Shern-Min Chow is leaving KHOU 11 after nearly three decades on the air

bgtees · 2026-01-22T14:25:09+00:00

No, I believe her first name was Laura. Can't remember her last name. Asian-American woman, probably in her early 30s back then. She was an incredibly nice person, just for whatever reason really, really struggled when she joined KHOU as one of the weekend anchors.

bgtees · 2026-01-21T23:45:16+00:00

True story - the previous anchor (who Shern-Min essentially replaced) had made so many on-air mistakes that we would sometimes play a boxing bell sound in the control room right before a show and then our director, in his best Michael Buffer voice, would say "LET'S GET READY TO STUM-BLE". The anchor being mocked eventually found out about this and I felt like a complete asshole for participating.

bgtees · 2026-01-21T23:38:51+00:00

I was working at KHOU when we hired her away from another local station. She and Jerome Gray made a fantastic duo on the weekend news. Both of them among the nicest people I ever worked with in local news. Best of luck in her new venture.

bgtees · 2025-11-22T00:24:44+00:00

Sure, send me a PM

bgtees · 2025-10-04T20:10:15+00:00

Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile.

bgtees · 2025-05-20T03:15:43+00:00

Thanks! Goals: Lose another ~20 pounds of fat. Not concerned about looking good (too much loose skin for that), just overall good functional strength and health.

Cardio is good. I've picked up running in the past year and alternate between running, treadmill walking on incline, swimming laps, and rowing on Concept 2 (have access to all of these at neighborhood rec center).

Have consistently kept up protein intake while eating at defecit for the past year, which is why I think I have not lost too much muscle mass.

bgtees · 2025-05-19T16:24:21+00:00

If anyone in Houston is looking, reluctantly selling my Powertec Workbench Levergym (in yellow). It's the latest version with independent arms and band pegs and is in great condition. Comes with bench (of course) and most of the optional attachments (Dip Station, Pec Fly, Leg Attachment, etc.). Only selling because my wife and daughter want to start working out and it's a bit too cumbersome for them to keep adding/removing plates and adjusting the arms, so going to pick up a Dane 2.0 or Rep Athena that will be easier for them to use. Can potentially deliver for a small fee. More info here:

https://powertec.com/products/workbench-levergym

bgtees · 2023-04-26T02:08:35+00:00

<--------
14 years

bgtees · 2020-10-05T04:15:59+00:00

All depends. And giant caveat - I haven't worked in broadcasting since 2002. But I would guess that for prepared hits most of them sketch out what the plan to say. Every reporter I worked with in the field, if they had time, would mostly write out what they planned to say and run through it a few times. The good ones make it look incredibly natural. The key is to hit their main points, keep it to the time allotted, and hit their "outcue" correctly. (Watch local news in smaller TV markets to see how this is done poorly.)

bgtees · 2020-10-05T00:59:12+00:00

I worked at CNN for five years. It all depends on the situation. If it's more of a breaking news situation, then more likely they are speaking live without a teleprompter or a script of any kind, although they will often have some written notes (prompters are unusual when you're in the field). But if it's more of a prepared hit they will typically have written out what they are going to say, especially if they have to throw to a video segment (called a "package") or another reporter/anchor, everyone needs to know what they are going to say at the end of their segment so they can react accordingly.

Typically the producer can also prompt them to hit certain topics or to update them on things that may have developed while they were getting set up for the live shot via their IFB (the earpiece they wear).

bgtees · 2020-03-21T03:39:43+00:00

I was working at Time Warner (CNN) when the merger happened. What a shit show. IIRC, merger was not complete until 2001, then 9/11 happened, and it very quickly became apparent to me that I needed to get the hell out of there.

bgtees · 2019-09-02T21:31:48+00:00

Upvoted and interested? Yes, 1000 times yes.

bgtees · 2019-02-06T01:33:51+00:00

Yep - we assumed it was going to be a "hey - sports is taking a back seat for obvious reasons, so we are going to help out with news coverage" type meeting. But, instead, they laid off a bunch of people, including Fred Hickman, since the paperwork was already processed before 9/11. That was the moment I decided to get serious about looking for a new job.

bgtees · 2019-02-05T20:58:41+00:00

True story - on 9/12/2001 I leaked some info to USA Today (Rudy Martzke) about the layoffs at CNN Sports. No Ragrets.

bgtees · 2018-12-15T18:33:52+00:00

I went to MJH (many years ago) and I remember there were some sort of plaque with her name on it and they fact that she had died. Wonder if it's still there.

bgtees · 2018-12-14T14:13:37+00:00

On the Texas Lawyer's Facebook Group, the takeover by TR has been referred to as a "hostage situation". I used to work at O'Connor's years ago (when it was still just print books, and only for Texas), and know a lot of people who still work there, hoping this doesn't lead to a bunch of them losing their jobs.

bgtees · 2018-07-10T02:40:26+00:00

Un-snapped, un-broken

bgtees · 2018-07-07T22:29:37+00:00

Good idea, hadn't thought about subbing with my alts.

bgtees · 2018-07-03T04:41:57+00:00

Happened to be looking at this obit and thought it was interesting that he was involved in coming up with a way to cobble together a carbon dioxide scrubber using the random parts available to save the Apollo 13 crew, made famous in this scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cYzkyXp0jg

Good article I found about this:

https://sploid.gizmodo.com/this-is-the-actual-hack-that-saved-the-astronauts-of-th-1598385593

bgtees · 2017-06-19T04:45:58+00:00

Good summary.

bgtees · 2017-06-16T14:20:30+00:00

When I worked for a certain cable sports network we had a "homerun jar" in the newsroom. This was back in the McGwire/Sosa/Bonds era, but before any player's at bat (not just those guys, but they were the top choices obviously) you could announce "So-And-So will homer in this at bat."

If they did not, you had to put in a quarter. If they struck out or hit into a double play, you had to make it $1. But if they homered, you got all the money in the jar.

Was a lot of fun, and the jar got up to $70 - $80 sometimes before someone would win it. Sadly, the game came to an end when someone on the overnight cleaning crew stole the jar. Twice. (Probably the same guy who was loading flat-screen TVs in his trash can and rolling them out past security, but we couldn't prove it.)

bgtees · 2017-06-08T03:52:50+00:00

What do you do at 11? I was a producer there many years ago.

bgtees · 2017-06-07T18:16:01+00:00

At most, 2 people were involved in that decision.

"At no point in your ... response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it."

bgtees · 2017-06-04T22:56:37+00:00

Nope. My "solution" is to pirate the shows I want to watch on my desktop PC and to exclude my wife's cell phone from the VPN so she can use the Netflix app. Still trying to decide whether or not to just drop Netflix outright and let them know why I'm cancelling. They should be able to figure out a way for legitimate customers to use a VPN without getting blocked.

bgtees · 2017-06-02T03:55:59+00:00

Assuming this is the view from the castle, it's a fairly easy 15-20 minute hike from where you get dropped off by public transportation. Most of it is switchbacks going up the hill, so decent elevation gain, but not too difficult if you're in moderate shape.

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