alex979

I really like how they inserted their election hashtag on the bottom of the bug, and shrunk the logo and time and temp. Much better than having it on top and making the bug even more huge.

A new promo featuring Jerry and Cheryl debuted last night during the Oscars. It pretty heavily implied that Cheryl is the heir apparent to Jerry, and he pretty much stopped just short of saying that out loud. The setting also caught my eye; it looked to be in a fairly large area in front of several distant monitors and a bright white backdrop. I had never seen it before. https://twitter.com/jerrytaft/status/569994908897042434

So, I thought this was interesting. As I was surfing around on youtube earlier, I came across a mock close for WGN which used music that I've never heard before. It still has the signature of "Chicago's very own," but it's way different than any of the cuts they currently use. I'm guessing it's part of the package which never was fully rolled out, and is only heard in the talent opens and bumpers. I wonder why it just surfaced recently...

Why are they leaving the bug up during the weather? This started yesterday, but I thought it was just so they could keep their silly blizzard hashtag on the screen. However, the hashtag is gone now and the bug is staying up for the whole forecast.

Hey, it only took them until about 9:30 to figure out how to get rid of that awful looking broken hashtag thing above the bug.

WGN will be breaking in during the Super Bowl Halftime, and they'll have an extra newscast at 10(!) to cover the blizzard.

Yeah, I saw the updated lower thirds online, since they remove the bug forthe video clips . It sure looks a whole lot better to not have a hole where the bug usually is on TV.

Hey, I just happened to flip by CLTV and I noticed that they have new graphics and a simple new logo (you can see it at CLTV.com). It's all very similar to WGN, of course. In fact, the title cards have the same look as WGN, and the backgrounds for the full screen graphics are exactly the same. The bug is a blue rectangle, the L3s are white, and the ticker is a black bar on the bottom (it's smaller than it used to be, I think.) They're also not broadcasting in front of the bland chroma key background anymore; they're using the WGN newsroom and its video wall. Overall, it's actually a clean, nice look. Like, surprisingly good.

That's embarasssing.... Was Cheryl in the promo?

Who's the guy doing weather tonight? Missed his name. He's pretty good though.

I agree that WGN is Caplan's best option if he wants to stay on TV in Chicago. However, I think it would be more likely that he would get weekend evenings, as Jim Ramsey is probably nearing retirement. Also, Mike could have more time for the photography he's been doing on the side. In my opinion, a good setup would be Tom only on evening and nine o'clock, with Demetrius getting all of midday and becoming the primary backup for Skilling, in position to take over for Tom some day. However.... I could also see newlyweds Demetrius and Erin taking off for a slightly smaller market, where D could be chief meteorologist and Erin could be an anchor. But now I'm getting off topic. As for tonight at 7pm, I would be shocked if they had Judy on. She started anchoring at 4:30am; having her do 4pm is a bit of a stretch, and 7pm would be pretty ridiculous.

Feder has a story up. http://www.robertfeder.com/2015/01/23/abc-7-weather-front-blows-out-mike-caplan/

Oooh, fancy new Tribune Broadcasting graphic at the end of the evening news tonight. It's animated again.

It's gonna be Cheryl at 10. https://twitter.com/cherylscottwx/status/557371642771288064

So when either Sarah or Erin are absent, the other one has to do both the evening and the morning newscasts. That's kind of ridiculous. They need to get a freelance traffic reporter for fill-in when needed.

Yeah, and you have to wonder why they haven't done any little updates like that. Are they really that cheap, or are they just saving up for a big redesign?

The fact that they have had to use the same set for 10+ years is baffling to me. They're the flagship of the Tribune stations, and their ratings are pretty good.

Bob and Jackie are doing Instant Replay right now, due to technical difficulties with Dan Roan at the UC. This oughta be good.

Pat was at the UC. In other news, Bob Jordan has a selfie stick. https://twitter.com/nuzman9/status/554051107123888128 https://twitter.com/nuzman9/status/554066012476559361

Pat's doing the Bulls game tonight. Don't see that very often.

Now we know where Tom Skilling is. He just joined Mark, Micah, and Jim live from the Big Island of Hawaii. It was classic.

Or they could just have all of the closings scroll in the ticker, which is what they did during the Evening News last night. I don't know why they let it look so awful for the entire show. You would think that they would have a made an adjustment when they bug is clearly covering part of the L3 graphics. To make matters slightly worse, the temperature in the bug said "-0" for a while.

They have school closing scrolling on the bottom of the screen... and there are a number of problems. http://imgur.com/dn5Kp1B

Well, I don't blame you. Those were some complicated times at the old number nine, especially with the whole Allison Payne debacle.

I agree. Tom really should be a regular anchor. He's a pro.