John Mac's Travels

 I am working in Jefferson City, Missouri this week which is Missouri's capital. Tough to get a hotel when things are hoppin at the capital building so I diverted to Columbia and stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton. "The Broadway" is a beautiful Hotel with great food in-house, a 1st floor bar as well as a rooftop bar with views of the city.  What a great place.  My thanks to Jason and the team for the corner suite upgrade and the gracious hospitality. I will definately be back.  Did I mention that the Broadway is a #DIRECTVforBUSINESS property?? Yes it is... I would like to offer a sincere congratulations to our engineering and marketing teams for the combined effort that has resulted in NOT ONE, BUT TWO Technical Emmy Awards in 2024 for our work bringing SIGNAL SAVER and PAUSE ADS to our DIRECTV platforms.  I have been talking about Signal Saver for a while now.  This service allows our customers the option to convert their live signal from DIRECTV to...

 This week I made my first trek through Northern Arkansas since 2019.  I didn't support this region in the past but now I do.  Many thanks to the Embassy Suites in Rogers for having me. No conferences this week at the hotel, but lots of student athletes.  It's always sports season in Arkansas.  I had an unexpected gift of sharing breakfast with former Governor Asa Hutchinson who is local to this area. We had a great conversation about Northern Arkansas' growth in recent years, his plans now that he's out of office, and NO, I did not bring up his recent presidential campaign or even politics in general.  Asa is a very smart man, and very humble. One of the reasons I always stay with Hilton, Hyatt or Marriott Hotels when I travel is because of the perks they offer their frequent and corporate travelers. As a Lifetime Platinum Elite Member of Marriott I get an early check-in, 400pm checkout, Food and beverage credits, executive lounge access, and room upgrad...

  Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on their 2023 SuperBowl victory! I worked the event out of our Mission Kansas Network Operations Center to ensure that  DIRECTV  provided the best programming to millions of Midwest customers through all of our platforms. Hopefully my beloved  Seattle Seahawks  can make it to the big game next year! I am based in KC, and couldn't get outta town quick enough on Monday morning. I know the parade and downtown district is going to be crazy this week.  NFL, I miss you already... the Nielsen ratings were released today and this year's game proved to be the 2nd most watched SuperBowl event in Nielsen ratings history with 113 million average users. I am proud to report that our platform was STELLAR with no national issues reported and only a very small number of customers experienced issues, all stemming from station diven issues before our handoff.  My hat is off to our engineering and technical support teams who w...