KXLY, a television station in Spokane, Wash. offers its viewsers archival footage that may be viewed for free or a high-quality download for a fee.

WGBH/Boston offers archives from it’s 10 O’Clock News as well.

Have a team of interns digitze some of the better stuff you have and provide it online. Got a major story that lasted years (The Big Dig)? Put your stuff out there. What about political debates? Interviews with local sports legends? Provide this resource to your community.

In short, they, like the entire media industry, are not doing well. It’s going to take some innovation on the part of local media to capitalize on the thirst for hyper-local news. Not regional. Not national. My hometown. I care about the selectmen’s meeting, the city council, school committee, the local arts fair, etc. This is unique content that cannot be found anywhere else.

GateHouse does operate WickedLocal, a blog of sorts which also contains links to the group’s local newspapers. It’s a start. But just that. Why can’t I go to wickedlocal.com/mycityortown and get local stories, the weather forecast, and the high school football scores all on one page?

This is ripe for a television station to capitalize upon. Aggregate the local newspaper stories and your own content and include the local weather forecast. You could even regionalize coverage and have a short webcast/podcast each day.

WBZ-TV has launched the WBZ-TV Boston Network, a website-embeddable widget.

WCCO/Minneapolis has added commenting to blogs. (I would assume this will extend to other CBS-owned stations eventually, including WBZ/Boston).

It’s about time!

LiveNewsCameras.com
I’m able to watch live news feeds from across the country. The FOX O&O in Chicago, WFLD, is spearheading this venture. They have a moderator directing viewers to breaking news events. (visit)

KMBC Weather Grid
Make your own weather page! Decide where the radar is located. The extended forecast. I’m usually someone who could care less about such things. But if I am able to make this my homepage, deciding where everything is place similar to Google’s iGoogle, then it’s pretty cool. (visit)

Eye on Blogs
San Francisco CBS O&O KPIX has launched this blog aggregator with a moderator of sorts. I’m sure the station is able to use these blogs to form new story ideas from the community as well. (visit)

BloggerKING
KING/Seattle newsteam has a community blog. They discuss current events, story ideas, and share behind-the-scenes info. Very cool. (visit)

Bill Hague, a senior VP with Frank Magid, heartily agrees. “The stations we counsel are usually generating just 5 percent of their revenue from the Web. When we’re through, they may earn as much as 25 percent from new media.”

Even better, Hague believes that the consumer electronics boom is certain to grow stations’ new media business.

“Coming products like the [revised] AppleTV and the Wii game system connect TV sets directly to broadband, he says. “Stations need to take advantage of these new tools.”

But Hague cautions against trying to embrace every new technology. “The point is not to be platform agnostic, but platform appropriate. You must understand tastes, appetites and availability of viewers.”

Hague cites stations’ new digital channels as one kind of “new media” that’s barely been exploited.

While I certainly agree that stations must do more to embrace new technology, they also must embrace old technology.

Why is it that I cannot receive text message alerts about school closings from WBZ; long considered the go-to source for such information dating back over eighty years to radio.

The TV side finally launched a YouTube channel a couple of weeks ago. That seems to have already gone dormant, however. How about cable on-demand? Streaming the TV station on the web (just black-out programming that cannot be streamed)? A blog aggregator? Podcasts? How about giving viewers an easy way to send pictures (like Flickr)?

As noted, digital stations are, indeed, another source. Time-shift and air the west-coast feed of ‘Evening News.’ Simulcast ‘NightSide with Dan Rea.’ Purchase the rights to Litton Entertainment’s locally customizable ‘Storm Stories.’

WBZ’s not alone. Stations have been dormant with innovation. Things seem to be changing, though. And that’s another post.

“Employee feedback and comprehensive market research made it clear…combining the well respected, local identity of WBZ-TV with the strength of CBS, the #1 television network, is an important step in the station’s growth,” said Piette.

Changing the station brand back to WBZ-TV will involve a complete redesign of the station’s logo and look as well as comprehensive marketing strategies.

“The return to ‘BZ will be an evolution not a revolution, and it will take a lot of hard work by the staff who, along with our viewers, overwhelmingly supports the change.” added Piette. “This is a very exciting time for everyone at the station, and a defining moment in WBZ-TV’s rich history.”

Not for nothing, but the ‘comprehensive market research’ was there long before the decision to ditch the heritage brand. Why bother?

I have to give Piette a lot of credit, though. In his few months as GM a lot of change (all for the better) has taken place. Their current image promos stress their anchors; similar to what was done at ‘CVB during their heyday. Boston is missing that ‘family-like’ television station atmosphere. I give ‘BZ credit, because it may just work. I’m continually amazed at how WCCO/Minneapolis (Piette’s former station) does so well with their image in a competitive market; in the May sweep they were number one.

It’s a long road ahead for the rebrand, but it’s entirely possible to see ‘BZ become the WGBH of commercial broadcasting.

After each debate, the station has aired an hour-long analysis and discussion. Principal Anchor Jack Williams, Political Editor Jon Keller, and Senior Correspondent John Henning provide an informal round-table that includes viewer emails.

In collaboration with BuzzHunt and other content partners (WGBH-Ch. 2, NECN, The Boston Globe), ‘BZ video is available at Mass Elections 2006. Video from station newscasts, debates, and specials is available for search. The database aggregates video from partners and has a preview window. The full-length report is available from the station’s website.

It’s nice to see the collaboration benefit the viewer.

Should more stations be adding these promos to their online video catalog? Probably. If they’re good (funny, sad, whatever) and have people talking, they’ll be linked to in blogs and emailed across the globe. (Maybe even added to YouTube; but that’s another story). The additional exposure can’t be bought.

In addition, the CBS Group announced a deal with Yahoo! to add website video to the portal site.

The latest deal will allow Yahoo to post 10 to 20 local news clips from CBS4 Boston in the exclusive arrangement.

The daily clips will be available on Yahoo’s news site beginning Tuesday. In return for access to the clips, Yahoo will share an undisclosed portion of the advertising revenue generated by the videos — a major lure for TV stations as they try to follow their audience to the Internet.

We’ll have to wait until Tuesday just to see exactly what it entails. But it looks like a great asset to users and a great revenue source for the stations.

 What is the plan for the WLVI newscast?

We are going to do a very contemporary newscast similar to what we do in Miami.

Ever seen what ‘they’ do in Miami? The camera moves make me feel as though I’m on the Tilt-a-Whirl. I’ve got to give them credit, though. Sunbeam’s Miami station, WSVN re-invented the wheel when it comes to television news. Their format has been copied across the country. That doesn’t necessary make it a good thing. People like it, though. Both ‘HDH and ‘SVN’s newscasts do very well. I’m sure that Boston’s new ‘contemporary newscast’ will give FOX 25 News at 10:00 a run for their money. It’s about time.