With the addition of the spire atop One World Trade Center, the tower’s property manager looks forward to what can be for local broadcasters while remembering what was.

TVNewsCheck spoke with John Lyons, vice president and director of broadcast communication for The Durst Organization. Lyons is trying to woo local broadcasters who were forced to relocate their antennas after 9/11 to place their antennas back on top of the New York skyline.

So far no broadcaster has bit. WCBS told TVSpy their transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and declined to comment about where it would sit in the future. One of the biggest holdups, according to TVNewsCheck is the upcoming spectrum auction. Read more

KRTV, the CBS affiliate in Great Falls, MT, wasn’t the only local station to startle viewers with a hijacked Emergency Alert System warning of an imminent Zombie attack.

Viewers of ABC affiliate WBUP-WBKP and PBS affiliate WNMU in Marquette, MI and PBS affiliate KNME-KNDM in Albuquerque, NM, KENW in Portales, N.M. were also warned “Civil authorities in your area have reported that the bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living.”

>Correction: TVSpy incorrectly identified KNME-KNDM as the PBS station in New Mexico that was hacked.  It was actually KENW in Portales, N.M.  We apologize for the incorrect information.

But who the hackers are and how they got in is still unknown, with stations blaming the company that makes the EAS equipment and the equipment maker pointing the finger right back at the stations. Read more

Huell Howser, best known for hosting the iconic public television series “California’s Gold,” died late Sunday.  He was 67 years old.

Howser took his viewers through California’s cities, parks and museums equipped with little more than a handheld stick mic and his enthusiasm for the wonders of the Golden State.

KCET, the Los Angeles public television station that produced his shows, posted a tribute to Howser on its website saying in part,

Huell was able to brilliantly capture the wonder in obscurity. From pastrami sandwiches and artwork woven from lint to the exoticism of cactus gardens and the splendor of Yosemite — he brought us the magic, the humor and poignancy of our region. We will miss him very much.

After the jump you can watch a video of Howser singing “California Here I Come.” Read more

Ken Barlow (pictured right), the KSTP meteorologist who revealed his struggle with bipolar disorder for the first time in October, has announced he’s starting a non-profit with David Wellstone (pictured left), the son of the late Senator Paul Wellstone, to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness.

In October, the meteorologist for the Minneapolis ABC affiliate appeared on “Almanac”, a show airing on the local PBS station KTCA, to talk about his struggles with mental illness.  “We have to stop hiding.  There is nothing to be ashamed of,” Barlow told the hosts.

Barlow said he met Wellstone during this year’s National Alliance on Mental Illness walk.  Wellstone suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression after the plane crash that killed his father Paul, mother Sheila and sister Marcia. Read more

WGVU, the PBS station in Grand Rapids, is marking the 40th anniversary of its launch on December 17, 1972.

“Of the top 40 markets, we were the last market that did not have a PBS station at the time,” WGVU general manager Michael Walenta told the Cedar Rapids Business Journal. “A group of citizens got together, and — a PBS station has to be licensed to either a community group or an institute of higher education — talked to then (Grand Valley State University) President Don Lubbers. President Lubbers then talked to Congressman Jerry Ford and said, ‘We would like to do this.’ As the story goes, Congressman Ford said, ‘Well, if you come up with a half of a million dollars, then I’ll come up with the other half million.’”

WGVU now operates two television stations and two NPR radio stations, and serves more than 2.4 million viewers in 28 counties, according to the Cedar Rapids Business Journal.

Allan Pizzato will be the next general manager of WYES, the PBS affiliate in New Orleans.

Pizatto is a former executive director of Alabama Public Television. His tenure there ended publicly over the summer, the New Orleans Times Picayune reports:

Pizzato’s tenure in Alabama ended amid controversy in June when he and another executive of the statewide APT network were fired by the Alabama Educational Television Commission.

According to several published reports, Pizzato’s ouster came during a board dispute over a push by one board member to air programming on the network produced by an evangelical Christian group.

We knew that he was available as a result of the controversy,” Herschel L. Abbott, Jr., who ran the search committee, told the Times-Picayune. “He certainly made full disclosure, and it did not bother either the search committee or the executive committee of the board.” Read more

While Mitt Romney appears to be the winner of last night’s first presidential debate, Big Bird and Jim Lehrer — two of PBS’s biggest stars — seem to be the losers.

On CNN this morning anchor Carol Costello talked with PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger who was stunned that Romney brought up the PBS funding issue. Kerger said the value of PBS goes beyond Sesame Street or The Newshour. She said she’s just visited a PBS affiliate KBTC in Tacoma where the station is working with the local school system.

KSMQ, the PBS affiliate for Austin, MN avoided a broadcasters nightmare after they were taken off the air when their transmission tower was brought down during a fast moving storm Tuesday.  Station management was preparing viewers for the reality of the station remaining dark for anywhere from a couple of days to two weeks.

The station posted a picture of the broken tower and an explanation of what viewers could expect from station president and general manager Eric Olson to their website.

However, a post to the station’s Facebook page last night credits the hard work of chief engineer Tim Gassmann and KTTC, the local NBC affiliate, in returning the station to the airwaves.  See the post after the jump.

Read more

Randall Feldman, the general manager of New Orleans PBS station WYES, will retire at the end of the year, the station announced yesterday.

Feldman has been the GM at WYES for 22 years. He has spent his entire career in public television, including at stations in Harlingen, TX, New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Indiana.

“I am proud of what the Board and staff have accomplished during this time. It has been an exciting journey,” he said in a statement. “I am committed to working with the Board to implement the smoothest possible succession.” [via New Orleans Times-Picayune]

Starting October 31, Chicago public television station WTTW will air global programming from Al Jazeera English for an hour each day.

Launched in 2006, Al Jazeera English is available in a limited capacity in the U.S. The agreement with WTTW will make AJE programming available to Chicago viewers for the first time.

“It’s covering issues in parts of the world that we don’t often hear from,” WTTW head of programming Dan Soles told the Chicago Tribune. “We thought it would be a service to give people in Chicago a chance to view this broadcast, which is seen all over the world.”

WTTW will air the Al Jazeera programming on weekdays from 5:30 to 6:30 a.m.; on a digital channel, it will also air from 6:30 to 7 a.m. and 11 to 11:30 p.m.