For all the announcements about getting ready for the conversion to digital broadcasts by Feb. 17, those who’ve already gone all the way to high definition are being disappointed these days because ABC-affiliate KGUN 9 is apparently unable to show anything at all - including the Emmys or live college football games - in high definition.

Unfortunately, I can’t pass along the prognosis for when the problem might be fixed because I had not been able to reach anyone there in a week of trying.

Engineers at other stations tell me they believe KGUN’s problems must stem from a major overhaul at KGUN that includes bringing CW-affiliate KWBA 58/cable 8 under the same roof.

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It also doesn’t help that two engineers have left KGUN in the past two week.

Viewers saw one sign of KGUN’s acquisition of KWBA Sept. 30 when a repeat of KGUN’s 6 p.m. newscast showed up as KWBA’s 9 p.m. newscast.

Names in news

Two bylines no longer in the Arizona Daily Star: Carla McClain and Christie Smythe. For medical reporter McClain, the commute from the Sonoita-Patagonia area was getting to be too much. Former faith and family writer Stephanie Innes takes over the medical beat. Patty Machelor is moving from the Neighbors section to write about faith and family. For what it’s worth, a year ago, the Star had two medical writers but then Jane Erikson left... Smythe, who covered real estate and retail for the Star’s business section, returned back East to work for law360.com, which calls itself “the newswire for business lawyers.”

Jay Campbell has left as KVOA 4’s No. 2 sportscaster... Former sportscaster Dan Ryan is now an advertising account executive with the Journal Broadcast Group’s radio stations. Ryan retired at the end of December 2006 after nearly 20 years as sports director for KVOA 4 and went over to the advertising side of media working at the Arizona Lotus Group.  

A former Tucsonan is the new president and general manager of Dallas TV station KXAS, which is owned by NBC. Thomas Ehlmann graduated from the University of Arizona and started his career as an account executive at what was then KZAZ, now KMSB 11. He moved up the sales ladder working at stations in St. Louis, Sacramento, Houston and has been the general manager at WGN-TV in Chicago for the past four years... And another name out of the past contacted me about something unrelated to the media but I pass this along: Brad Stone, who launched the investigative news team at KVOA 4 several years ago, is the executive producer of special projects at WSB-TV, the ABC station in Atlanta.

Quick takes

• “Arizona Illustrated,” at 6:30 weeknights on KUAT-TV 6, is now in high definition as the University of Arizona’s PBS station and has quietly become the market’s second TV station, after KVOA 4, to do local live in-studio high-definition programs.

• It took a couple of weeks into the NFL season, but Sunday night and Monday night games now have a Tucson radio home on KNST 790-AM. The Clear Channel-owned news-talk station hasn’t carried live sports since it stopped being the flagship station for the University of Arizona Wildcats in the fall of 2004.

• The Caliber Group won a silver award in the 38th annual Creativity Awards for  production of an annual report for Commerce Bank of Arizona. A record 2,800 entries from more than 44 countries and 45 U.S. states were submitted in this year’s competition judged by a panel of advertising and graphic design professionals.

• Dallas-based advertising agency Moroch is now the agency of record for Southern Arizona McDonald’s franchises. The agency represents 54 of the fast-found giant’s co-ops across the country. There are 47 McDonald’s restaurants in Southern Arizona.

 Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237. Inside Tucson Media appears weekly.