March Madness is here, and the basketball action heats up in Milwaukee this week as the Bradley Center hosts the Midwest and West regional rounds of the "big dance." With fans flocking from near and far, the editorial staff at OnMilwaukee.com thought we'd help greet our new visitors with a week's worth of features and guides to everything that makes our city a great place to visit. It's "Welcome to Milwaukee Week" at OnMilwaukee.com!
Channel 58, Milwaukee's CBS affiliate, starts its NCAA tournament coverage tonight at 10:35 with a special, "Tip Off To March Madness." The special will focus on the Marquette Golden Eagles and the Wisconsin Badgers, both of which will have their games airing in high definition on Channel 58.
The Marquette-Washington game airs from San Jose, Calif., at 6:20 p.m. Thursday. Wisconsin takes on Wofford, from Jacksonville, Fla., at about 2 p.m. Friday.
In addition to a main game in HD, another game will air on Channel 58's digital sub-channel 58.3 if you're watching over the air. (That's Channel 983 on Time Warner Cable and Channel 970 on Charter Cable.)
The secondary games aren't available on satellite or AT&T U-Verse.
An NCAA cable preview: Time Warner Cable, which provides to television for the majority of southeast Wisconsin households, is making the CBS College Sports Network available to all digital subscribers through April 5 on Channel 322. It's usually available only to customers who subscriber to an additional digital sports package.
The channel has extensive NCAA coverage throughout the tournament.
Listening on satellite radio: Sirius XM satellite radio is promising to carry each and every game in the tournament without blackouts. Games will air on SIRIUS channels 122, 125, 126, 90 and 91 and XM channels 143, 241, 242, 243 and 244.
Second round games on March 21 and 21 will also air on "Mad Dog Radio, Sirius channel 123 and XM channel 144.
On TV: La Crosse native Mary Stoker Smith returns to her home state in May to join the anchor desk at Channel 6. She's been hired as an anchor/reporter, with her primary assignment being a co-anchor on the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts. She most recently was a reporter/weekend anchor at Philadelphia's CBS affiliate, which didn't renew her contract last August, citing budget issues.
- Speaking of Channel 6, the imminent departure of morning anchor Mark Concannon is going to be marked by the Milwaukee Admirals with a "Mark Concannon Night" at the Bradley Center on March 23. Stern and Bow tickets will be $6, and Concannon, who ends a two-decade run on the morning news March 24, will appear at the game.
- EW.com's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Oak Creek's own Amy Pietz has been signed for multiple episodes of NBC's "The Office" to start airing next month. There aren't any details on her character, but the betting is that she's Michael's new squeeze.
- The Great American Country channel wants me to let you know that Time Warner Cable has moved to Channel 255. In a statement, GAC vice president Scott Durand said, "Fans with only the expanded basic level of service will need to contact Time Warner Cable to upgrade to digital in order to continue viewing GAC, the country music network that actually plays music."
- Verizon Wireless has signed a deal with the NFL to offer NFL Mobile on mobile phones. The service will feature the NFL Network and audio of NFL games. Details, including pricing information, will be available this summer.
- The first episode of HBO's "The Pacific," totaled 4 million viewers after a couple airings, over the weekend, is available on the premium channel's Web site. The DVD will be available by Father's Day.
Dave and Jimmy talk about Jay: ABC's Jimmy Kimmel dropped by CBS' David Letterman's show Tuesday night. Naturally, talk turned to NBC's Jay Leno.
Here's the video:
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
