Warning. The following blog may come off as self-serving. It’s not intended to be.

One of the tenets of local television broadcasting is service to its community. The Federal Communications Commission has made a lot of noise lately about localism. And, in some cases they have a point. Many opportunistic owners snatch up an available license and promise to serve an area but soon forget that promise. A station licensed to New Jersey is more apt to cover New York City. I worked for a station that was licensed to Muskogee, Oklahoma. The money was in Tulsa. Guess where we concentrated our efforts.

Today, a great example of localism in broadcasting is going on in central Indiama. In response to the recent tornadoes that have ripped through central Indiana and the massive flooding left behind from recent storms, RTV6 is teaming up with the American Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis for a special Storm Relief Telethon.

The Storm Relief is an all-day event that began at 6am and culminates tonight with a special one-hour, live telethon. RTV6 is giving Hoosiers three ways to donate; by phone, in person and online. The special phone bank opened at 6am with volunteers from Conseco Insurance accepting credit card donations. The lines will stay open until 9pm.

RTV6 is partnering with several radio stations from the region. Emmis Communications’ 93.1 WIBC, B105.7, 97.1 HANK FM and 1070 The Fan is accepting cash donations in front of their headquarters on Monument Circle. The White River Broadcasting Company’s WKKG-FM, Y106, WCSI 1010AM and (aptly named) The River (WINN-FM) will be at the Rural King in Columbus, also accepting cash donations. And Indianapolis’ two Spanish language stations, Radio Latina 107.1 and La Que Buena AM 80 will have their personalities on Indianapolis’ west side gathering donations for Indiana’s storm relief victims.

Donations can also be made online through rtv6’s website theIndyChannel.com

All the money raised will be donated to the Greater Indianapolis Red Cross and designated for storm victims in Central Indiana.

That’s localism. Thanks for letting me show off.

It happens every so often…a phenomenon that takes the country by storm. It happened this month.

Not only did Helio Castroneves charm America on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, Helio really charmed Central Indiana.

The weeks-long competition was capped off on Monday and Tuesday night’s with the finals. And Indianapolis was the number one market in the United States for viewership. Of the fifty television markets where the Nielsen company takes overnight ratings, Indy was tops, on both nights.

Nearly a quarter of the households in our market were watching on both nights as the effervescent Brazilian and his partner, Julianne Hough, danced their way to the winner’s circle. Those ratings aren’t quite up there as when the Colts play but pretty good these days when viewers have so many choices from cable, satellite, etc.

And, of course, the show was the top show in America. Helio thought he was famous and sought out when he won the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. He ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Hardee’s shells out big bucks to its advertising agency. They need to send some of that dough to the American Family Association, which has become a de facto part of their marketing team.

These guys know how to organize their faithful. In response to Hardee’s latest television campaign, the AFA sent an e-mail blast “requiring” their subscribers send an e-mail to TV stations across the country.

And the AFA makes it easy. You click on the message, you are sent to a web page. Fill in your zip code and up comes a list of media in your area. The e-mail’s all prepared for you. All you have to do is type in your name and click SEND. No thinking required.

If thinking was required, the AFA faithful would realize that a station getting hundreds of copies of the same letter take them as what they are – copies of the same letter, copies of someone else’s thoughts, someone who is doing their thinking for them. In this case, the thinker is Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman of the AFA.

So why does Hardee’s need to put Wildmon’s group on the payroll? My suspicion is that Hardee’s media campaign includes a strategy to rile these folks up and turn the furor into even more media attention.

I noticed this morning that the CEO of CKE Restaurants, Inc., Andrew Puzder, was on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. I’m sure we’ll see him on more shows in the weeks ahead. CKE Restaurants is the parent company of Hardees.

So far, we’ve received nearly a thousand of these automated e-mails. I think Wildmon’s tactic is to annoy us with the volume of mail, the hassle of putting each letter into our Public File and get us to pull the spots. It’s pretty ineffective. Using Microsoft Outlook rules for handling e-mail they go right to the file. No annoyance here and no need to read them. They all say the same thing.

I’d be more inclined to read, consider and reply to a thoughtful e-mail from someone who was genuinely moved to write and express their point of view, not one written for them.

The commercial in question does push the envelope with a young lady rolling around with a Thickburger in hand. Personally, I’d get more worked up by a closeup of the burger.

For the record, the spot is on WRTV, scheduled in late night after 11:35PM.

It’s go time.

After weeks of planning and an extensive promotional campaign, 6News breaks new ground tonight. Heretofore, all three main news stations served up the early evening news in a 90-minute block.

Tonight, in a reaction to the changing demands of local news viewers, 6News expands into the 7PM time period. From what I’ve heard from viewers and advertisers, this is a great move. As work days and commutes got longer, a lot of people told me they couldn’t watch local early evening news. Some of them heard our 5 and 6PM newscasts on the radio on 87.7FM; but they’re now looking forward to seeing it at 7PM.

Tonight also features the debut of two new anchors on 6News: Todd Wallace and Trisha Shepherd. The duo is coming off an extensive road tour hitting most of the communities of central Indiana, talking to citizens about the issues and concerns that face them. When Todd and Trisha go on the air tonight they’ll be better prepared with knowledge about the areas they report on than anyone new to the Indianapolis market has.

I’ve received a lot of positive comments about the new team. And I’ve heard from a lot of doubters who don’t like change and apparently don’t like outsiders. I’m guessing this is probably the same group that doesn’t like Daylight Savings Time.

I think you’ll like the new face of 6News. Give it a try.