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The Definitive ABC 7 Thread


24994J

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So, after seeing it like half a dozen times in a few days, I just realized that Bill Ratner is voicing a new morning show promo. It's far more tradtional; anchors on the set, doin' their thang, 'bout as far from '7 in the Morning' as you can get. I have a feeling they might be going back to a more authoritative voice for the news division. I don't think they should dump Roger Rose, though. He's been at the station long enough that he's familiar, and he thrives at the lighter-toned work. As for the serious stuff, I've never been a big fan. But, we shall see...

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They started airing that promo on Friday during Wheel. I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch until I hear more of Rose's VO, which August is roughly a vacation month. Bill Ratner is no doubt a very familiar, well known voice over. He also not one of the younger VO like these Johnny-come-lately ones that they just tell you to "read this" and that's it. But he highly reminds me of the days when he VO'd promos at sister-station KABC. I'm not sure if he continues to VO. I think he only did promos while the now late Chuck Riley did the opens. Now its Charlie Van Dyke and there's a lady by the name of Virginia Hamilton that do the station programming promos. He's is way better than Roger Rose. But I still would feel better if I hear Ron Rolland again. I seriously don't think that will happen anytime soon. I don't think of him as being Channel 2's VO (which he was for over a decade). The only issue I have about Ratner is that he's overused, not only at stations, but in several movie trailers, and several food & automobile advertisements. You here him everywhere. Just tonight before the 10pm news, I heard him from that car commercial.

 

I think in September 2011, Rose had laryngitis, and some younger VO that typically does promos for "The Chew", he filled in for Rose on Windy City Live, and Roger Thompson did the news promos for a little bit. So even though Ratner did promos for the last two weeks, I still think he's filling in for Rose. Now if they are deciding to use Ratner more on the news side, I wish he could VO the new opens, should they change the opens up. And if they are pursuing Ratner for the news and want to keep Rose, he could be the secondary voice for promos, sponsor plugs and keep voicing Windy City Live.

 

Speaking of Thompson, I haven't heard a lot of his VOs in recent days/weeks. I'm not too sure if they'd pulled the plug on him or not. He voiced the "Windy City Live's Pillow Talk segment" promo. But within the last two weeks, they had replaced Thompson's voice for Rose's voice on that specific promo. And ever since Windy City Live returned doing live shows on Thursday, they didn't include Rose's opening VO, assuming that they might've still been on vacation or something. So I don't think this is a foregone conclusion. So hopefully if we hear Rose's VO again, and we continue to hear more of Ratner, I'm hoping we'll see which VO do which show/promo, etc.. And besides, we have one more week of the 11am news. Anything could happen either within this week or after Friday, leading into next Monday's daytime programming change. And you know those network suits in New York are celebrating. But I don't think the locals here are feeling that same vibe. It will be sad to see the station from being the last O&O to air LIVE! at 9am to becoming the only O&O without having a midday newscast.

 

Unrelated to this, I wished they can get rid of that Katie Couric repeat at 1:07am and reinstate the 10pm rebroadcast. I don't think Couric has enough numbers on its main airing to deserve a late night repeat. Let it air on late night, only if there's a pre-emption like a breaking news story or a college football game that airs during the holidays.

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I was wondering during the early evening shows tonight, when are they going to changed those logos.

 

They haven't updated the morning show's Facebook pic, but there hasn't been any activity on it since early June.

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what-really-grinds-my-gears.jpg

 

You know what really grinds my gears?

 

In one way or another, WLS is currently using 5, yes FIVE variations of their logo. These include...

1. 5ecf7bbc-744f-4308-b0ae-02e34a9595b1_zps5824dadd.jpg?t=1377814084 2. 120px-WLS-TV_ABC7_Chicago.png 3. 120px-Wls.png 4. 120px-Wls.png 5. 120px-WLS-TV_2013.png

 

Now yes, I can forgive #1 and especially #4, seeing as #5 (the newest iteration) has only been in place about a week, but why on God's green Earth are #2 and #3 still around. 3 was never really legit, as it only popped up a few times in promos in like 2009/10, but it still shows up from time to time. Now, many will recall that WABC had this same problem up until a year or two ago, but even then they only had like three variations of the ole' Circle 7. I guess this is the reason that I'm so prepared for new graphics on WLS, as that would probably clear this mess up once and for all.

 

:rant:

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What I'm shocked was last week, when they finally change the bug to the new ABC logo (#5), just a day prior, they replaced the 2007 (#4) design for the current design on the show franchises, and their online graphic. I'm shocked that they've done that quickly. As of now I still see the 1998 (#2) logo in their new weather graphics. I strongly thought they would've done that by now.

 

Should WLS does change their graphics, I hope they don't use any animated lower thirds, like many of these other O&Os. Some of those new graphic elements, like those pop-up transitional gfx shots during news reports are exceeding distracting.

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Okay, I couldn't help it, I cried at Linda's closing remarks on the 11am news today. She is the absolute best.

 

Yeah, after viewing Linda's 11am sign-off, to me, it was nothing short of an emotional and poignant moment. But I can help it but mentioning this. It would've been more lovely if Sylvia was there with Linda on this final day of the 11am show today. Very Sad.

 

Any station that drops a newscast, despite being one of their low-rated news shows on the weekday, it's sad nevertherless, because to me there's a strong need for it even at midday. These two four-minute local news inserts that will occur during the Windy City Live, wouldn't feel the same way as a successfully full-blown hourly midday news program. I wouldn't be shocked if the other four would see a ratings boost on their midday shows come Monday and the weeks ahead.

 

So we will see how this all pans out. And who knows, should WCL tanks on this new timeslot, we'll probably see the midday news return. But as of now and from here on out, we're in pre-1993 all over again.

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Yeah, after viewing Linda's 11am sign-off, to me, it was nothing short of an emotional and poignant moment. But I can help it but mentioning this. It would've been more lovely if Sylvia was there with Linda on this final day of the 11am show today. Very Sad.

 

Any station that drops a newscast, despite being one of their low-rated news shows on the weekday, it's sad nevertherless, because to me there's a strong need for it even at midday. These two four-minute local news inserts that will occur during the Windy City Live, wouldn't feel the same way as a successfully full-blown hourly midday news program. I wouldn't be shocked if the other four would see a ratings boost on their midday shows come Monday and the weeks ahead.

 

So we will see how this all pans out. And who knows, should WCL tanks on this new timeslot, we'll probably see the midday news return. But as of now and from here on out, we're in pre-1993 all over again.

 

I cannot believe this is the end of the 11:00am newscasts from ABC7 News. I find it illegitimate, because when it comes to the Nielsen ratings, I think that CBS2 or WGN News may be #1 in midday news at the 11:00am time slot, sometime in the future. I think Sylvia and Linda may report the news when Windy City Live go into commercial breaks, so we will see if any breaking news stories may occur during the midday...
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I cannot believe this is the end of the 11:00am newscasts from ABC7 News. I think Sylvia and Linda may report the news when Windy City Live go into commercial breaks, so we will see if any breaking news stories may occur during the midday...

 

Sylvia is not coming back, as she was released back in June. I stated I wished she would be their for the last day because obviously they both were there since day one of their midday news. They were basically the only anchor pair for this newscast, for that whole entire run.

 

And on the remark's Linda made, she stated Jerry started. But she forgot to mention Mike Caplan did the weather on a good chunk of the early 11:30am days, before Tracy replaced him. But nevertheless, it's sad to see their midday show go.

 

And because of this, this should be open season for the four other stations, to promote its midday news. Especially Channel 9 which will have a new 9am show on Tuesday (they will have a Best of WGN Morning News show this Monday 9am, acc. to their guide) and their 11am.

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I honestly don't think we have much to worry about. Ratings will probably not be as good as ABC 7 News at 11am and WCL will probably be shortened to 30min or cut for the news eventually.

 

With how the format WCL is, it would be highly difficult and to me, it would be completely stupid to truncate that format from an hour, to 30 minutes. I don't see that happen, should it ever be the case. Dumbo Idler (That's what I said) decided to keep WCL in lieu of the 11am news. So we'll see if this change either helps or hurt in the ratings.

 

Like I stated before, this should be an opportune time for the other stations to promote their midday news like a hawk. WGN should be promoting crazy since they'll be all local at 9am.

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I just saw this minutes ago. In fact about it, this was THE first time the station had aired the LIVE promo.

 

So they never got the "Hey Chicago! Live is moving to ABC 7..." promo? I ask because KGTV got one saying "Hey San Diego! Live is coming to ABC 10, Monday Sept. 2" and then there was another one where Kelly and Michael have several boxes and then explain that they are moving to ABC 10. Cheesy promos, but it gets the point across.
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So they never got the "Hey Chicago! Live is moving to ABC 7..." promo? I ask because KGTV got one saying "Hey San Diego! Live is coming to ABC 10, Monday Sept. 2" and then there was another one where Kelly and Michael have several boxes and then explain that they are moving to ABC 10. Cheesy promos, but it gets the point across.

 

No, I meant a promo of an upcoming LIVE episode on this station, thus showing the graphic above. They've be promoting the move since early August. August 5th to be exact. They even had the hosts of Windy City Live going to NYC to do the promos with the LIVE hosts, since WCL is moving to 11am as well. My apologies for not elaborating.

 

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Unfortunate to see a long-running newscast come to an end, but really glad to see WCL stick around. I know we're news fans here but there's a real shortage of local non-news programming everywhere. At most stations news is the only local programming there is. So if that means a midday show has to go, I'd make the same call.

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Lazare posted on Friday that WCL's ratings in August did slip. The show cited that most of the shows were on repeats that month.

 

Tomorrow will be a very interesting day. First time in more than a decade Live returns to Channel 7, but the very first time to hit that lucrative 9am timeslot.

 

Very awkward for the transition to happen on Labor Day. Kinda ruins the moment.
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Very awkward for the transition to happen on Labor Day. Kinda ruins the moment.

Remember, it all has to do with the fact that K&M has their premiere tomorrow, which in and of itself is kinda odd. As we'll all recall, the programming changes were going to take effect on the 9th, until the premiere was announced for the 2nd.

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My review of 'ABC 7 To Go' is forthcoming...

 

Updated (1:30 PM CT): The webcast starts with a simple open, using the EWN cut featured in the 5pm promo.

Picture1_zpse682ab1c.jpg

 

Alan Krashesky starts the broadcast, promptly tossing to the first field report. Today's report was pre-recorded, but I'm guessing that may not always be the case, seeing as the story today wasn't an urgent, still-developing issue. The video quality throughout the update is spectacular, the same consistent quality that is seen on the live stream of traditional newscasts.

Picture2_zps4112f458.jpg?t=1378143667

 

But it still isn't perfect...

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After another few stories, Krash throws it to Mike Caplan (live) in the upstairs weather studio. The fantastic video quality is even more noticeable when the weather graphics are featured.

Picture4_zps7dedab02.jpg?t=1378143643Picture5_zpsa35dbb22.jpg?t=1378143693

 

Apparently Alan didn't have a chance to pop in the make-up chair before they went live...

Picture7_zpsa37174bd.jpg?t=1378143822

 

After a few more stories, most of which were lighter (though not fluff), Alan previews today's 'Katie' and 4pm news. The show closes with a list of what's trending in Chicago right now. Kinda pointless, but the (former) 11am bumper cut of NS2K+ is used as a closing theme, so it's worth it.

Picture8_zps1bb379cb.jpg?t=1378143792

 

'ABC 7 To Go' certainly has promise. It was fairly well-executed, but that's probably because Alan has been doing a midday web brief like this for a few years. The new webcast clocked in at about 12 minutes, which falls into the 10-15 minute range that was promised. I think it has a chance, I know I'll check it out regularly. It was fast-paced and concise, but not at all rushed. Most stories were brief, for sure, but I didn't feel like I missed much. Something like this would not work on-air, but it is perfect as a companion to their website, and I think that's what makes it successful.

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The video quality throughout the update is spectacular, the same consistent quality that is seen on the live stream of traditional newscasts.

Actually I'd go a bit further than that. ABC's online streaming platform, especially in the last few years, is more robust than most other groups. (Presumably this has something to do with the WATCH ABC platform.) I'd actually put the ABC and NBC streams at the top of the list as far as quality and accessibility go.
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