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WABC - 7 Eyewitness News


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I'm the first to lament WABC's lack of aesthetics but the reality is that it works. New York is a tabloid town (in the Daily News / NY Post sense, not the WSVN sense), and it kind of makes sense that WABC's look emulates those visuals more than any other station in the city. Editorially WABC is toned down from the caustic irreverence and outright conservatism of the NY Post, but it shares the huge typography, bombastic/eye searing color contrast, and fundamentally human interest led approach. As I've noted before, there has been a shift with Bill Ritter's editorializing "Gun Insanity" rhetoric at WABC. I don't think you'd ever catch David Ushery or Kristine Johnson leading with such a framing. 

 

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Really WABC’s actual news product is not very good either. It’s overtly sensationalized and editorial from the graphics to the on-screen commentary. Horrible horrible. Channel 4 and channel 2 are in a different league compared to 7.

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1 hour ago, MorningNews said:

Really WABC’s actual news product is not very good either. It’s overtly sensationalized and editorial from the graphics to the on-screen commentary. Horrible horrible. Channel 4 and channel 2 are in a different league compared to 7.

Agreed, their talent is okay, but some of their tans look awful and dress like it's 1950's aka Lee Goldberg. Others can dress whatever way they want and doesn't have to wear a suit and tie aka Sam Champion. I don't get the hype about either of them, especially Sam. Their best team is the Weekend PM team.

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Aside from the need to update the aesthetics, the music is fine. Actually I'd opt to return to the late 80s/early 90s version of Cool Hand Luke.

 

In terms of news product I think WABC has the most recognizable brand but WNBC is my prefrence. WNYW has the weakest news product outisde of it's feature specials like Street Soliders. WPIX isn't strong either outside of the "Morning News". Overall News 4 and Eyewitness News are the strongest news wise. 

 

Is no one behind the scenes speaking to Ritter about his editorializing or does he have leeway as the station's lead newsman?

Edited by iron_lion
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On 4/9/2022 at 11:03 AM, MisterBill said:

 

Why would they need five when two of them only work weekends? WPIX just added a weekend morning newscast, and they're having their weekday morning meteorologists to work one day each weekend. Then they seem to get a day off during the week and the weekend evening person covers their morning slot.

For those of you unaware - both Jeff and Brittany work 5-day weeks. Jeff is in evenings 3 days with Lee and Brittany is in mornings with Sam 3 days a week (including Friday obviously). They work as backup and wx producers when not on-air. They also can be found reporting on human-interest stories on occasion. 
there is no such thing as a 2 day work week in television. As a matter of fact - there’s no such thing as a 5 day work week in local news either. You’re lucky if you have a couple of hours each day to sleep. 

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28 minutes ago, iron_lion said:

Aside from the need to update the aesthetics, the music is fine. Actually I'd opt to return to the late 80s/early 90s version of Cool Hand Luke.

 

In terms of news product I think WABC has the most recognizable brand but WNBC is my prefrence. WNYW has the weakest news product outisde of it's feature specials like Street Soliders. WPIX isn't strong either outside of the "Morning News". Overall News 4 and Eyewitness News are the strongest news wise. 

 

Is no one behind the scenes speaking to Ritter about his editorializing or does he have leeway as the station's lead newsman?

Something tells me management actually likes having the anchors editorialize. I guess it’s supposed to make them more relatable, but it’s a bit condescending to those of us who would rather not hear opinion on a straight newscast. Reminds me more of Bill Bonds than Bill Beutel. That said, the format works for NYC.

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I would agree the talent really isn’t strong as they once were. And the product isn’t all that great. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous with what Sam Champion goes on air wearing (1/2 the time not even a jacket) Bill Ritter in my book has no credibility and his comments are ridiculous (his social media posts about how many masks he’s wearing and how many Covid tests he’s taken arent so great either). And I would rathe see someone else at 5.. I would agree the strongest team they have right now is Joe and Sandra. Michelle needs a weekday spot at the desk. 
 

I actually like Maurice and Kristine at 5 fwiw. 

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11 minutes ago, nynewslover said:

I would agree the talent really isn’t strong as they once were. And the product isn’t all that great. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous with what Sam Champion goes on air wearing (1/2 the time not even a jacket) Bill Ritter in my book has no credibility and his comments are ridiculous (his social media posts about how many masks he’s wearing and how many Covid tests he’s taken arent so great either). And I would rathe see someone else at 5.. I would agree the strongest team they have right now is Joe and Sandra. Michelle needs a weekday spot at the desk. 
 

I actually like Maurice and Kristine at 5 fwiw. 

Agreed that Joe & Sandra are the strongest team and that Maurice & Kristine are strong at 5. 

 

I dont mind male anchors steping outisde the blue black gray suit monotony, so longs as its in the relm of business formal. ESPN anchors nail this. Sam's choices however sometimes look odd . 

 

EDIT: Overall I like WABC's team because it has the least reporter turnover and great, consistent anchors.

Edited by iron_lion
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My issues are strictly with the news production, editorial and presentation. Outside of Bill Ritter and his old man rants, there’s not a single weak personality on channel 7 imo. Even Michelle can be difficult to watch present at times but is still a strong anchor.

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There's been a major subway shooting/explosion AND the Lieutenant Governor has been arrested. WNBC has dumped out of Today, WCBS has left Drew, and WABC is still with Live...tells you all you need to know of WABC's priorities here. 

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7 minutes ago, DMA said:

There's been a major subway shooting/explosion AND the Lieutenant Governor has been arrested. WNBC has dumped out of Today, WCBS has left Drew, and WABC is still with Live...tells you all you need to know of WABC's priorities here. 

I just checked at 9:47 am. WNBC is still with special coverage of the shooting and arrest.  WCBS is with Drew.  WABC still with twiddle dee and twiddle dumb live.

As I typed this WABC finally has jumped in with a report (no one on the scene, unlike WNBC).  Just the headline breaking in and a zoom interview.

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49 minutes ago, DMA said:

There's been a major subway shooting/explosion AND the Lieutenant Governor has been arrested. WNBC has dumped out of Today, WCBS has left Drew, and WABC is still with Live...tells you all you need to know of WABC's priorities here. 

Wow!

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FWIW, the TV was on during the 9am hour and Ken Rosato did break in twice to update the story before going to full wall-to-wall coverage. Didn’t seem like there was much to report on at the beginning as WNBC’s coverage was mostly centered around train delays for the first 30 mins.

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1 hour ago, MorningNews said:

FWIW, the TV was on during the 9am hour and Ken Rosato did break in twice to update the story before going to full wall-to-wall coverage. Didn’t seem like there was much to report on at the beginning as WNBC’s coverage was mostly centered around train delays for the first 30 mins.

 

FWIW, this constant coverage when they don't know all the details, it's not a current situation and no new information is coming in doesn't seem warranted. I know that it's a big story and a terrible thing that happened, but having the anchors and reporters just talking about what happened is not a good use of air time when they could be showing regularly scheduled shows. They could easily have broken in when more information became available.

Edited by MisterBill
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Live with Kelly and Ryan is a WABC production and so it could have been a control room issue. WABC has only one control room and from 8 to 10 a.m. Live has use of the control room. That's why the GMA local cut-ins on WABC are done in the newsroom instead of their news studio. Heck, for 20+ years the Live set and the Eyewitness News set shared the same studio. I mention this because it could have played a role in WABC's decision to go on-air with a special report. I'll be interested to see the new set up once they move downtown. 

Edited by carolinanews4
typo
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2 hours ago, MisterBill said:

 

FWIW, this constant coverage when they don't know all the details, it's not a current situation and no new information is coming in doesn't seem warranted. I know that it's a big story and a terrible thing that happened, but having the anchors and reporters just talking about what happened is not a good use of air time when they could be showing regularly scheduled shows. They could easily have broken in when more information became available.

Good perspective. People get the impression that the station doesn't care when they see regualr programming running. Perhaps in a major event like this where no new details are immediately avalible, it might help to run a red ticker at the bottom of the screen  with updates, or a message to say that the news team is following the situation. 

Edited by iron_lion
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3 hours ago, iron_lion said:

Good perspective. People get the impression that the station doesn't care when they see regualr programming running. Perhaps in a major event like this where no new details are immediately avalible, it might help to run a red ticker at the bottom of the screen  with updates, or a message to say that the news team is following the situation. 

 

Or just log on to the station's website.

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5 hours ago, carolinanews4 said:

Live with Kelly and Ryan is a WABC production and so it could have been a control room issue. WABC has only one control room and from 8 to 10 a.m. Live has use of the control room. That's why the GMA local cut-ins on WABC are done in the newsroom instead of their news studio. Heck, for 20+ years the Live set and the Eyewitness News set shared the same studio. I mention this because it could have played a role in WABC's decision to go on-air with a special report. I'll be interested to see the new set up once they move downtown. 

Then with one control room how were the able to do it live from the Newsroom.

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3 minutes ago, Gavin M. said:

Then with one control room how were the able to do it live from the Newsroom.


A lot of stations are setup with a flash cam in the newsroom that can be punched up directly by master control in the event of breaking news but no production staff onsite. 

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WABC was the only local station that did not cover the 7pm press conference where officials released photos of the "person of interest."

 

Heck, even WNYW broke away from Extra.

 

I guess they did not want to upset the seniors by cutting away from Jeopardy, and since they are so reluctant to use Localish 7.2, I guess people wouldn't have been smart enough to find it.

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Yeah it just alludes to the direction Local TV News and WABC is going, from the complaints about Sam Champion not wearing a suit, to Bill's emotional rants, to not breaking in when warranted, it just goes to show that the standard that WABC has set is starting to decline or perhaps in alignment with the today's generation of viewers. They indeed seemed to be more relaxed as attitudes and expectations shift with new generation of viewers. It is 2022. I'm sure Sam's on air look is intentional. Maybe him not wearing a suit and tie is appealing to a certain audience. The requirement of needing to be polished, have a suit and tie seems to not be prioritized as much anymore. Lets not forget, that nowadays people dont even have TVs anymore they go online or stream online, so maybe they felt like the efficiency of being in air broadcasting a news story that was developing wasn't warranted at the time especially when most people have internet access and can go on the web and get more information much faster than the news can deliver it on TV.

Edited by Vlad
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15 minutes ago, Vlad said:

Yeah it just alludes to the direction Local TV News and WABC is going, from the complaints about Sam Champion not wearing a suit, to Bill's emotional rants, to not breaking in when warranted, it just goes to show that the standard that WABC has set is starting to decline or perhaps in alignment with the today's generation of viewers. They indeed seemed to be more relaxed as attitudes and expectations shift with new generation of viewers. It is 2022. I'm sure Sam's on air look is intentional. Maybe him not wearing a suit and tie is appealing to a certain audience. The requirement of needing to be polished, have a suit and tie seems to not be prioritized as much anymore. Lets not forget, that nowadays people dont even have TVs anymore they go online or stream online, so maybe they felt like the efficiency of being in air broadcasting a news story that was developing wasn't warranted at the time especially when most people have internet access and can go on the web and get more information much faster than the news can deliver it on TV.

In terms of the newscast format, this isn’t the first time WABC broke convention. Witty anchors like Roger Grimsby and the whole concept of “happy talk” were specifically implemented to break from the traditional newscast of the period and stick out from their competitors. However, deciding not to cover a news conference on TV and breaking into programming late don’t fall under the “breaking convention” strategy. WABC still does a solid job overall, but they could’ve done a bit better with today’s coverage IMHO.

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4 hours ago, civic110 said:

I guess they did not want to upset the seniors by cutting away from Jeopardy, and since they are so reluctant to use Localish 7.2, I guess people wouldn't have been smart enough to find it.

 

That seniors comment was really unnecessary.  I would usually have no problem switching to Localish for shows that are pre-empted, and wish that they did it more often, although in this case I wasn't home and DVR'ed Jeopardy (fortunately, this senior is smart enough to know how to do that) and wouldn't have been happy if it had moved. But they've made a big deal about their streaming channels, so I don't see any reason why they shouldn't have directed people to it for the news conference.

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