The same day the City of Indianapolis announced a multi-million dollar plan to demolish abandoned homes, 6 News went out and did a story on “the city’s dirty secret.” Winona Memorial Hospital.

“What in the world is a POP?”

That’s the question I’ll bet you’re asking yourself. Well, it’s one of those fancy TV acronyms like NTSC (Never Twice the Same Color or National Television System Committee), JVC (Junk Video Corp or Victor Company of Japan) or NAMBLA.

POPs are “Proof of Performance” spots; basically, a spot to promote what we did. You’ll often see POPs after ratings periods, following elections, at the end of the year and any time there’s a really big story that particular station covered especially well.

Here are two POPs we threw together during May sweeps. The same person wrote both, then I picked SOTs and edited/graphic-ed the spots.

It’s been one of those weeks.

What exactly do I mean by that?

Well, let me put it this way: On more than one occassion this week I walked in to the men’s bathroom, put my hands under the faucet and waited more than the appropriate amount of time for water to begin flowing. Note: We don’t have automatic faucets at the station.

Despite that awkward moment occuring more than once, I did manage to get some work done this week.

One of the quickest turnarounds in a long time was our new Recession Survival Guide spot. I think I only spent 4 hours on this spot that’s going to run more than a dozen times over the weekend.

By the way, the answer to your question is “Yes.” And the others are all co-workers.

The Inauguration is closing in quickly. In just a few short weeks, Barack Obama will officially take office as President of the United States of America. And 6 News will be covering it, live in Washington, D.C.

Of course, there’s promotion to go along with a story of this magnitude. I put about 10 bench hours into this spot, but that’s mainly because the After Effects render of the :15 took more than 30 minutes.

Here’s the :15 version of the promo that starts airing Saturday evening on RTV6.

With the end of 2008 closing in, we had to prepare our year-end promo. Basically a highlight reel of big stories for Central Indiana over the last twelve months.

This spot really came together in the edit bay. I was provided with a script that had the big words for the spot (“challenges,” “controversy,” “change” and “hope”) and the desired cut of music. I dug up the soundbites and did the graphic work. This spot debuts Christmas Day on RTV6. Enjoy.

Next spot: Obama Inaugration. Starts airing Friday.

Our “Happy holidays” promo that starts running this Friday evening. You’ll see it through New Year’s Day, so I doubt you’ll miss seeing it on television.

Tomorrow night is the 42nd Annual CMA Awards live from Nashville at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.

We’ll hit the air at 7:30 PM with the RTV6 CMA Countdown, our live pre-show special from the red carpet. As part of the pre-production for tomorrow’s special, I was asked to put together the open for the broadcast.

Here’s what you’ll see tomorrow at 7:30 PM following 6 News at 7:00:

The CMA Awards are closing in quickly.

Every November you can count on ABC to pull out the “country’s night to rock” line. The awards are Wednesday night in Nashville, and aside from the actual awards show, we send a crew down for our live CMA Countdown from the venue.

Here’s an early look at the promo we put together. It starts running tonight during primetime. My boss produced the spot, Steve shot Paul Poteet and the gang from WFMS, Kirk designed the 3D logo and I edited and added effects. Take a look:

Should be a good show this year, I don’t even like country music, but the awards broadcast is usually pretty fun to watch.