Local Edition | |
---|---|
Format | News |
Created by | Eric Wotila Freelancer Productions, LLC |
Country of origin | United States |
Broadcast | |
Original channel | Charter Communications channel 63 in Cadillac, Manistee and Ludington, Michigan, as a local HLN insert |
Original run | August 25, 2007 – July 14, 2009 |
Local Edition was a five-minute newscast covering community interest stories from the Cadillac, Manistee, Ludington, and Traverse City, Michigan areas. The newscast aired throughout the day at 24 minutes past the hour as an insert on HLN (formally Headline News) via Charter Communications cable channel 63, and was available on demand on Charter digital cable channel 1. Local Edition was produced independently by Freelancer Productions.
Contents |
"Local Edition" was launched under the name "TV Cadillac" in August 2007 by Eric Wotila, a young entrepreneur from Cadillac, Michigan. The newscast began its life as a web-based program, covering community interest news stories from the Cadillac area. During almost all of its 7-month run as a web-exclusive program, TV Cadillac was produced singlehandedly by Wotila.
A few months after being launched on the web, TV Cadillac gained recognition and was picked up by the local cable system. [1] Shortly before gaining carriage on cable, two more reporters joined the newscast, and the name of the program shifted from "TV Cadillac" to "Local Edition." "Local Edition" premiered on cable in the Cadillac, Manistee and Ludington areas on March 24, 2008.
"Local Edition" began distributing their newscasts in HD on July 21, 2008, making the program the only high-definition local newscast in Northern Michigan [2]. HD versions of most of their newscasts are available exclusively through Charter's video on demand service.
In early December 2008, it was announced that Local Edition would begin producing newscasts covering the Traverse City area beginning in January 2009. [3] The Traverse City newscasts would be completely independent from the Cadillac newscasts, and would focus on community-interest news from the Grand Traverse area. Feature stories would be presented by Vic McCarty, a personality well known in northern Michigan for his work reporting for 7&4 News, FOX 33, and 9&10 News. Like the Cadillac edition, Traverse City's Local Edition would air throughout the day on HLN via Charter Cable.
On July 14, 2009, Local Edition ceased producing shows for broadcast on cable due to financial difficulties.[1]
Local Edition produced numerous weekly newscasts, covering both the Cadillac/Manistee/Ludington and Traverse City cable zones. New editions for each of the two zones were posted on the program's web site Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and aired on cable Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Re-runs of older editions aired on cable Monday, and Tuesday and Thursday. On Sundays, Local Edition aired a cooking segment featuring Chef Hermann Suhs, a well-known chef in the Cadillac area.
Because the operation had limited manpower, most of the news covered occurred in Cadillac and the nearest surrounding communities (most notably, Lake City). Occasionally, though, video from Manistee or Ludington would be featured on the newscast. Each newscast was five minutes long, and began with a longer-format feature story that generally ran two to two and a half minutes. The feature story was generally followed by a one-minute commercial break, and the newscast wraped up with a short, 30- to 60-second story.
Local Edition's on-air appearance simulated that of the HLN network it aired on, with a lower-third featuring a news ticker and story highlights visible throughout the newscast.
Local Edition was produced by a total of four people: Eric Wotila, Benjamin Arie, Vic McCarty, and Kris Darrow [4]. Due to the small staff, each of the news team members tended to wear many hats behind the scenes, though their on-air positions generally remained consistent. Eric Wotila anchored both the Cadillac and Traverse City newscasts, with Benjamin Arie and Kris Darrow reporting stories from the Cadillac area and Vic McCarty covering Traverse City.
As of February 2011, The team behind "Local Edition" now run a local 24-hour news channel WMNN-LD, known on air as MI News 26.