Spent today on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., as part of a delegation from the Indiana Broadcasters Association, meeting with Indiana’s congresspersons. Well, actually only meeting with a few of them. Some of them were unavailable and, in some cases, we met with staffers who promised to pass along our messages to their bosses.

Our messages were, of course, self-serving and pro-local broadcasting. They involved bills currently working their way through or ones that may show up before the Congress affecting our businesses. Sometimes, we were convincing; sometimes less so. But, we were always honest and straightforward.

The most accessible are those new to the Congress, although a couple of veterans were cordial and generous with their time. Joe Donnelly, newly-elected from the South Bend area, seems to be bright, earnest and eager-to-learn and serve. Same for the veteran Baron Hill, from Jeffersonville, who had two years off until voters of his district figured out how much they missed him. (And didn’t care for Mike Sodrel.)

Veterans Mike Pence, from Anderson, Mark Souder, from Fort Wayne, and Steve Buyer, from Monticello, also made the gracious category, although all have a good understanding of the issues and are resolute in their views. And not afraid to push back. That’s OK.

Was disappointed, but not surprised, at not being able to see long-time veterans Julia Carson or Dan Burton. Not sure where they were. But I’ve read enough of Matthew Tully’s columns in the Indianapolis Star to get a good idea.

And we missed Pete Visclosky, from Merrillville, and newly-elected Brad Ellsworth, newly elected from Evansville. Hear both are good guys; maybe we’ll catch up with them next time.

So, it’s on tomorrow to the Senate to try to see Mssrs. Lugar and Bayh. That’s a tougher get. The congresspersons, with two year deals, are always running for office and more accountable to their constituents. The guys in the Club have six-year deals. They’re probably nice guys. Hopefully, we’ll meet them.

Postscript March 1, 2007: Didn’t get to see Senator Lugar but had a great meeting with his legislative assistant Steve Koerner and press secretary Andy Fisher. Both are sharp guys who serve him well.  As for Senator Bayh, not even close. Numerous calls from the Indiana Broadcasters went unreturned from his staff.  Suggest he send his chief over to Lugar’s office to see how it’s done.

What started out as a pilot for a serious daily web briefing on area weather and traffic has turned into theindychannel.com’s most viewed video.

Each weekday, 6News’ meteorologist Paul Poteet and LiveDrive Traffic reporter Tom Davis record a short web segment they’ve titled “Off The Cuff”. It’s turned into a behind-the-scenes, unscripted ramblings of two guys in a setting different from what one normally sees on the air.

And that’s the beauty of the Internet. We’d never put something like this on Channel 6. The camera work isn’t the best, it lacks fancy graphics, it’s all over the place. But, it’s turned out to be the most popular video we post on the site.

It’s evidence that Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail” is valid. Anderson opines that the old days of having to concentrate on a few hit television shows, movies or record albums because of the scarcity of shelf space or talent are gone and that “the future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.”

Where we lack shelf space (or maybe the nerve) to put things like this on Channel 6, theindychannel.com provides a great outlet for creativity and bits like “Off The Cuff”.

Check it out. And look for more stuff like it in the days ahead.

Mitch Daniels and Bart Peterson have problems. I’ve got a solution.

Indiana Governor Daniels, troubled by a State Lottery with a mediocre record of sales and profits, wants to turn it over to a private company. There’s a vote in the State Senate this week on a bill that requires the winning bidder to pay at least a billion dollars upfront and guarantee the state $200 million each year for the next thirty years. Daniels believes, as he did with the privatization of the Indiana Toll Road, that profit-driven private business, not government, will maximize the potential of Indiana’s assets.

Indianapolis Mayor Peterson struggles with Indy’s “pea shake” houses, a half dozen small operations in the inner city, where you can bet on several daily drawings and win as much as several thousand dollars. They are, of course, illegal and each takes its turn getting a token “raid” from police. That’s a lot of police time that could be used to tackle record homicide levels. And it takes a lot of work to alter police incident reports when city councilpersons are involved in the pea shake raids.

I say turn over the Hoosier State Lottery to the “pea shake” operators. The similarities are so apparent, it’s a wonder no one has thought of this before.

Proponents of both argue that they’re harmless entities that provide jobs and don’t hurt anyone. They provide money to programs and people that need them.

Opponents of both point that that the people who play the games are those than can least afford to. The family bread winner blows the paycheck trying to change their fortunes.

They’re basically the same thing with some distinction: government running gambling = GOOD; anyone else = BAD.

Now, I don’t think the pea shake operators can come up with a billion bucks. But they certainly know how to appeal to the instincts of folks wanting to get rich quick. And, letting them run the Hoosier Lottery would end the hypocrisy of letting the state suck dollars out of our wallets while the little guy, trying to do the same thing, has to put up with the cops shutting him down or at least making noise about it.

You don’t know what you’ve got, until you lose it.

I never fully realized the value some of our viewers saw in our cable news channel until this week. 6News 24/7 (nee NewsChannel 64) was removed from the basic tier on the Comcast Cable systems in the Indianapolis area and moved to a higher digital tier. It was on Channel 64; now it’s on 247.

The e-mail complaints have been pouring in from viewers who counted on the service to provide news and weather updates when a broadcast newscast wasn’t available. They’re sometimes angry that, to now get it, they will have to pay a premium for the digital tier that includes the higher channel numbers. Many of them point out they’re on fixed budgets and can’t afford to pay any more for cable. And, they sometimes think we’re part of the scheme.

Not true. If we had our way the service would stay on Channel 64 where the largest possible audience could use it. But Comcast is in control in this situation and wants to recapture those lower analog channels for other uses.

Any complaints should go to Comcast. Good luck.

We went through a similar situation with Brighthouse Networks last year. They were also in control and wanted the lower channel back. So we’re now on their digital tier on Channel 164. Access costs extra.

Not sure why Brighthouse wanted the channel back; they aren’t using it. They do have some great channels using up the precious analog space – two CSPAN channels, a couple of government channels, some home shopping. But, now with the move of 6News, no local news for their basic customers.

You can watch 6News on WRTV Channel 6, hear it on the radio at 87.7 FM, read it on the web at theindychannel.com and receive it on your cell phone at rtv6onthego, all for free. And you can see it on Comcast and Brighthouse, if you pony up for the bigger package.

For the record, it should be noted that Insight Communications cable customers get 6News 24/7 as part of their basic service.

It’s a shame that St. Patrick’s Day doesn’t come for another month. Because I’m green…with envy.

My change in hue comes from attending the press conference today announcing the move of Indy’s Public Broadcasting stations to a new home. The folks at WFYI are moving a couple of blocks north on Meridian to an impressive building that was the Indiana Gas Company headquarters and had been home to their successor, Vectren Energy, before they headed south to Evansville in 2001. It’s been largely vacant with less than a dozen Vectren employees still holding down the fort.

The building, as is typical of those owned by utilities, is in great shape. The WFYI crew will do some interior work this summer and fall and be fully moved by year’s end into the impressive four-story building on the northwest corner of 16th Street and Meridian.

They’re in cramped spaces now, in the old WTHR (at one time WLWI) building kitty corner from us, which they moved into during the early 80s. WFYI, with 89 employees and scads of volunteers, also has some of their folks in another building on the same block of 1400 Meridian. The TV and radio and other services they provide are now crammed into 25,000 square feet.

They’ll move into a facility nearly four times as large, but only use about 51,000 square feet on the first two floors and lease the top two floors. And it comes with covered parking.

The building is ready to occupy but needs a bit of work to get ready for broadcasting. Most of the construction will be involved with readying new studios and control rooms to deliver high-definition programming.

The price tag is a reasonable $8.5 million, considering the size and location. With the renovations, they’ll sink about $12 million into their new home.

They’re good folks providing great services to central Indiana. I do quarrel with their claim to be “non-commercial.” Those donor recognition mentions seem to look more and more like the 30-second television spots that are the standard in our realm. But a more sincere group.. that takes their charter seriously, you will not find.

So, I’ll just be envious and pleased that another broadcaster has chosen to stay on Television Row on Indianapolis’ main street.