Live 5 News Introduces New News App

There’s a new app for that!

Live 5 News in introducing a new version of its popular news app with more features and an easier-to-use interface.

The new app is already available in the Android Market and on iTunes for iPhone users.  A Blackberry version is expected to be released by the weekend.

Users who have relied on the older version of the Live 5 News app will need to download the new version, as the old one is slated to stop working some time in the next few weeks.

The newly-redesigned app will feature the latest news, weather and sports stories and video in a cleaner format. It will also feature more content than its predecessor.

The app also sends out Breaking News push alerts. Viewers can also submit pictures, video and text new tips to us through the app. The entire app is very interactive, allowing viewers to thumb through news stories, scroll up and down, zoom in and share on Facebook, Twitter and through email.

To download the app, viewers can search “Live 5 News” (with spaces) in iTunes or the Android Market.

Get more details on the new app here.

Live 5 Launches ’12 Deals of Christmas’

Get extra savings at local businesses just in time for the holidays with LIVE 5 WCSC’s new 12 DEALS OF CHRISTMAS campaign.

Go to the new live5deals.com each day December 1-12th and see a new deal that’s available.  Just click to buy the deal, which represents big savings. The more people who buy the coupon, the lower the price drops, up to 50% off the regular prices.

The dozen deals represented during the week are in addition to the normal DEAL OF THE WEEK, which Live 5 WCSC introduced last week.

You can buy the deals for yourself or as gifts.  Just be sure to check the complete details on the deal you’re interested in and all of your questions should be answered.

Preview CBS Fall Shows at live5news.com

You don’t have to wait until the summer to start seeing previews for the new shows CBS announced as part of its fall lineup.  You can see a sneak peek right now, by logging on to our homepage, live5news.com.

Look for the “Watch CBS Shows” link on the top navbar:

Click that, and you’ll see our video player, where you can watch the previews of the new shows, like HAWAII FIVE-O, along with other CBS shows and even some classic shows like THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Candidates for Governor Debate Tonight

Your Live 5 Insider really, really hates the word gubernatorial.  It just doesn’t sound right. 

That minor detail aside, South Carolina’s Gubernatorial candidates — or, those candidates fighting for the chance to be your next governor — will debate the issues tonight.

You can see the debate live online:  live5news.com will stream the event starting at 7:00pm tonight.  Then, stay logged in after the debate because the candidates have been invited to stick around for a live chat, which is expected to begin at 8:00pm.

Let the Madness Begin!

This Thursday and Friday, NCAA March Madness basketball officially tips off. For soap fans, it means that THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, and AS THE WORLD TURNS will not be shown on those two days.

This week, unlike last week, you will not miss your shows, because these games are being carried by CBS itself, so the network did not produce episodes of the soaps for these two days.

On Monday, the three shows will each pick up right where they left off on Wednesday.

Your Insider knows what you’re thinking: why didn’t it happen this way last week? The answer is simple, yet a little complicated. And I’ll get to that in just a moment.

But first, I wanted to let you know which games you’ll see on Thursday:

• 12:20pm Florida – BYU
• 2:30pm Murray St – Vanderbilt
• 7:15pm E Tennessee St – Kentucky
• 9:45pm San Diego State – Tennessee

Then, on Friday:

• 12:25pm Minnesota- Xavier
• 2:35pm Missouri – Clemson
• 7:25pm Arkansas Pine Bluff – Duke
• 9:40pm Houston – Maryland

LIVE 5 NEWS AT NOON, LIVE 5 NEWS AT 7 and LIVE 5 NEWS AT 11 will all move to LIVE 5+ on Thursday and Friday. You can also get your local news and your updated neighborhood forecast online at live5news.com.

Speaking of Live 5+, here’s the answer to the soap question: Last week’s ACC Tournament was not carried on the CBS network: it was carried instead by individual stations who are under contract to carry the tournament. So while we had the games, CBS also had its daytime programming. We decided that since we have our new second channel, Live 5+, we would move the soaps there for those two days. It turned out that we had to get special permission from CBS to do so, and they agreed to let us move their programming to the second channel for those two days only.

This week, since CBS is carrying the games itself, they knew not to make soap episodes for Thursday and Friday. So while you won’t see your shows those two days, at least you’ll still be caught up by the time Monday rolls around.

Enjoy the madness…and thanks for watching Live 5 WCSC and Live 5+!

Viewers Send a Blizzard of Photos

Snow outside our West Ashley studios. By Darryl Huger.

We’re still wading through the many photos LIVE 5 viewers sent to My5, a feature that allows users to upload their own photos and videos to live5news.com.

Viewers sent us more than 1,700 pictures from all parts of the Lowcountry this weekend. But then, such a big number’s to be expected: it was a once-in-a-decade snow event.

"Snow Dawgs," Sent in by Cindy Branscome

The last measurable snow here occurred back in January of 2000. So local kids got to see the white stuff for the first real time. Your Insider’s favorite picture so far was sent to us by a viewer named Cindy, and is of a carefully-constructed “snow dog” flanked by two real canines. The expression on the real dogs’ faces seems to say, “One of these things is not like the others.”

You can browse all of the photos here at live5news.com. And it’s not too late to send us your own! If you got pictures of the snow, or any time you have pictures of breaking news or weather, email them to my5@live5news.com.

Live 5 News Counts Down Top 5 Stories of 2009

LIVE 5 NEWS counts down the Top 5 Stories of 2009 in a special edition of LIVE 5 NEWS AT 7 tonight.

Live 5 Viewers were recently asked to log on to live5news.com and rank their picks for the biggest local and statewide stories of the year, from a collection of news items that included economic and jobless woes, the announcement that Boeing would build its Dreamliner here in the Lowcountry, the kidnapping of a North Charleston infant and the scandal involving Governor Mark Sanford.

With their votes tabulated, LIVE 5 NEWS will present a look back at the five stories that received the most votes. Your Live 5 Insider has intentionally avoided sneaking a peek at the results, so it will be interesting to see which stories you chose as the biggest.

Don’t miss that special trip down memory lane, tonight at 7pm.

Continuing the Gift of Life

Victor Newman is in desperate need of a new heart. The supervillian on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS was shot by the woman he transformed into someone else and turned loose on an unsuspecting Genoa City. Meanwhile, Colleen Carlton, an innocent victim in the plot, has just been declared brain dead after a boating accident at the lake where the shooting happened. Doctors have informed the family that Colleen had indicated that she wanted to be an organ donor.

On October 5th, the CBS show THREE RIVERS makes its debut. That show is set in a Pittsburgh hospital that specializes in organ transplants.

See the common theme here? Maybe Victor will wind up on THREE RIVERS!

Well, that doesn’t seem all that likely, but the two shows are definitely putting the topic of organ donation in the forefront.

Back in August, Live 5 News did a story about organ donation and revealed that anyone who registered for it throught the DMV prior to December of 2008 may not be officially registered in the system. Though the heart icon that appears on the driver’s license may be an indication of the donor’s intent, it could still be up to the family as to whether the potential donor’s organs are actually donated.

People who register at the DMV since then now receive an emblem of a heart with a circle around it with a ‘Y’ in it. This symbol indicates that they are on the donor registry, according to Mark Johnson, the media relations director for LifePoint, a state-based organ and tissue donation service.

Johnson says another way to register officially, without having to wait for your drivers license to be renewed, is by going to www.every11minutes.org. The name of the website references the fact that a new name is added to the organ transplant waiting list an average of every 11 minutes.

As we reported, there are about 900 people in South Carolina on the transplant list, and 700 of those are waiting for a kidney. There are more than 200,000 people in the state who are officially registered. If you want to be one of them, you now have two ways to sign up!

Get Your Resumes Ready!

Looking for a quick way to get your resume in front of at least 20 companies at once? LIVE 5 WCSC and CharlestonJoblink.com can help, tomorrow at the Joblink Employment Expo!

Companies like Ashley Furniture, which is looking for customer service representatives and design/sales consultants, are ready to hire. Hiring managers from more than a dozen companies will be on hand from 11:00am to 7:00pm at Mount Pleasant Town Centre in the former Tweeter building. (That’s next to Bed, Bath & Beyond.)

For more information, including what job seekers can do to best prepare for the event and a list of companies who’ll be waiting to meet with you, visit the Joblink Employment Expo page at live5news.com.

Five Ways to Follow Five

If you’re a fan of Twitter, there are several ways you can follow LIVE 5 WCSC to stay up to date on breaking news and weather, plus behind the scenes info and what’s coming up on some of your favorite shows.

We’ll start with live5news. This is our main account that we update throughout the day when there’s important news or weather information including breaking news or other critical information in our area.

For important weather information, follow live5weather. We update storm watches and warnings and also give daily forecast updates.

Then there’s mylive5news. This Twitter feed is updated whenever a new story appears at live5news.com. Each tweet will include a link to the new story, so as our web channel is updated, you’ll automatically be notified.

Live 5 WCSC’s own James Warner, our news director, has his own Twitter feed to keep you up to date on what’s going on behind the scenes. His Twitter feed is called, appropriately enough, live5newsboss.

And now there’s Live5Insider, which posts links to new information here at the LIVE 5 INSIDER blog as well as sneak peek info about soaps, late night shows and more.

So click the links and start following us! Thanks for watching LIVE 5 WCSC!