Bencredible

Not that long ago I sent in my own Good Question to WCCO asking why they were not broadcasting their news in HD. The beautiful irony is that I send in that very question in, wait for it… HD!

Today I found out that while WCCO news may not be HD (yet) they do have a twitter account for breaking news stories. Ok, cool and good first step to getting my attention. Then I dig a bit deeper and find that not only do they have a Twitter account but they also have at least one N95-3 cameraphone that they are playing with.

WCCO is not sure how they are going to use it yet. Does one go for the Qik angle and stream breaking news directly from the phone? Should they walk the studio during a live broadcast and give a behind-the-scenes view of the show? Is there another angle that they can use the device for and really push the boundaries of new media? I don’t have an answer to these questions yet (mostly because they don’t know either) but I have a feeling that they will be doing something very cool, very soon.

My suggestion to WCCO News: do it all.

WCCO News isn’t known for getting the younger crowd but I think if they start to hit all of the new media markets they will slowly get there. I’m speaking as someone in the 18-30 year old demographic here. Go HD (don’t tell me it is expensive, I used to do R&D for HD studios far larger than yours, I know exactly how expensive it is, suck it up). Get on Twitter not only for breaking news but for other station personalities as well. Get on Facebook and MySpace for all of these personalities too. Have a nightly UStream.tv broadcast using something like the upcoming version of CamTwist that will allow you to cut between multiple cameras (one in the control room with ISO/IFB audio, one in the studio pointed backwards, one in the MCO, etc., etc.) Have Qik live streams that are linked to your Twitter account and bring these cameras out with you in the field. Bring us, your audience, in to the conversation. Make the news a community driven event again. Make your broadcast a social network in and of itself! Be innovators in Electronic News Gathering, push the envelope, force the other local stations to take notice. Heck, make CBS take notice. These technologies are incredibly inexpensive or in many cases free. All of them open you up to a whole new audience, some of which is even outside of Minnesota.

This is either going to be very exciting when WCCO starts to move forward, or they are going to get scared, back down and do something lame. Here’s hoping they just do it all.