Not really abandoned

It's been a while since my last post, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up the ghost for this blog. It's just been difficult finding time to write, and even more difficult about what sort of subject matter to include. It helps that this journal of sorts isn't directly linked to 10Connects.com, at least not yet.

Several of our meteorologists are getting their own Blogger accounts set up, with the intention of using them on our brand new weather site, ForecastFirst.com. It still might have a bug or two to be worked out, but I'm pretty pleased with the overall result. ForecastFirst is intended to be a year-round weather product, but it definitely should come in handy during our rainy season.

In baseball news, the Rays are slowly climbing the ladder back into serious contention for the AL East. Despite the various setbacks and injuries the Rays have encountered, they haven't given up and I hope to see them fighting off the Yankees and Red Sox come September.

The next game I'll be going to at the Trop will be against the Phillies June 23rd. I spent a good hunk of my childhood living in a Philadelphia suburb, so I found myself somewhat conflicted as my National League team faced off against my American League team in last year's World Series. I was rooting for the Rays to win it all, but I conceded that if there was to be one team to beat them, I wanted it to be Philadelphia. Besides, a World Series victory would've simply been icing on the cake; the real victory was beating Boston in the playoffs.

Program changes at 10 Connects

10 CONNECTS ANNOUNCES

CHANGES TO PROGRAM LINE-UP.

St. Petersburg, FL; April 24, 2009: Ken Tonning, President and General Manager of 10 Connects, announced today several changes to the station’s program line-up.

Effective Monday, May 25, 2009, 10 Connects will broadcast “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” Monday through Friday at 4:00pm and 4:30pm. A different episode will be broadcast each half-hour.

Then at 5:00pm, 10 Connects will introduce a new half-hour newscast featuring Reginald Roundtree, Heather Van Nest and meteorologist Tammie Souza. “Inside Edition” will follow at 5:30pm, which will be followed by 10 Connects News at 6:00pm and The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric at 6:30pm.

“The Dr. Phil Show” will be moved from 5:00pm to 7:00pm and will be repeated the following morning at 9:00am.

“Local viewers will find some new viewing options here,” said Tonning while making the announcement. “We will now offer a hit game show in the 4 o’clock hour, a strong 2-hour news block followed by one of the top talk shows in the nation at 7:00pm. We’re excited about this line-up’s potential.”

10 Connects is the brand name of WTSP, the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate serving the Tampa Bay region.

Gannett Co., Inc. is a leading international news and information company that publishes 85 daily newspapers in the USA, including USA TODAY, the nation’s largest-selling daily newspaper. The company also owns nearly 900 non-daily publications in the USA and USA WEEKEND, a weekly newspaper magazine. Gannett subsidiary Newsquest is the United Kingdom’s second largest regional newspaper company. Newsquest publishes 17 daily paid-for titles, more than 200 weekly newspapers, magazines and trade publications, and a network of award-winning Web sites. Gannett also operates 23 television stations in the United States and is an Internet leader with sites sponsored by its TV stations and newspapers including USATODAY.com, one of the most popular news sites on the Web.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Zobrist

I've always liked Ben Zobrist. A switch hitter who plays any position except pitcher and catcher, Zobrist has become the ultimate fill-in for the Rays. 2008 saw him bouncing back and forth between the Rays and the minors, usually filling in for Jason Bartlett at short stop.

This year, Ben made the Rays' starting roster, and while he's still not an everyday player, his limited appearances have been quite memorable, particularly at the plate. Somehow, this fill-in, average hitter has become one of the team's hottest bats, currently batting over .300 and having hit three home runs.

How did Zobrist become "Zorilla"? Perhaps my favorite Rays blog, DRaysBay, may have found his secret, in the form of a personal trainer.

And speaking of Rays and blogs, I recently found out that Fernando Perez has begun to blog for the New York Times of all places. His first entry is a very fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the Rays' historic 2008 season, so definitely check it out.

Starting to come together

We're working out the formatting issues between Blogger and 10connects.com. Basically we want the look of 10connects.com for any blogs stemming from the site. Extra props to CoCoSoFabulous for coming up with all the code. We might tweak it a bit more, but basically it has the 10Connects header and footer, which are the most important parts.

Ideally we want to have it streamlined so any reporter (or anchor, or producer or...) can be set up and be good to go relatively quickly and with little hassle. Fortunately, it so far seems Blogger is amazingly easy to configure.

The real test will be when we roll this out to the newsroom, and see how receptive it is.

The First

Consider this a placeholder entry. This blog will hopefully become a part of 10Connects.com, and will cover a variety of topics. Probably Rays-centric during baseball season.