Jump to content

Out & About


TexasTVNews

Recommended Posts

Joining the wave of sudden resurgence in anchor reshuffling across basically "everywhere", the latest comes out from WBZ in Boston:

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/08/20/wbz-anchor-changes-liam-martin-anaridis-rodriguez/

  • Liam Martin, 5:30 & 10PM anchor, will be moving to mornings to replace Chris McKinnon, who was laid off in May.
    • First off, they really do need a co-anchor there; I like Kate but the rapport between Kate and Chris was hard to beat and honestly irreplaceable, so they really needed some rejuvenating once Chris was laid off because it was getting a little stale. I don't know if Kate and Liam have worked together much so it'll probably take some time to build the chemistry there. I really thought they would actually keep Liam where he was for the long haul, but neither David nor Lisa struck me as nearing retirement by any means either (Paula's probably more likely to be the next one to move up), so...yeah, I wasn't too sure how they'd promote him any further in the coming years. But honestly, what I really expected WBZ to do was actually stick Breana in the morning anchor chair permanently based on her filling-in, so I'm actually surprised by this move. 
  • Anaridis Rodriguez, reporter and occasional fill-in anchor, will take Liam's old spots.

Somewhat related in the interest of anchor reshuffling is this KCAL promo that's been airing for some time now, which basically confirms/highlights essentially a no-brainer ("and now, the return of Pat Harvey") now that they have less anchor teams overall --> https://twitter.com/NewsJuan/status/1294040729300344832

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some recent promotions from local to national:

  • WXIA has sent off two of its reporters to ABC News: Elwyn Lopez to the Atlanta bureau [1] and Faith Abubey to the DC bureau. [2] 
    • Clearly WXIA is garnering the right eyeballs at the nets, despite its not-so-good ratings. [3] A subjective observation, but I feel like ABC News has really expanded its roster of correspondents overall much more lately when compared with NBC and CBS. Might just be me paying closer attention to ABC these past few months, or that they are really hiring more, but it only does them good to have more talent going forward.
  • WRC's Meagan Fitzgerald, weekend morning anchor, is heading to NBC's Chicago bureau. [4]
    • A bit about her recent history is (IIRC) she was promoted in early-2019 in the wake of Angie Goff's departure from News4 and made headlines for announcing her engagement to her girlfriend on-air in June 2019. I'm kind of curious to see who they'll tap to replace Meagan in the chair - 'twas a really short time for her as anchor.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/20/2020 at 2:59 PM, who?cares said:


WTHR is getting more TEGNA-y

With them fitting in to the TEGNA mode (with matching color set to each newscast and now a weeknight mini-newsmagazine at 11p), 'THR has really changed from the era of Paul Udell and the crew....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

I guess it didn't take that long to find Allison Seymour's replacement.

 

Former WAGA Atlanta Anchor Melissa Mitchell is heading to the sister station WTTG in DC as a morning anchor.

Well, Marissa left WAGA in February so I think this could give some credence to the possibility that Allison was basically already on her way out, but I'm still unsure as to why she was then unceremoniously booted off, assuming this was the timeline of events. Still sad for Allison, but I wish Marissa well at WTTG.

----------------

In other news, Jacob Wycoff, meteorologist at WGGB and freelance at WBZ, has now announced he is officially joining WBZ full-time, which shocks no one, considering his on-air time had sort of grown lately. He's supposed to fill in the void left by the now-retired Barry Burbank, but I kind of see him as a Todd Gutner (now at WCSH). 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/24/2020 at 5:39 PM, CircleSeven said:

I guess it didn't take that long to find Allison Seymour's replacement.

 

Former WAGA Atlanta Anchor Melissa Mitchell is heading to the sister station WTTG in DC as a morning anchor.

 

 

Well the upside is she'll likely get to use the "fox5" handle on her social media accounts, likely the same retirement benefits

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After losing her baby in May, Allison Latos of WSOC found out after a viewer email she had thyroid cancer, I meant to post about this earlier. 
 

https://www.wfae.org/post/charlotte-reporter-experiences-sickness-and-loss-also-hope-and-joy?fbclid=IwAR10Gu_tsrxAgwfm8rB2F-AnnErjswGXL_yz8oNOUM37q_ELPyxAey-SAXs#stream/0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Bsean said:

Looks like KFMB is getting back in the 4p news game. Without having looked into it, seems like they dropped Judge Judy, since that was her slot. It will be fronted by the 5 o'clock team.

PXL_20200828_081111515.jpg

They were originally going to have a 4pm newscast when they acquired the CW affiliation but that never came to fruition. I'm curious to see what kind of format this show will take, and if they're going to start using the CBS 8 logo more instead of the NEWS 8 logo.

 

Seems like they also dropped the 4:30am newscast, i'm sure it was to accommodate the noon newscast.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, Superdude said:

Old news but I just learned this now that KDKA-TV revamped their morning news as 'Your Day Pittsburgh' from 4:30-7am.

Interesting. I didn't think KDKA was one to try something like this! I hope it works out for them because their morning news has always been #3. It's so stale.

I don't know how I missed this, but in late May, KDKA let go of Rick Dayton AND Susan Koeppen. Wow. 

I wonder if this, along with other changes, will hurt their ratings. Could this be the start of the end?

 

Edited by jbnews
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

WCPO is temporarily expanding it's 7pm newscast.

Quote

 

In a Cincinnati TV first, WCPO-TV will broadcast one hour of local news at 7 p.m. weekdays starting Tuesday, Sept. 8.

The expansion of the existing 7 p.m. newscast is temporary for fall. The additional local programming will give Channel 9 more commercial time to sell for political or other advertising through Election Day, Nov. 3.

It will be programmed as two half hours, with Kristyn Hartman and meteorologist Steve Raleigh at 7 p.m., and Craig McKee and Steve at 7:30 p.m.

The List, seen at 7:30 p.m., will return in November.

Channel 9 also will temporarily double the length of its 11 p.m. Sunday night newscast to an hour on Sept. 6. “Sports Of All Sorts” will be bumped to midnight.

"We’ve decided to temporarily add two half-hour newscasts to our schedule in the coming weeks because of the amount of news happening locally and nationally, including the election and because of the demand on our TV commercial inventory,” said Jeff Brogan, vice president and general manager for WCPO. "These newscasts will feature news of the day and weather as well as special coverage around the election."

"The audience is gravitating to us to find out what’s going on in the late evening hours. In July, WCPO 9 News at 7 p.m. captured No. 1 in the key demographic of adults (ages) 25-54 and women 25-54, beating syndicated shows that have been on TV for years," he says, referring to “Wheel Of Fortune”, “Inside Edition” and “Access Hollywood.”

David Muir's “ABC World News Tonight” also "was No. 1 in those demos at 6:30 p.m., and our 6 p.m. was No. 1 with adults 25-54. Our team has done an excellent job of not only covering the day’s news but breaking down how it impacts people in our area," said Jeff.

For 40 years, Cincinnati stations have broadcast half-hour newscasts at 7 p.m. weekdays, but never a full hour on a regular basis.

Channel 9 did the first 7 p.m. news in 1979 with anchor Jon Esther. It had been canceled by 1987. Kristyn Hartman has anchored Channel 9's 7 p.m. newscast since joining the station on April 10, 2017

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Today marks the 24th anniversary of the launch of ABC 33/40 in Birmingham. 

At the time, it was a merger of WCFT TV-33 in Tuscaloosa and WJSU TV-40 in Anniston, coupled with a low-powered station in Birmingham, WBMA-LP.  This also merged the two markets into Birmingham, and eventually made WBMG (now WIAT) the sole CBS affiliate for the now-combined market.  WNAL was supposed to be the "second" station, but that went to WJSU instead....they served as the CBS affiliate for the remaining tenure of Anniston-Gadsden's time as a separate market.

 

Allbritton would continue to run the stations until their merger with Sinclair.  "33" and "40" were sold off to Howard Stirk at the last second after Sinclair tried some antics to "own" them outright, but decided to give up the licenses unless a buyer was found.  Today, the station is avaiable on WBMA-LD, WABM-DT2, WDBB-DT2, and is still simulcast on Stirk-owned WGWW-DT2 (the former WJSU or "40")

 

Several staff members are still there today, including anchor Brenda Ladun, and of course, the venerable James Spann who had departed WBRC for their switch to Fox as part of this launch.

 

Edited by tyrannical bastard
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, PNart2 said:

10 years ago I would’ve said there’s no way WFSB will ever fall from the top...now WTNH seems to be the next leader in CT news

 

I think you'll see a horse race market a la Albany with no clear dominant station. It also wonders whose decision this was: If Meredith wanted him out, they shot themselves in the knee. If Dennis wanted out, it was another bad wound for a station already taking wounds. 

 

Oh, the station also has no male bench. Mark Zinni's a great guy but he can't do everything.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, newsman123 said:

had to be money related. Meredith has been forcing pay cuts, and either they didnt renew him, or he balked at a cut. 
 

nexstar is throwing money at their stations right now. WTNH should pick him up. 

 

I would buy the didn't renew part, especially considering that the way he spoke about WFSB was akin to that of being family, a fact compounded by the fact he met his wife there. Not only is she still on the payroll, her show in Better Connecticut returns in two weeks after six months of COVID-hiatus.

 

Another thing to consider: Dennis' heart possibly hasn't been in anchoring since Denise's very sudden passing and the logical solution (Dennis/Kara as a pairing, it's COVID proof!) just couldn't work between Better taping at 10:00 AM and their having two kids at home. I don't think he heads back to TV this soon, I could see politics, I could see something else in the media, I could even see him helping out Denise's husband and daughter with the nonprofit they set up in her memory. 

 

This picture was on Dennis' Instagram story earlier today and very similar one was on Kara's. At first thought it comes off about the new month and their son's birthday being today. In hindsight, it seems like an omen.

 

Screenshot_20200901-221307_Instagram.jpg

Edited by scrabbleship
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using TVNewsTalk you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.