It’s Martin Luther King Monday. The clock is pushing 5 p.m. And a bitter breeze bites my face as I pump petrol at a Speedway station on Binford Boulevard. I look around at the drab Indiana sky and the drab leafless trees and the drab flat landscape. And I wonder whether the world is really this drab or if it’s just me. Behind me, somewhere on Interstate 69, my sons Austin and Zach are heading northeast in their little Saturn…
The Indiana State Fire Marshall has ruled that the Jan. 2 blaze that destroyed much of the Seasons Lodge & Conference Center in Nashville to be arson, according to IBJ newsgathering partner WISH-TV. The 80-room hotel is a keystone in Brown County’s bread-and-butter business of tourism. WISH-TV News 8 will have updates at 5 p.m. […]
The ball has dropped. The champagne corks have been swept from the floor. And the rose petals have been blown by the breeze down Pasadena Boulevard. And so we begin anew: Another year. Another 12 months. Another 52 weeks. Another 365 days. Another 525,600 minutes. Another chance to live and learn, work and play, grow and love. And blessed with so much time (and it is a blessing), what will you make of yourself, and those dearest to you and…
Almost a year ago, IBJ asked me to write a column that placed sports in an educational context. Obviously, I have great passion for the topic, having spent my life writing about sports, those who play the games, and the lessons that can be learned through participation. Sure, there are plentiful examples of excesses, and we certainly just had another in New York’s Madison Square Garden. But I maintain those incidents are not reflective of sports as a whole, any…
Indianapolis entrepreneur Tim Durham has run into trouble with one of his lenders. Evansville-based Old National Bank says
in a Dec. 1 lawsuit that Durham’s Indianapolis-based holding company,Obsidian Enterprises Inc., is in default on $2.6 million
in loans that came due Nov. 1.
More than $10 million poured into Indianapolis broadcasters’ coffers this year, experts said, as politicians took to the airwaves in hopes of swaying voters. A fierce battle over control of Congress and a hotly contested Marion County prosecutor’s race contributed to the impressive total, which outpaced 2002 election sales by nearly $3 million. “It was a surprising year,” said Don Lundy, general manager of WRTV-TV Channel 6, which sold more than $1.3 million in political ads. Despite attempts to forecast…
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s announcement this month that it would sell its stake in Chicagoland Speedway for $69 million has racing industry experts wondering if the famed Brickyard is planning an expansion. “There are a number of things [IMS President] Tony George could use that money for,” said Dennis McAlpine, a New York-based financial analyst covering motorsports and entertainment. “That’s not to say he’s hurting for cash, but I believe he has projects on his plate.” IMS and Daytona Beach,…
Local stations have had video news content on their Web sites for a while now. But broadcasters are now devising plans to develop original content that essentially could allow a station to broadcast multiple channels through the Web.
One local television station is preparing for a radical format change, and there’s talk that another station could be for sale. Officials for Chicago-based Tribune Co. are sending mixed signals about the possibility that its two Indianapolis stations-WTTV-TV Channel 4 and WXIN-TV Channel 59-are on the block. Meanwhile, Rhode Island-based Lin TV Corp. confirmed that a major programming change is on the way for its WNDY-TV Channel 23. Tribune Chairman and CEO Dennis FitzSimmons’ recent proclamation that the media company…
The Summer Celebration schedule appears in our Diversity in Business Focus. PAGES 15A-19A The title of Indiana Black Expo Inc.’s 2005 annual report couldn’t be more fitting: “Con tinuing the Legacy.” It’s an apt description for both the organization’s recent history and its goals for the future. As Black Expo prepares to kick off its second Summer Celebration without its longtime leader, Rev. Charles Williams, CEO Joyce Q. Rogers is abuzz with ideas to make the nation’s largest black heritage…
The Indianapolis Colts have signed a two-year deal with Tribune Co., moving the team’s two television shows from Lin TV Corp.’s WISH-TV Channel 8 and WNDY-TV Channel 23 to Tribune’s WXIN-TV Channel 59. “The Bill Polian Show” will air 10:30 p.m. Saturdays starting this fall, and “Colts Up Close” will air Fridays at 11:30 p.m. To beef up its Colts affiliation, local Tribune officials also are working independently on a Colts post-game show, which will air on WXIN sister station…
Indy Racing League President Tony George said earlier this year “the stars, moons and planets” would need to align for his series to merge with open-wheel rival Champ Car in time for the 2007 season. According to motorsports sources, the alignment appears to be happening, and George told IBJ he is cautiously optimistic. George said in a May 3 interview that discussions with Champ Car principal Kevin Kalkhoven are ongoing, but that there are still a number of issues to…
Former New York Met and current Mets announcer Keith Hernandez emerged from a cave April 22, observed that a member of the San Diego Padres’ training staff wa s – g a s p ! – a female, and opined on air that women have no place in a Major League dugout. Hernandez was promptly reprimanded by his employers and issued a tepid apology on the next Mets broadcast. This might come as a bulletin to the Neanderthalic Hernandez, but…
Even after all these years, my bride still sometimes forgets that there really are three sure things in life: death, taxes and the fact that television rules, especially in sports. As a guy who spent most of his life in the newspaper business, the increasing influence of television became an everlarger burr in my behind. Everything from the length of games (those four-hour-plus University of Notre Dame football games were especially excruciating) to deadlinecrunching late starting times to preferential treatment…
“Why,” I asked myself, “do I write so much about politics when my interests are in economics?” “That’s easy,” I answered myself. “As an economist, I am interested in the decisions that determine who gets what. Many of those decisions are made by politicians. They decide which roads are repaired, whose children get a good education, who gets good medical attention, and who gets mediocre services. They decide who pays how much in taxes, thereby deciding how much we have…
Indianapolis TV stations say a new National Football League policy that bans them from the sidelines during games is a violation of their First Amendment rights and threatens a major source of income. A league-wide rule that was passed 32-0 by team owners March 28 allows only the licensed broadcast rights-holder to shoot sideline footage during games. The National Association of Broadcasters, Radio-Television News Directors Association and Society of Professional Journalists have petitioned to have the rule overturned. Though owners…
After years of wishful thinking, owners let themselves off the leash Barking is music to the ears of Kristel Baker and Harvey Markley. On any given day, dozens of canines are howling away at For The Dogs, their 3-year-old doggy day care center. And they’re set for growth, with plans to open a second location sometime in the next year. Baker, 40, got the idea for 24-hour canine care after viewing a segment on TV’s “Good Morning, America” about a…
AT T E N T I O N READERS! We interrupt your regularly scheduled life to bring you this special emotional bulletin. For one day-and one day only-you’re encouraged to ease off the throttle of an existence so anxietyridden that Americans last year ordered up 42 million prescriptions for sleeping pills just to bring themselves down from their insomnia-inducing days. So if you’ve been violently protesting cartoons portraying Muhammad as, well, violent, you can use this day to ditch that…
National television executives’ surprise decision to scrap two established networks and form a new one in their place caught local affiliates off-guard and sent WNDY-TV Channel 23 looking for content to fill its airwaves this fall. “I don’t think anyone saw this coming,” said Scott Blumenthal, vice president of television for Rhode Island-based Lin TV Corp., which owns WNDY. CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. Entertainment plan to launch The CW this fall, a move that will have far-reaching affects in…
Say Fox Television and you’re more likely to think of Bart Simpson and “American Idol” than traffic updates, weather bulletins or breaking news. But WXIN-TV Channel 59 General Manager Jerry Martin wants viewers to know the Indianapolis Fox affiliate has a serious side. Martin said big changes are coming, including possibly expanding WXIN’s 10 p.m. news from 30 minutes to an hour. And the national Fox network might add an evening news show, which likely would lead to a local…
