Monday, October 15, 2007

KETV Gets The Scoop; Omaha.com Goes Down

KETV-7 reporter Mike DiGiacomo was the only TV reporter on hand when Steve Pederson exited University of Nebraska-Lincoln chancellor Harvey Perlman's office Monday afternoon.

Less than an hour later, Perlman announced that Pederson had been asked to step down.

DiGiacomo's on-the-scene reports were also relayed to listeners of KOZN (1620 AM) where fellow KETV reporter Mike'l Severe is co-host of "Unsportsmanlike Conduct."

The Omaha World-Heral'ds online portal, Omaha.com, was unable to handle the flood of traffic to its server and its site was unavailable for nearly 30 minutes.

Huskerpedia.com, in a pre-emptive measure, changed its access level to subscribers-only shortly after 1:30 p.m. Sunday night, Huskerpedia.com, nebraska.rivals.com and huskerboard.com all experienced record numbers of visitors.

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good job Channel 7!!

Anonymous said...

Great job, Mike and KETV!

As for Omaha.com? It's just after 3pm and I'm getting "System configuration could not be loaded." when I try. LOL!

Instead of it being a flood of traffic, they probably took the site down because they didn't want to get caught without an update on the situation!

Anonymous said...

7 deserves kudos for this. Excellent job guys!!!

Anonymous said...

despite the risk of sounding like an insider, but good job seven. lately they have been getting some good exclusives.

Anonymous said...

I know Mike DiGiacomo. Mike DiGiacomo is a friend of mine. That being said, it's just too bad there are't more reporters LIKE Mike DiGiacomo. Now back to you...Farah?

Anonymous said...

THATS IS SO TRUE


MIKE DIGIACOMO IS GREAT ..

Anonymous said...

I think The world Heroald keeps going down because they can't keep the server up it's down again.

Anonymous said...

DiGiacomo is a great guy and a great asset to KETV and the Omaha/Lincoln market. If this isn't a prime example of why each Omaha station should have a bureau or why Omaha and Lincoln really should be ONE market, then I don't know what is.

KETV is, by far, the BEST station in town, and they're the ONLY station that lives up to its motto: More Complete Coverage. They get an A! Way to go Newswatchers!

Anonymous said...

How was this any different than what all the other staions had, save for 15 seconds of SP walking to his SUV? He didn't even attempt to get a 'final'comment from Steve. That is a bit curious....
I was listening to 1620 this PM & all they did was repeat the same press release that everyone got at the same time.
I didn't see anything substantially different from any of the coverage today. Crawls, live press conference, etc.
The best line of the day was Perleman's comment on how the football program shouldn't be the defining thing in Nebraskan's lives. He was spitting in the wind, but oh so right! I wonder if 90% of Husker fans even knew he'd insulted them?!?

Anonymous said...

KMTV closed their bureau first. WOWT closed their bureau and now rely on their co-owned KOLN for Lincoln news. KETV Bureau Chief Andrew Ozaki and the boy wonder Mikey D. do a nice job in the only tradional bureau set-up. Nice job boyz...however KE did send several other back up crews to insure that "more complete coverage" and they gotter done.

Anonymous said...

KETV was first live with the facts of what was about to be announced, and at the very same time Dave Webber was babbling about internet gossip and wondering if Calahan had been fired.

Anonymous said...

You know some WOWT producer was watching KE and saying...CALL 10-11!!! We need this confirmed...CALL 10-11!!! What do you mean their senior reporter can't leave study hall!

Anonymous said...

The World-Herald had a reporter there when Pederson left the office, too. .It's just too bad no one knew about it, since omaha.com was down at the time...

Anonymous said...

It helps when the company that owns your station will spend however much money is needed to run a fully functional Lincoln Bureau, satellite truck and staff members (that don't have to worry about overtime!). The rest of the news coverage is shooting fish in a barrel.

Anonymous said...

OWH, there when you need them--NOT!

Anonymous said...

To 6:56 yes they did try to get Steve's reacton, but he didn't say anythig.

Anonymous said...

I laughed so hard at these comments. Come on, WOWT clearly owned the story. Their website carried the breaking news before all the other websites, they had the news conference streaming online with breaking news updates in the afternoon, many web updates, and nearly 15 minutes of coverage in the 5 p.m. newscast. WOWT clearly owned the story! Channel 7 and the rest of the gang was way far behind. WOWT kicked ass and will continue to do so!

Anonymous said...

6:58pm - Did WOWT choose to close its Lincoln bureau, or was that a decision made at the Gray corporate level?

From watching WOWT, you'd never guess they had any affiliation/connection with KOLN. I'd think that if closing the WOWT Lincoln bureau was a local decision we'd see more cross-pollination between the stations (i.e., Channel 6 reporters occasionally doing live reports from a desk in the KOLN studio).

Anonymous said...

"Mike DiJockstrap"?!?!? HA HA That's a good one... next thing you'll be telling us is that he wears a cup when reporting dangerous stories! Alas the nickname "D-cup" just doesn't work...

Anonymous said...

BigRedBoard also had a record number of on-line visitors today....

Anonymous said...

7:54, thanks for checking wowt webmaster. keep up the lousy work.

Anonymous said...

HuskersIllustrated's pay board had over 3500 subscribers online! That's a crazy amount of paid users!

Anonymous said...

No question, KE had it first. Mike was actually on hand when the news release was being PRINTED, and read it verbatim!

Mikey D... more like Sunny D.

What a delight.

WO and KM were at least five minutes behind.

Anonymous said...

Mike DiGiacomo is kind of sexy too, isn't he?

Maybe he should be my new boyfriend. You up for it, Mike?

Anonymous said...

I like how KETV had pretty good coverage of the event, from Mike, to Todd Andrews, to even the weekend weather guy, talking to people, working on coverage. What's amazing is that the sports director looks like he just showed up for the stand up. What the hell did Schuetz contribute except for introducing all of the reporters who were actually reporting?

Anonymous said...

I was laughing at old Schuetz yesterday. I went to the KETV website a little before 4pm to watch the press conference and they already had the camera set up in the room, waiting for the Chancellor to show up.

And Schuetz's cell phone started ringing and he answered it and you could hear him say something like, "Honey, I'm working right now!"

I chortled.

Anonymous said...

jb 5:43 Hands off Mikey. He's all mine.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to ask a question. Why must daytime television be interrupted (again!) for a Cornhusker press conference? Is anybody really expecting any bombshells to be dropped at this press conference? Are they expecting Bill Callahan to break down in tears and say, "Please...I have a family to feed! Let me keep my job!!"

If the press conference was scheduled for tonight, would our local station interrupt "Dancing With the Stars" for such a pointless press conference? I somehow doubt it.

Anonymous said...

"No question, KE had it first. Mike was actually on hand when the news release was being PRINTED, and read it verbatim!

Mikey D... more like Sunny D.

What a delight.

WO and KM were at least five minutes behind."

WOW!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Soooooo...

Was there anything in this press conference that warranted it being covered on all 3 channels as if it were a presidential election?

Anonymous said...

Wow, 11:00 It's obvious you haven't been around here very long. For more people than you can count in this Buddah foresaken state, their next breath depends on the statues of the Nebraska football team. Sad...but all too true.

Anonymous said...

Things I have learned since moving to Huskerland.. Rule One..Huskers First Rule Two see rule One...

If a president had been shot yesterday..That report would have come after a small weather mention..Followed by Balls to the walls Husker coverage

Anonymous said...

KPTM killed it with the phoner!!!!

Anonymous said...

8:24 At least Schuetz didn't blurt out "JESUS LET ME KNOW!!" like he did on air after a Husker Game a few years ago. Just let it go to voicemail next time John.

Anonymous said...

Rgards the questions... "Was trhere anythign that warranted... all 3 stations covering... like it was a presidential eelection?" This is Nebraska. Anything about Husker football is more important than a presidential election. Even if a player gets a hangnail, that's more important than anything.
By the way, what rock has Chancellor Perlman been living under that he just discovered Pederson is a jerk?

Anonymous said...

Not to let facts get in the way, but....

I believe somebody from the World Herald (Dirk Chatelain?) was the only one there who tried to actually interview Pederson as he came out. But video is all that's important, correct?