KAKE News has been in HD for a little more than a month now,  and it's been a fun but challenging time for our staff.  I wish making the transition to HD was as simple as flipping a switch, but that isn't the case in our shop.

The planning of the transition has been going on for more than a year.  Inside the station, we compare the transition to a heart and lung transplant.  To bring you KAKE News in HD, we needed new cameras, switcher, audio system, graphics system, tapeless server (we no longer use videotapes), weather graphics, control room and more.   Our engineers, the guys you never see on television, are the heroes of this project. 

I'll admit it,  we've had some growing pains,  from having to re-scale our original HD weather graphics, to battling audio problems, to learning what our new equipment will and won't do. 

Newscast anchors, producers and directors rehearsed their HD shows for weeks, but there are some issues you can't experience until it happens in real time.  The staff is learning from the challenges and striving to push the system everyday to give you the best product.

Our transition has been in phases,  and more improvements are on the way.   We'll bring more HD programming & information to more of KAKEland.  

We're excited to bring you KAKE News in HD.   Let us know how we're doing.

Dave Grant

KAKEland Media News Director