KRON TV blogger meetup

On Saturday, I headed over to check out the KRON4 Blogger Meetup. I was not sure what to expect but who could turn down the offer of free food and interesting conversation? I think all of us there would agree that we would have liked to have more structure to the afternoon but KRON achieved its objective to introduce themselves as the first local TV station to "get it" and break down the wall between Big Media and the grassroots movement that local bloggers represent. Terry Heaton, the televsion consultant who launched the collaboration between bloggers and Nashville television station WKRN, is working with sister station KRON4 here in San Francisco to blend the hyper-local snippets of local bloggers into their news. Terry’s efforts in Nashville have resulted in the very well received, Nashville is Talking aggregator site,

I think Terry summed up their motives best when he said, (I paraphrase) "We don’t want to dictate from above but support from underneath." KRON has already committed to building their own aggregator of local blogs and Terry said that KRON will be inviting selected bloggers on television to share their views of local events. If KRON follows the WKRN lead, we’ll see KRON supporting selected local bloggers with ads and sponsorship and more get togethers & conferences.

My favortite comment of the afternoon? Being introduced by Terry to the General Manager of KRON, Mark Antonitis, "Hey Mark, here’s Six Apart, these guys are like the NTSC of the blogging world."

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