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3 hours ago, Jay Russell said:

I don’t know if someone has brought this up in recent days, but WBBM’s old streetside studio has been stripped but I don’t understand why they have there video board turned of if they don’t even have a tenant.

 

That video screen has been inoperable more than it has been operational (over the years) that there's no point in having it on.

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  • 3 months later...

I noticed that CBS 2 rolled out the weeknight crew for all of the evening newscasts tonight. Not sure if it was mainly motivated by the winter storm or by the NFL game...I'm thinking mainly because of the NFL game. I think everyone else in the market stayed with their usual weekend teams.

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4 hours ago, R.R. said:

So on Wednesday I was watching 10 Minutes of Non-stop News on CBS 2, come to see after that Audrina Bigos was joining the rest of the team at the desk which is super rare

 

So, in the end, she is an actual part of the morning team, as a contributing anchor.

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4 hours ago, 24994J said:

 

So, in the end, she is an actual part of the morning team, as a contributing anchor.

Yeah originally as Breaking News Anchor (Which was a promotion I guess she reconsidered). 

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4 hours ago, 312newswannabe said:

I’m could’ve sworn I saw this posted here earlier, but anyway, the axe swung at 22 W Washington today: 

 

https://www.robertfeder.com/2020/05/27/mass-layoffs-cbs-2-hit-pam-zekman-valued-members-team/

 

The posts were moved to the broader thread regarding the CBS layoffs.

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On 7/10/2020 at 1:31 AM, newsman123 said:

Insiders.. what is life like inside WBBM right now? How are they getting news on the air with all the cuts? Any plans to replace anyone? They were making progress.. then bam 

 

I don't have any insider information, but I can't imagine that things are good over there. Just spent a week at home in Chicago and channel surfed. It's amazing how lackluster the product they're putting out is compared to the other stations. It's just not nearly as polished as the other stations. Extremely disappointing in market #3. 

 

One of the glaring things I found in watching is that Brad Edwards is unlikeable. I don't know who in their right mind though replacing Johnson with him was a good idea. I half expect him to try and sell me a used car at an inflated price. He's not a good anchor, point blank. He doesn't seem invested in what he's doing and comes off at not genuine AT ALL.

 

I don't know exactly what can right the ship over there, or if anything can. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Congrats to Irika Sargent, who is pregnant! But this means her maternity leave will be imminent in the coming weeks/months. Given their cuts to their lineup, I'm assuming Brad would either solo the whole time (probably won't be a good move, in reference to comment above) or maybe have Suzanne (or other) fill-in for Irika? But adding that to her weekend morning shift might be a bit too weird on her schedule unless someone else takes it. When Audrina and Ryan were gone a couple of weeks ago, they had Yasmeen and Chris Tye fill-in during the mornings, and Mugo filled in for Audrina once before as well, but I don't think Yasmeen or Mugo would be moved from weekday mornings for the short time. Given how swift CBS 2 can upend any of their "teams" for what seems like any reason, though, I wouldn't be surprised to see some jarring shift. 

 

In other news, CBS 2 is also hiring a per-diem/freelance meteorologist after laying off Megan Glaros two months ago. Maybe they'll reduce their usage of Tim McGill?

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16 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

In other news, CBS 2 is also hiring a per-diem/freelance meteorologist after laying off Megan Glaros two months ago. Maybe they'll reduce their usage of Tim McGill?

 

Unless Mary Kay is following her husband to Florida.

 

16 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

Congrats to Irika Sargent, who is pregnant! But this means her maternity leave will be imminent in the coming weeks/months. Given their cuts to their lineup, I'm assuming Brad would either solo the whole time (probably won't be a good move, in reference to comment above) or maybe have Suzanne (or other) fill-in for Irika? But adding that to her weekend morning shift might be a bit too weird on her schedule unless someone else takes it. When Audrina and Ryan were gone a couple of weeks ago, they had Yasmeen and Chris Tye fill-in during the mornings, and Mugo filled in for Audrina once before as well, but I don't think Yasmeen or Mugo would be moved from weekday mornings for the short time. Given how swift CBS 2 can upend any of their "teams" for what seems like any reason, though, I wouldn't be surprised to see some jarring shift. 

 

Jim Williams and Brad were paired together for a few nights earlier this spring. It's wasn't the worst dynamic, and nobody burst into flames, despite 2 men co-anchoring.

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2 hours ago, 24994J said:

Jim Williams and Brad were paired together for a few nights earlier this spring. It's wasn't the worst dynamic, and nobody burst into flames, despite 2 men co-anchoring.

I also liked the combination and it'll probably be done, though I feel they'll want to keep him holding down the weekends. I'm feeling Irika's sub could be more like musical chairs since they really don't have that many anchors at their disposal.

 

2 hours ago, 24994J said:

Unless Mary Kay is following her husband to Florida.

I was reading about this on the other thread and thought about how imminent this could be soon as well, and yeah, the hire could be made in anticipation of this happening. Long distance of anything is never easy. Would be sad if Mary Kay left though as that's another "familiar face" leaving CBS 2.

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2 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

In other news, CBS 2 is also hiring a per-diem/freelance meteorologist after laying off Megan Glaros two months ago. Maybe they'll reduce their usage of Tim McGill?


Why not just give the job to Tim given he’s already per-diem? There’s definitely something going on in the weather dept. 

 

They have plenty of people to sub for Irika, so that shouldn’t be an issue. It’s just the matter of deciding between doing musical chairs for 3 months or moving Suzanne, Audrina or even Dana to weeknights for the duration.

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So many see lately Yasmeen has been in the newsroom following the breaking stories, which was originally Audrina's role. I just don't know if it seems right. Since Kennedy and Glaros were laid off, we all know that morning show hasn't been the same. I honestly think Mugo Odigwe would be a better fit for the position.

 

(Screenshot taken from a Nonstop News Segment 7-17-2020)

vlcsnap-2020-07-31-20h32m39s749.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

This is 3 days late, but re: Vince Gerasole leaving, here's the tribute post from CBS 2: https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/08/14/vince-gerasole-signs-off-today-at-cbs-2-here-are-some-of-his-favorite-stories/

Vince also really looked up to Pam Zekman (from being her intern, then being awestruck at actually being able to become her colleague, then setting up an online virtual tribute for her after her unceremonious lay-off) and it almost seems fitting to ride off into the sunset in the same (sort of) time frame. 

 

On 7/31/2020 at 8:36 PM, R.R. said:

Yasmeen has been in the newsroom following the breaking stories

With Erin gone, it's ultimately a smaller morning team, since the breaking news and traffic roles have been combined -- which is a win for the bean counters of course. I also don't think execs want to do away with a traffic anchor in Chi, so ultimately, Yasmeen makes for the best overall morning pseudo-anchor / fill-in anchor they have at the moment without also commanding a large budget (just my speculation), since she's relatively new and still doing traffic like she was at KOVR. For Mugo, I personally think she has potential to move into an anchor chair sometime in the future (maybe weekend mornings if/when Suzanne retires/leaves?) / set for bigger things. 

 

Speaking of "nonstop news," as you referenced, here's a throwback [https://www.newscaststudio.com/2019/03/08/cbs-2-chicago-nonstop-news/] about that segment that really highlights how much turnover there's been at CBS 2 in just ~1.5 years.

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Interesting development in the weather department at CBS 2:

She mentioned that she will tentatively debut on-air in September in a comment. It's a hell of a commute for freelancing, but if she's eventually hired full-time, I do think she's needed more at CBS 2 over CBS 3; what they do with Tim will probably affect that though.

=================================

Something else recently:

Their HOUR 18 newscast (their low-commercial, hard-news-only 6PM newscast) has been tweaked. The original selling point was that they had only one commercial break after 20 minutes of nonstop news (not including any sports stories) and then one quick weather overview after the break, but they've recently bisected the 20-minute period and now have two breaks (hmm convenient ad dollars) and added at least one sports-oriented story. Guess the intense hard-news format wasn't working out as well as they'd hoped? Not sure if this new format is permanent.

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