Spokane ad agency Magner Sanborn is ready for its second shot at Super Bowl advertising fame. This year’s game will include a 60-second spot built around the the secret life of shopping carts.

Two years ago the firm developed three spots for a short-lived new technology product, Flo Tv.

This year’s spot, which will run just before kickoff at 3:30 p.m., is a commercial for Yoke’s Fresh Markets, one of Magner Sanborn’s longstanding clients.

 Dennis Magner, one of the firm’s principals, declined to offer too many details about the project.

“I'd describe it as, ‘eye-opening.’  It’s a revealing look at why shopping carts do what they do,” he said.

The Flo TV ad was shot for a national company and landed in prime Super Bowl slots.

The Yoke’s ad is set for a local time slot made available by KHQ, the Spokane NBC affiliate.

Magner and company partner Jeff Sanborn developed the concept on their own late Monday while working at the firm’s downtown office.

The idea is meant to be catchy and slightly offbeat. No human faces are show, but there is music and voice-over narrative.

Magner and Sanborn contacted Yoke’s the next day and got the green light. They made a call to KHQ and grabbed one spot that was still available.

The spot was shot at exterior locations Wednesday and Thursday. Magner said the goal is a high-level, national-quality ad that gets across a fun message.

Once it airs, the ad will get posted to YouTube and Vimeo. Yoke’s site will also likely feature the spot, said Magner.

 The spot will also be used on local broadcasts beyond Sunday, Magner said

KHQ TV station management and Dish Network have signed a new deal that ends the possible blackout of Sunday's Super Bowl broadcast for satellite subscribers.

The previous contract ended at midnight last night, with the two sides at odds until Tuesday afternoon.

The two sides agreed sometime before 10 p.m. 

“The good news is that our signal will remain on the Dish Network and no viewers will miss the Super Bowl,” said Patricia McRea, KHQ General Manager. KHQ is owned and operated by Cowles California Media Co., which is a subsidiary of Cowles Co.

Cowles Co. owns and operates The Spokesman-Review and Spokesman.com.

McRea said details of the new contract are confidential. The contract covers among other things the retransmission fee Dish pays to the company for carrying its signal to viewers in the large Spokane TV market, which stretches into Idaho, southeast Washington and central Washington.

UPDATED FEB. 1, 1:30 p.m.:  

The two sides have ended the contract impasse and have signed a new retransmission contract. See more recent posts on Office Hours for details.

By early Wednesday morning a number of Dish Network TV subscribers may be seeing nothing on the channel normally carrying KHQ.

A negotiation of a new multiyear contract between KHQ's parent company and Dish has stalled. The contract reportedly ends at midnight on Jan. 31. As happened with DirecTV and Fox affilliate KAYU exactly one year ago, the dispute over money could lead to a blackout for Dish subscribers just before Sunday's Super Bowl.

It would have no effect on cable subscribers, those using DirecTV or getting their signals over-the-air or from another cable service.

The contract covers retransmission fees paid by the satellite company to the affiliate station management.  Dish and KHQ's parent company — Cowles California Media Co., in this case — have not been able to agree on the annual fee oaid by Dish. The fee in large part is based on the number of subscribers Dish has within that station's market area.

Last year Fox carried the Super Bowl. This year it's NBC, and KHQ is the NBC affiliate in this market.

As happened during the KAYU blackout, area TV fans can prepare themselves by finding alternatives. Dish subscribers who have line rabbit-ears antennas might be able to pull the signal over the air.

But residents with spotty reception or none at all will have to figure out another option.