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For those if you're keeping score: (weather was done outside live in various towns powered by the CBS 2 Mobile Weather Lab with Vanessa Murdock (in Manhattan and NJ) in the AM, Lonnie Quinn (in Westport, CT) (who was pre-recorded Thursday) in the PM, John Elliot (in Newark) on Saturday.

  • Wednesday night & Thursday morning (3/12), they used the CBSN New York studio and graphics with Dick Brennan at 11pm and Chris Wragge in the AM.
  • Noon (both days): Inside Edition aired.
  • 5-6:30pm (both days): DeMarco Morgan (who used to work at WNBC from '08 to '12) anchored from KCBS' studio.
  • 9pm (both nights): Inside Edition and Entertainment Tonight aired instead of CBSN New York at 7pm 9pm on WLNY.
  • 11pm/E (both nights): Pat Harvey with Jaime Maggio (Thu) & Kristin Smith (Fri) on sports anchored from KCBS' studio (while KCAL is live nearby).
  • Friday and Saturday morning: Elizabeth Cook anchored from KPIX's studio. No local news updates as they chose to do a CBS News update from DC as it would've interfere with KPIX's AM news and the national map for the local weather update.

 

I think should cancel the weekend morning newscast & WLNY's news this weekend and focus only on the 6 & 11 shows whoever will be producing them. (According to TitanTV, they are doing just that, News is on at 9am.)

 

It could been worse, luckily for the mild winter NYC had, there was no severe weather to deal with. For the KCBS/KCAL's, KPIX's and WBZ's anchors and the production crews as well, this is for you: 🏅

 

Here's the AM open from KPIX:

 

 

Edited by RGSJenkins
Update: more information.
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Last night Kristine Johnson did the 6:30 and 11PM News from CBSN NY Studio and Marcia Kramer did a live shot in front of CBS Broadcasting Center.

 

UPDATE: CBSN New York via CBSN Boston this morning.. Day 5..

Edited by Spintech33
CBSN New York & CBSN via CBSN Boston
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Quote

When CBS Broadcast Center shut down due to the fact that a couple of employees tested positive for the coronavirus,

WCBS had their shows anchored by stations on the West Coast.

KCBS (LA) handled the evening and late newscasts, while KPIX (San Francisco) anchored the morning newscasts.

This has happened for at least 3 days straight and as one TV executive said to FTVLive,

 

”WCBS can’t figure out how to originate a local newscast with local talent? 

Is that how fragile and unprepared WCBS (and probably most broadcasters) are in 2020?”

Did WCBS just take the easy way out by farming their newscast off on sister stations 3000 away?

Could the station not have set up a remote studio using a live of sat truck?

New York is getting hit hard with the virus and as viewers tune in to get the information they need, they are seeing news people that they have no clue who they are?

 

This is the No. 1 market and you would expect that a station in that market could get a LOCAL newscast on the air inside 24 hours. 

Just saying….

Thoughts...

Source: FTV Live.

 

My personal opinion: I've lost faith with WCBS TV years ago so this is nothing new with them.  Situations like this you gotta have ample studio space throughout the tri-state area.

Depending only with the 524 West 57th Street is not the best logistical thing to do.  However, at this point what's done is done and I hope in the future that WCBS gets their act together and have additional NYC // Long Island studios and not have to depend on work in LA and Boston.

Edited by Spintech33
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I was also curious about that. How is it possible that there was no other way to get local anchors on camera yet it was possible to have local weather and reporters? I understand the studio is unavailable, but improvise! 
 

Was there any reach out other local stations, networks, production facilities? What about anchoring outside, in the park... literally anywhere?

 

It was nice to experiment with pushing out a newscast from the west coast but this was not the time. 

Edited by wabceyewitness
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Let me keep it real:

Some of y'all upset WCBS's newscasts was handled by KCBS/KPIX for three days? "Woe is me I didn't see Maurice for a few days, I can't go face the world if Mary ain't on, why does Lonnie have them fancy graphics behind him?" Give me a break! Be lucky you got several newscasts, you could had none at all for a few days!

 

Moving on, don't forget the entire CBS Broadcast operations in New York was affected meaning DC, Boston, LA & SF was handling everything for a few days including Inside Edition, Last Week Tonight, CBS News and if March Madness was still going on, they would've relocated elsewhere. 

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1 hour ago, RGSJenkins said:

Let me keep it real:

Some of y'all upset WCBS's newscasts was handled by KCBS/KPIX for three days? "Woe is me I didn't see Maurice for a few days, I can't go face the world if Mary ain't on, why does Lonnie have them fancy graphics behind him?" Give me a break! Be lucky you got several newscasts, you could had none at all for a few days!

 

Moving on, don't forget the entire CBS Broadcast operations in New York was affected meaning DC, Boston, LA & SF was handling everything for a few days including Inside Edition, Last Week Tonight, CBS News and if March Madness was still going on, they would've relocated elsewhere. 

 

Thank you for saying this

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1 hour ago, wabceyewitness said:

Was there any reach out other local stations, networks, production facilities? What about anchoring outside, in the park... literally anywhere?

Every other news op in the country is busy with their own stuff going on. And just anchoring outside just throws people out into public areas in an unneeded manner, putting people at risk for absolutely no gain.

 

We're in an uncertain time where the entire 'virtual set' model is showing so many cracks in the social distancing situation it may have been killed, we're seriously going to have to see so many on-air personalities in different shifts to keep everyone sane, and station groups may even have to en masse regional newscasts together. ESPNU literally showed a still screen for three hours because it's too dangerous for the Dan Le Batard Show to air as normal with everyone massed in a studio (everyone called in via Skype and such), and the CBS Morning News went without graphics. As long as information is being presented, that is priority #1 over not seeing your 'news family' in that close around the big desk for the next few weeks.

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Sorry folks but this is 2020 and this is New York City. The pandemic and its potential consequences did not suddenly sneak up on us. A news organization of all people could have seen for weeks leading up to this what happened in China, South Korea and Italy. A news organization that has been communicating to the public for weeks the CDC warning that daily life may be interrupted. Did they think they were exempt?
 

This day and age, given everything this city and this country has been through, there is no excuse to not have a back up plan to get your team on the air from the city you broadcast in. 
 

I understand needing to miss maybe one or two newscasts to get things together but WCBS does not get a pass on this. 
 

This is not about seeing local faces deliver local news (though that should be the goal), this is about being prepared and having a plan that doesn’t involve farming your work out to stations across the country. 

Edited by wabceyewitness
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So maybe it would be a good idea for WCBS to move out of the CBS Broadcast Center permanently so there is some level of redundancy that CBS News and WCBS can take advantage of?

Edited by ED2
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4 hours ago, wabceyewitness said:

Sorry folks but this is 2020 and this is New York City. The pandemic and its potential consequences did not suddenly sneak up on us. A news organization of all people could have seen for weeks leading up to this what happened in China, South Korea and Italy. A news organization that has been communicating to the public for weeks the CDC warning that daily life may be interrupted. Did they think they were exempt?
 

This day and age, given everything this city and this country has been through, there is no excuse to not have a back up plan to get your team on the air from the city you broadcast in. 
 

I understand needing to miss maybe one or two newscasts to get things together but WCBS does not get a pass on this. 
 

This is not about seeing local faces deliver local news (though that should be the goal), this is about being prepared and having a plan that doesn’t involve farming your work out to stations across the country. 

 

I think the reality is that this is the plan in action. As long as WCBS is able to get something out to their audience, they don't care how its done. Even if that relies on a team 3000 miles away.

Edited by Mrtraveler01
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8 minutes ago, Mrtraveler01 said:

 

I think the reality is that this is the plan in action. As long as WCBS is able to get something out to their audience, they don't care how its done. Even if that relies on a team 3000 miles away.

Would WABC be any different?  Once they move everything will be consolidated unless they send the anchor team to Bristol CT.   NBC has the advantage with different facilities in NJ that have been used as a back up in the past.  Fox5 has FNC as a back up.   At the end of the day, the typical viewer probably did not see much of a difference.  I will say that IMO, I do not like the use of the CBSN NY set, it seems the lighting, camera angle, and sound are off.  On Saturday, it took a couple of minutes for it to even air and I would assume they lost viewers at that point to competition considering the pandemic crisis we are experiencing.  That did not help.

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7 minutes ago, NowBergen said:

Would WABC be any different?  Once they move everything will be consolidated unless they send the anchor team to Bristol CT.   NBC has the advantage with different facilities in NJ that have been used as a back up in the past.  Fox5 has FNC as a back up.   At the end of the day, the typical viewer probably did not see much of a difference.  I will say that IMO, I do not like the use of the CBSN NY set, it seems the lighting, camera angle, and sound are off.  On Saturday, it took a couple of minutes for it to even air and I would assume they lost viewers at that point to competition considering the pandemic crisis we are experiencing.  That did not help.

Same thing during Kristine Johnson's segment on Sunday..  

 

9 minutes ago, NowBergen said:

Would WABC be any different?  Once they move everything will be consolidated unless they send the anchor team to Bristol CT.   NBC has the advantage with different facilities in NJ that have been used as a back up in the past.  Fox5 has FNC as a back up.  

If WCBS didn't do away with their Long Island Bureau studio in Melville, that would of been the biggest difference.

But dispatching work to WBZ, KCBS/KCAL and KPIX was their logic and the easiest way. Again, I really hope in the future that WCBS has something in place within the NYC area with regards to a different studio.  I'm also a bit surprised that they didn't use the CBS Sports studios at Chelsea Piers- I believe is Pier 59... (Someone correct me on this).  I also do know NFL Today is also filmed at the main studio at 57th street.

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They handled everything pretty well. All in all WCBS was able to do newscasts (even if they originated from California), and give their audience information. They average viewer most definately couldn't tell the difference (and couldn't care less) if they were watching news with anchors from CBS 2 or CBS 5. If there's a silver lining to this, it was cool to see how WCBS improvised given the situation and even more interesting to see O&O anchor talent from elsewhere in the country. It could have been worse and a break from the ususal routine now and then is always intresting to see.

Edited by iron_lion
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It could take weeks before the CBS Broadcasting Center in New York City will be fully operated again for real.
 

And besides, WCBS-TV will not move out of the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City, and not moved to the lower part of the borough of Manhattan (where WCBS-AM & WCBS-FM located) for real.

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CBSN NY live feed is back to showing CBS2 newscasts.

Wonder for how long they are only going to use the CBSN NY studio?

 

Update: There is no 12 PM newscast. Inside Edition is on.

 

2020-03-18 (2).png

Edited by IceManNYR
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Iron Lion - the average viewer couldn't tell??? you can be sure anybody still watching traditional broadcast local news is able to tell. Not sure if what went on behind the scenes may have also been FCC Violation, You shouldn't be violating FCC rules to get on air just to catch up with everybody else in your market. it was quite embarrassing

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11 hours ago, IceManNYR said:

CBSN NY live feed is back to showing CBS2 newscasts.

Wonder for how long they are only going to use the CBSN NY studio?

 

Update: There is no 12 PM newscast. Inside Edition is on.

 

2020-03-18 (2).png

Also to add to your update: WBZ is still technically taking over CBSN New York and CBSN. 

 

UPDATE:  Demarco Morgan- KCBS-LA  doing newscasts today 5,6 & 11 this evening for WCBS TV & CBSN New York...

Edited by Spintech33
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