By Tim Cuprisin Media Columnist Published Mar 24, 2010 at 11:00 AM
Watch Tim Cuprisin's On Media on Time Warner Cable's Wisconsin on Demand Channel 411, with new episodes posted Fridays.

When Danny Gokey returned to Fox's "American Idol" a few weeks back to mark the release of his first album, he was wearing glasses from Wisconsin Vision.

In a way, that was the culmination of an effort Wisconsin Vision president and CEO Darren Horndasch began a year ago with a phone call to the Milwaukee singer when he was just starting his run to the finals.

At the time, he wasn't even a Wisconsin Vision customer. Now he's the first celebrity spokesman in the company's 32-year history. He's signed to a two-year marketing deal, and he'll be the focus of a traditional advertising campaign, with TV spots and billboards.

But Wisconsin Vision, which has 32 outlets in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, is starting its campaign in a less traditional way, going the YouTube route, with a documentary-style video looking at his March 6 Milwaukee visit.

Here's the video, that launched this morning:

If you watched Gokey's "Idol" run last year, you know that his glasses were a style statement for the Milwaukee singer.

"What Danny does, he demonstrates that men can use glasses as an accessory," said Horndasch. "What he did for fashion, in terms of glasses, made him a great fit."

On TV: Time Warner Cable subscribers through southeast Wisconsin were reporting service problems throughout the day Tuesday, and up to about 7:30 this morning. Time Warner has traced the intermittent problems to an internal software issue, which has been repaired. The cable company's customer care team has a Twitter account, and can be reached by e-mail if you have problems.

  • "Scrubs" is dead, according to Zach Braff, writing on his Facebook page, although ABC hasn't formally canceled it. He writes: "Many of you have asked, so here it is: it appears that "New Scrubs," "Scrubs 2.0," "Scrubs with new kids," "Scrubbier," "Scrubs without JD" is no more. It was worth a try, but alas ... it didn't work."
  • Brad Garrett confirms to Zap2it.com that Fox's "'Til Death" is dead. Fox hasn't formally canceled the sitcom yet.
  • Charlie Sheen's rehab, which halted production of CBS' "Two and a Half Men," means the show won't air its planned 24 episodes this season. It's been cut back to 22 shows.
  • The opening night of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" pulled in nearly 24 million viewers for Monday's season premiere, according to Nielsen Media Research numbers, the best season premiere numbers for the dance competition.
  • HBO has ordered a second season of "The Ricky Gervais Show," the animated re-purposing of the British comedian's podcasts.

Mark signs off: Channel 6 veteran Mark Concannon ended 23 years at the station this morning. He spent two decades on Channel 6's morning news.

"This really isn't goodbye, it's really see you later," he said. "I'm going to continue to live and work in Milwaukee, I'm going to be running into you at ballgames and fish fries and festivals. So, thanks for watching all these years, and I'll see you later."

Concannon hasn't said what he plans to do next.

Tim Cuprisin Media Columnist

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.