All posts by The Chyron Kiddo

Remembering Newton Minow

“I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air. And stay there for a day. Without a book; without a magazine; without a newspaper; without a profit or loss sheet; or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you’ll observe is a vast wasteland.” – Newton Minow at the NAB in 1961.

It was supposed to be a challenge to the industry as a way to use the most powerful medium of the time. Newton Minow passed away from a heart attack on May 6th at 97 years old. Despite being known for stating TV being a “vast wasteland”; he was in fact a TV junkie. Minow was a pioneer in television standards and was the head of the F.C.C. where he was known for “public interest”.  He was also behind developing the idea behind modern day broadcast debates of the Presidential candidates. He helped pave the way to the modern day public broadcasting.

He spoke to WGN-TV in 2017 suggesting local journalists being skeptical, hold the government accountable without being cynical.

He was alive to see this all disappear on all mediums, not just broadcast TV, but cable and never mind social media and an FCC that is selectively regulating the signals, and is not holding the license holders or the broadcasters in the same way as Mr. Minow did back in the day.

WGN-TV did this well done report, given Mr. Minow’s connections to Chicagoland, and it’s also their 75th anniversary on the air.

May he rest in peace and aspiring broadcasters to take a page of the past to implement in the future to hopefully make mass media have some credibility again.

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Cutting Corners, The Media Industry’s Obsession to Automation

Economic downturns often forced profit-centered media properties to find ways to cut down costs. Not even 3 years after NBC’s parent company, RCA was sold to General Electric, they were finding every efficiency possible to make NBC be very profitable and ensure that they’d get it “for free” when GE sold mostly all the former RCA assets.

“Corporate media” that is often used to degrade the media in 2023 to me is a slur, but it was in 1985, when most of the our present media companies became more profit centered, than being a utility to inform and entertain. (the other three was Bill Paley’s sale of CBS to Larry Tisch, The Capital Cities acquisition of ABC and News Corporations acquisition of the Fox Movie studios and Metromedia chain of indie stations.)

For NBC, they did a lot of cost cutting, for instance NBC wasn’t entirely based at 30 Rock before latter part of the 80s, they were based off various offices on the Manhattan island. By the end of the 80s, virtually all the NBC operations were in 30 Rock soley.

Continue reading Cutting Corners, The Media Industry’s Obsession to Automation

#NewsMusicMonday – Revisiting News Smile – Just a week later!

As you folks know that I am not just a news junkie but a nerd to the surface of news production too, and that #NewsMusicMonday isn’t just a random feature. However, just because jam to the tunes on the news, doesn’t mean that was my intent with my work with BCOP TV and radio. The reason why my music was blasted so loud over the years, was the lack of understanding basic audio engineering. (which I’ll cover for another day)

Continue reading #NewsMusicMonday – Revisiting News Smile – Just a week later!

COMMENTARY: On Tucker Carlson

So I finally posted some content on my SnapChat last week in regards to Tucker Carlson’s departure at the News Channel with Searchlights. It’s unclear what the hell is really going on, but that’s not my point today…

It’s all about superficiality and parasocial relationships the Boomers and the remaining Silents (folks born before the mid 1940s.) While a number of them remain off the Internet grid, their social media is old fashioned cable, and the talent on camera.

Continue reading COMMENTARY: On Tucker Carlson

New Hampshire News Closing Credits (News Smile by 11/One Music)

If 615 Music’s Propulsion and WSFL’s First Report had a baby… lol it would be News Smile!

Since the Granite State doesn’t have much media diversity… let’s get involved!

News Smile is a cut in the Individual Themes from 11/One Music (aka 615 Music v2… not an original one sorry!). If 615 Music’s Propulsion and WSFL’s First Report had a baby… lol it would be News Smile! It has a summer-esque/Floridian feel (First Report) with a high energy cut (Propulsion).

It help that the cover girl is a cute brunette, I actually shared that as an Instagram story a while back when 11/One posted that image, but that was well before I heard News Smile! So yeah, cuteness sells! lol.  Ironically the video I rolled from Portsmouth, NH in November 2022, was in the upper 70s!

This is one of my first few themes I’ve spliced, extended, etc which is a standard thing amongst promotions and creative services peeps. Obviously I don’t own the rights to the music but the video of NH’s Seacoast is my own collection of B-roll!

Sidenote: This post has been updated to reflect that I explicitly shared this with the intention of 11/One being aware (you know the fan community is so small and gets few viewers anyways.) I did tag them after posting this, and to share their work as for creatives to be inspired with newer news music themes. This post was put to private for a few days after initially posting this to ensure following the rules because…

On Instagram, they had DM’d me and offered a “personal” license to use News Smile for a larger audience on my platform. I was surprised that personal licenses was even an option. I did follow up explaining why I post these things, on the same day I had actually planned to post the Copyright practices (since 11/One is a new company and they ought to be compensated right?) No cease or desist kinda thing, they appreciated it. And that was my intention!

New Hampshire News Close (11 One/Music)

As previously mentioned, 615 Music is no more than just  brand, the musicians started up 11 One/Music about a couple years ago, but broke out last year. Unlike the original Quarter Past Six, they’ve broken out immediately, not over a decade.

I used some Portsmouth footage again, but this time I synced about 30 seconds of music to a single track called News Smile. It’s fitting for what has been going on with me. The album photo is a couple and a child on a beach, which has a summer like feel. This week did feel like summer here in New Hampshire. While I didn’t have the near 80° weather from Portsmouth in November handy, I thought heck, the music makes me feel happy.

This cut I found has a similar music and melody from First Report, the theme used for WSFL in some ways. At least with this 1/2 witted mind is thinking