TV/Radio

Still struggling to join the digital TV age?

Vanguard, the program that jailed journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling work for at San Francisco-based Current TV, has a simple mission: to tell stories the mainstream media are not.

Now that the all-digital TV age is here, the next step is getting everybody on board.

Still have questions?

The new era of TV arrived Friday, and the clouds of digital despair parted – mostly – and the fears that thousands of analog antenna-bound Sacramentans would be deprived of sitcoms, soaps or news disappeared.

A Sacramento radio team issued an on-air apology Thursday for making offensive comments about transgender people.

Radio hosts Arnie States and Rob Williams today will welcome two advocates for transgender people – a group the DJs labeled "freaks," "weirdos" and "drama queens" two weeks ago.

WASHINGTON – Congress soon may mute screaming television ad announcers who press viewers to "Buy now!" – unless broadcasters beat the lawmakers to the volume button.

The nationwide transition from analog to digital TV is set for Friday. Most people – including those with cable or satellite service, a digital receiver or an analog-to-digital converter box – are ready. But some are not, and others will have either poor or no reception after the switch.

Undoubtedly, many people will be listening Thursday when some tasteless shock jocks on Sacramento's KRXQ apologize for mocking transgender people on the air.

The nationwide transition from analog to digital TV is set for Friday.

Two transgender advocates will be part of an on-air apology Thursday by a Sacramento radio team that has upset lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocates.

The trio known to KRXQ listeners as "Rob, Arnie & Dawn" will not broadcast live again until Thursday, when they will "say what needs to be said" about references they made on air about transgender people.

The nationwide transition from analog to digital TV is set for Friday.

Bank of America, Verizon, Chipotle and other companies have pulled advertising from a Sacramento radio station after talk show hosts referred to transgender people as freaks with mental disorders.

Lambasted by critics for belittling children who expressed transgender feelings, local radio host Arnie States said Wednesday that he didn't do anything wrong.

This time they really mean it. TV goes all-digital in 11 days and there will be no take-backs, no changies and, if you aren't prepared, no TV.

Conan O'Brien, 46, today becomes only the fifth permanent host of NBC's "Tonight Show." He joins the ranks of Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and Jay Leno.

A former Sacramento State professor who is the principal of the Port of Sacramento Japanese School is among three Sacramentans to receive a "Local Hero" award from KVIE Public Television in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

A brutal economy is squeezing Sacramento's media outlets, prompting layoffs and other cutbacks while spurring some companies to search for new strategies.

Brian Moffitt stared into a hallway mirror at Access Sacramento's T Street television studios and cinched his tie.

Capital Public Radio, the nonprofit station of news, public affairs, jazz and classical music, launched its spring fund drive Friday, one of three weeks during the year when listeners are asked for money.

TODAY

A PBS documentary – which debuts this weekend on Northern California public broadcasting stations – celebrating the history and astral discoveries of the telescope was produced by Interstellar Studios in Chico.

Wanna be a local TV celeb?

How are the local news media serving your community, and what suggestions would you like to share with some of the professionals in the industry?

The pick this week is the engaging and uplifting adaptation of "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" Sunday on HBO. But first a warning about some schedule shifts this week – thank you, Mr. President.

You will peg Laura Ling as intelligent, intrepid and beautiful, too, after just a glance at her online page at San Francisco's Current TV, the Web-based media organization led by Al Gore.

We won't spend too much time on "American Idol," but there are a couple quick things, and none is the new Judges Magic Save rule, though I will gripe that it forces viewers to re-watch the song they already hated most from performance night.

See, this is why you have to love reality TV, as long as you don't take the terms "reality" or "TV" too seriously. Think of it more as slapstick.

In ABC's new, cheeky hour tonight called "Castle," a roguish, life-is-good crime novelist gets teamed with a reluctant, life-is-hard cop. Does anyone not expect sparks?

Who can deny the power of Oprah, even in a sinking economy?

The women and children of St. John's homeless shelter in Sacramento had their proverbial brush with fame on Wednesday.

A national spotlight shines on Sacramento today, and the images promise to be less than flattering. In a program about the recession and homelessness, the "Oprah Winfrey Show" features California's capital city.

An upcoming episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" will feature a family that was left homeless in Sacramento after the short sale of their home.

If you needed any reminder that "American Idol" is, first and most, a television show with a singing contest, rather than just the contest, the round of 36 semifinalists starting Tuesday should do it for you.

It's not easy making a call on Fox's "Dollhouse," one of the early big-buzz shows for this season. It's a series loaded with both potential and potential problems.

Now that the digital transition is going to be delayed until June 12, you can drop the electrical engineering classes and get back to watching TV for a while.

They came to Captain Sacto's estate sale Thursday to capture memories from a bygone era.

Lots of people have been asking, so let's get right to the headline: Yes, the Amgen Tour of California will be televised, and the coverage will be extensive.

There's been a lot of confusion lately, to add to the heap of other confusion, about the change of television to an all-digital signal.

The nation's transition to digital TV, which seemed destined to be set back to June, remains on track for Feb. 17.

Now this is how you make a TV show. Get two charismatic stars, make sure they have chemistry, give them a solid but not overdone script, let them make you a winner.

Once fire was harnessed, it was only a matter of time before some dude in a cave wanted a really big blaze to watch, while his mate suggested he should just try sitting a little closer.

When Barack Obama steps forward Tuesday to become the 44th president of the United States, it will be a momentous event for bunches of reasons, and one is that it will be the most-watched presidential inauguration in American history.

Benjamin J. Wade, trumpet prodigy, symphony conductor and soccer coach, has a new entry on his résumé: survivor.

Bob Wilkins, a Northern California TV personality whose dry wit and good taste in bad movies kept baby boomers up late Saturday nights to watch low-budget horror films, died Wednesday. He was 76.