ABC affiliates in Dothan and Huntsville are among the 52 stations fined by the FCC for broadcasting “patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium.” Or to be more specific: Charlotte Ross’ bare tush on “NYPD Blue.”

Five years ago. Between 9 and 10 p.m.

The $1.43 million fine — $27,500 per station — is the second-largest indecency fine ever. No telling how many serial killers this 42-second scene spawned.
• Poynter: “FCC Fines 52 TV Stations for Airing “NYPD Blue” Episode”

The shocking video, after the jump …

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Any idiot can blog. Don’t believe me? See for yourself at next week’s panel.

As part of its monthly meeting, the Alabama chapter of the Public Relations Society of America will sponsor “To Blog or Not to Blog?” a discussion of whether corporations should blog.

The panelists:

• John Archibald writes a thrice-weekly column for the Birmingham News, which can be found in the Metro section and on his blog. For example, he exposed Mayor Langford’s election payoff of local media personalities to attack other candidates and the newspaper.

• André Natta founded the Terminal, an online publication about Birmingham and the surrounding area. He also writes on his personal site, Dre’s Ramblings.

• And me.

(Hint: I’ll be the one without the beard.)

The moderator:

• Carl Carter, of Carter-Harwell Public Relations, writes on his business blog Over Coffee and his personal site, the Carter Family Workbench.

The event, $14 at the door, takes place at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday at the Alabama Power Metro Auditorium, 1313 Sixth Ave. N. To reserve your spot, fill out the form. The deadline is noon Friday.

The blogosphere has spoken.

With such a wide field of nominees, how will Birmingham voters decide how to cast such an important vote?

The mayoral election? Nah, the Birmingham News’ annual Readers’ Choice Awards, which closes at 11 tonight. More than 500 nominated their faves in 80-plus categories. Now, you can vote among five contenders in each category in the online ballot, broken into three sections: City Life, Food and Drink and Leisure and Entertainment.

But this isn’t about the best of the city.

This is about mocking the regrettable list of candidates (and thereby indirectly mocking the nominating readers and the selection process). How will they stack up against the 2006 winners? Did our pal Matt at Alabama Live make the right call with his picks?

Our catty contenders, after the jump …

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I’ve been a faithful City Stages fan for years, at least 15 or so. Most of the last 10 years, I’ve paid for my tickets and happily headed downtown for three days of music and fellowship.

I dare say I’ve spent more supporting the festival than most people I know. I consider that a point of pride, almost to the point of foolishness.

After all, even if the lineup was weak — and many a year, the lineup was weak — I could count on seeing old friends and discovering worthy up-and-coming acts.

Not this year. Not with my money.

Updated with Preserve Jazz Festival attendance, plus additional links.

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The progressive young professional group known as Catalyst will progress without a leader.

Cherie Fields, executive director for the past 12 months, will step down Thursday. She plans to continue serving on the advisory board. Meanwhile, the organization plans to discontinue the position, with the executive board resuming leadership duties.

Under Fields’ watch, Catalyst’s biggest venture has been Sustain City Stages, a fund-raising effort to erase the downtown music festival’s $800,000 debt and establish a rainy day fund. She also led the group in establishing its six key pillars, including leadership development, political awareness and arts and culture.

The group also recently relaunched its Web site. (more…)

Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival named its new staff at Monday night’s monthly Salon. Catherine Pfitzer, right, has become the new executive director after having served as program manager.

Erik Jambor, left, will become executive director of BendFilm Festival in Bend, Ore., on Feb. 15. A Sidewalk co-founder, he resigned in November after having served as director for eight years.

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Birmingham dominates the tube tonight, on network and cable television. First, see how August’s first ever local auditions for “American Idol” turned out. Our guess: screechingly bad. An AP reporter shares her experience trying out for the singing reality competition. It airs at 7 tonight on Fox 6.

Then, at 9, flip over to MTV for the season premiere of “Two-a-Days,” with a shocking start to the reality drama about the Hoover High football squad. (Check out our review, complete with spoilers, free previews and advance airtimes.)
• Associated Press: Reaching for the American (Idol) dream
• New York Times: In High School Football, Crunch Time Can Be Literal

• • •

More headlines | send us your news tips.

As slow as Birmingham progresses, the city saw its share of growing pains — and regular pains — in 2006.

It’s easy to spot as you tool around the area. Look around and you’ll see construction barriers everywhere, mostly for condos springing up throughout Jefferson County.

Look a little closer and you’ll see chalk outlines, as the murderous rampage of ’05 continued unchecked throughout the year.

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The path isn’t clear.

Board president Alan Hunter talked today about changes behind the scenes at Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival. Last week’s sudden departure of co-founder and director Erik Jambor has raised questions about the status and future of the downtown film festival.

In addition, Hunter announced next week’s Sidewalk Salon will be an open discussion with board members about questions, concerns and suggestions from the public.

Updated with new time for Salon.

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Erik Jambor, co-founder and director of the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, resigned today, citing changes in adminstration made by the board of directors. Jambor’s departure comes a day after the festival parted ways with Kelly Marshall, the festival’s public relations director.

Jambor, 36, said that the board had been considering changes since summer, but after limited discussion with them, decided to leave rather than cede certain responsibilities. The Birmingham native plans to return to film production and editing, jokingly adding that he has no savings after working for a nonprofit organization for nine years. Jambor added that he remains open to working with the festival once the board finalizes plans and positions.

Updated with story link

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City Stages is broke and broken — and has been for years. Can the downtown music festival be fixed?

In a new partnership, festival organizers have teamed with Catalyst, a grassroots Birmingham organization of young professionals, to raise $1 million by 2007. That amount would wipe out the more than $800,000 debt and restart a rainy day fund.

The effort, Sustain City Stages, faces a huge challenge: Erase a growing debt that the city’s biggest festival itself has been unable to overcome while developing a plan for growth, or as the name suggests, sustainability.

To that end, the two groups will hold a town hall from 5:30 to 7 tonight at the Birmingham Public Library, 2100 Park Place.

We offer a few questions that deserve answers.

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Call it offline networking, version 2.0.

Nearly 30 representatives from 18 area young professional groups met Monday night at a Homewood restaurant to drink, to discuss, to deliberate. This Civic Organization Roundtable has been in the works for some time, a way to unite and coordinate Birmingham’s bloc of up-and-comers.

It’s the first step of many in the improving upon the slow, steady progress for our hometown. Feel free to join in at any time.
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I used to be a media whore, but now I’m a new media whore. Or a whore of new media, as it were.

Last week, I had two opportunities to talk about blogs, social networking and how they can help Birmingham’s communities and citizens. One audience was a mass media class, the other was the head of a city arts and culture center.

What I’ve learned came from hard work, trial and error and an unparalleled year toiling in new media.

The highlights of my presentation, in handy bullet-point format.

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I lost someone near and dear to me one year ago today. She and I had a nine-year relationship, and many knew her (if only by reputation) to be at times tough, dowdy, amusing, frustrating and downright forgettable.

No one will see her memorialized in the newspaper today, nor will they stop by her grave. She died a long and painful death, and her passing reminds us not only of the fragility of life but the certainty of death. And yet the city moves on, as indifferent to her in death as it was in life.

The Birmingham Post-Herald, May 15, 1950 – Sept. 23, 2005.

R.I.P.
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Hurricane Katrina caused more than $80 billion in damage and killed nearly 2,000 people. Hundreds of thousands of refugees swarmed the surrounding states, many never to return home.

While Mississippi and Louisiana suffered tremendous losses, Alabama was spared the worst of the destruction.

Is it possible that this Category 5 hurricane had an upside for the state?

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