Clinton and Mike and Ads... oh my!

This weekend is going to be a busy one for tv stations out catching the campaigns making the push for Super Tuesday. SW Missouri will have its share of candidates (or at least their surrogates) making the rounds. Mike Huckabee will be in Springfield tonight @ 7 at the Springfield-Branson National Airport. Bill Clinton will be campaigning for Hillary tomorrow night at Central High School in Springfield. According to ky3.blogspot.com, the doors will open for that event at 8:00 p.m. We will have to see if David "Baby Face" Catanese makes it back into the LA Times.

If that isn't enough campaigning for you, anticipate the beginning of the campaign phone calls and final ad buys for the Clinton and Obama campaigns in the Springfield market this weekend. Super Tuesday is almost here.

Obama Heading To KC; Edwards to Springfield, Jeff City

KCTV is reporting that Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama will be holding a town hall meeting in Kansas City on Tuesday. For more details, head to KCTV 5's website.

Meanwhile, fellow Democratic candidate John Edwards will be in Springfield tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. followed by a rally in Jefferson City on Tuesday at noon.

KY3: Steelman Announces Run For Governor

KY3's political blog has a great write-up on Sarah Steelman's announcement concerning her decision to run for governor. Something tells me the number of people jumping into the race will only increase in the coming days.

BREAKING NEWS: Matt Blunt Won't Seek Second Term

The KY3 Political Blog and news websites from across the state have been breaking this story over the last few minutes. KSPR just aired the televised message from Matt Blunt. They were first station to do so in the Springfield or Joplin market. More to come as it develops...

UPDATE: KY3's political blog has the entire press release here.

UPDATE 2: KY3 has announced they will carry a press conference by the governor, which will air at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. According to KOMU's website, it appears they will cover it as well. I will be working to find out which stations will and won't carry the press conference.

Here Come The Ads...

While it might not technically be directly news related, it is part of the news cycle. Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama has started running ads across the state. KY3 Political Reporter David Catanese blogged late last week about the Democrats and their ad ambitions.

I have seen the ad for Obama running at news time in Springfield markets and know it is running in St. Louis. It will be interesting to see how saturated the airwaves become with ads around newstime in the next few days leading up to Feb. 5th primary.

KMBC On Top At 10 In July

According to Bottom Line Comunications, KMBC (Channel 9) led the Kansas City metro in the race for 10:00 news, ahead of KCTV 5. NBC Action News 41 falls well behind, followed by FOX 4.

Mornings are still dominated by FOX 4.

SE Missouri Station Drops 9:00 News

KFVS's sister station has dropped its 9:00 news. The SE Missourian has the scoop on the story below.

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1235109.html

KY3 Anchor Departs: Who will succeed Connelly?

Another anchor at KYTV in Springfield, MO says goodbye. 5 p.m. anchor Cara Connelly signed off Wednesday evening after accepting a position in Ohio. We wish Ms. Connelly the best! The question now becomes: who will replace her? Will it be an in-house KY3 staffer like Paula Moorehouse or will they bring in outside talent like they did with Ethan Forhetz?