Patchwork Nation Webb County Bloggers Announced

THE NEWSHOUR has forged a partnership with the Christian Science Monitor's Patchwork Nation project to offer a unique look at how these turbulent times are playing out in different types of communities across the country.

Patchwork Nation is a reporting project that explores economic trends in the United States by tracking different types of communities over time with the help of the Christian Science Monitor, local stations and citizen bloggers.

As part of this effort, the two media organizations are, as the project coordinator for The NewsHour writes, “reaching out to proven public affairs producers in communities we would like to track in the coming year.” KLRN is one of 13 public broadcasting member stations and Laredo is one of 13 new cities nationwide selected to participate in this project.

Blogging for Webb County will be IBC Bank President & CEO Dennis Nixon; along with Joey Horta, Morning/Noon Anchor for KGNS-TV in Laredo. Nixon and Horta will each post blogs approximately twice a month.

You can read Dennis Nixon’s first post about Judge Sotomayor’s nomination here.

Say Goodbye To An Old Friend

That still at left was nicknamed Old Blue, and is what we in the biz call an ID, short for an "identification." Originally broadcast on September 1st, 2004, Old Blue's function was to tell you what station you were watching, and its point of origin--San Antonio. But a closer look reveals the letters DT, which stands for digital television. KLRN was trying to put digital television on peoples' radar screens by way of their television screens way back in 2004, so that they'd be ready by the time analog's power was pulled and digital was powered up. Computer programs track the runnings of these things and I can report that this ID ran 68,619 times. Wow!

The digital transition happened at the stroke of midnight, June 12th, and we're hoping you've made the digital leap with us. If you're getting this e-mail, but not our signal, go here for help. Maybe we can get this figured out together. You can also call 270.9000 to speak to an actual human about it.

As to the NEW ID at right--as yet un-nicknamed--it's not bound to one look. We travel around town, the hill country, and points south and west, shooting video, then augmenting that video with what we call the co-brand: the KLRN and PBS logos side-by-side. The 9.1 San Antonio tells you you're watching our main channel, not 9.2, 9.3 or 9.4. You do know we broadcast four 24-hour channels, right? A quick look on our home page can show you complete schedules for all four channels at bottom left. You'd be amazed at all the great programs we offer.

Regarding those new IDs, we create 24 of these each month that feature our fair city and its environs from daybreak through dark. We hope you get a kick out of them, and that you are reminded how lucky you are to live in the area.

And as to Old Blue--he served us well and I can report that he's happily out to pasture, and enjoying watching the new IDs along with the rest of us.