U.S. Senate debate in DFW

posted on 9.03.2008

KERA-TV-DT
Dallas-Fort Worth
Directions...

Texas radio and TV broadcasters can air the Oct. 16 debate featuring the candidates for U.S. Senate, incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX and St. Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston. 

There are no restrictions on stations airing the debate live, at another time/date, or on using portions in late evening newscasts. 

TAB is paying for the satellite transmission, real-time closed captioning and Spanish translation of the Cornyn/Noriega debate arranged by the Texas Debates, a media consortium made up of TAB, KERA-FM/TV/DT, KUVN-TV/DT, the Texas State Networks (TSN), the Dallas Morning News, the Freedom of Information of Texas and Texas Monthly.   

More details about the debate may be found at www.TexasDebates.com, but here are some important highlights:

STATION CARRIAGE
A full page ad in the October issue of Texas Monthly encourages audiences to check the Texas Debates website to see when area stations will carry the debates.  Once a station has made its choice on when to air the debates, staff can e-mail the Texas Debates team with the station?s call letters, station frequency or channel, market, affiliation and debate air date/time.  This information will be listed on the Texas Debates website.  E-mails with station airdate information may be sent to KERA-TV?s Alan Melson at amelson@kera.org

PROMOS
A :30 promo with a :05 tag for stations to use is available by contacting KERA-TV?s Rick Thompson at rthompson@kera.org.  Interested stations must provide contact information, station address information, an overnight delivery account number and the format desired.

IN/OUT TIMES
The debate will air 8:00:00-8:58:30 p.m. (approximately, as it is a live program).
There will be no internal breaks. 

TV SATELLITE COORDINATE INFORMATION
Television stations may downlink the Oct. 16 debate using the coordinates below. 

• Date:   Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008
• C-Band Satellite: AMC3, located at 87 degrees
• Transponder:  C22
• Downlink Freq.: Received vertically at 4140 MHz
• Window:  1945-2100 CST
• Audio:   6.2 ? mono English / 6.8 ? mono Spanish
• Trouble numbers:  Bob Butler (972) 896-3984; Darrell Henke (214) 417-9094

TV AUDIO
English/Spanish: The feed will feature split audio so stations can choose which language to use for
the primary audio and which language to put on SAP.  The real time Spanish
translation will be on the secondary audio channel, 6.8 mono.

GRAPHICS INFORMATION
The feed will have a left-side ?Texas Debates? bug and lower-third supers for candidates, moderators and panelists.  The Texas Debates logo on the set does not denote the individual broadcast or print partners.

TSN / NPR RADIO COORDINATE INFORMATION
TSN and NPR affiliate radio stations can receive the audio-only feed of the Texas Debates in the following ways.

• NPR: Content Depot
• TSN: TSN affiliates with the new ICP DCR-974 receiver will receive the debate on Service Channel 9,
  Script #5. 
• Stations monitoring TSN for EAS on the Comstream ABR 75, 200, 202 or 202A, will receive the
  debate on Satellite Channel 3-Left (the same channel used to feed EAS RMTs)
• TSN affiliates with questions can call Dan Bell, TSN?s manager of affiliate relations at (214) 525-7311 or e-mail drbell@cbs.com

WEBSITE STREAMING
Information on streaming is available at www.TexasDebates.com or by contacting KERA?s Alan Melson at amelson@kera.org

A tile of the Texas Debates logo is available on the site.   Streaming video will be live on that website in the Windows Media Streaming format and then will be archived using Flash Video format.   The debate will be archived complete, and in segments, within 24 hours of the debate.   The Texas Debates is not set up to imbed video on other sites. 

FORMAT / MODERATOR / PANEL
Under a debate format agreed upon by the participants, candidates will stand during the hour-long debate which will feature a moderator and a panel of journalists.   The moderator is Shelley Kofler of KERA-TV.  Panelists are Maria Renée Barillas, KUVN-TV; Paul Burka, Texas Monthly; and Gromer Jeffers Jr., Dallas Morning News.

ONSITE COVERAGE
The debates will originate from the KERA-FM/TV/DT studios in Dallas, 3000 Harry Hines Boulevard. 

If a station wishes to cover the debate onsite, there will be limited media space available on a first-come, first-served basis.  Stations will be able to shoot interviews with the candidates after the debate has concluded.  

About 5-6 minutes of debate preps B-roll will be fed in the 15 minutes prior to the actual debates.   Please contact KERA?s Meg Fullwood at mfullwood@kera.org to ask questions about on-site coverage or specific technical needs. 

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