NewsMark's Adventures in Life and Television

Don't believe everything you read, Number 1

2008-09-06T17:01:00.004-05:00

I get a lot of email from people who mean well. They find what looks like it would be useful to others, and they pass it on. Sometimes it's household tips. Sometimes it's a warning.

Some of those emails are true. Some are not. Usually a quick search will determine whether the email is valid.

Like this one I got recently:

GOOD FACTS TO KNOW:

1. Budweiser beer conditions the hair
2. Pam cooking spray will dry finger nail polish
3. Cool whip will condition your hair in 15 minutes
4. Mayonnaise will KILL LICE, it will also condition your hair
5. Elmer's Glue - paint on your face, allow it to dry, peel off and see the dead skin and blackheads if any

6. Shiny Hair - use brewed Lipton Tea
7. Sunburn - empty a large jar of Nestea into your bath water
8. Minor burn - Colgate or Crest toothpaste
9. Burn your tongue? Put sugar on it!
10. Arthritis? WD-40 Spray and rub in, kill insect stings too

11 Bee stings - meat tenderizer
12. Chigger bite - Preparation H
13. Puffy eyes - Preparation H
14. Paper cut - crazy glue or chap stick (glue is used instead of sutures at most hospitals)
15. Stinky feet - Jello !

16. Athletes feet - cornstarch
17. Fungus on toenails or fingernails - Vicks vapor rub
18. Kool aid to clean dishwasher pipes. Just put in the detergent section and run a cycle, it will also clean a toilet. (Wow, and we drink this stuff)
19. Kool Aid can be used as a dye in paint also Kool Aid in Dannon plain yogurt as a finger paint, your kids will love it and it won't hurt them if they eat it!
20. Peanut butter - will get scratches out of CD's! Wipe off with a coffee filter paper

21. Sticking bicycle chain - Pam no-stick cooking spray
22. Pam will also remove paint, and grease from your hands! Keep a can in your garage for your hubby
23. Peanut butter will remove ink from the face of dolls
24. When the doll clothes are hard to put on, sprinkle with corn starch and watch them slide on
25. Heavy dandruff - pour on the vinegar !

26. Body paint - Crisco mixed with food coloring. Heat the Crisco in the microwave, pour in to an empty film container and mix with the food color of your choice!
27 Tie Dye T-shirt - mix a solution of Kool Aid in a container, tie a rubber band around a section of the T-shirt and soak
28. Preserving a newspaper clipping - large bottle of club soda and cup of milk of magnesia , soak for 20 min. and let dry, will last for many years!
29. A Slinky will hold toast and CD's!
30. To keep goggles and glasses from fogging, coat with Colgate toothpaste

31. Wine stains, pour on the Morton salt and watch it absorb into the salt.
32. To remove wax - Take a paper towel and iron it over the wax stain, it will absorb into the towel.
33. Remove labels off glassware etc. rub with Peanut butter!
34. Baked on food - fill container with water, get a Bounce paper softener and the static from the Bounce towel will cause the baked on food to adhere to it. Soak overnight. Also; you can use 2 Efferdent tablets , soak overnight!
35. Crayon on the wall - Colgate toothpaste and brush it!

36. Dirty grout - Listerine
37. Stains on clothes - Colgate toothpaste
38. Grass stains - Karo Syrup
39. Grease Stains - Coca Cola , it will also remove grease stains from the driveway overnight. We know it will take corrosion from car batteries!
40. Fleas in your carpet? 20 Mule Team Borax- sprinkle and let stand for 24 hours. Maybe this will work if you get them back again.
41. To keep FRESH FLOWERS longer Add a little Clorox , or 2 Bayer aspirin , or just use 7-up instead of water.

42. When you go to buy bread in the grocery store, have you ever wondered which is the freshest, so you 'squeeze' for freshness or softness? Did you know that bread is delivered fresh to the stores five days a week? Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each day has a different color twist tie.
They are:

Monday = Blue,
Tuesday = Green,
Thursday = Red
Friday = White
Saturday = Yellow.
So if today was Thursday, you would want red twist tie; not white which is Fridays (almost a week old)! The colors go alphabetically by color Blue- Green - Red - White - Yellow, Monday through Saturday. Very easy to remember. I thought this was interesting. I looked in the grocery store and the bread wrappers DO have different twist ties, and even the ones with the plastic clips have different colors. You learn something new everyday! Enjoy fresh bread when you buy bread with the right color on the day you are shopping.

Don't forget Gatorade for Migraine Headaches. PowerAde won't work. Pass this information on to friends so they can be informed.

I immediately focused on number 10: using WD-40 to treat arthritis or insect stings. Most of the others I read seemed relatively harmless, but this one struck me as something that could be dangerous. I was right.

This article from about.com finds that the treatment is ineffective and potentially dangerous.

One dangerous item like this is enough to tell me to disregard the whole list. Besides, who wants to try to peanut butter off of a CD?

And Prep-H for puffy eyes? If it works, I don't care. I know where it's supposed to go.

Got an email you want me to check out? Send it to blog@newsmark.net. And let me know if you'd prefer not to be identified in the blog!

TV Station Fire Sale

2007-06-07T07:31:00.000-05:00

A bunch of companies are getting out of the local TV business.

The New York Times recently sold its stations to a private equity firm. Clear Channel and LIN are selling their stations across the country. Nexstar is considering the sale of some or all of its stations in small markets. Stockholders are pressuring Gannett to sell its stations as well.

All of this activity makes it a bad time to sell TV stations. Supply goes up, prices go down.

Note to someone with money: this is a great time to buy TV stations. They're still not cheap, but this may be the best time in years to get into this industry.

But before you buy, you need to look at why so many companies are selling.

The conventional wisdom is there's one tried-and-true way to run a TV station.

(1) Affiliate with one of the big three major networks. The network will fill up most of your broadcast day. You get to sell a minute (give or take) of commercials every half hour.

(2) Program local news during a few traditional time periods, hiring as few people as possible and fill most of that newscast with stories from your network feed, consultant driven stories and whatever your small staff can cover from the police scanner and the newspaper.

(3) Program the remaining time slots with programs you buy from syndicators. You pay the syndicators for their programs and they also take some of the commercial time during those shows.

There's a slight adjustment to this formula for affiliates of Fox and other "second-tier" networks. Your network will only fill 2-4 hours of your broadcast day. You may have a very small news department, and you'll need many more syndicated programs to fill up the day.

Stations began operating this way because it allowed them to spend the least money up front and have the smallest payrolls. This formula has worked fairly well for more than 30 years.

It won't work much longer.

If you've read my other blog entries, or watched television, you already know why. Most of the "second tier" stations already look a lot like cable channels. From a viewer's standpoint, what's the difference between watching Seinfeld on your local station and Seinfeld on TBS? As much as local stations don't want to admit it, there is no difference.

Network affiliates look a lot like cable channels for much of their broadcast day as well, but they face another challenge: networks no longer need local affiliates. They send programs directly to viewers online and through video on demand and on cable channels.

All of this happens as technology allows stations to offer multiple streams of programming on one digital signal.

The situation creates a big black hole in the schedules for local TV stations. It also presents a big opportunity.

Local TV stations need to take charge of their own programming. There will be a new "conventional wisdom" for local broadcasters:

(1) Strengthen your news department. It's time for TV stations to add employees to news. Think in terms of newspaper staffing rather than traditional TV station staffing. These people can generate hours of LOCAL programming that's unlike anything on the dial now: traditional newscasts, specialty newscasts, an all-local news channel, an all-local weather channel.

(2) Create news/information programs: A court show. Current events phone-in shows. Sports talk. Ask the doctor. Ask the gardener. Ask the veterinarian. Ask the computer geek.

(3) Get back in the production business. There are sporting events and entertainment venues near you that would make great television.

(4) Beef up and retrain your sales staff. Encourage them to be creative. Your local programs will be unique in your market and advertising time will be in demand. Charge a premium for ads that run in an less-cluttered environment. Sell sponsorships for shows with limited (or no) commercial interruption. Sell ads on your digital subchannels to local businesses who've never been able to afford television. Let viewers upload their photos and type in their copy for video classifieds.

Within a few years, many local TV stations will operate like this. The ones who start now will be the leaders. The rest will play catchup. Which will you be?

TV Takeover

2007-02-26T11:40:00.000-06:00

This is an open letter to anyone buying, or considering buying, one or more TV stations, particularly if you are part of a private equity group. This can be a moneymaking venture for you.

Full disclosure: I work for a company that has been the target of buyout offers from private equity firms. As of this writing it appears those offers will be turned down.

I don't know much about private equity firms, but the prevailing fear is that they simply want to buy something, cut costs to a bare minimum to make the bottom line look good, then sell it, either whole or in pieces. The problem with that approach is that most local TV stations are lean operations already. Anything you cut could hurt the value of your station.

If you want to make money via financial tools, local TV is probably not the business for you. If you want to make money operating TV stations, you should know it is a changing business and that change creates opportunity.

I'm sure there are many ways to make a lot of money by investing in local TV. Here's one of them:

Buy a group of underperforming (ratings-wise) stations in the same region, in small to medium markets.

There may actually be a few ways to cut costs, but in general, you'll need to spend money. Provide these stations the infrastructure to create and produce good local programs. News is one of those programs, but there are many other programs waiting to be created.

The stations may be able to share some elements of their programs. Or better yet, create a program at one station. If it works, use that program as a blueprint for other stations.

One goal should be to reduce or eliminate syndicated programming in favor of locally-created programs.

There's a good fiscal reason to do this: for every syndicated program on your air, you pay thousands of dollars to the syndicator. You also give up much of the advertising time to that syndicator. For every local program you produce, you save the syndication fee and get to sell all of your advertising time. A local show with moderate ratings can be as financially successful as a syndication hit--and let's face it, there aren't many new syndication hits.

The other reason is exclusivity. Many syndicated shows also appear on cable or satellite. Your potential audience with those shows is immediately reduced. You could also spend years and lots of money building an audience for that syndicated program, only to have another station outbid you for it next year and take that audience from you.

Now if you're in the lucky position of owning the rights to syndicated hits like Oprah or Wheel of Fortune, I'm not saying you should dump them. Stick with what works. But don't buy any new shows.

It's much smarter at this stage of the game to control your own destiny with your own programs. You'll create a new identity for a struggling station. You'll build a great reputation in the local community. And you'll make a lot of money. There are risks, but the rewards are much greater.

My Christmas wreath is for the bird

2006-12-13T18:02:00.001-06:00

As I went home the other night, I stuck my key in the lock and something moved in my Christmas wreath. A small bird had apparently decided my fake wreath looked like a good home, until some non-flying creature came along and opened the door.

The first time it happened, I was merely surprised. It happened again last night, and I won't go into details about how much it startled me. The evidence of how much the bird was started, however, remains on my door.

I should really wash that off.

But while we're on the subject, I have a word of warning for the health-conscious among you: don't buy sugar-free peppermint, thinking you can have all you want, since it's sugar-free.

Large amounts of sucralose (Splenda) apparently have a side effect. Without going into details, I'll just say that I fully expected the Coast Guard to show up asking who was setting off the foghorn. I was setting records for decibel level and hang time.

You should also know that many sugar free cough drops contain Sorbitol, which can also cause the storm within.

Out, damned spots

2006-09-12T22:01:00.000-05:00

Now's a really good time for me to tell you that most of what I write is not based on research or polls. If I'm basing something on specific research, I'll certainly tell you.

Most of the TV-related subjects I write about here are based on:

(1) my own observations and experience
(2) what viewers, friends and relatives tell me, and
(3) what seems like common sense to me.

What I'm about to say fits into all three categories: TV stations run too many commercials.

That thud you just heard was a TV salesperson hitting the floor after fainting.

A consultant (yes, they do sometimes offer valid information) told me years ago that, in the case of a newscast, people see signposts telling them that commercials are coming. Viewers know that a commercial break could be anywhere from 2 minutes to nearly 5 minutes. In those days, people would start flipping channels when they knew a break was coming. Now, many people hit fast-forward. We've trained them well.

But what if we made breaks much shorter? Some could be as short as 30 seconds or a minute. Maybe the longest breaks could be 90 seconds. Viewers would quickly learn they can't start flipping channels because they'll miss something. And it wouldn't be worth the effort to fast-forward through such a short break.

The ripple effect could be tremendous. Less commercial clutter could make a station much more enjoyable to watch. Viewers who don't have a strong preference for one station's newscast will start to choose the station that gives them more content and fewer commercials. What happens when a station has more viewers? The cost of commercials goes up.

Then, figure in the law of supply and demand. If fewer commercials are available, the demand goes up and the rates go up even more. If it's done properly, a TV station could actually make more money, not less, by selling fewer commercials. The other stations will notice the trend and cut their own commercial time. That increases the demand even more.

I don't see any losers here. Viewers get more content. Advertisers get a more attentive audience and don't have to fight as much clutter. Stations get more money.

So why isn't anyone doing this? No one wants to tell the sales folks they have less time to sell, even if it means making more money.

Less is more!

Have you ever noticed?

2006-08-11T16:09:00.000-05:00

When someone says "to make a long story short," it's already too late to achieve that goal.

Complaint Department

2006-08-07T18:33:00.000-05:00

A friend and I have started a new site designed to help you find the right places to complain.

Where to Bitch is starting small. I'll add links, e-mail addresses and phone numbers as I find them. If you have one you'd like me to find, send an e-mail there on the site. And feel free to send your tips telling us where you've had good results.

Another Local TV Crisis

2006-07-14T21:41:00.000-05:00

The network-station relationship that has dominated local TV for decades is doomed.

Local network-affiliated stations used to be the only places to see network shows. That's changing quickly. Networks are airing their soap operas on SoapNet, sharing shows with cable networks, making programs available on Video on Demand and even selling programs to viewers directly on the internet.

The networks clearly know something the stations don't. Keep in mind that networks usually make more money by owning some of their stations than from the network itself. They wouldn't cut out the stations if they didn't know they'd make money some other way. They've made some concessions to local stations, in some cases giving them a cut of the sales in their regions.

Right now, you could add all of those "alternate" viewings together and they still wouldn't compete with the number of viewers watching on local TV stations. But the new technology is starting to eat away at local station viewership--and revenue.

As more viewers become accustomed to downloading a show and watching whenever they want, how will a local station keep its audience? Why watch "24" on Monday night if you can download it straight to your settop box and watch whenever you want?

The solution for local stations' survival is to come up with exclusive content. Virtually every station must create its own content. For most stations, the only local program is news. They must do more.

If it's done right, this will mean a new round of hiring for TV stations, instead of the layoffs and cutbacks that are so common now. The current thinking, "do more with less," will give way to a new thinking, "do much more with more."

Surely the network-station relationship will continue in some form. But stations will run far more locally-produced shows instead of the mix of network and syndicated programming that fills the schedule now.

The End of Television As We Know It

2006-07-02T20:37:00.000-05:00

I’ve worked at local TV stations since I was 16, so it is with great trepidation I predict the end of the industry as we know it.

Former CBS News President Fred Friendly once told me owning a local TV station was like having a license to print money. Mr. Friendly didn’t know the license came with an expiration date in the early 21st Century.

Back in Friendly’s heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, people in most American cities could watch three or four local television stations. Viewers had only one place to watch a given program; if a show ran on Channel 4, it wouldn’t also turn up on another channel.

Fast forward to 2006. TV viewers can choose from a few dozen or a few hundred television channels. On a given day, you can watch Everybody Loves Raymond up to nine times on two channels, or select any of 6 showings of Becker spread across three channels. Sex & The City? Four episodes a day on one local broadcast channel and two cable channels, plus On Demand episodes available whenever you want it.

See the problem? Stations that were practically printing money just a few years ago are seeing the value of their syndicated programming dwindle, because those shows are available elsewhere. Do viewers really care whether they watch Seinfeld on a local station or on a Superstation? For the 88% of Americans with access to cable or satellite (1), there is no difference.

The transition to digital television compounds the problem: digital stations have the ability to multicast, that is, broadcast several programs at the same time. Stations could easily have more than 800 hours to program every week. If they program the music videos and sitcoms that are on dozens of other channels, they will get lost on the cable and satellite lineups.

Local television stations can no longer depend on networks and syndicators. They must schedule the only programs that are truly exclusive: programs they produce themselves.

Local programming has dwindled over the decades. In most cases, it currently means “news,” and most local stations run anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 hours of news a day.

News is a great start, but it won‘t fill 800 hours a week. NBC is on the right track with WeatherPlus, a local-national hybrid that will give The Weather Channel serious competition once it’s available in more homes.

Now is the time for ideas:

Local court shows, using real cases and real courtrooms. Somewhere between Court TV and Judge Judy lies a serious but compelling local series.
Food programs. These used to be a staple of local “women’s” programs with guests who were right out of Home Ec. Update the concept for today’s lifestyle by bringing in chefs from local restaurants to teach viewers how to make some favorite dishes. (Restaurants might be hesitant to give away their secrets until they see how many customers they gain from the publicity.)
Local sports: high school football, minor league baseball, stock car racing and gymnastics tournaments are going on in every community. The production can be as simple or as elaborate as you like.
Call-in shows. Let viewers ask questions about their health, their gardens, their cars and their computers. These shows are already popular on radio, but on TV viewers can e-mail photos of their wilted plants for the expert (and the viewers) to see.

This is just a starting point. Station groups will quickly see what works in one market and add it to the lineup in another market. They will find opportunities to share segments and entire programs. Some may even create the next syndication hit.

The expiration date is approaching. What stations do now will determine whether they gradually die or start printing money again by creating a new Golden Age of Local Television.

(1) 2005 Residential Cable and Satellite TV Satisfaction Survey, J.D. Power & Associates.

Not Ready to give up good music

2006-05-24T22:33:00.000-05:00

I stand by my earlier post that I don't care what celebrities think about most issues.

I like Toby Keith and I like the Dixie Chicks. I like their music. I don't care about their politics. Why would anyone get upset over their views? They're entitled to their opinions. But their not experts in the fields of war and politics, so those opinions don't mean any more than yours or mine. To get upset over statements by Keith or Natalie Maines grants them some type of authority they do not deserve.

If we're deciding whether to go to war, we shouldn't ask the Dixie Chicks. They're not authorities. If the issue is music, you couldn't ask for a better authority. I won't allow their opinions to rob me of the pleasure of their music.

This weekend, I saw the video for Not Ready to Make Nice. Then I saw a CNN story about the song. It claimed you have to "read between the lines" to hear their response to the controversy over their comments about President Bush.

Whoever wrote that obviously did not listen to the song. What begins as a very good song becomes a spectacular song in the second verse. The lyrics and the music break from the structure of the rest of the song. It starts with well-chosen lyrics and powerful instrumentation. You may not agree with what Maines sings, but the way she sings it is moving.

"It's a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her
daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.
And how in the world can the words that I said
send somebody so over the edge
that they'd write me a letter, say that I'd better
shut up and sing or my life will be over."

The message is not between the lines. It's very clear.

It's also clear that this song joins a long list of songs you can appreciate without completely agreeing with the singer's point of view. I don't want to imagine there's no heaven, but John Lennon's Imagine is a beautiful song. I might have sung Helen Reddy's I Am Woman in the car a time or two. It doesn't mean I want to be a woman. I appreciate the songs purely for the sake of the music and the musicians without adopting their philosophy as part of my life.

Not Ready to Make Nice is a musical masterpiece.

Lozenged

2006-05-04T00:03:00.000-05:00

I came home from work tonight with a sore throat. My intention was to go straight to bed. At 10:30 I grabbed a cherry honey throat drop to try to ease the pain long enough to get to sleep.

You know how if you're not careful you can swallow the whole thing? Wish you'd warned me.

It didn't really go down. I can feel it in there, slowly melting away. Making me burp.

My throat's still sore, but my esophagus has no pain whatsoever.

The Abs Diet

2006-04-30T17:57:00.000-05:00

A doctor recommended I read The Abs Diet.

It's not the kind of diet we're used to, where you give up all fat, or eat only meat. To oversimplify, the book recommends a dozen power foods. You eat a bunch of those, spread throughout the day. You get lots of healthy food and you don't have the appetite (or the time) to eat a bunch of junk food.

The book also recommends workouts: alternating days of weights and cardio. But unlike most workout plans, this book does not suggest you pump iron for two hours, then run 27 laps around the airport. You can complete this workout in half an hour or less.

I'd like to tell you that in the eight weeks since I started the abs diet, I've followed it to the letter and I've dropped 45 pounds. I haven't. But I have put on some muscle, which is slowly burning off the fat.

And I've found an eating and exercise plan that I can live with for the long term.

Things I Wonder About

2006-04-30T17:40:00.000-05:00

Why do cars keep getting bigger, but parking places keep getting smaller?

I've never been quite sure whether my Honda Accord qualifies as a Compact car. I always use the spots, and I rarely have trouble getting in and out. At least they warned me that the space was small. In most parking lots, they don't give me that courtesy. I find out, on my own, that it's a compact space when I return to find an SUV on either side of me. There's usually just enough room to squeeze my body into my car. Unless I ate a big lunch.

Why do PEOPLE keep getting bigger, but clothes keep getting smaller?

I noticed years ago that clothing manufacturers don't seem to pay attention to the clothing sizes that people actually wear. I'd look at jeans and find them in two sizes: 28X38 and 48X28. Where do all of those unbought jeans go?

Who cares what celebrities think?

This really hit me a few years ago when Sean Penn went to Iraq to meet with Saddam Hussein and tell us all that going to war would be the biggest mistake since New Coke. The mainstream media gave it 20 seconds, but the conservative talk shows had a field day with it. I wondered why they cared?

Why do any of us care about the opinions of Penn or Sarandon or the Dixie Chicks? Or Charleton Heston or Toby Keith? They're entitled to their opinions, but should they have any more influence on the rest of us than, say, they guy who bags your groceries? Do we rely on Harry Reid or John McCain for movie and music reviews?

69% of History

2006-01-03T01:04:00.000-06:00

Note: This is a repost from the original NewsMark blog on another server, dated 12/17/2004. I wanted to keep it, since this story was what inspired me to start the blog. I hope it will inspire me to write more and I hope you will enjoy reading it.

Edith Brown may have lived in more houses in Denison, Texas than anyone else.

On a drive through the town, she was the ultimate tour guide. She could tell you every corner that used to have a store, who lived upstairs and where they moved when the store closed.

She could ride across Main Street and tell a story about almost every storefront.

I only learned recently that her father used to have a barber shop on Main, and, for a while, they lived right upstairs. Is it a wonder that she never had to grasp the concept of “commute time?”

She moved many times over her lifetime. Most of those moves kept her within a few blocks of where she was born. All of them kept her inside the Denison city limits.

Like most other residents, she worked and raised a family. She cooked and cleaned, tended her garden and went to church. She survived the depression and World War II.

For 91 years, she watched the town change around her. Main Street changed from a straight road to a “serpentine” design and back. Highway 75 moved from Armstrong Avenue to Austin Avenue, then bypassed most of town altogether. Downtown thrived, then declined when the mall was built, declined even more when Wal-Mart came, then gradually started a comeback.

Her kids grew up and had kids of their own. One day someone said it would be nice to get together to take a picture with five generations of the family: Edith, her daughter, her granddaughter, her great-grandson and her great-great grandson.

That picture made the paper one year. So did the picture of Edith riding a motorcycle on her 88th birthday.

Edith was never the mayor or a member of the city council. No one would call her a “prominent” citizen of Denison. She played her own role. The town has been around for 132 years, and she was there for 91 of them. Who else can say they’ve witnessed 69% of a town’s history?

Of course, it seemed perfectly natural to her. Why would she leave Denison when her family and her work were there? What else did she need?

Some of Edith’s children and grandchildren eventually moved away. I was one of them. At one point, I lived nearly 1,000 miles away. But four years ago, I came back to Texas, and I made it a point to spend as much time with her as I could.

If I hadn’t, I never would have heard about the barber shop or the ice house, and I never would have seen the spot where Uncle Charlie used to go fishing every morning, or the house where her grandfather swore he buried a jar full of coins but couldn’t find it when they moved. I never would have heard how she and my granddad had to pay a toll to cross the Carpenter’s Bluff bridge to get married. I heard some of the stories two or three times, but that was okay. I learned to see Denison through her eyes.

She could tell those stories until November 22, 2004. That’s the night she had her second major stroke. Unlike the first major stroke and another relatively minor one, this one left her unable to walk or even move most of her body. It left her unable to eat or laugh and unable to tell us the stories of her family and her town. And it left her like that for over a week, merely existing until the night before Thanksgiving.

No one will write a novel or a movie based on the life of Edith Brown. Her stories were simply the typical, real-life tales of a woman who lived 91 years in a small town in Texas. Every family has similar stories.

It's what I call the American Dream.