Jump to content

Out & About


TexasTVNews

Recommended Posts

John Taizo Braden, a weekday morning traffic reporter for "Hawaii News Now" (the joint news division involving Honolulu's CBS affiliate KGMB, MyNetworkTV affiliate KFVE and NBC affiliate KHNL), was arrested and cited for abuse of an undisclosed member of his household. The 32-year-old, who started in the sales department of KGMB in 2006, was arrested at Queen's Counseling Services on Nuuanu Avenue at 2:10 p.m. Friday for investigation of abuse of a family or household member, a misdemeanor that carries a sentence of up to one year in jail. Braden posted $1,000 bail and was released at 4:35 that same afternoon, and he is scheduled to appear in Family Court on September 30.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hearst Television's NBC affiliate in Baltimore, WBAL, is adding an extension of its morning newscast starting on October 3. The 7-8 a.m. newscast however, will not be seen on WBAL's main channel itself, but on WBAL Plus (its digital subchannel on channel 11.2). The additional hour of the newscast will compete against NBC's "Today" on WBAL 11.1 as well as the third hour of the morning newscast on Fox affiliate WBFF.

 

A "whoops" moment occurred in Batimore Tuesday night when CBS O&O WJZ-TV's 11 p.m. newscast was accidentally replaced with the "CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley", which 'JZ normally airs at 7 p.m. (a half-hour later than most CBS stations on the East Coast). CBS' national newscast aired for seven minutes before the problem was corrected (this also gave away the fact that CBS reairs the "Evening News" on its wild feed at 11 p.m. ET while its affiliates carry the late local news, or for the few CBS affiliates that don't carry news, syndicated programming). A spokesperson for WJZ, K.C. Robertson, explained the reason for the blunder in an email to the "Baltimore Sun":

“The station’s main production switcher experienced a critical failure late Tuesday evening. The equipment failure prevented the news broadcast from starting on time at 11 p.m.  Between 11 p.m. and approximately 11:07 p.m. WJZ aired a repeat of the 'CBS Evening News'. Technical personnel responded quickly and were able to repair the problem.  WJZ’s local news began just before 11:08 p.m."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tribune's Hartford Fox affiliate WTIC is making a couple more changes to its news programming. The station is adding an additional hour to its weekday morning newscast beginning this Monday, September 26, extending the newscast to 4:30 to 10 a.m. In addition, chief meteorologist Rachel Frank will be subbing in for morning anchor Rachel Lutzker during the 8-10 a.m. portion of the newscast, as Lutzker is going on maternity leave (Frank will continue to do weather forecasts for the 4 p.m. news, while Geoff Fox will temporarily take over her duties at 10 p.m.).

 

Mayra Moreno, formerly a multimedia journalist at Tribune's CW affiliate KIAH in Houston, has accepted a job as a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor at Belo's CBS affiliate KENS in San Antonio; Moreno leaves KIAH on October 7. Houston-born Moreno joined KIAH in October 2009 as one of the station's first multimedia journalists prior to the station's adoption of the "NewsFix" format, though she has recently appeared as a fill-in on KIAH's morning program "EyeOpener". After graduating from the University of Houston, she went on to work for a Houston-area radio station covering political and social issues affecting the Hispanic community. She also served as a correspondent/host for the program "Houston Airports Today", before spending two years as a reporter and associate producer for ABC affiliate KRGV in Brownsville before returning to her hometown.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Providence, Rhode Island, Barbara Morse Silva will become co-anchor of the weekday morning 5-7 a.m. newscast ("NBC 10 Sunrise") on Media General's NBC affiliate WJAR-TV starting this Monday morning, September 26. Morse Silva joined WJAR in June 1995 as a health reporter of the "Health Check 10" segments; since 2008, she has been the anchor of the station's weekend evening newscasts. Before joining the station, Morse Silva had worked as a reporter for area ABC affiliate WLNE, as well as a weekend reporter at CBS affiliate WISH-TV in Indianapolis; an anchor/reporter at now-CW affiliate WLVI-TV in Boston; and general assignment reporting jobs at now-NBC affiliate WAND-TV in Springfield, Illinois, and CBS affiliate KOLD-TV in Tucson.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bob MacKenzie, a longtime reporter for Cox's Fox affiliate KTVU in the San Francisco Bay Area, died Thursday at age 75 of cancer at his home in Antioch, California. McKenzie worked at the station for 32 years from 1978 to 2010. He is survived by his wife, a daughter, a brother who works as KTVU's chief news photographer, and two grandchildren.

 

Story: http://www.sfgate.co.../BAUN1L86IJ.DTL

 

The Georgia estate of Martin Luther King Jr. has filed a lawsuit against Howard Ballou, anchor at Raycom Media's NBC affiliate WLBT in Jackson, Mississippi, demanding that Ballou give up some of the slain civil rights leader's historic documents and other items, including photographs and transcripts valued at more than $75,000.

 

Story: http://www.clarionle...-TV-news-ancho

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WFAA-TV longtimer Debbie Denmon files a lawsuit against her station. Ms Denmon, who is currently a weekend PM anchor, claims that Belo's flagship station passed her up for a weeknight anchor position in favor of a much skinner Shelly Slater.

 

WFAA8 anchor-reporter Debbie Denmon, dissatisfied with her treatment by management, has filed a discrimination suit against the Dallas-based station.

 

Multiple informed sources, both outside and inside WFAA8, have confirmed that Denmon's complaint is not primarily on the basis of age, sex or gender. She instead contends that her weight is being held against her, specifically in regards to landing a weekday anchor position.

 

Denmon, who joined WFAA8 in October 2000 according to her station bio, has anchored weekend evening and late night newscasts since February 2010. Attempts to reach her for comment have been unsuccessful in the past week. She continues to work at the station. WFAA8 president and general manager Mike Devlin and news director Michael Valentine also have not answered emails requesting a statement from the station. Plainly put, no one at the station will talk on the record.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Items >> WFAA's Chris Flanagan leaving for WEWS in Cleveland - possibly as a weeknight anchor. And TXA 21 News: First In Prime will be no more after sometime next month. Details at Uncle Barky.

 

A] I wish Chris well in Cleveland. And B] Although I understand why they're canning the newscast (ratings are what pays the rent and, well, we've just lost that lovin' feeling...), I still don't have to like it. During times where the situation demanded that news take precedence over entertainment programming - such as times of severe weather in the area (the tornados that have seemed to plague the area right during the prime-time hours in recent years) or breaking news (the Fort Hood shooting, etc.), it was nice to turn on something that wasn't American Idol, or Two And A Half Men, or Dancing With The Stars. And I will miss that about First In Prime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Remember a while back when I posted WDSU was running promos touting that they are "Louisiana's NEW News Leader" even though the numbers didn't back it up?

 

The T-P's Dave Walker has written a story about it...and broke down the July numbers.

 

http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2011/09/wdsu_promo_sparks_debate_over.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starting Monday, October 3rd, WWBT's NBC12 News Today will expand to 4:30am. WWBT is the third station in Richmond to join the 4:30am bandwagon. Here's a link to a funny video promoting the launch featuring the station's weekday morning meteorologist Andrew Freiden.

http://youtu.be/t-ETGtIb8No

 

 

Let's go to another Channel 12, WSFA in Montgomery where meteorologist Dan Atkinson is retiring after 40 years. He first worked at the station from 1974-1982 and then moved to Atlanta (WSB and The Weather Channel). He returned to WSFA in 2006. His last day will be this Sunday, October 2nd. I remember watching him on TWC years ago. We at TVNT wish Dan a happy retirement.

 

http://www.wsfa.com/...in-broadcasting

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WJCL/WTGS here in Savannah, GA has moved in with The Savannah Morning News. Along with the much larger newsroom and building, comes a new (unique/ugly) set... You can catch a quick glimpse of the new studio in a video on their site: http://tinyurl.com/3kraau3

 

The new look debuts Monday at 6.

 

They canceled their weekend newscasts and Monday morning for the move?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WKRN-TV in Nashville is reviving its weekend morning newscasts beginning this Saturday (10/8) with Lauren Murphy, who was recently a reporter at KVVU-TV in Las Vegas, anchoring the new program. The last time WKRN had morning news on the weekends was in 2004, only to be cancelled a few years later. Hopefully their second try will be better than the first one.

 

EDIT: The new weekend morning newscasts on WKRN have apparently been pushed back to next weekend (10/15), likely in tandem with the launch of HD newscasts in the coming week at the station.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Longtime Cincinatti sportscaster Walt Maher died Thursday morning in Drake Center at age 81. Maher was the dean of Cincinatti-area sports, when he retired from CBS affiliate WKRC-TV in 1997. Maher began in radio at a station in his hometown of Maysville, Kentucky, before coming to Cincinatti's WCPO-AM in 1960, and eventually became a fill-in sports and news anchor for WCPO-AM's former sister station WCPO-TV. In the early 1970s, Maher's Saturday evening newscasts on WCPO-TV, often drew more viewers than Al Schottelkotte’s weeknight newscasts on the station, according to former WCPO-TV and "Cincinatti Enquirer" editor Jim Delaney. Maher moved to WKRC-TV as a sports anchor in 1978, where he also moonlighted as the coach of the station's charity basketball team (known as the "Who-Dos"). TVNewsTalk extends our condolences to Maher's family.

 

Also from Ohio (in much lighter news), Chris Van Vliet, the entertainment reporter for Raycom Media’s Cleveland CBS affiliate WOIO, has been chosen by "Cosmopolitan" magazine to represent Ohio for its annual bachelor search. Van Vliet will appear in the women's magazine's November issue (which will be released on newsstands October 11), and will compete against other eligible bachelors from other states and Washington, D.C. Readers can go online at cosmopolitan.com/bachelors-2011 to vote for Van Vliet through October 16. Ten bachelors will be named semifinalists, and a panel of editors for the magazine will award one as Bachelor of the Year with a $10,000 prize, that Van Vliet says he will donate to charity if he wins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nexstar Broadcasting's NBC affiliate KARK-TV has hired a neww chief meteoroloogist to replaced resigned and embattled former chief meteorlogist Brett Cummins (who left the Little Rock, Arkansas station on September 9, after he was found earlier that week in a hot tub with the dead body of 24-year-old Dexter Williams; an autopsy has since ruled the cause of Williams' death to be due to asphyxiation and drugs that were found in Williams' system). Keith Monahan, formerly a meteorologist for 11 years at Tribune Broadcasting's Houston CW affiliate KIAH (prior to the adoption of its "NewsFix" format), will start at the station Monday starting with the 5 p.m. newscast.

 

Meanwhile, the overhaul of the weather department at WTSP in Tampa continues as Chris Suchan is leaving the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate to become the new chief meteorologist at Meredith Corporation's Kansas City CBS/MyNetworkTV duopoly KCTV/KSMO. His last broadcast on WTSP will be with tonight's (Friday's) 11 p.m. newscast, and he will join KCTV the week of October 24. He replaces Katie Horner, who left the station over the summer after 16 years at the station. WTSP has seen three meteorologists (Anna Allen, Randy Rauch and Stephanie Roberts) leave the station over the past year. WTSP's most recent weather hire, new chief meteorologist Jim Van Fleet, will not join the station until his contract with Orlando's Fox O&O WOFL ends late in November (Van Fleet would start at WTSP on or around December 1) or the station finds someone to replace him before then. The game of meteorlogist musical chairs has also seen Florida natives Mark Collins and Kate Wentzel join the station's weather department in September, and Sherry Ray Hughes leave that same month to join her husband in Ohio (where she took a job as meteorolgist/reporter at Cincinatti's WCPO).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In addition to the aforementioned addition of former KIAH meteorologist Keith Monahan, Nexstar Broadcasting's Little Rock NBC affiliate KARK-TV is also shuffling its weeknight anchor lineup. Starting Monday, Jessica Dean will move from weekend evening anchor to co-anchor of the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts alongside Bob Clausen. Melissa Simas, will no longer anchor at 6 and 10 p.m. but will continue to anchor the 5 p.m. newscast and serve as a reporter for the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts. Current general assignment reporter Lauren Trager is also being promoted, taking Simas' place as weekend evening anchor, starting next Saturday (October 15).

 

Also from the Little Rock area, Chris Kane, weekend sports anchor at Allbritton's ABC affiliate KATV, is being moved from sports to news as co-anchor of the station's weekday morning newscast "Channel 7 News Daybreak" (alongside meteorologist Melinda Mayo and co-anchor Alyson Courtney) effective next week. Kane replaces meteorologist/"Daybreak" co-host Barry Brandt, who will be moving to the weeknight newscasts.

 

CBS affliliate KOLD in Tucson has brought in freelance weathercaster Troy Barrett to do the weather forecasts for the weeknight newscasts. Station chief meteorologist Chuck George has been absent from the Raycom Media-owned station since mid-September, when he appeared to be slow and rambling on one of the evening newscasts, and on the same day, tweeted a string of bizarre messages. The station announced the following day that George would go on a leave of absence for six weeks. Barrett most recently worked as a weather and news anchor for Fisher Communications' CBS affiliate KIMA in Yakima, Washington. He has also previously worked as a weather anchor at three different ABC affiiates: Scripps' KNXV in Phoenix, Chambers Communications' KDRV in Medford, Oregon and News-Press & Gazette's KVIA in El Paso.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Charlie Bagley, a former meteorologist at Meredith Corporation's Hartford station WFSB, passed away over the weekend at his home in Stafford Springs, Connecticut at the age of 82. A 23-year veteran at the CBS affiliate until his retirement in the mid-1990s, dating back to when the station's callsign was WTIC (a callsign now belonging to Tribune Broadcasting's Fox affiliate in the same market), and also had worked for former sister station WTIC radio.

 

Joanne Feldman is moving from the weekend shift on Fox O&O WAGA in Atlanta to weekday mornings according to the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution", she will be replacing Jeff Hill as meteorologist for "Good Day Atlanta", the station's 4:30-10 a.m. newscast. Hill will contribute as a meteorologist to the noon, 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts on weekdays, and weekend evenings at 6 and 10 p.m. No word from the station on why the change occurred.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

JW Broadcasting’s ABC affiliate KMIZ in the Columbia-Jefferson City, Missouri market debuted a half-hour newscast at 6:30 p.m. on Monday night, the first such 6:30 p.m. newscast in the market. Meredith Hoenes, formerly of Fox affiliate WDAF-TV and independent station KMCI in Kansas City, who began her career as an anchored at local University of Missouri-owned NBC affiliate KOMU from 1999 to 2002, anchors the newscast and will also serve as anchor for the station's 10 p.m. newscast and the 9 p.m. newscast on Fox affiliate KQFX-LD alongside Ryan Tate. The newscast also served as the launchpad for the station's conversion to high definition newscasts (the 9 p.m. newscast on co-owned KQFX-LD is also affected by the change), which include a new graphics package from Eaton Design. In addition, KMIZ has also opened a news bureau in the state capitol of Jefferson City.

 

Linda Hurtado, anchor at E.W. Scripps-owned WFTS in Tampa, has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer and is scheduled to have a double mastectomy operation (the surgical removal of breast tissue) today, she will be on medical leave from the ABC affiliate for five weeks. Hurtado, whose mother died from breast cancer in 1995 (the same year she joined the station as its news department began following WFTS' conversion from Fox to ABC affiliation), announced the news on-air yesterday:

Tonight I have some very personal news to share with you. I have spent my whole adult life in fear of getting breast cancer. I watched the disease ravage my beautiful mother. So when I was diagnosed with breast cancer about two weeks ago, it made me cry and it literally brought me to my knees. I’ve struggled with what I should say to all of you. Because so many of you are my friends. How much I should share – if I should share anything at all. But there are these big billboards of me all over Tampa Bay that say hey watch me at 5. Maybe you’ve seen them. And now I’m going to be gone for a while. I’m the health reporter and it’s breast cancer awareness month. And over the last 17 years, I’ve asked so many of you to share your truth with me. So I can’t just disappear for a while without sharing mine with you.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Newport Television has announced that it is selling its Fairbanks, Alaska NBC affiliate KTVF. The station is being sold to a local group called Chena Broadcasting, a company headed by Michael Young, a former member of the Fairbanks municipal assembly, for an undisclosed price. Kalil & Co. represented Newport in the transaction.

 

Quincy Newspapers' NBC affiliate KWWL in Cedar Rapids, Iowa is adding a new anchor to its weekday morning newscast "Today In Iowa". Natasha Chughtai, who has previously worked at stations in Anchorage, Alaska; Eugene, Oregon and Duluth, Minnesota, will join the station on Monday, October 24; she will co-anchor alongside Jeff Eliasoph and meteorologist Eileen Loan. Chughtai will replace Sunny Layne, who is leaving the station.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • rkolsen pinned, featured and unfeatured this topic
  • rkolsen locked this topic
  • rkolsen unlocked and pinned this topic

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.