On Thanksgiving, after the drumsticks have been polished off and the leftovers have been safely secured in the fridge, there’s a wide variety of specials, repeat shows and new episodes on network TV.  The Giants play the Broncos at home, but you won’t be able to see the game if you don’t have the NFL Network as one of your channel choices. Well personally, I’ve seen enough of the Broncos lately. ABC features back to back concerts from Beyonce and Paul McCartney.

After a hectic day of Black Friday shopping, as you sink into the easy chair and click on the tube looking for new episodes of your favorite network shows, only ABC has new episodes: of  “Supernanny”, “Ugly Betty” and “20/20″. CBS and NBC have scheduled repeats and FOX is showing the movie “Ice Age 2″.

Of course there will be brand new “Jay Leno” shows. That was part of the sell for the NBC affiliates. While the other networks are running reruns, Jay will have fresh shows. So, let’s check Thanksgiving. Jay’s got a brand new show. How about the day after Thanksgiving? Uh oh, Jay’s a repeat.

Monday, November 30, ABC has some repeats and some new shows while CBS has a night of repeats and the shows are brand new on NBC and FOX.

There’s good news for “Chuck” fans. “Chuck” returns to NBC on Sunday, January 10 with all-new back-to-back premiere episodes before moving to a regular time slot, Monday’s from 7-8:00 p.m., beginning January 11.

In other programming news, a special two-hour episode of “Heroes” will be broadcast on Monday, January 4 and then the series moves to the new time slot of Mondays from 8-9 p.m. starting January 11.

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J. Ralph Carter

of ALS or “Lou Gehrigs” disease in his home last night, according to family and friends. Carter was 61 and was diagnosed with the disease at the beginning of this year.

Word spread throughout the broadcasting community Wednesday afternoon and former colleagues were shocked and saddened by the news, saying they didn’t even realize that he was ill.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” after the Baseball Hall of Famer who was diagnosed with the illness and retired from baseball in 1939, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. According to the ALS Association, approximately 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with the disease each year. Life expectancy can range from just a year or two to a small percentage of people who have lived with the disease for 20-years. There is no cure for ALS.

J. Ralph started his broadcasting career working at KDZA radio in Pueblo, fresh out of high school.  Bob Boshe, former colleague at the radio station remembers having lunch with Jack at the 29th Street Tastee Freeze in Pueblo. They were discussing what Jack’s radio name was going to be. Bob had heard J. Paul Huddleston, the Los Angeles radio news anchor and suggested to him, why not use J. Ralph Carter.  Soon, J. Ralph Carter was on the air.

He became a weather anchor for KOAA in the mid 70’s and continued to work there off and on for the next 20 years.  Dave Rose, former KOAA news director in the early 80’s, remembers hiring J. Ralph to do fill-in weather work. “I don’t even remember him having one down day.” said Rose, who echoes what many of Carter’s co-workers over the years are saying.

He was a “what can I do for you kind of guy,” remembers Lisa Lyden, KOAA news anchor. We used to do those 30-minute state fair specials after the 10:00 p.m. newscast and he was so much fun to work with, she said.

“J.Ralph helped many young broadcasters get their start in the business,” said Mark Murray, now a meteorologist in Austin, Texas. “He was a tremendous help to me in the late ’70s as a struggling young disc jockey in Pueblo radio, and in the ’80s as a rookie weekend weatherman at KOAA-TV.”

For many years J. Ralph hosted the KTSC program “Matchwits,” a weekly, high school academic quiz program that is now in its 25th season.

Carter was involved in broadcasting right up to his death, running a consulting business that sold software called MusicMix that automatically scheduled music for radio stations. “He was always full of new ideas, whether it was coming up with radio promotions or just thoughts on media in general,” said Dave Moore, who worked with J. Ralph on the project and in the early 80’s at KCCY radio.

Carter is survived by his wife Susanne, his sister and mother.

A memorial service will be held this Saturday at 11:00 a.m. at the T. G. McCarthy Funeral home in Pueblo.

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Although “domestic abuse” is typically associated with a victimized woman, more than a third of all domestic abuse cases involve male victims. In actuality, this number is probably even higher due to the relatively low reporting of these cases by men who are ashamed and afraid to do so.

In this episode, viewers meet Jerry, who suffered through 20 years of torture and abuse at the hands of his ex-wife Hassania. Described as a ticking time bomb, Hassania once threatened to kill her and Jerry’s two sons with a shotgun and once tried to murder Jerry at work by stabbing him two times.

Although Jerry has a permanent restraining order against Hassania, he lives in constant fear that she will retaliate against him now that she is out of prison on parole after serving three years. Jerry is currently on the board of The Domestic Abuse Helpline for Men and Women and travels across the county to speak publicly about domestic abuse against men.

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KOAA: Collapse on the Practice Field…it’s the story of Nathan Pittman who nearly lost his life after collapsing during high school football practice. Watch the promo

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KKLI, the Christmas music leader, went wall-to-wall holiday music on Monday. “In deciding when to start holiday music this year, we wanted people to be in the giving mood for our Take a Turkey To Work Day promotion on Friday,” said Bob Richards, the local Clear Channel general manager. “So we began playing holiday music at midnight Monday.” The goal is to bring in 6,000 turkeys. Richards said that at some point all the Clear Channel stations will be playing holiday music. KKLI usually resumes regular programming the day after Christmas.

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Darkness fell upon TV sets, except for the weather crawl, at around 10:50 a.m. The station updated the crawl to say they were having technical difficulties around 11:15 a.m. They joined coverage of the Bronco game at 11:21 a.m. Anchor Don Ward, in his blog, said ice and snow built up on the satellite dish that KKTV uses to receive the Broncos game. Normally a heater takes care of any accumulation, but the weather actually caused the heater to short out. An engineer dashed over to the station, moved one of the satellite trucks near the dish and got on top of the roof of the truck to sweep away the ice and snow until the signal came back. Ward has the rest of the story on his blog.

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-Stephanie Wurtz has left KRDO TV and is now the spokeswoman for Falcon School District 49. And she just got married recently, so now she’s Stephanie Meredith.  She’s the latest reporter or anchor to leave KRDO and head for the PR world. Jennifer Brown left the morning show to join the El Paso County Department of Human Services.

Among other media types who have held the District 49 position include Amanda Mountain from The Gazette and Joe Cole, news director at FOX 21.

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-More TV sweeps excitement: You know about matching up couples for dating, fill out the questionnaire and tell us about yourself. Well, Tuesday night on FOX 21 it’s Credit Score Dating…that’s right, credit scores are used in the process to match up potential couples.

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Jesse Kurtz

KKTV announced today that Jesse Kurtz has been named Sports Director for the station and will take over the post in December.

Kurtz replaces John Owens who’s resignation from that position was announced last week. “In the 7 years I have known Jesse, he lives, breathes, sports. That’s the kind of guy you need in that position,” said Owens.

“I was glad to be considered for the position when it opened up and am excited about the promotion,” said Kurtz. “It’s something I’ve aspired to since moving to Colorado Springs,” he said. Kurtz said that Owens gave him a chance to get some leadership under his belt. “I will work hard to continue the tradition of excellence that John has built,” he said. Kurtz has two boys and loves the thought of  them growing up in the Pikes Peak region.

Kurtz joined KKTV in 2002 as Weekend Sports Anchor. He has helped launch such shows as Friday Night End Zone, Full Court Press and Double Coverage.

Kurtz is a four-time regional, Edward R. Murrow Award winner for Sports Reporting (‘04, ‘06, ‘07, ‘08) and three-time Sportscaster of the Year winner by the Colorado Broadcaster’s Association (‘05, ‘06, ‘08).

In addition to his duties at KKTV 11 News, Kurtz worked as an NFL Sideline Reporter and Pre-Game Host during the 2009 Broncos pre-season.

Jesse is a Colorado native and graduated Cum Laude from Colorado State University with a double-major in Technical Journalism and Speech Communication.

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Brad Sowder

KOAA has added meteorologist Brad Sowder to the weather lineup.

Sowder, who joined the station last month, comes from the Western Slope where he worked at KJCT News 8 in Grand Junction. “Brad will work Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat & Sun mornings –News First 5 and News First Now,” said Cindy Aubrey, KOAA news director.

I asked him about the challenges of forecasting for southeastern Colorado vs. the western part of the state. “There is far more exposure to significant storms along the Front Range, and this makes forecasting much more difficult.  The valleys of western Colorado are mostly surrounded by the mountains, and this generally puts you on the lee side which is the calm side of a storm,” Sowder said. “Southern Colorado offers one of the best classrooms in the world to study and forecast the weather,” he said.

The Colorado Broadcasters awarded Sowder Best Weathercaster for 2008.

Sowder is originally from Roanoke, Virginia and got his Bachelor of Science in Meteorology from the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Speaking of News First 5, there have been people commenting on the blog who are calling themselves “Lisa”, “Fake Lisa”, “Rob” and “Mike”. The KOAA anchor people say some viewers are confused, thinking that they have made those comments when, in reality, they have not made any posts to the blog. (Although they are certainly welcome to in the future).

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Lou Dobbs

Commentator Lou Dobbs announced on his show tonight that it’s his last on CNN.

Dobbs joined the cable news network at its inception in 1980, serving as its chief economics correspondent and as host of the business news program Moneyline. He also was the network’s executive vice president.

He founded CNNfn (financial news) in December, 1995 and anchored the program Business Unusual. After the CNN/Time Warner merger  the network was folded in 2004.

Dobbs was known for his strong opposition to illegal immigration, with former Republican Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo a frequent guest on the subject.

I have “a number of options and directions available to me in the future,” said Dobbs. He will continue to do his nationally syndicated radio show, The Lou Dobbs Show,” he said.

Fox News?

Announcement video

Update: CNN has announced that John King will replace Lou Dobbs in the 5:00 p.m. local time slot early next year with a weekday political program.  CNN did not announce the name of the new program. “The program will reflect what CNN is all about: straight facts from our anchors and the widest range of opinions from across the political spectrum,” Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/U.S., said in the network’s statement.

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KRDO has been airing TV spots that honor the 30 Ft. Carson soldiers who have been killed in combat this year. 12 tribute spots were  produced, have been running over the weekend and will continue through Veterans Day, according to Michael Sipes, KRDO news director. “We’ve been preempting commercials to actually run these unsponsored,” he said.

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