WABC opens/ music

[Channel 4 0]

I'm just wondering whats going on with the news opens on Eyewitness News. I'm sure all of you are aware of this. For the morning and noon broadcasts they still use the talent opens. For the 5:00 and 11:00 broadcasts they use the short opens. And then for the 6:00 broadcast they use a open with no voice and some completly different theme. Its been like this since this past March. In my opinion it just seems so unprofessional. Does anyone have any insights on when they are going to change all of their opens.

 

What I really like about WNBC is when they make a change they change everything at once which in my opinion is how it should be done. I mean Channel 7 got their brand new studio back in 2005. Changed the opens slightly in April of 2007. Then what was really strange was when they changed the coming up next graphics in September of 2007 and then 8 months latter they got rid of that and got all brand new graphics.

[anchorman 93]

Yes, it's very odd that they have 3 different opens. I have no clue why, or when they will make them uniform.

[wabceyewitness 767]

The new shorter opens also do not feature the Eyewitness News Van or NewsCopter7, elements that have been part of the news opens since 1994. Now it's just a simple EWN logo over skyline footage.

[Weeters 1806]

This is another one of those things that no one outside this site cares about.

 

Nobody.

[ProButtonPusher 230]

UNPROFESHINUL

[wabceyewitness 767]

This is another one of those things that no one outside this site cares about.

 

Nobody.

 

 

And we thank our moderators for allowing such a forum to exist for those who do care about it and would like to write and comment on it without being negatively interfered with by, of all people, a site administrator. Odd that an admin would be the one to turn threads and this board into a haven for negativity, something that has never been an issue here. Also ironic that this negativity toward site members is coming from an admin who's self-proclaimed title is "Customer Service Associate".

[Weeters 1806]

And we thank our moderators for allowing such a forum to exist for those who do care about it and would like to write and comment on it without being negatively interfered with by, of all people, a site administrator. Odd that an admin would be the one to turn threads and this board into a haven for negativity, something that has never been an issue here. Also ironic that this negativity toward site members is coming from an admin who's self-proclaimed title is "Customer Service Associate".

 

You must not remember Dave Lampstein then.

 

I probably wouldn't have said anything if the OP didn't make it sound like the station has an obligation to keep all it's opens the same. They're more than likely different by design. Some consultants probably sat down and decided the morning shows will have talent opens to seem "friendlier" and the evening newscasts won't because it makes the pacing faster. The 6:00 won't have a voiceover because it's following an earlier newscast. Which means I was wrong earlier. The only people that care about this are this board and consultants.

 

Now if I didn't say anything someone would have probably said it must mean a graphics update is coming and then that one guy would come here and start claiming this is all part of the plan to build the "superset" and that's why they're not filming new talent opens (ABC loves that guy, by the way.)

 

EDIT: 1000th post!

[Vlad 276]

I agree, it is pretty sloppy, disgusting, and unprofessional, but its been like this for over half a year. Why they don't have their music and vos in an orderly nice fashion, should be a question that one would ask at one of their town hall meetings coming up soon. But then again the average viewer could simply careless, which is why these forums exist because its for the few people that do care and take note of things like this. My guess and only hope is that they'll come up with something in time for the Fall 2010 Sweeps which starts in November, if they are getting their so called new music by then... I'm not sure how the news industry works because I'm not in it, but I would think that voiceovers are important for broadcasts so I wonder why they couldn't at least add their previous voiceover to the updated one from March. The current music they have works for me and sounds fine, even if its over 11 years old only thing and pet peeves that have bothered me for over the past few years is how they don't have much variety for their bumpers and etc. but hey thats how they've been since their existence, lol.

[wabceyewitness 767]

I agree, Vlad, the opens should have some type of conformity to them. This reminds me of back around 2002 when they dropped the talent opens months ahead the big Roz Abrams/Diana Williams/Liz Cho shuffle. Maybe we're in for another anchor shuffle? There is, by the way, a new job posting for Anchor/Reporter at WABC-TV. The description, though, seems like its a weekend anchor with weekday reporting duties. Just speculation, though, nothing to get hyped about.

 

I also agree these forums exist for the few viewers who do care about such things and would like to share their thoughts. All members should be sure to make that know since some moderators seems to have forgotten what this board and its predecessors were all about.

[IceManNYR 222]

Along the same theme, how many stations have different announcers for station promos and intros to the news casts?

For some time now WABC has had one person doing the VOs for station promos and some of the news promos while another person does the intros to the newscasts and most of the news promos.

[Vlad 276]

Along the same theme, how many stations have different announcers for station promos and intros to the news casts?

For some time now WABC has had one person doing the VOs for station promos and some of the news promos while another person does the intros to the newscasts and most of the news promos.

 

Mike Lewis does the Promos and the Schedules while Charlie Van Dyke does the VO for the Newscast Intros.

 

And I was looking at their employment opportunities, looks like they are indeed looking for both a News Anchor and a Sports Anchor. I wonder what slots these two new hirees would fill though, my guess is that they'd anchor the morning shows. But I can't see why they need a new anchor though, unless one of the top anchors are leaving WABC? Again I can't speculate who it could be, my guess is that its probably a weekend position, perhaps in the mornings. Another interesting position is a Graphic Artist and Motion Designer. They are looking for someone to do their in house graphics. All of these positions that they are awaiting could perhaps be reasons why there is a delay.

[nynewslover 269]

Mike Lewis does the Promos and the Schedules while Charlie Van Dyke does the VO for the Newscast Intros.

 

And I was looking at their employment opportunities, looks like they are indeed looking for both a News Anchor and a Sports Anchor. I wonder what slots these two new hirees would fill though, my guess is that they'd anchor the morning shows. But I can't see why they need a new anchor though, unless one of the top anchors are leaving WABC? Again I can't speculate who it could be, my guess is that its probably a weekend position, perhaps in the mornings. Another interesting position is a Graphic Artist and Motion Designer. They are looking for someone to do their in house graphics. All of these positions that they are awaiting could perhaps be reasons why there is a delay.

 

The sports anchor is probaly to replace Scott Clark when he retires in January or to fill Rob Powers' spot if he takes over for Scott

[bhratbrat 423]

The voiceover situation actually is more frequent than most people think. But of course, there is a primary voiceover and then secondary. Secondary voiceover mainly handles just quick local ads. I knew KPRC, KTRK, and KHOU did that for a while as well as WSVN. WTVJ uses Van Dyke and then also has local voiceover Bob Tracey doing some local promos.

[Weeters 1806]

The voiceover situation actually is more frequent than most people think. But of course, there is a primary voiceover and then secondary. Secondary voiceover mainly handles just quick local ads. I knew KPRC, KTRK, and KHOU did that for a while as well as WSVN. WTVJ uses Van Dyke and then also has local voiceover Bob Tracey doing some local promos.

 

Yes. This. LOTS of stations use two different voiceover people. WTMJ uses two different people (Cederig Fox and local VO "Lips" LaBelle) in their most of their opens (gasp, inconsistency!) and usually one or the other does promos.

 

It's really just a matter of cost and availability.

[lazynetjunkie 34]

Yes. This. LOTS of stations use two different voiceover people. WTMJ uses two different people (Cederig Fox and local VO "Lips" LaBelle) in their most of their opens (gasp, inconsistency!) and usually one or the other does promos.

 

It's really just a matter of cost and availability.

 

 

Cost and availability is right on.. Plus, many of the voiceovers we've come to love are getting much older and more are on the side of wanting to retire so there are quite a few that are reducing their daily workloads.

 

 

The voiceovers are what ruined WTMJ's majestic Impact V.4 opens.. They should have just stuck to one voice and had him/her speak in a gentler tone more fitting for the opens. Better yet, they should have gone voiceover-less in those opens.

 

 

As for using 2 voiceovers in the same something, I remember back around 2003 or 2004 when WBBM already signed on Bill Ratner to be their new voiceover since they had to record some new opens; however, still had a couple months left on Joe Cipriano's contract.. WBBM sure had some fun with that. For a while, they had both voiceovers speaking in the same promos for the evening newscasts. Each voiceover taking turns teasing a story. It actually didn't sound bad at all but I can understand a station not wanting to do that.. All the extra work and money that would have to be used just to make a promo.

[RGSJenkins 432]

I just saw a "protect our children" promo with new graphics, words, and music but Mike Lewis still the vo. (They was still using the previous graphics [the blue brick era] before they with GO.)

This was the old promo style:

[IceManNYR 222]

I thought it was odd they wasted 5 seconds on the Protect Our Children animation before putting the photo on the screen. The photo is on screen for only 5 seconds and then 5 seconds for the sponsors logo.

With the new format the photo comes on 3 seconds sooner, is on for 7 seconds and the last five seconds is the sponsors logo.

[Channel 4 0]

So I guess they are not changing their music theme anytime soon. That new setup looks really good. The only thing I did not like was at the the end of the promo when they showed the ABC7 logo, it was to big.

[IceManNYR 222]

They are doing the Protect Our Children segments in HD. Last night it ran in SD during the 11pm newscast.

Tonight's video had the VO on the center channel and the music on the L & R channels.

[Vlad 276]

Seems like WABC is continuing to keep it classic by continuing to use the older dated Eyewitness News Package, not that there is anything wrong with that cut. A nicer cut would've been the one they used in the late 90s:

 

 

The picture quality though of the missing children is certainly much better now that its in HD. And they definitely show the image of the missing child much longer than before which is more important. So its a great improvement. And it looks like they've steered away from the GO graphics as well, to make it unique. Its interesting, do any other stations in this country do this type of segment in their shows? Because here in the NY area i'm pretty sure that its only WABC that does this.

[IceManNYR 222]

Any word of they will ever be able to record the weekend news shows for broadcast in HD?

The PQ of "Up Close" has improved but it still airs in 4:3 SD.

The taped, usually Friday, editions of Regis and Kelly and any taped interviews are a soft 16:9 SD.

[Vlad 276]

Any word of they will ever be able to record the weekend news shows for broadcast in HD?

The PQ of "Up Close" has improved but it still airs in 4:3 SD.

The taped, usually Friday, editions of Regis and Kelly and any taped interviews are a soft 16:9 SD.

 

Its these little nuances that bugs me too, you'd expect that all of these programs would be in full HD, it might be a technicality or something of that sort that would explain that, but maybe someone who is in the business could shed some light as to why they air these programs in SD.

 

Also these promos showcasing the News Teams, posted by NYNewsWatch would be great cuts for them to use as their default new music. My assumption is that Gari Composed them, they would sound great as new music opens for the station:

 

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And those graphics are pretty nice too, they don't look like they were done in house though seems like more of a HotHaus design, but I could be wrong.

[TennTV1983 742]

Its these little nuances that bugs me too, you'd expect that all of these programs would be in full HD, it might be a technicality or something of that sort that would explain that, but maybe someone who is in the business could shed some light as to why they air these programs in SD.

 

Also these promos showcasing the News Teams, posted by NYNewsWatch would be great cuts for them to use as their default new music. My assumption is that Gari Composed them, they would sound great as new music opens for the station:

 

[yt]Xzcm6QV6E9s[/yt]

 

And those graphics are pretty nice too, they don't look like they were done in house though seems like more of a HotHaus design, but I could be wrong.

This was a Giant Octopus job.

 

http://www.giantoctopus.com/projects/86

[Weeters 1806]

Its these little nuances that bugs me too, you'd expect that all of these programs would be in full HD, it might be a technicality or something of that sort that would explain that, but maybe someone who is in the business could shed some light as to why they air these programs in SD.

 

Remember WABC spent as little as possible when upgrading their control room to HD. From pictures I've seen, they didn't even replace the CRT monitors other than the 3 monitors for the studio cameras. It's very likely that they don't have the equipment to record the production control feed in HD (HD news replays would be taped by Master Control). If this is correct, the "soft 16:9" was probably squished into 4:3, then stretched back and upconverted for playback. :lol:

[ProButtonPusher 230]

Technically, everything that's just "16:9" is still 720x480 ("4:3" is usually this resolution) - but it's anamorphic so you can't tell. Hell, it may even be down-converted to analogue composite before it's recorded, making it 'softer' (SDI video has pretty sharp video, even at a 720x480 resolution).

 

Also, I can watch Regis and Kelly on 2 TV stations here, both still carry the SD feed - that show has the worst sound and video I think I've ever seen. Picture is very soft and the video is "red" (too much contrast or video level) and the audio is so compressed you can hear a "hum" when they fade to black and there's no sources open.