devswartz's channel

A very smart sweeps stunt: Use your biggest star to tease the big stories, and get to the news faster with a shorter open. The other stations have short opens, and the theory goes that some people will flip to the station that starts the news portion first.

Most people probably didn't notice, bu...

This promo reeks of desperation, and this is probably why: A website reported WOWK's 11:00 news ratings in May were an embarrassing 2.3. They manage to lose the lead-in from the nation's number one network in primetime. If that's not a sign that people deliberately try to avoid your product, I do...

This closing cue is quite cutting edge. I like.

What in the world are the numbers made out of? His hand sliced through it like it was nothing.

Summerall didn't make many highlight reels due to his understated nature. Modern-day announcers know that, if you want to be heard during a great play, you have to give a radio-style call because they have to be more exciting. As for Buck, either he has been told to emulate Summerall, or he loved...

WOW. I can see why many pros like this course despite being so tough. It challenges them to make the perfect putt every time. Some courses will give them a break for a mishit, but not this one. And unlike other courses, it doesn't have stupid gimmicks that make play tougher but are realistically ...

@pdxist Those fancy graphics, believe it or not, are rendered in real-time during recording. They use the Chryron HyperX graphics system, which has produced live graphics for the Super Bowl.

This error is not Vince Welch's fault. The sound guys mistakenly fed Vince's headset with audio of himself on delay, which WILL make you trip up this badly. I was a sideline reporter for a couple of college football games, and I got tripped up badly one time after I heard myself on delay. Not fun.

It was sad when WSAZ retired this after 13 years. It fit their "news of record" image to a tee, but a combination of the fee increase and a lack of younger viewers meant change was needed.

Considering the turnaround they got in NY with this graphic/theme combo, I don't blame them for implementing it in most other markets. It's a slick, solid image that will likely resonate with South Florida viewers.

@MrSickofstupidity That's because audiences say it IS news. TV research has shown that for years, and TV news websites are reflecting that research. I know because I work at a station with one of the largest Facebook followings in the country. Commercial media simply reflect what most people want.

One of the new generation updates tried to freshen the breaking news cue up, but you simply can't improve the original. Eleven years of daily use and counting.

Well, missing breaks costs a station a LOT of money. It certainly doesn't help cut down mistakes when a master control hub in Jacksonville is running program logs for 13 NBC affiliates and three ABC affiliates. WFMY in Greensboro takes care of all the CBS affiliates, and living here I can tell yo...

Kurt Busch's wreck was a bigger one than normal, so all of ESPN's cameras (I'm counting four) focused on it. Yeah, they got burned, but considering the low probability of an even bigger crash, it was the right split-second decision.

That said, the coverage immediately after the crash was unaccep...

Those 3-D flying talent name reveals are movie trailer-like, progressive and epic. Well played.

This is the presentation that got me hooked on TV News as a kid, especially the open and close. Little did I know that WRAL was lightyears better in terms of actual news content.

Hands down the best election music ever used by a network. They actually started using it in '04, and I hope they use this for at least a couple more presidential elections. The same guy composed the iconic Dateline NBC theme back in '95.

This is by far the best in-game cue they've had (i.e. going into breaks). The new open is simply epic, and I'm glad they finally ditched the synths for a full orchestration, which always sounds better in HDTV.

I do miss the tempo of the old theme (it fit the pace of basketball better), but consi...

"Too Little Too Late" and "Over It" were written and produced by the same team, and the identical effects give that away. "Crush" was written and produced by a different team, but there is definitely a similarity in the choruses among the three--beats, tempos, sometimes even the pacing of the wor...

That was one of the smoothest "live truck problem" situations I've encountered...not a single trip-up as the control room likely went into chaos.

The old theme sounded way too dated in HD/digital. Some of the synth instruments were starting to stand out in not a good way. I wish they would have rerecorded the old theme with real instruments, but instead they went with a completely new arrangement, which has an awesome close and bumper cues...

Nobody will ever be able to replace Chapin, but Turner has a good enough mix of enough sinister and youthful edge to carry 7 for a few years. And how about his resurgence? I always thought of him as the voice of the late '90s and early '00s.

The Best Music jingle sounds incredible with the radio processing.

These are still awesome promos six years later, though I always thought they needed to let the music breathe more in the final on-air versions.

The producers were begging her to take the deal. They wanted the happy ending after realizing that the entire audience (and likely most of the home viewers) was behind her. Contestants who command such stage presence are so rare that they have to take advantage of it.

This is a prime example of perfect contestant selection. She carried the show long after the money disappeared.

The crew did a good job of blending her in with the pros, and the contestant let her know that with the "You're magnificent" line then they hugged. Besides, the expected reactions of disbelief were combined with unintended comedy, making for a much better bit and making the producers very happy.

@LaDivaKrysta Holy God, he did. I just did the conversion online, and 250,000 pesos is right around $20,000 US. He would have had one of the better bids in TPIR history had he only done his conversion properly. I feel bad for the guy now.

i vividly remember watching this in first-run and almost dying of laughter. Still a great clip.