The DVD set hits stores Tuesday

UPDATED: THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!

STAY TUNED FOR THE WINNERS!

It’s no secret I think LOST is the best TV show on TV right now.

Okay, technically, it’s not on right now. But the fifth season is set to premiere January 21, 2009 on ABC and RTV 6.

The fourth season was one of the best. So I was thinking, what could be better than giving away a bunch of brand new LOST DVDs?

And this DVD set is terrific.

In addition to the episodes in 16×9 format (LOST is best viewed in widescreen and on a BIG screen) this DVD set is packed with great extras. It includes ”LOST in 8 Minutes and 15 Seconds” a fun, very fast paced recap of the first three seasons in eight minutes and 15 seconds (of course.)

The set also packages all the webisodes (2 to 3 minute mini-episodes) produced just for mobile users and that were eventually posted at ABC.com.  

The DVDs also have cast and crew commentaries on select episodes. Jorge Garcia who plays “Hurley” and Evangeline Lilly who plays “Kate” have fun on their commentary and still manage to give some playful insight to how they shoot the show and some interesting clues to the fifth season that they are filming now.

Plus, you’ll find lots of interesting documentaries about the making of this pivitol fourth season.

To get you ready for the new season that starts in January, we’ve got 15 copies of the excellent fourth season DVD set to give away. The LOST: SEASON 4 DVD set is being released in stores Tuesday, December 9th.

You just have to register to win. One winner per family.  AND you MUST be a resident of Indiana. (Sorry, this contest is only for Hoosiers!) Scroll down for all the official rules.

Register, submit and then on Monday, December 8 fifteen names will be drawn at random. ENTER NOW!

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!

The winners will be posted in my blog Tuesday, December 9, 2009 (that’s the same day you can get the Season 4 set in stores.)

Good luck and thanks for entering!  

THE OFFICIAL RULES 

You must agree to the rules in order to enter PAUL’S ENTERTAINMENT BLOG AT THE INDYCHANNEL.COM/LOST SEASON FOUR DVD GIVE-A-WAY

1. No Purchase Necessary: No purchase or payment of any money is necessary to enter. Purchase will not improve the chances of winning. All federal, state and/or local rules and regulations apply. Void where prohibited by law.

2. Eligibility: Must be at least 16 years old (and have parent’s permission) to enter and a resident of Indiana. Employees of WRTV, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.(”The McGraw-Hill Companies”) IB (Internet Broadcasting) are not eligible (collectively, the “Sponsors”).

3. To Enter: Viewers can logon to TheIndyChannel.com and register to win ONE (1x) LOST Season 4 DVD package. FIFTEEN (15) winners will be drawn at random from all eligible entries. Sponsors are not responsible for any misdirected e-mails or phone calls.

4. Prize: FIFTEEN (15) winners will receive ONE (1) LOST SEASON FOUR DVD Pack. Total DVD value $49.00. One winner per family.

5. Price Conditions: Prizes are not redeemable for cash or substitutable for any other item by winner. Sponsors reserve the right to substitute a comparable prize of like or greater value for any prize, for any reason. Winners are responsible for all applicable federal, state and local taxes and fees, plus any other incidentals. Winners may be required to sign an affidavit of eligibility and liability/publicity release form prior to receipt of a prize acknowledging that The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. has the right to publicize his/her name and likeness, the fact that he/she has won the a certain prize and all matters incidental thereto without the payment of any compensation for a period of one (1) year. The winner will be required to waive any and all claims against The McGraw-Hill Companies, IB, their respective affiliates, employees, agents, and representatives for any loss which may occur from participation in the contest or from the receipt or use of the prize. Non-compliance will result in disqualification and forfeit of prize.

6. How to Win: Viewers can register at TheIndyChannel.com from 7PM WEDNESDAY, December 3 through 8am Monday, December 8, 2008. Fifteen individual winners will be drawn at random from the eligible entries. Winners must provide RTV 6 with appropriate identification (Indiana Driver’s License or ID) and pick up prize within one week of winning at the RTV 6 Studios located at 1330 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202. Winning entries will be posted on Paul’s Entertainment Blog on TheINDYChannel.com by TUESDAY, December 9, 2008.

7. Odds: Odds of winning will depend upon number of eligible entries received.

8. Contest Conditions: The contestants and winners release the Sponsors, their respective owners, employees, agents and representatives as well their respective affiliates, advertising and promotion agencies and all others associated with the development and execution of this contest, from and against any and all liability with respect to or in any way arising from the contest and the awarding and use of the prizes, including liability for personal injury and/or property damage.

9. Disqualification: In the event that a winner fails to claim his or her prize within one week or fails to meet the eligibility requirements of the contest, the unawarded prize will be awarded to an alternate winner selected at random from remaining entries.

10. Miscellaneous: Winner will be required to give The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. his/her social security number, legal name, age, current address, and phone number for tax record keeping purposes only.

11. Privacy: RTV 6 on occasion shares information collected about contestants included on the entry forms with other units within the family of The McGraw-Hill Companies whose products or service we feel may be of interest to you. If you have any questions about the uses we make of this information, or it you would like to review the accuracy of the information you submitted, you may contact Barb Palser. For more information about The McGraw-Hill Companies’ Customer Privacy Policy or a complete listing of The McGraw-Hill Companies’ premium brands, visit our web site at: http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/privacy.html

12. Disputes: By entering, each entrant accepts and agrees to be bound by these official rules and the decisions of the judges. Any dispute regarding the sweepstakes or these rules will be resolved by a panel of judges from The McGraw-Hills Companies, Inc. and their decision shall be final.

13. Official Rules are available at www.TheIndyChannel.com or to receive a copy of these complete rules, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:
PAUL’S ENTERTAINMENT BLOG AT THE INDYCHANNEL.COM/LOST SEASON FOUR DVD GIVE-A-WAY
c/o Paul Montgomery
1330 North Meridian Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202

12/03/08

Lights and Fireworks on the Circle!

Friday night, I was hanging out on Monument Circle with my family, friends and thousands of other Hoosiers braving the big crowds and cool weather. 

We were all there for the Circle of Lights presented by the Contractors of Quality Connection and the Electrical Workers of IBEW Local 481.

I had the good pleasure of watching it up close and behind the scenes. Dozens of RTV 6 staffers worked most of Friday and Friday night to bring the LIVE digital widescreen presentation to tens of thousands of homes across Central Indiana.

This year’s crowd downtown on the Circle seemed a little bigger (warmer weather helps…if you call upper 30s warmer.)

But really, it was a perfect night for the festivities.

I asked Tom O’Donnell from IBEW Local 481 to share his thoughts on one of downtown’s biggest nights. 

If it wasn’t for the electricians, the Circle wouldn’t shine each holiday season.

Here’s what Tom had to say:

It’s officially the holiday season in Central Indiana!

Close to 100,000 spectators were Downtown on Monument Circle Friday night to ring in the holiday season at the 46th annual Circle of Lights® presented by the Contractors of Quality Connection and Electrical Workers of IBEW 481 celebration.

As the presenting sponsors, Quality Connection and IBEW 481 have an enormous amount of pride in this annual tradition.

 Our electricians have been involved from the start, volunteering their time for 46 years now to install and maintain the lights. And each year we’re always thrilled to see the joy this free event brings to so many residents and visitors.

Our IBEW 481 electricians and Quality Connection contractors have helped build the Indianapolis skyline for years - from Circle Centre to Lucas Oil Stadium to the new Indianapolis International Airport. These permanent city fixtures have a special place in our hearts; knowing we were involved in monumental milestones.

With that said, being a part of the Circle of Lights® presented by the Contractors of Quality Connection and Electrical Workers of IBEW 481 is equally gratifying. This is our way of giving back to the community.

We enjoy the opportunity to be a part of your amazing holiday traditions.

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

Tom O’Donnell
Business Manager IBEW Local 481

Thanks Tom!

And if you didn’t make it downtown to see the Circle of Lights, it will be repeated on RTV 6 on Christmas Day. (Perfect programming to open your presents!)

Happy Holidays!

This year, watch it in WIDESCREEN!

I love this time of year.

A short work week. The anticipation of Thanksgiving. And the annual tradition of tens of thousands of families getting together to turn on thousands of lights on Monument Circle.

The 46th annual Circle of Lights presented by the Contractors of Quality Connection and the Electrical Workers of IBEW Local 481 is Friday night!

And as part of the tradition, RTV 6 is kicking off the holidays carrying the lighting festivities LIVE beginning at 7PM. But this year, the TV telecast is going to look a little different. And it’s all good. 

This year’s Circle of Lights will be bigger and better because this year, for the first time ever, the Circle of Lights will be presented in digital widescreen!

That means if you are watching on an HDTV, you’re going to see a lot more lights (and many more faces in the throngs of people downtown!)

Kurt Swadener, RTV 6’s Operations Manager, says the widescreen format will add a lot to the telecast. “I’m very excited that we are able to present the Circle of Lights in digital widescreen for the very first time,” Swadener says. ”The widescreen format enhances the experience of the audience by giving a more panoramic view of the event. It has always been a challenge to convey the size of the event to our television viewers. Digital widescreen gives us that opportunity and will take the beloved televised event to a whole new level.”

Of course, one thing that won’t be changing is the fantastic talent that will be performing at this year’s ceremony.

Auditions for this year’s show were held in September and October. Hundreds tried out for the chance to perform. And the talent is terrific.

Julia Watson from Indianapolis Downtown, Inc. confirms it’s going to be a good show:

“We have such a great group of performers this year! The thrill of national talent like “The Lion King” joining with talented people right here in Central Indiana is a great combination. We have everything from a high energy band to a very talented 9 year old! This is going to be a great show!”

Kevin Gregory, Todd Wallace and Trisha Shepherd will host LIVE from Downtown this Friday night starting at 7PM on RTV 6. And if you are going to be out of town, you can still watch the ceremony in a LIVE stream right here on TheIndyChannel.com.

Happy Holidays!

*****

Okay, confession time.

Gotta go with Brooke Burke!

In case you didn’t know, I’m a double blogger.

In addition to doing an entertainment blog, I also free-lance producing a “Dancing with the Stars” blog (available on the special Dancing with the Stars page here at TheIndyChannel.com.)  And this week, this season winds down to the finale. 

At the beginning of this season I had picked Misty May-Treanor to win. But she left the competition several weeks ago with a ruptured achilles tendon (it still hurts just writing that.)

So now it is down to model/host Brooke Burke, football great Warren Sapp and N’Sync’s Lance Bass.

Gotta go with Brooke and her partner Derek Hough. They’ve dominated all season and truly are the best couple in this competition though Warren and Lance are going to be good competition. Besides, Hough and his little sis Julianne are the most popular dancers on the show. (FYI - Julianne announced last week she’s leaving to concentrate on her singing career. I’m bummed she’s leaving…she’s certainly my favorite dancer.) 

Finally, Brooke, an amazing mother of FOUR has every mom in America rooting for her. So go with Brooke.

Watching TV on my PC at the Airport!

Have you heard about the DTV transition coming to your TV set?

A couple of weeks ago, RTV 6’s Call 6 for Help reporter Rafael Sanchez did a TV Test that allowed viewers a chance to see if their TVs were ready for the DTV transition. In a nutshell, on February 17, 2009, Channel 6 along with all television stations across the country will, by law, cease broadcasting on analog TV signals and broadcast exclusively on digital television signals.

So, what does that mean to you?

For most of you, it will mean very little. Surveys show about 50 to 55% of Hoosiers watch TV through a cable service. A little over 30% of you watch with a satellite dish or other pay service, like AT&T’s new U-Verse. The rest, about 15% of Hoosiers watch TV for free with the over the air signal broadcast by local TV stations.

The TV TEST featured a message sent on Channel 6’s analog signal (the signal that is going away in February) that gave viewers a “heads-up” that their local TV service could be interrupted come 2/17/09.

It should be noted that many of the cable, satellite and other systems currently capture the local TV stations’ analog signals and then re-transmit it to their customers (that’s you and me.) 

As part of the test, Call 6 for Help had a phone bank set up to answer viewer questions. I was lucky enough to talk to some of the over 500 phone calls we received in the couple of hours the phone bank was open.

Since we are about 100 days from the analog switch-off, the cable, satellite and other services have not yet switched over to capturing the digital signal instead. But they will. So if you have one of those pay services, you will still get local stations. For over the air viewers, they will need a simple converter box and digital antenna to pick up the digital signals.

I want to make something very clear so I’m going to type in all UPPER CASE to make the point…(I’m not yelling at you, just wanting to make sure you see this.) 

If you have a pay service (cable, satellite or other service) YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO ANYTHING…YOUR CURRENT TV WILL STILL WORK and operate just the same…YOU DO NOT NEED A CONVERTER BOX OR OTHER DEVICE IF YOU HAVE CABLE, SATELLITE OR OTHER PAY SERVICE.

Okay, done with the upper case stuff.

The converter boxes you may have heard about are ONLY for TVs getting the over the air signal. So you do not need to rush out to buy all new TVs. (Unless you want to help the economy.) Now if you want to watch true High Definition, well then you would need a new digital HD TV.

All this stuff is pretty confusing. We’ve set up a terrific site with info about the transition on theIndyChannel.com. The link is on the front page, lower right hand side.

Also, I would be happy to answer any DTV questions I can (or find someone who can.) Just send an email to DTVAnswers@6news.com

*****

You can watch HDTV on your laptop!

Now the reason I wanted to write this post…a cool new toy!

One of the viewers I talked to asked about listening to Channel 6 at work. The audio portion of the Channel 6 signal airs on 87.7 on the FM band. Unfortunately, that will be going away. But I did find a cool alternative way you can listen…even WATCH RTV 6 at work (or wherever you are) if you have a computer or laptop.

You can buy HDTV tuners you can plug into your USB port on your computer (along with a little antenna) and watch full HDTV local channels on your laptop!

It costs about $100. I picked up the stuff at Fry’s but I’m sure you can find them at Best Buy, Radio Shack or other big box stores.

I’m heading out to New York this week on business. My flight out of the old Indianapolis International was delayed by about an hour so I plugged in and watched the NASCAR race airing on RTV 6, in HD no less, on the PC.

Pretty cool.

I tried to get the Channel 8 HD signal but couldn’t get it. I’ve had a lot of southside viewers complaining that WISH’s HD signal doesn’t get to them…I could not get it at the airport. But what I saw of the Colts game, probably just as well. (Thankfully they ended up looking better than the WISH signal!)

I’ll have more updates from NYC later this week (thinking about trying to crash Good Morning America one morning this week.) If I do, I’ll take pictures and share. And of course, you can expect an upcoming blog comparing leaving Indy from the old airport and returning to the new terminal. (I’ve had a sneak peek…it’s impressive.)

Have a good week!

Opportunity Knocks premieres Tuesday nights at 8pm

One of the two new shows that will be introduced on ABC in September is going to make a promotional visit to the Indianapolis area.

Next Monday, September 8, ABC is bringing the “Opportunity Knocks” Tour to Indy’s southside.

“Opportunity Knocks” is a new take on the primetime game show that literally takes the game show to some lucky family’s front door! The show was created by actor Ashton Kutcher. A family gets to compete for great prizes…and they win based on how well they know their own family!

The tour is a fun promotional event visting a number of cities across the U.S. There will be food, drinks and prizes for many folks.

6 NEWS GOOD MORNING INDIANA weather and traffic guys, Paul Poteet and Tom Davis will compete to see how well they know each other in a version of the TV game (with prizes going to lucky folks in the audience!) Stormteam 6 Chief Meteorologist Kevin Gregory will do LIVE weather from the neighborhood and WFMS radio is also going to be on hand broadcasting at the event.

You can click here to find out more about the location of the event on September 8. Should be a lot of fun!

*****

Did I just see Debby Knox on Channel 6? Was that Todd and Trisha on WTHR?

Have you seen the promos featuring the TV anchors of the different stations all on the same channel?

RTV6, along with our colleagues at WTHR, WISH, WNDY and WFYI have decided to team up to show our support of United Way of Central Indiana. On Tuesday evening, during the regular 7:30pm shows, the TV stations will eliminate all commercials and run special segments/profiles on the many agencies assisted by United Way.

So you can learn about the great work being accomplished by our Hoosier neighbors…and not miss your favorite shows!

Check it out this Tuesday night at 7:30pm during the INSIDER on RTV 6!  And a special thanks to our friends at Channel 8, 13, 23 and Channel 20 for participating.

Click here to learn more about how you can LIVE UNITED.

Have a great and safe holiday weekend!