Archive for the ‘Stuff’ Category

Target Ad Captures the Joy of ‘Star Wars’

Posted by Duane Dudek
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Ask Don Draper.

Done well and with heart, advertising can can trigger a feeling in you.

Which is what the ad below promoting “Star Wars” merchandise did for me.

The ad’s sponsor is Target, though that is not apparent until the end.

It features vintage Super 8 and camcorder and newer digital video footage of “Star War” fans, young and old and over decades, expressing their affection for a film that was seminal to the youth of many.

Add to it the just out Entertainment Weekly fall movie season cover featuring the new “Star Wars” film, due Dec. 18, out and – in “Star Trek” parlance – resistance is futile.

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Local Ratings For PGA At Whistling Straits Double Last Year

Posted by Duane Dudek

Weekend ratings suggest major interest in the PGA championship played in our own backyard.

Overnight ratings for WDJT-TV (Channel 58) during the CBS telecast of the 97th PGA championship rounds at the Whistling Straits course in Haven, Wisconsin were approximately double those over last year’s telecast, which was played at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.

Obviously local viewers felt invested by the fact that the championship was played nearby.

The numbers below were updated to reflect final ratings:

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Packer Pre-season Game Earns a Wow Rating

Posted by Duane Dudek

How hungry are people for football?

Thursday night’s pre-season game between Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers and the New England Patriots earned a 28.9 rating on WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) for an audience of approximately 258,134 TV households.

That is 107,000 more television homes than watched the first pre-season game last year. A rating point is the equivalent of 8,932 TV homes.

Perversely Thursday’s game earned its lowest ratings in the first quarter, when Rodgers and New England quarterback Tom Brady were still playing.

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Bill Maher Puts Scott Walker In the Cross-Hairs

Posted by Duane Dudek
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Screen shot HBO

There is plenty of political daylight between uber liberal comic and talk show host Bill Maher and ultra conservative consultant Mary Matalin, but they have one area of agreement  – cruelty to animals.

They have worked together on campaigns to save endangered species and on Maher’s HBO show “Real Time,” both expressed outrage at the killing of Cecil the lion by the Minnesota man Maher called “Dentist the Lion Killer.”

But in his closing remarks Friday Maher distanced himself from Matalin by tying the issue to campaign financing.

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Local Female Broadcasters Have Stalkers, Seek Restraining Orders

Posted by Duane Dudek

Stranger danger looms over the lives of local female broadcasters like a dark unknown.

“There is a reason we have a gate with barbed wire around the station,” one broadcaster said.

Almost every woman working in local radio and television that I contacted had a tale or two of being stalked or harassed by overzealous listeners.

“Stalking is a huge concern for many females in the business, especially cyberstalking since social media makes so much information available,” said one broadcaster.

“I’ve been lucky enough not to have to deal with it, though it is still scary going into work at 2 or 3 a.m. or leaving work at 11 p.m. and not knowing who may be waiting.”

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Saga CEO refutes misperceptions about Caine, WKLH

Posted by Duane Dudek
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WKLH-FM image control efforts went into overdrive Wednesday to correct what it believes are misperceptions and misstatements related to its decision not to renew Carole Caine’s contract.

In a statement in response to interviews that former morning co-host Caine conducted yesterday, Milwaukee Radio Group general manager and vice president Annmarie Topel said the station felt “compelled to correct the untruths shared with the press.”

Ed Christian, president and CEO of Saga Communications, which owns Milwaukee Radio Group, even called a reporter who hadn’t had his coffee yet Wednesday morning to set the record straight.

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Milwaukee Media Notes: Lions & Favre, Harvey & Harley, oh my!

Posted by Duane Dudek

Once summer at Boy Scout camp I went on a snipe hunt.

Adults sent me and others into the woods at night with a bag and flashlight to lure and capture the elusive snipe. Whatever they are.

When we returned to camp empty-handed, the adults were all eating S’mores and laughing at us from around the campfire.

News of a lion loose in the Milwaukee area feels a bit like a snipe hunt and invites comparisons to other myths and distractions, like Rhinelander’s Hodag and shark attacks.

But the visual evidence is compelling.

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Tales from behind the Milwaukee Magazine paywall

Posted by Duane Dudek
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When I was hired by the Milwaukee Sentinel my parents thought I was a court reporter.

They were just happy that I had a job. So was I.

Until, long story short, I lost it. Now I am doing it here.

And I am going to take on some help from Milwaukee Magazine in doing so.

From the first my plan was to write about  movies and media since the Journal Sentinel no longer did.

I saw a vacuum and in a low-hanging fruit, sort of way tried to fill it.

Traffic has been brisk driven by interest in a tumultuous Milwaukee media marketplace and my outbursts.

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Milwaukee Media Notes: Joyner, WDJT, “Save Our Bucks”

Posted by Duane Dudek

There are a few things going on in the Milwaukee media market not named WKLH and Carole Caine.

They include:

—The Journal Sentinel reports that WMJR-FM (98.3) has once again dropped the syndicated “Tom Joyner Show” for the second time in three years. It is being replaced by a morning show hosted by staffer Andrea Williams.

—WDJT-TV (Channel 58) has hired veteran broadcast journalist as assistant news director. Hanner spent six years as producer for CBS’ “The Early Show” and was an assistant news director at NewsChannel8 cable channel in Washington. Hanner’s family is originally from Milwaukee.

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The myth of Father’s Day

Posted by Duane Dudek

When I was younger and in college, I forgot my dad’s birthday.

Chastised by my mother I rushed out and got him a crappy gift – fishing equipment – and presented it belatedly.

Thanks, but no thanks, said my dad, who had me return it.

It took having kids of my own to make me realize I wasn’t guilty of bad gifting but of forgetting.

It’s hard to forget Father’s Day; every advertisement mentions it, every store has sales. But anyone with kids of their own experiences the full sweep of a holiday like Father’s Day – from the stress, guilt and pressure of a son or daughter to get the perfect gift, to understanding the true value of things as an adult.

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