Every now and then there's proof that it's not just me. Other viewers get fed up with local TV news, too. You could tell by some of the questions at a panel discussion with local TV news executives held at Point Park University earlier this month.

"Does all weather have to be severe?" one attendee asked.

A jab at TV news' over-reliance on the "breaking news" label came in the form of a question and received a defensive response from one news director.

But the event, sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Pittsburgh chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, served as another kind of reminder. Although viewers may not always agree with their choices, news executives at Pittsburgh TV stations are mostly smart, concerned, deliberate news men and women who are trying to do their best by viewers and by the for-profit companies that employ them.

It's just that when they have to choose between those two constituencies, satisfying their employer's drive for profits through ratings often wins out.

WPXI news director Corrie Harding said the breaking news bug afflicts TV stations because research shows that's what people want to see.

"They want to see live events, they want to see the latest, they want you to be the most proficient news operation at getting them the information that will get them prepared first," he said.

WTAE news director Bob Longo acknowledged "some people use it more than they should" and went on to rap the definition of breaking news used by a former Pittsburgh news director (KDKA's Al Blinke) who defined it as any news viewers haven't seen yet. But Longo and others also defended breaking news as something he didn't invent but has to live with.

"The first three letters of news are new," Longo said. "Everybody does it, and I'm not going to sit up here and say we won't do it tomorrow or that you won't see it on all three TV stations three times between 5 and 6:30 tonight."

KDKA assistant news director Anne Linaberger said breaking news must be timely.

"It can't be something 3, 4 or 5 hours old, even if the viewer hasn't seen anything since the noon newscast," she said.

Evidently, not all news directors agree on the timing. Two nights before the panel, WTAE led its 11 p.m. half-hour with "breaking news" about the bomb threat made to a theater where Steelers players and fans watched a Steelers DVD. The threat call came in at 8 p.m.

The executives also discussed changes to the medium over the past two decades, including more time devoted to news daily ("It's a challenge to create unique content to go in every news broadcast," Linaberger said) and more news outlets.

Harding said news gets covered so quickly on Web sites that it's a challenge for traditional media outlets (e.g. newspapers and TV) to keep up.

"There's tremendous pressure on the old standbys," he said. "What are we going to do to engage people who watch us? That's our primary mission. ... We can't afford to be uninteresting."

TV stations try to appeal to the areas of interest that research says are most likely to keep people watching: weather, breaking news and local news.

And if they can't grab viewers while they watch TV, they'll try to get them to their station's Web site.

"These are people who are at work so they are not watching television newscasts," Linaberger said. "I don't think we're trading in the opportunity to watch a newscast to go to the Internet."

The Web sites can be used for more than news. During the Steelers run up to the Super Bowl, Linaberger said, a slide show of viewer-submitted photos of Steelers fans decked out in black and gold drew plenty of page views.

Another way TV stations try to woo viewers: by appealing to their sense of locality, which can be a challenge because the Pittsburgh market encompasses more than a dozen counties.

"TV stations try to get ratings where people live. ... A best-case scenario is you go to a place where [Nielsen] meters are and you do a story that affects everyone," Longo said.

Harding said some TV stations keep lists of "hot zip codes" that show where a greater concentration of Nielsen meters are placed; those stations will shape their newscasts to appeal to the most-metered localities.

"Westmoreland is the second largest county in the area; it's important to have a bureau there because there's a huge number of viewers there," Linaberger said, explaining the need to cover news beyond the borders of Allegheny County.

"During the Sago mine disaster, our numbers would creep up," she said, "and we wondered if Morgantown meters were watching us. We were able to provide, as three stations, better coverage than our colleagues in Clarksburg, which would be the other market for people [in Morgantown] to watch."

'Break' back from break

Fox's "Prison Break" returns with the first of nine new episodes next week (8 p.m. Monday, WPGH), and I have to admit, after growing bored with Michael Scofield's complicated, revision-prone plan to escape from prison, these new episodes sucked me back in.

It's a welcome relief when Michael's sly, I'm-smarter-than-you smirk gets wiped off his face by failure in Monday's episode. His dejection doesn't last long, of course, but before the show can grow too tiresome again, the April 3 episode offers a "Lost"-style flashback to three years ago.

Viewers will learn how several inmates came to be incarcerated at Fox River Penitentiary and what the relationship between Michael (Wentworth Miller) and Lincoln (Dominic Purcell, who's getting lazy about putting on an American accent) was like at the time. The episode also adds more intrigue to the conspiracy masterminded by the vice president (Patricia Wettig). It's a character-driven hour that's more interesting than much of what's come before. I wish the show's writers had planned something similar earlier in the season; by understanding the characters better, it gives viewers more reason to care about them.

Casting call

Casting for extras in the CBS pilot "Smith," filming around Downtown and Oakland Thursday through March 28, will be held tomorrow, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Nancy Mosser Casting, 239 Fourth Ave., Suite 1217, Downtown.

All ages and types are needed and no experience is necessary. All extras will be paid. People auditioning are asked to bring a recent photograph of themselves.

Channel surfing

A character who was blackmailing gay students on UPN's "Veronica Mars" used the alias "Rick Santorum" on Wednesday's episode. ... A&E has canceled "Rollergirls" but greenlit a pilot for a series about "an officially sanctioned Paranormal Research Society at Penn State," according to Daily Variety. ... Brandon Lenoir will be used as an occasional fill-in reporter on WTAE. ... John Poister, once news director at WPGH who worked for radio's Renda Broadcasting in recent years, left Renda this week for a newly created newsroom job at WPXI: director of coverage and content. ... Anna Mae Beck of Aliquippa will be a contestant on CBS's "The Price Is Right" next Thursday (11 a.m., KDKA-TV).

TV Q&A

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about "The Shield," "Less Than Perfect" and "Gimme the Mike!"