Big Ups to Athens Banner Herald

While the AJC's effort to add relevant local video to their Web site continues to kind of just flounder around, I'm pretty impressed with the way the Athens Banner Herald is handling convergence. An old friend of mine, Melissa Hanna, is helping run the video operation of the ABH newsroom and she's really doing a good job.

The latest example includes the first round of the Athens Regional Foundation Classic. She shot the round with a new HD camera that the ABH invested in. The kicker is that it was posted to the Web site within hours of being shot.

That's the key and I think a lot of the newspapers and even TV stations are missing when they try to push their video to the Web. If you're going to do local video, it's gotta get posted in a timely manner.

So, kudos to Melissa for her role in convergence!

Scott H.

Steve and Vikki and the Temple of No-Competes

Interesting article from the AJC's Richard Eldredge today about the new "Steve and Vikki" commercials that have hit the ATL TV airwaves this month.

Star 94, S&V's former station (for almost 20 years), which is owned by Lincoln Financial, has had its legal eagles send a cease and desist letter to Cox Radio, parent company of B98.5 (on which S&V will premiere in June) telling Cox Radio that it must remove all advertising including Steve and Vikki from the airways per the talent's no-compete clause.

When asked by the AJC about the situation, Star 94 General Manager Mark Kanov initially said "no comment," but then added that "they are in violation of their contracts."

My view is this. B98.5 is run by the biggest, most successful media company in Atlanta. I'm pretty sure they have plenty of legal power to fight this if need be. 98.5 GM David Meszaros says the ads will continue to run.

We'll see who blinks first.

Scott H.