>Twitter Feeds Going Haywire

>Just a heads up… consider this an administrative heads up.

I’ve noticed that twitter feeds, especially new ones like at yours truly’s weather blog (yes, Your Tri-State Media Watcher is a Weather Watcher, too – it’s an off-media blog hobby and has been since the age of 7), aren’t working correctly. Meaning, they won’t display the CORRECT feed.

If this happens here at Tri-State Media Watch, please email me and let me know asap. This way, I can catch the issue and temporarily remove the offending feed.

In case that scenario becomes necessary, you’ll want to get to the feed directly…so bookmark http://twitter.com/tristatemedia.

>Comment Moderation Enabled

>We have decided to enable comment moderation until further notice.

Comments that are in poor taste, contain spam, or otherwise are offensive, will no longer be tolerated.

If you have a legitimate opinion on a story, that is one thing. Offensive jokes (such as those about the deceased) will not be tolerated.

Links to sites which we cannot verify are also not going to be tolerated from this point forward.

Any comment that violates these guidelines will be deleted upon our notification that it is awaiting approval.

We would appreciate your cooperation in this policy change.

This item is closed to comments.

~Jeremy Moses

>The New Direction of Tri-State Media Watch

>Dear Readers,

You may be wondering what prompted the break this week to “consider the direction of this blog”.

While I do not wish to go into details of what was said, I would like to say that the reaction was prompted by a rather scathing email from a local station owner, in which the credibility of the blog was called into question.

So, what’s the new direction of the blog?

The new direction will hopefully professionalize this effort that we call a “blog”, and maybe bring more respect to this effort. It will definitely change it for the better.

What this means: I will no longer openly speculate. My opinions will be occasional (and I will continue to solicit imput from you, the reader) but will no longer include speculation.

No longer openly speculating about things means this: I will be digging for information. If you tip me to something, I’ll be even more dogged than I have been previously.

Does that mean I will be spending 24 hours a day operating this blog? No – but it DOES mean I will be making every effort to track down something.

Hopefully, down the line this will mean less need for other sources to stories, and more, first-run information.

By the way – this will NOT impact my personal blog, Personal Thoughts and Observations from N KY. That blog will continue a laidback style, and will continue to feature personal musings as needed.

The challenge has been set for Tri-State Media Watch to grow into a better blog – and it is one that I, as a blogger and a future professional, will undertake gladly.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Moses
Editor of Tri-State Media Watch and Tri-State DTV Watch

>Extending My Break

>UPDATE 4:00 PM: I am no longer considering shutting down this blog or Tri-State DTV Watch. After a good night’s sleep, I decided that would just be a kneejerk reaction and would not be right.

However, I’m trying to decide what direction I would like the blog to take.

Therefore, the hiatus will continue while I make this decision.

_____________________________________________________________________

While I reconsider the direction of this blog, OR consider shutting it down entirely, I am putting the blog on hiatus for the rest of this week.

Major news will be posted ASAP…but there will be no regular updates until Friday, June 19.

>An Announcement

>As you know, we have a twitter account at twitter.com/tristatemedia.

From now on, we have it set so that our twitter picks up our latest posts via our RSS feed, and tweets them automatically. This way, we don’t have to post, then go to twitter and go through the whole process of copying the link, then using tinyurl or somesuch to shorten the url just so we can post it to twitter. We can just post here, and twitter will automatically check this every half an hour. Heh…who knew RSS could be so useful?

>An announcement, followed by a quick DTV hit.

>UPDATE 5PM: I have decided to go ahead and create the blog as a placeholder for when I start posting to it.

When I launch it on 4/12, the URL is:

http://ohkyindtvwatch.blogspot.com/

Until then, it is a private blog, as I will be tinkering with it.

Original item follows…

_____________________________________________________________________________________

First, the announcement.

In the interest of keeping all DTV stuff separate, starting April 14, all DTV-transition items from then on will be posted to a separate blog. This way, we can keep those things, separate from the main blog – but a link will be provided from here to each item as it’s posted, and when we post a DTV item, that will be a separate Twitter update.

Now a quick piece of interesting news from Rich Emery, who wrote us this morning to tell us he was able to pick up stations in Indianapolis and Louisville from his home in Hamilton(!) via his analog TV.

After telling us of previous experiences being able to pick up a station in Denver, Colorado (!!), Rich writes:

Here’s why I bring this up — around 7 AM this morning, I turned on a bedroom TV with nothing but amplified rabbit airs that’s tuned to Ch. 3; before turning on the DTV converter box, I noticed an incredibly clear signal from Louisville’s WAVE-3. It was equal to anything from Cincinnati this morning, which piqued my curiosity to see what other distant signals might come with such great atmospheric conditions.

By my tally, I was able to pick up completely viewable, identifiable analog signals from TWENTY-NINE stations today. Every single VHF channel except for Ch. 10 had something on it, something I’ve never seen before.

Dayton — 7
Cincinnati (including WPTO, two KET stations from N. Kentucky, and two low power stations) — 10
Indianapolis — 6
Louisville — 6

Let’s see…12, 22…yep that’s 29 stations! (Just double checking.)

This brings up an interesting point.

At 7 this morning, atmospheric conditions weren’t precisely ideal for this kind of viewing. What you ideally want is high pressure, clear skies or fog, and light winds.

It should be noted that at 7 this morning, according to National Weather Service observations, we did have mostly cloudy skies in the Tri-State. A front had moved through this morning, and it had rained. The only ideal condition we did have was the light winds (at Hamilton, winds were calm at 7am) and fog (at CVG, or the International Airport). There was yet to be high pressure established.

Still, it’s pretty amazing that even under what were less than ideal conditions, signals from Indy and Louisville STILL propagated all the way to Hamilton…

>Tri-State Media Watch Joins Twitter!

>I have decided to open up a specific Twitter presence for Tri-State Media Watch.

That space will be used to allow readers to see when new posts are out.

I do promise that I won’t force you to read about anything personal on that link, although should you want to read about what I’m doing off the blog, you can do so at twitter.com/jeremy_moses23.

Follow TSMW at this link. Once you’re there, if you’re a twitter member, click the follow link and our updates will automatically be added to your feed!

And by the way, our friends at Ohio Media Watch just got their own twitter presence as well at Twitter.com/ohiomediawatch!

>Another Piece of Administrative Business…

>As a general reminder, once again, unless major news breaks out today, I won’t be here…and even if it does, it may take me a couple hours to work my way in here.

I have made another administrative decision.

In the style of my friends at Ohio Media Watch, I’ve decided that this blog may not be regularly updated beginning Monday night.

In other words, I might take an unannounced hiatus for a couple of days once in a while, just to clear my head. (Of course, during non-active periods, there can be a two-day break between posts anyway!)

It also will affect how this blog reports on major (non-critical) stories.

Even if major news should happen to break while on hiatuses…unless it is CRITICAL information that the public needs immediately…I may not post it right away. Eventually of course, the stories will be posted, the information shared. It just might not be at a rapid pace.

Of course, if it is time-sensitive, such as the case with WKFS-FM offering free cell phone charges to any listener that could get in their office before the close of business (during the aftermath of Hurricane Ike which happened before the beginnings of this blog)…well that will be posted as SOON as we hear it.

>An Administrative Announcement About The Weekend.

>This weekend, Your Tri-State Media Watcher is going to put this blog on a hiatus for a couple of days. And not just Saturday/Sunday, but Thursday and Friday also.

Thursday, I have a scheduled DJ shift, then I have to prepare for my Friday.

Friday morning, I have a 9am Social Security appointment, followed by a trip to Cincy to guest DJ for the same station I work for (it’s a guest day because I don’t usually work Fridays), then to a local eating establishment where I will meet my father and, very likely, head to Hamilton, Ohio to spend Friday night.

I will be back to TSMW for a post-hiatus wrapup on Monday (or if major news breaks Thursday or Friday). My Personal Thoughts blog will have at least one post on Saturday, but I am going to try to stay away from the keyboard most of this weekend.

~Jeremy Moses
Editor of TSMW