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The new mobile version of our website was rolled out this morning, complete with live scores, news headlines, team information and district standings -- even report a score.
Just log on to touchdownfridaynight.com with your cell phone and you'll find it formatted for your screen. And, if you own an iPhone, you can bookmark the site with an icon made specifically for that device.
And, if you're out at the stadium on game night, use the submit a score feature to keep us up to date on your team's score.
This is the tenth season NewsChannel 8 is providing live scores from high school football on the internet. But, things have certainly changed since we first started in 1998.
Anyone can post scores. But, TouchdownFridayNight.com goes much further. When I began preparations for building the new version of TouchdownFridayNight.com, there were a lot of things I wanted to do to get visitors involved.
This year, it's all about you. You want scores delivered to you? You can do that. You want to see scores that date back as far as 1921? You can find them.
You want to see videos of your favorite teams, rosters, fan photos, stadium shots, marching bands AND talk to other people about how great your team is? You can do all of that.
Did you shoot highlights of your team? You can send them to us. We've even got links to some of the coolest official team websites the schools have created.
So, let's talk about the new features. This year, we have the ScoreBlast. Every Friday night (and some Thursdays) those who sign up for the ScoreBlast will receive an e-mail or text message every 30 minutes from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., bringing them up-to-date on every score in the entire state. And, it's absolutely FREE!
All of the state's 300-plus teams have their own page complete with the schedules, plus previous year's scores -- some which date back to 1921! Also, check out the new "SERIES HISTORY" feature. Click "SERIES HISTORY" and you can see how that team has fared against its opponent in previous games.
Each team page also has any highlights we've shown, the district standings, team headlines, rosters, shots of the stadiums, cheerleaders, fan photos, marching band photos and videos and even what the team's helmets looks like.
And, what's a high school football site without a message board? We call ours "Trash Talk" because of course there's going to be some heated discussion between fans of opposing teams.
There's also MyFave. Located at the top of the page, just click there, choose your favorite team and every time you return to TouchdownFridayNight.com, your team's information -- their current overall and district record as well as the next game on the schedule -- will appear at the top to keep you updated.
You won't find another high school football site that provides as much entertainment as TouchdownFridayNight.com. I hope you enjoy it and enjoy the 2008-09 season.
www.touchdownfridaynight.com
I am a die-hard Los Angeles Lakers fan. I have been for 29 of my 35 years now. It all began with the first game I saw -- it was Magic's first game and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hit a sky hook from almost 3-point range as time expired to win the season opener. I was hooked.I've been there for the up times -- countless championships and Hall of Fame players. I've also seen the lean years when we leaned on Nick Van Exel and Sedale Threatt to get things done. But, I have never wavered in my support for the team.
Unfortunately, I can't say that for many people who I have seen abandon their teams when the going gets tough. I have often wondered what causes it. I'm a huge Sooners fan and I was there for the Schnellenberger-Blake years. I never considered turning my back on the team that had captured my interest when I was a child. The same has always gone for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (yes, I was there for the Doug Williams, Steve DeBerg and Steve Young years BEFORE the Super Bowl win).
When the Lakers went down 3 games to 1 to the Boston Celtics last Thursday night, I told my wife I still wasn't giving up. Here I am as Game 6 looms on Tuesday. I'm still not giving up. I won't give up even if Boston pops champagne Tuesday night. I'll give the Celtics their credit, but I'll be SOOOO ready for when the Lakers play the Celtics again next year (with a healthy Andrew Bynum).
Whenever there is a life-threatening situation, such as last night's tornadoes, we're going to be on the air. Protecting life is our number one priority. Shows can and will be re-aired (see below for programming information).
That being said, a lot of people wondered why if the tornado warning was lifted by 9:50 why we didn't get off the air and go back to Lost!. Here is the method to the madness. If we return to programming and you get to see one second of the show, there will be no re-airing. It's not a NewsChannel 8 thing. It's not an ABC thing. It's a Screen Actor's Guild thing.
A true re-broadcast means that some of the show (even one second) was aired in that particular television market. Since none of the shows were aired, we should be able to show them -- likely this weekend -- and it not be considered a re-broadcast.
Now, that being said, I know the next question is going to be why can't you just run a ticker at the bottom of the screen and let us watch our shows? Here's the reason. First and foremost, the protection of lives and property is more important than a television show. I'm a Lost! addict and of course it's a pain to have to set my DVR to catch it later. But, if I had family members in harm's way, I'd want someone watching out for them.
There are also rules and regulations regarding disasters of any kind, weather or otherwise. If you run a crawl at the bottom of the screen, you must also verbally announce the warning as well. This protects the hearing impaired as well as the vision impaired. And, as long as there is a tornado warning, you're going to see Frank, Clint, Taft, Mike, Phil, etc. on the air. Cutting in and out of programming or covering up only the commercials will only protect those who are watching AT THAT MOMENT. If a person returns home and flips on the television, how are they to know about the coming danger?
I just hope people will understand what we're trying to do here. We don't want to upset our viewers. But, more importantly, we don't want to let down our viewers.
P.S. - Grey's Anatomy will now be aired Saturday night (5/3) at 10:35 p.m. immediately after our newscast, followed by Lost at 11:35 p.m.
One of the changes has been in the videos section of the site. Some felt it would be easier if I split the videos into categories (i.e. news, weather, sports, etc.). So, I have now done that. You'll find there are sections for all three of those as well as Cool Schools, People Making A Difference and Waiting Child. I plan on adding other sections (user-submitted videos, bloopers, KTUL archives, etc.) later.
Another thing many people have been asking about is Frank's WeatherCall. It's our new system for alerting the public on the threat of severe weather. You can sign up for alerts on your phone or e-mail and your address is pinpointed to make sure you only receive a warning if your particular area is threatened.
There are three places you'll find the link to sign up. One of them is by visiting the weather page (http://www.ktul.com/weather/). The link is the first one in the list at the left -- Frank's WeatherCall. There is also a banner on the home page near the bottom and another banner that you'll find throughout the site. You can also just click HERE to get there directly.
We've seen a lot of interaction from our visitors, whether it be responding to news stories or sending us photos and videos through our I-Witness reports. In the coming weeks, we're going to debut some additions to the site that will make it even better.
We want your input on what you want to see here. After all, we want to make it a place you want to visit more often.
I hope everyone enjoys the new site, which provides more video and more news, weather and sports content. Also returning are the story comments that many people had asked if they would ever return. While there isn't a full-fledged message board as in the past, you will be able to post your comments about individual news stories.
I've also received e-mails from several people wishing we had new games. The new site provides that -- games including Pacman, Defender of the Moon, Bowling and many more. And, more will be added later.
If anyone has other things they'd like to see on ktul.com, don't hesitate to ask. That doesn' t mean we'll get to everything, but your suggestions are what we use to determine what people want to see.
- What Do You Want To See On KTUL.com?Our new website has been up and running for about three months now and now we want to make it better.
- The New WebsiteIt's been a long time coming, but we've finally revamped ktul.com.
