Anti-paparazzi bill hits governor's desk

The bill by former Assembly speaker Karen Bass to crackdown on paparazzi, AB2479, was approved Tuesday by the Legislature over the objections of media organizations which argued it criminalizes news-gathering. It now heads to Gov. Schwarzenegger, whose family was the victim of paparazzi driving recklessly.

Before the bill was approved, Bass amended it so that three types of vehicle code violations — tailgating, reckless driving and interfering with the operation of a vehicle — could be charged as misdemeanors instead of infractions. Misdemeanors carry a maximum $5,000 fine and one year in jail.

The vehicle code violations could only be raised to misdemeanors if the photographer had "the intent to capture any type of visual image, sound recording, or other physical impression of another person for a commercial purpose."

AB 2479 would also amend the state's civil anti-paparazzi law (Civil Code Sec.1708.8) to include "false imprisonment that is committed in order to obtain a visual image or other impression of the person.”

The California Newspaper Publishers Association is urging Schwarzenegger to veto AB2479. Here's CNPA's report on the bill.

First medical marijuana ad on TV airs

 
Broadcasting & Cable's Michael Malone reports that KTXL, the Tribune-owned Fox affiliate in Sacramento, this week aired what it says is the first TV ad for a medical marijuana dispensary. The ad, produced by KTXL, features patients of the dispensary giving testimonials. The word "marijuana" isn't said in the spot, but cannibis is mentioned. FM music stations have been running such spots for a couple of years now, but this is a first for TV. Here's how KTXL covered it.

ESPN's attitude riles high school coaches

SacBee sportswriter Joe Davidson says ESPN created a lot of animosity when it decided to telecast a high school football game between teams from Folsom and Sacramento's nationally-ranked Grant High School:

Coaches said the sports network barged into Folsom this week, flexed its biceps and took control of seemingly every working detail of the Folsom-Grant encounter, turning a lot of heads and stomachs.

It wasn't the broadcasters or reporters or the grunt crew that laid down yards of cable or put in portable lights that muddled matters. It was the overall sense of the ESPN superiority that flustered school and district officials who did their best to make this a smooth, memorable event. 

ESPN, in conjunction with Paragon Marketing Group, requested the student bodies of both schools to engage in early morning, on-campus rallies. They pulled players out of class to do interviews. 

... 

The coaches were glad to see ESPN arrive, then frowned as a season opener turned into a chaotic circus late in the week. And the coaches were collectively glad to send the "World Wide Leader" on its way. "Playing the game," Folsom coach Kris Richardson said, "was the easy part."

Tougher traffic laws urged for journalists

The California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) has issued the following legislative bulletin, which should be of interest to anyone who uses a car to gather news:

Assembly Speaker Emeritus Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, recently amended her bill to rein in "out of control" Hollywood paparazzi to allow for severe criminal punishment of photojournalists that violate traffic laws. CNPA has filed a new letter in opposition to AB 2479. 

The bill was approved Tuesday, Aug. 24, by the Senate Public Safety Committee on a party line vote over the objections of CNPA and the California Broadcasters Association. On Friday, Aug. 27, the Senate returned the bill to the Assembly on a 21-13 vote. 

The Assembly will likely take the bill up before the Legislature adjourns Tuesday, Aug. 31. The Aug. 20 amendments, drafted and sponsored by Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, would make it a misdemeanor instead of an infraction to violate any of three existing Vehicle Code Sections -- tailgating, reckless driving and interfering with the operation of a vehicle -- “with the intent to capture any type of visual image, sound recording, or other physical impression of another person for a commercial purpose.” 

The bill would create enhanced punishment: more than two-and-a-half times the penalties for reckless driving without the intent to capture an image, and in the case of reckless driving that places a child in harm’s way, six times as much punishment than for regular violators, up to a maximum $5000 fine and one year imprisonment. AB 2479 would also amend the state's civil anti-paparazzi law (Civil Code Sec. 1708.8) to include "false imprisonment that is committed in order to obtain a visual image or other impression of the person.”

High school journalism boot camp set for Oct. 1

Attention high school newspaper advisers: Save Friday, Oct. 1, for the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club's High School Journalism Boot Camp! It will again be at College of San Mateo (but in a new, bigger space) from 1-4:30 p.m. More information on speakers and presentations to come. Your entire staff is welcome!

Video shows McElhatton anchoring in a crisis

Dave McElhatton and Hank Plante

One more post about Dave McElhatton, the longtime KCBS and later KPIX anchor who died on Monday. A few years ago, KPIX posted several historic films and videos on its website, though they're a bit hard to find. Where it says "top stories," toggle down to "Classic KPIX."

Here's a link to a riveting 39-minute tape of Channel 5's coverage of the 1989 earthquake showing McElhatton anchoring during a crisis. While he's on the air, he rolls through aftershocks at the newsroom's flash desk.

Above, McElhatton gets a first-hand report from Hank Plante, who tells him that he saw "people shouting 'This is the big one.'"

Wayne Walker, Barbara Rodgers and Wendy Tokuda

During this 39-minute span, viewers see the first grainy pictures of the damaged Bay Bridge and the collapsed Nimitz Freeway. They also see in a live shot from Candlestick Park with Wayne Walker, Barbara Rodgers and Wendy Tokuda. Also on the tape are Kate Kelly and Dave Ryan.

At one point McElhatton reads a bulletin that the third-floor of Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo had collapsed. What he didn't say is that his daughter worked at that shopping center. She wasn't injured, but he didn't know that at the time. A few minutes later, however, he says, "People are going to be trying to call to find out if the people they love are OK, if they survived this. And I've got a couple calls I can't wait to make."

KTVU trumpets its August numbers

The following graphics are part of a press release Jeff Holub of KTVU issued today touting his station's ratings in August. If the other stations send us press releases about their August ratings, we'll post those too.

The pie graph shows the share of the morning audience each station has between 5 and 9 a.m., M-F, among adults 25-54. The numbers explain why Channel 5 is shaking up its morning show.

Here's a look at the evening news numbers for adults 25-54. At 11 p.m., KPIX is No. 1 followed by NBC11in second and KGO in third place. In the past few ratings periods, KGO and NBC11 have been swapping the second-place position at 11 p.m. Meanwhile, KTVU points out that it out-delivered Channel 11 and Channel 7 combined.

MNG's California papers hire new digital media VP

In its quest to monetize its websites, MediaNews Group's California Newspapers Partnership (Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune, etc.) has named a new vice president for interactive. Jeff Herr, who appears in the You Tube video above, comes to CNP from Lee Enterprises, where he has been corporate director of interactive media for the past seven years.

According to his bio at Lee Enterprises, Herr began his career in 1985 as a newspaper reporter and editor covering business, politics and state and federal government, working for the Arizona Daily Star and other metropolitan newspapers in the West. In 1994 he began his Internet career with an online international trade law service and newsletter. In 1995 he joined Paul Allen's Internet company, Starwave, working through 1999 on major sites including ABCNews.com, ESPN.com, Outside Online, and TheStreet.com. In 1999 he returned to Arizona to develop a suite of Internet-based financial calculators and tools that were licensed to more than 100 of the largest banks in the United States.

In the You Tube, he talks about the "Smart Phones for Smart Journalists" workshop sponsored by the Online News Association and the Freedom Forum on April 9, 2010 in Nashville, Tenn.

Report: John Kessler leaving CBS5

Media blogger Rich Lieberman reports that John Kessler, morning co-anchor at CBS5, will leave the station after his contract expires in mid-October.

"I'm not in their plans," Kessler told Lieberman. "I'm very disappointed I was not able to deliver the audience they expected from me. For those that did tune in, thank you. It's been a great ride."

Before he got to KPIX in 2002, Kessler was an anchor at KRON. Before that, he was a radio disc jockey, working in Detroit, San Diego, Jacksonville and Charlotte. Kessler studied journalism at San Diego State and is the father of two boys.

Online bulletin board signs MediaNews

The technology news website TechCrunch reports that MediaNews -- publisher of the Mercury News, Contra Costa Times and other Bay Area dailies -- is among several newspaper groups to sign with San Francisco-based PaperG to provide ad platforms for their websites. The newspaper's ads will be shown in a "virtual bulletin board" format called Flyerboard, according to TechCrunch.

PaperG’s Flyerboard is effectively a virtual bulletin board, the standard design even mimics the appearance of fliers on a corkboard. A local retailer submits an image and some basic information and Flyerboard automatically converts that data into an interactive ad that can be easily shared via social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, or e-mail. Through the ad platform, publishers can quickly post and manage their ads, look at analytics, and bill clients.

Terms weren't disclosed but PaperG typically gets 20% to 30% of a publisher's gross revenue from Flyerboard ads. Advertisers pay $150 to $400 a week.

While others shrink, KQED expands news

In the past few months, KQED has hired eight news staffers and added 10 newscasts to its FM schedule. Katie Donnelly, writing for PBS MediaShift, says the expansion will continue over the next several months. Among the additions will be a new news blog, she says.

The expansion is not without its challenges, however. KQED's clear strength is in radio news, but, as [KQED vp of digital media and education Tim] Olson noted, "text and images are required for a robust online news presence." 

Improving the text on the site is a major priority, and as the site continues to expand, this emphasis will grow as well. 

Olson noted that NPR has gone through a similar transition over the past few years, which was addressed by gradually training reporting staff, and adding photo editors and copy editors.

How McElhatton got into TV: reluctantly

Dave McElhatton
1928-2010

Former KPIX news director Joseph Russin wrote the following letter in today's Chronicle:

I read with extreme sadness of the passing of Dave McElhatton ("Respected TV and radio news anchor," Aug. 25). 

As your story says, Dave was one of the sweetest people in the business. He was not, however, immediately enthusiastic about television. I was news director at KPIX and wanted an anchor knowledgeable about the area and able to beat Van Amburg at KGO. I had heard Dave on KCBS radio for years and felt he was perfect. He thought he might flop on TV. 

The folks at Westinghouse also were less enchanted. Dave, they thought, had a face for radio and was overweight for TV. Good sport that he always was, Dave agreed to a series of secret training sessions and auditions on camera. We met in motel rooms at Fisherman's Wharf, hoping no one would see us. 

Dave proved to be so likable on camera that KPIX management was willing to sign him. And Dave launched himself on an eight-glasses-of-water-a-day diet to become camera-svelte. 

That completed the package: a wonderful man whose good nature burst through the camera and whose knowledge and judgment could always be relied on. 

Joseph Russin, Glendale

Santa Rosa PD publisher quits chamber board

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports that its publisher, Bruce Kyse, has resigned from the board of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce after that organization decided to start endorsing political candidates.

Kyse said he wanted to avoid the appearance of a conflict. The paper, owned by The New York Times Co., has an editorial board that also endorses candidates, and Kyse sits on that board.

“I did not want the perception that it (the chamber) was influencing our decisions,” Kyse said.

Given the economic downturn, the Chamber wants to endorse candidates who support job creation and promote a business-friendly environment, said Chamber president Jonathan Coe.

Franz Schurmann, journalist and professor, dies

The Oakland Tribune reports that Franz Schurmann, a UC-Berkeley professor and journalist who co-founded the Pacific News Service, died Friday (Aug. 20) in his San Francisco home at age 84. He had struggled with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease for several years.

He co-founded PNS in 1970 to promote independent research and writing in the context of the U.S. war in Vietnam and throughout Indochina.

By the time of his death, he had learned 12 languages -- dedicating himself in the early 1990s to written Arabic after a flirtation with quantum physics, said his lifelong partner, New America Media director Sandy Close.

The Tribune reports that a memorial service is scheduled from 2-5 p.m. Sept. 19 at the UC-Berkeley Alumni Center. Contributions may be made to the Franz Schurmann Memorial Fund to support freelance journalists on special travel assignments. More information, including links to many of Schurmann's writings, go to newamericamedia.org. (Photo credit: New American Media website)

Anchorman Dave "Mac" McElhatton dead at 81

Dave "Mac" McElhatton, a long time anchor at KCBS Radio and KPIX Channel 5, died this morning from a stroke related illness at his home in Rancho Mirage, surrounded by loved ones. He was 81.

McElhatton, an Oakland native, retired from the CBS5 KPIX anchor desk on Nov. 30, 2000 after nearly 50 years on the air in the Bay Area.

Among the major stories McElhatton covered were the 1978 assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the 1989 earthquake and the 1993 murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas.

The following is from the obituary CBS5 posted on its website:

Mac was an Oakland native who was in one of the first classes from then San Francisco State College and now San Francisco State University. He used his G.I. Bill money to finance his education. He graduated in 1951 with a B.A. in liberal arts. 

McElhatton and Kate Kelly in 2000.

Just two weeks after earning degree, he landed his first job at KCBS Radio. It wasn't long before McElhatton shot to stardom. 

Newsman Al Hart, another legendary KCBS anchor, was McElhatton's producer. "He was so funny," Hart once recalled. "So quick-witted, Dave could do so many things and that's why that period of radio back there in the '50s and '60s was so much fun, because we could do whatever we wanted to do." 

He worked for KCBS radio for 25 years in a variety of capacities including the Bay Area's first telephone talks show, "Viewpoint" and eventually news director and moved the station to its current all news format. He then made the shift to television. 

A critic at the time questioned McElhatton's move to television, calling it "either a flash of genius or an incredible blunder." 

Wendy Tokuda and McElhatton in 1986.

Some of the new technology did prove challenging for McElhatton, but he met it with a smile every time. 

"Mac was very good humored about it, he knew he looked funny compared to the typical anchor man. He wasn't a young guy, he wasn't handsome, he wasn't perky and energetic, he was McElhatton," recalled Harry Fuller, who produced McElhatton's first television newscast. Fuller, later as news director and general manager, was there for some of the biggest moments of McElhatton's career. 

"McElhatton was unflappable. I watched him work through the '89 earthquake, I watched him through period after period of election coverage when we'd go on and on for hours and hours without a script," said Fuller. 

He co-anchored for 10 years with Wendy Tokuda and also with Kate Kelly, both of whom are still at the station. 

"He was just rock-steady and I was nervous and green and insecure and he was so generous," added Wendy Tokuda, who shared anchor duties with McElhatton for more than a decade.

"What you saw really was him, he really was that nice. In fact, he was nicer. And he really was warm, and he really was that genuine, honest person that you saw."

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations be made to:

The Dave McElhatton Scholarship in Broadcast Journalism
Check Payable to: San Francisco State University Corporation
Attention: Carma Zisman
University Development
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94132

The CBS5 obit has a secure link to donate funds.

(Photo credits: Top photo by Ray Chavez, Oakland Tribune. Bottom by Roger Ressmeyer, Corbis)

NYT reports on SF alt-weekly court battle

Alt-weeklies share an editorial formula that marries anti-establishment politics with heavy entertainment coverage and listings," says Jonathan Weber of Bay Citizen writing in The New York Times' Bay Area section. "... The in-your-face, libertarian-leaning approach of New Times was perfect for Phoenix, just as [Bay Guardian publisher Bruce] Brugmann’s old-school leftism was a fit for San Francisco."

Vincent Young no longer CEO of KRON parent

Vincent Young, who decided to pay a record $823 million for KRON only to see its value drop like a lead balloon when NBC pulled its affiliation, is no longer chief executive officer of the broadcasting company that bears his name, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

Young now has the new title of non-executive chairman of the board, according to a company memo from Chief Restructuring Officer Kevin Shea to Young employees dated Thursday. The memo also says CFO Jim Morgan will leave in October but that President Deb McDermott will remain on board.

Young Broadcasting, which owns KRON and nine stations in the Midwest, was turned over to its creditors during bankruptcy proceedings and has since been renamed New Young Broadcasting.

Meanwhile, KRON Vice President/General Manager Brian Greif will also serve as interim general manager of KWQC-TV, Young's NBC affiliate in Davenport, Iowa. "Brian has done a great job restoring KRON to profitability in the past year," said a memo from New Young, according to B&C. "His vast experience in building great news operations will be instrumental to reestablishing our Davenport station's news superiority in that market."

AM station planning to shut down

This isn't exactly a Bay Area story, but it shows how difficult times are in AM radio in many places. David Jackson of the Bay Area Radio Museum (see item below for the museum's Hall of Fame) informs us that KMPH-AM 840 in Modesto will shut down on Tuesday, Aug. 31 at 9 a.m.

It's the sister station of San Francisco's KTRB-AM 860. Both are owned by the Pappas family, whose television stations were sold off in bankruptcy proceedings.

"As part of a broadcast tradition dating back to 1953 in Modesto, California, our company has always viewed its stewardship of the airwaves as a sacred trust to serve the public in our communities, while also recognizing that, as with any private business, we must generate enough revenue to pay for this service," Vice President and General Manager Jim Pappas said in an open letter to listeners, employees, advertisers and vendors. "With this in mind, taking our radio station off the air is a decision we were compelled to make only after investigating every possible alternative until, in the face of difficult economic circumstances, no other decision was possible. ...

"When future circumstances permit, KMPH-AM will return to the airwaves," Pappas concluded.

The AM station had played music ("modern standards") until 2008 when it switched to a conservative talk format called The Patriot, centered around Michael Savage.

Jackson notes that KMPH was Pappas' "replacement station" when it moved KTRB to San Francisco a few years back. In an e-mail Jackson says:

The thought that engaged local owners could compete, especially in markets the size of Modesto or Stockton, by hiring less expensive and younger talent, marketing themselves aggressively in the community (both to advertisers and listeners) and become a vital part of the local landscape as such stations were from radio time immemorial up through the 1980s apparently didn't work in this case, as it didn't work for venerable KSTN (1420 AM) in Stockton, which also abruptly yanked the plug back in February. 

If AM radio is going to survive, something has got to change soon. Yes, the economy is bad. But the economy isn't 100% to blame. Unimaginative programming and a failure to truly go out and be part of the community is also to blame. You can't just throw canned conservative talk shows on the air and expect that everyone will instantly tune in, even in a conservative hotbed like Modesto. 

The next shot across the bow of AM radio will be if an AM station in the San Francisco Metro folds. It won't be one of the majors (KGO, KCBS, KNBR, etc.) but one of the smaller pea-shooters that 99% of the populace doesn't realize even exists any longer. Tune your radio past 1300 on your AM dial and see what I mean; they're still there ... but why?

Media information for Fiorina-Boxer debate

KTVU is asking news organizations planning to cover the Sept. 1 debate between U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina and Sen. Barbara Boxer to submit credential requests in advance. Here's a link.

Radio Hall of Fame Class of 2010 announced

The Bay Area Radio Museum, in conjunction with the California Historical Radio Society and Broadcast Legends, has announced its inductees for this year's Hall of Fame Class of 2010. More than 7,000 votes were cast.

News inductees are Stan Bunger and Dave McQueen.

In sports, the inductees are Jon Miller, Gary Radnich and Amaury Pi-Gonzalez.

The announcer/personality category is comprised of John McLeod, Dave Morey, Don Sainte-Johnn, Tom Sanders and Bonnie Simmons.

Art Lebermann is the sole inductee in the engineer catogory.

In the speciality category are Ben Fong-Torres and Isabel Lemon.

The "pioneer" inductees are Evangeline Baker, Hilario "Lalo" Caballero, Budd Heyde, Lewis Hill and Walt Jamond.

In the owner/manager category are Al Newman and Heber Smith.

This year's group of inductees will be celebrated at a gala gathering on Saturday, September 25, 2010, at the Doubletree Hotel and Executive Meeting Center on the Berkeley Marina. (To make reservations for the event, please visit http://www.BroadcastLegends.com)

Patch plans to be in 500 cities by year's end

The AOL-backed chain of hyper-local news sites, including several that are operating or planned in the Bay Area, is on a hiring spree, according to the Newark (N.J.) Star Ledger, where Patch just opened its 100th site in Morristown, N.J.

Upstart hyperlocal ventures are increasingly vying for a piece of what they say is an untapped gold mine in local advertising dollars. Yet to be seen, though, is evidence that the sites can develop long-term, sustainable business models.

"Something like Patch was eventually going to happen," said Kip Cassino, vice president of research at Borrell Associates, a media analyst firm. "Newspapers felt that as long as they owned the content, they were unassailable. History has proven them wrong."

Patch was founded and bankrolled in 2008 by Tim Armstrong, a former Google vice president who became AOL’s chief executive last year. Under Armstrong, AOL quickly bought Patch for an undisclosed sum and pursued an aggressive franchising strategy, investing $50 million this year to expand Patch nationally.

And this from Forbes, which also has a story today about Patch:

"This is the largest area on the Internet that hasn't been won," said Jon Brod, executive vice president of AOL Local, Mapping and Ventures. "Amazon has commerce, and eBay has auctions, but a big part of your income is spent at home, it's where you spend most of your time."

BALCO writer sees irony in Bonds' gift to journos

Lance Williams (pictured), who was part of the Chronicle team that reported on Barry Bonds' ties to steroids, says Bonds’ donation of $20,000 to the National Association of Black Journalists is fraught with irony:

Throughout his long and exciting baseball career, the former San Francisco Giants star – now retired and awaiting trial on perjury charges – routinely treated the journalists assigned to cover him like dirt.

... it was especially true in San Francisco during the pressure-packed years when Bonds was driving to break Hank Aaron’s home run record, even as federal agents were investigating him for using steroids from the BALCO drug lab.

In those days, the writers and broadcasters covering the home run chase endured grief, static and jacking around from the Giants star, along with occasional physical threats. In giving the press a hard time, Bonds wasn’t status conscious.

He once invited Rick Reilly, then the superstar columnist for Sports Illustrated, to San Francisco for an exclusive interview, kept him waiting around for five days, and then told him to get lost.

[More at CaliforniaWatch.org]

Will KGO-AM ever broadcast on FM?

When All News KCBS 740 added an FM frequency almost two years ago, the natural question was when would KGO-AM add an FM channel, too. But Citidel, the owner of KGO-AM, was in Chapter 11, and acquiring an FM station was out of the question. Still the trend of news and news/talk formats going to FM hasn't stopped. Last week in Atlanta, the dominant AM news/talk station, WSB-AM 750, announced it is adding a 24-hour simulcast on FM.

Station owner drops KPIG music for ethnic format

Fans of KPIG-AM 1510 Piedmont — which simulcasts the rock/folk/blues music station KPIG-FM 107.5 Watsonville — were surprised this morning to hear Chinese programming.

No, it wasn't a KPIG prank. Mapleton Communications of Los Angeles, which owns radio stations in nine markets, decided to drop the KPIG format and replace it with a brokered Chinese format.

This year, Mapleton had increased KPIG-AM's power, allowing it to reach San Mateo County as well as San Francisco and Marin counties.

Here's a link to the announcement KPIG-FM posted to its San Francisco listners. In it, Market Manager Ed Monroe said he is trying to find an FM frequency in the Bay Area for KPIG.

David Jackson, executive director of the Bay Area Radio Museum, commented:

Some will say that this is just another sign that AM is dead, and that music on the AM dial simply doesn't work. I disagree. 

The KPIG format has a limited audience, and is among the niche-iest of niche formats. Music would work on the AM dial -- if a station owner would commit to it, do it right and try to promote it to a broader audience. (Yes, I am talking about Oldies and Adult Standards, as a matter of fact.) 

It doesn't require a huge budget to do it right. It just requires passion, and a commitment to do it well. The folks at KPIG had the passion and the commitment; they just didn't offer something a lot of people wanted to hear.

KPIG-AM is licensed to Piedmont but transmits from five towers atop a warehouse in Oakland. 

Gilroy Dispatch has a new city editor

Jon Perez, 35, the new city editor of the Gilroy Dispatch, was at the Rocky Mountain News for five years. He handled a number of jobs there from online editing to designing the front page.

When the Rocky closed last year, he returned to his roots in San Jose with his wife and two young daughters and tried his hand as a poker floorman and a food vendor, only to be reminded that his true passion was in journalism.

According to the Dispatch, Perez graduated from San Jose State University with a bachelor's degree in journalism. An internship reporting on crime and covering sports for the San Jose Mercury News preceded positions as a page designer at the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore., and the Tribune in San Luis Obispo. (Photo credit: Dispatch website)