Fisher Communications is a regional broadcasting powerhouse, boasting television and radio stations in 11 cities throughout the Pacific Northwest. From larger stations like KOMO-TV in Seattle to small and mid-market stations such as Yakima's KIMA, their influence spans three states and six million people. In the spring of 2006 they revealed an ambitious project: Launch 10 television stations and three radio stations, with combined total pageviews that reached into the millions.

The task of moving their sites onto the Broadcast Interactive Media platform was certainly daunting, but the Fisher team was excited to start the transition and together we produced some of our best work to date.

Fisher's requirements were, on the surface, simple. They needed a clean, user-centered and content-heavy design. They also wanted a few well- positioned ad placements and room for station promotion. They knew, however, that the web is littered with local media sites. Radio, television and newspaper had tried and failed with this same approach. To add a little more complexity, the design had to work for all of their television stations equally.

When we first sat in Fisher's corporate headquarters in Seattle, it was clear that we would be creating a new design together. It would meld the creative and technological passion of Broadcast Interactive Media with the vision and experience of Fisher Communications.

As the new design took shape we saw room to improve our existing templating system. We added significant customizable options and enhanced our templating engine. These improvements were driven by the new design, and we made sure they were available to our entire network. Out of that flurry of work, several enhancements rolled out: a new weather option, a Flash video player and several new styles for featured categories and related content.

When we launched the first site, www.katu.com, in early September 2006, the new design quickly garnered attention and praise. Pundits and bloggers weighed in approvingly, but the celebration was short-lived. Three weeks later www.komotv.com launched and throughout the fall of 2006 we released the remainder of the sites at the rate of one per week.

When the final site, adult contemporary radio station www.star1015.com, flipped the switch, we were as happy and excited with the outcome as we had hoped. Fisher Communications websites had achieved user-centered design, solid CMS and newly invigorated web presence.