wabceyewitness

It was posted back in February, which is interesting since that is well after Brittany Bell joined the station. I don’t think Lee Goldberg is going anywhere. Perhaps Jeff Smith is departing, or Sam Champion signed a 3 year deal back in 2019 and is heading toward retiring or lighter workloads.

Based on comments on her instagram from other journalists, sounds like she is staying in the business. Probably getting an anchor position in another market.

David Muir anchored for ABC interrupting the 7:30-8:30 hour of Good Morning America on the west coast.

Kelly & Ryan is cleared in the 9am hour on too many ABC affiliates belong to different owners with different contracts. That’s one hurdle. The next hurdle is then getting affiliates to give the 9am hour to the network. Ripa was upset that Disney/ABC and Michael Strahan came to a deal to move him full time to Good Morning America and didn’t inform her until hours before they issued a press release. “Live” makes too much money for Disney/ABC and their flagship station for them to tinker with moving it or canceling it in favor of Good Morning America. What actually was under consideration at one point was Regis and Kathie Lee replacing Good Morning America in part or in full. This was in the late 90s after GMA ratings nosedived when execs made the decision to replace Charlie Gibson and Joan Lunden with Kevin Newman and Lisa McRee, and before they decided to bring back Gibson and pair him with Diane Sawyer.

ESPN leads production, with the help of a third party live production vendor, and uses some WABC reporters and resources.

they’re not even back to having everyone in the actual newsroom fully in person. There are still people working remotely, some not even in the NYC area and some reporters who haven’t been inside the station more than two or three times since the March 2020 lockdown.

Bill, Liz and Lee handled sports at 6pm, with a cameo from vacationing Ryan Field. https://www.facebook.com/BillRitterABC7/videos/when-ryan-field-is-on-vaca-and-sam-ryan-is-sick-the-rest-of-the-team-kicks-in-on/5146143688838296/

Bill likely has a very close exposure and needs to be separated if he’s not able to wear a mask. That’s a WABC policy.

It’s a “stand alone mini studio at WABC”, according to Bill, who responded to someone on twitter asking about it.

Great to see WABC continuing to promote station veterans with backgrounds in news to leadership positions. I’m sure she’ll be great and is likely now on a fast track to other executive positions within Disney!

Doesn’t seem like it. Ryan Field posted these photos from that area on Friday when the Stanley Cup visited ABC7 for a promo shoot and he also did Monday’s 6pm sports report from that area.

they most likely are but, behind the scenes, they have the option to wear a mask or the the station has reinstated indoor masking following the city and state health departments both recommending indoor masking again.

and being run seamlessly.

No, and in reporting about the stations new LI bureau at Hofstra, he was identified as “president of WABC and ABC Owned Television Stations”. I believe WABC is also operating without a news director since Rehan Aslam underwent emergency surgery last year and is still recovering and on medical leave.

they did this a bit before the pandemic.. looks like they’re trying it again and capitalizing on the distancing at the desk.