Here’s a fascinating development straight from Tribune Head Whacko Lee Abrams’ brain into the epicenter of cutting-edge television — Houston, Texas.

He calls it NewsFix.

I have to say I like the idea in concept: minimizing the use of talking-head anchors and using natural sound and video to report the news.

Tribune is trying it at Houston’s Channel 39, where it hopes to impress both viewers.

Chron.com reports Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman as saying :

Tribune, which owns 23 TV stations, will roll out NewsFix on stations “that don’t have a strong legacy news product or where the local news tradition may not be as strong as it is in other markets.”

Will they try this at Fox 61 in Hartford?

I think it gets a bigger market share than Channel 39, but suppose a lot will depend on how the Houston experiment goes.

I could certainly do without all the talking from the anchor desk, but it seems to me there are an awful lot of stories that won’t lend themselves to the kind of narrative, natural video story-telling envisioned by His Whackedness. Reports from the legislature and courts, for example, would be a problem; and then there’s all that air time to fill when everyone knows that snow is on the way, but only two flakes have fallen on camera during the 6 o’clock news.

On the other hand, maybe the new format would force producers to spend some time and money developing something more imaginative than standing outside police headquarters or alongside Interstate 84 in the rain.

Would Tribune actually pay for that?