NEPANews

It’s certainly noticeable at WNEP as of late. Plenty of stories from WPMT (Fox43) in York have been appearing on newscasts as of late, which have little to nothing to do with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market.

Seems as though there’s something foul in the air at THE NEWS STATION (WNEP) as a wave of departures have hit recently. A few months back, popular meteorologist John Hickey abruptly left mid-contract to go into the private sector to continue doing work in weather, mentioning on a video podcast things were not going well behind the scenes and it was time to go. Claire Alfree left to go to the TEGNA duopoly in Jacksonville in January. This week it was announced reporter Amanda Eustice is leaving the station after 4 years. Meteorologist Valerie Smock left Montage Mountain to go work in downtown Wilkes-Barre at WBRE/WYOU. And whispers abound that at least 3 more departures are coming in the next few weeks. You don’t typically see a whole lot of turnover at NEP, as you more often than not see folks there 10+ years at minimum. It’s why the viewership is as rock solid as it’s been. But these past few months have been a whirlwind, and it really makes you wonder just how bad TEGNA has screwed this legacy station up.

You know, the more you look at the talent intros, and this may be really nit-picky, but the ABC logo within them. Is that…..the now “former” ABC logo in there with their names?

Good to hear our old friend Charlie Van Dyke still doing the v/o, although his voice has deteriorated quite a bit. Pleasantly surprised they didn’t use the chance to replace him with Virginia Hamilton or Gabe Kunda like they did at WPVI.

Talkback 16 strikes again with hard hitting discussion on the issues affecting all of Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania. Todays topic: Pronouncing Wilkes-Barre Talkback 16: The gift that keeps on giving.

Refreshed set premiered on the Noon news. As seen in the previous pictures, it’s not a huge difference from the previous look, but it’s certainly brighter and the anchors now get to join every other market in having a stand-up shot for some stories. I’m not in a spot to be able to add video, but I’m sure one will be online somewhere at some point.

And seemingly right on cue, reporter Chelsea Strub posted pictures from the refreshed set where they did a photo shoot. The news is still at the B studio as of the 5:30p newscast. Don’t see much, but it’s something! UPDATE: Refreshed set debuts this Thursday.

Nothing as of yet. They're still in Studio B as of this morning and none of the team have posted any updates.

Well, looks like the gun may have been jumped a smidge. The set is getting a "refresh" , not a full replacement, with a new duratrans, new colored lighting beneath the desk & some other areas, and the video wall getting replaced. Morning anchor Mindi Ramsey posted pictures of in-progress shots, and a video on her Facebook. It's a very confusing choice instead of a full set refresh, but then again this is NEPA. And any changes are met with vitriol, pitchforks, and a very busy Talkback 16 line. Video w/ Lighting Test: https://fb.watch/hwjYovxx_d/

After nearly 12 years of service, it looks like the folks at the big 1-6 are finally getting a new news set. Newswatch 16 this weekend is on their “B” set (which is the shell of their set which premiered in 2003!) that they normally use for their Friday night high school sports show. Their morning anchor, Jon Meyer, posted on Facebook noting this will be the look for a couple weeks while the upgrades are made. Meanwhile, their lighting folks need to work on this temporary set because the lights are much too bright and casting huge shadows on the talent.

Talkback Feedback! This segment is always gold.

Looks like they’ve dusted off the ol’ Action 16 moniker from the 70s-2000s for their new investigative reporting. I feel like it’s the first we’ve seen any WNEP branding onscreen without the big surrounding box and call letters for quite a while. Doesn’t look bad.

After nearly 30 years, WNEP-TV 16's longtime morning anchor Tom Williams is leaving the station. https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/tom-williams-leaving-wnep-after-nearly-30-years-morning-anchor/523-3958c7ab-85b5-4968-95de-21526d4e46de

It seems in the past week or so that newscasts on WBRE/WYOU now have the reporters referencing the channel numbers of the two stations for the first time in roughly 15~ years. It's VERY awkward when you hear it spoken in a toss to a package like: "WBRE 28 WYOU 22 Eyewitness News reporter, Chris Bohinski tells us..." What could have prompted this change?

The morning weather when Snedeker is on makes a graphic artist like myself CRINGE. The 7-Day looks slapped together by a 5 year old. Nothing in-line, differing fonts, the boxes just put wherever. Not to mention, in the AM and Noon, Temperatures for all days are displayed "High/Low", but in all other dayparts, it's "Low/High". Why? I realize WNEP can get away with most anything it seems in the TEGNA empire, but my god, I wonder if anyone at corporate pays attention to their broadcasts.