former Jim Rome producer Travis Rodgers is replacing Ken Hoffman on 1560 The Game. So where does that leave Hoffman's co-host David Nuno? Readers are sure wondering.

I talked to Nuno and he says he's not going anywhere. He is still the sports director of the station and very much a 1560 The Game guy. In fact, Nuno is going to start working more on Sporting News Radio, the recently KGOW acquired national sports network. You'll be able to experience him in an anchor/reporter type role.

You'll already have a chance to hear Nuno and Raheel Ramzanali this Thursday night (7 to 9pm) doing a special live remote show on The Game too. These two already make TV appearances together you might remember.

Nuno adds he will definitely miss Hoffman. They spent some good years together.

"I think Hoffman has a brilliant radio mind and is one of the best interviewers in Houston," Nuno told the mikemcguff.com blog.

No doubt Hoffman will be back on the radio somewhere. He's been on it since he worked with John Lander and the Q Morning Zoo at the Top 40 version of 93Q KKBQ.

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Austin DJ to retire after decades on air
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TV anchor Chuck Scarborough's daughter Ellie launches PinkKisses.com for heartbroken gals
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London Broadcasting buys KIII-TV
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- KHOU 11's Alex Sanz welcomes new duties
- VIDEO: 11 News I-Team launches on KHOU
- Ken Hoffman replaced by former Jim Rome producer on 1560 The Game
- Retro Television Network (RTV) on air in Houston
- KIAH 39 9pm producer Adam Silverstein on to KSTU Fox 13

Ken Hoffman replaced by former Jim Rome producer on 1560 The Game

David Barron is reporting that the Houston Chronicle's Ken Hoffman is being replaced on 1560 The Game. The replacement has a good resume in radio. Travis Rodgers was the former, longtime producer of The Jim Rome Show.

And in classic Hoffman form, his quote in the newspaper is as follows:

I joined (KGOW) with the intention of staying one year — just to sock away some money in my kid's college fund. I wound up staying three years," he said. "I resisted my urges to buy ice cream and salted peanuts, and now my kid will have enough money to mess up in a really good college. ... So now I leave 1560 with, and I'm serious, love for those people. I can return to my true passion in life - scrapbooking."

When I interviewed Hoffman in July 2007 for this blog about his new radio gig at KGOW, he told me this about how he used the extra radio money:

"So I've always had a little bit of a part-time job on the radio just so I could get money for soda and candy. You know, wax lips and candy cigarettes, stuff like that."

I am now going to solicit advertisers and try to get a show somewhere else on the dial with Hoffman. Our show's main topic - attractive female TV news anchors. If you would like to sponsor this, give me a ring.

Rodgers is moving to Houston and will start his new show from 1 to 3pm on Tuesday.

http://travisrodgersnow.com/

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KIAH 39 9pm producer Adam Silverstein on to KSTU Fox 13

KIAH 39 9pm producer Adam Silverstein is headed off west for a new TV job. He will now be an executive producer at KSTU Fox 13 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Silverstein says he will miss all the talented folks he's worked with at Channel 39 in Houston.

The Univeristy of Texas graduate previously worked as a producer at Fox 7 KTBC in Austin. Before that he interned with The Daily Show.

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The Retro Television Network (RTV) on air in Houston

If you don't have cable or satellite and like old TV, you now have another channel in Houston to watch the classics (or at least old shows.)

The Retro Television Network (RTV) is now on 34.2 in Houston.

RTV airs old TV shows like Adam 12, The Adventures of Black Beauty, Airwolf, Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The A-Team, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Dragnet, Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Harry and the Hendersons, The Incredible Hulk, I Spy, The Jack Benny Show, Kate and Allie, Knight Rider, Kojak, Leave it to Beaver, Magnum P.I., Marcus Welby M.D., McHale's Navy, The Rockford Files, Simon and Simon and the Voyagers. SEE FULL SHOW LISTING

Sounds like many shows I used to watch on 39 KHTV (now KIAH) or 20 KTXH as a kid.

Channel 34.2 in Houston is not even listed as an affiliate on the The Retro Television Network website but I went to my over the air antenna TV and sure enough it was there. The funny thing is there is nothing on the main channel 34 signal except for a screen that says KUVM (at least when I checked it which was prime time). There is also a 34.3 and 34.5 with the same KUVM screen.

The station that is now KUVM Channel 34 in Houston has been on the air in one form or another since 1981 according to Wikipedia. It is a low power station so it might not reach your area of the Houston metro.

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(Thanks to @gridlockjoe)

VIDEO: 11 News I-Team launches on KHOU

I already sort of covered this with a link in an earlier post, but here are promos for KHOU 11's new 11 News I-Team (video below). The station says it will be the largest investigative unit in Texas.

The new group will include senior investigative reporters Jeremy Rogalski and Mark Greenblatt from the former 11 Defenders unit. The other contributors will be Len Cannon, Dave Fehling, Shern-Min Chow, Rucks Russell, Leigh Frillici and Jeff McShan. Others the station says are included include producers and photographers - two of which I am guessing will be producer David Raziq and photojournalist Keith Tomsh.

As I've been blogging in the last year, KHOU 11 has won a ton of awards for investigative journalism.

Here are the promos, hot off the Final Cut Pro machines, for the new 11 News I-Team.

Historic NASA photos now on Flickr

If you want to look at NASA photos from more than half a century, then head over to Flickr. The space agency and picture site just teamed up.

"NASA's long-standing partnership with Internet Archive and this new one with Yahoo!'s Flickr provides an opportunity for the public to participate in the process of discovery," said Debbie Rivera, lead for the NASA Images project at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "In addition, the public can help the agency capture historical knowledge about missions and programs through this new resource and make it available for future generations."

That's right, the public can add tags or keywords to the images to identify objects and people. The hope is the public's assistance will make the images easier to find online and add insight about NASA's history.

The sets of photos are broken down into themes:
- The "Launch and Takeoff" set captures iconic spacecraft and aircraft taking flight.
- "Building NASA" spotlights ground-breaking events and the construction of some of NASA's one-of-a-kind facilities.
- The "Center Namesakes" set features photos of the founders and figureheads of NASA's 10 field centers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons

While the NASA and Flickr partnership is new, the space agency already has a site called NASAimages.org which provides hundreds of thousands of images and thousands of hours of video, HD video and audio content available free to the public for download.

http://www.nasaimages.org/

KHOU 11's Alex Sanz welcomes new duties

KHOU 11 reporter Alex Sanz and his wife have new job duties. No this has nothing to do with live shots or TV packages.

Both are now the proud parents of twin boys! The special delivery came Friday.

Congrats to both.

Sanz joined KHOU 11 in 2007.

(Thanks Chris)

Former KTRK anchor in Afghanistan, KHOU I-Team, classic WFAA video and more

Former KTRK 13 anchor Stephanie Guadian covering Afghanistan war
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The award-winning 11 News I-Team will include senior investigative reporters Jeremy Rogalski and Mark Greenblatt. They’ll be joined by a team of veteran reporters, producers and photographers. Together they form the largest investigative unit in Texas.

INSITE: Brother Larry Jones out
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VIDEO: 1979 WFAA8 weekend weathercaster Steve Newman
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Library gets grant to save KUHT films
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Top 10 Web Revenue Mistakes of TV and Radio
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Houston's Jim Parsons wins Emmy for Big Bang Theory
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TV station voice calls NBC anchor sad excuse for a journalist
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
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Texans vs. Cowboys TV coverage on KHOU 11

KHOU 11 is taking the Houston Texans vs Dallas Cowboys game seriously according to an email the station sent me:

One of the biggest rivalries in the great state of Texas will come to a head Saturday – Houston vs. Dallas – as the Texans take on the Cowboys in a highly anticipated preseason matchup. The action starts at 6 p.m. on KHOU-TV Channel 11, Houston’s CBS affiliate, with the “Lone Star Shootout” pregame special, followed by the game at 7 p.m. televised nationally on CBS stations.

Channel 11 will be LIVE from “Tailgate Central” at Reliant Stadium with anchors Greg Hurst, Lucy Noland and Butch Alsandor. Tune in for a taste of how Texan fans get their game face on with Len Cannon, Gene Norman, Deborah Duncan, Katherine Whaley and David Paul. Plus, Matt Musil will be on the sideline with the teams all the way through kickoff.

The one-hour special breaks down the key matchups of the rivalry. Hear from quarterbacks, receivers, coaches and owners. Even the mayors of the two cities weigh in on why their team will win the biggest game of the preseason. It all starts at 6 p.m. on Channel 11.

KPRC 2 reporter Lisa Baldwin says goodbye

The Insite reports that KPRC 2 reporter Lisa Baldwin put her resignation into the bosses at Channel 2 KPRC this week. I hear she wants to spend more time with her family.

Nothing wrong with that. I did the same thing.

Clearly family is important to Baldwin. She mentioned in her KPRC web bio:

Despite working hard to get where she is, Lisa has achieved her own personal feat by becoming a first-time mother. Her son was born five weeks after she arrived in Houston. A daughter arrived a few years later. She met her husband, who is a TV news reporter, in a newsroom and says that he is her best friend.

Baldwin's husband is KIAH 39 reporter Steve Simon.

Fox 26 KRIV's Sibila Vargas not talking about KCBS job rumor

Thanks for all the emails concerning the Sibila Vargas rumor featured on NewsBlues yesterday. In case you didn't see it, NewsBlues is reporting the current Fox 26 KRIV anchor is rumored to be heading to Los Angeles for a weekend anchoring gig at KCBS.

I reached out to Vargas about the KCBS LA rumor and she has no comment right now.

Out of all the rumors floating around the Houston media scene, I could buy into this one. After all, Vargas came to Houston TV from a high profile entertainment reporting job at CNN.

Stay tuned.

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VIDEO: Cruiser cam catches 100 mph crash

Watch the video and then read how the driver actually survives the crash.

KRIV 26, KIAH 39 and KPRC 2 start sharing video

Today is day three of the new Houston TV station video sharing agreement according to sources. Three stations are involved - KPRC 2, KRIV 26 and KIAH 39.

This means that all the stations get together, figure out what needs to be covered that day and send one photographer to shoot video for all three stations. It is a way to cut down on costs. Instead of sending three staffers from each television station to shoot the same video, now you are sending one to shoot for all of them.

I've written about what's called a Local News Service or LNS before. There is an LNS agreement in the Dallas-Fort Worth market for example. When I worked at KTRK, there was a less formal sounding video sharing agreement between 13 and 39 a few years ago.

You might also remember that there is a sharing agreement between Houston stations when it comes to helicopters too. That led to this famous chopper promo from Fox 26.

No word on just what is going to be covered between the Houston stations. I would guess it would be the feature VOs/Sots and press conference stuff. Maybe car accident video too for all we know. The stations are probably still trying to work it out. All these folks are still competitors so don't expect them to get too friendly.

With all things there are two sides to this issue. From a station operations standpoint, it makes sense. It is cheaper and more efficient. From an employee standpoint it is probably scary. Does this mean stations need less employees? Time will only tell.

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Former KPRC 2 reporter's new biz, H-town TV couple expecting and more

Former KPRC 2 reporter launches new business venture
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VIDEO: Behind the scenes of Atom Smasher's 104.1 KRBE in 2003

Remember Atom Smasher at 104.1 KRBE? From night man to morning show host duties, Atom certainly made an impact on Houston.

In fact, when Sam Malone left and Smasher and Maria Todd became the morning show, I realized people were interested in Houston media stories on my blog. You can blame this event for the continuation of this blog.

Above is behind the scenes footage of Atom Smasher doing his show in the KRBE studios back in 2003. As a self confessed radio geek, I enjoy watching good DJs doing their show. It appears to take someone with great multi-tasking skills with slight ADHD. Atom is even entertaining with callers who probably never made air.

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