Monthly Archive for November, 2004

The Miami Herald is confirming what I wrote about yesterday, WPLG is dropping it’s 5pm newscast to air Dr. Phil and has aquired the rights to Judge Judy which it will broadcast at 4pm. WFOR and WSVN have said that this will allow them to “showcase themselves as more committed to local news”.

The change however will not occur untill the fall of 2006 when the new contracts for Dr. Phil and Judge Judy begin.

Now here’s my guess as to how things would turn out. WSVN has a hole in the 4pm slot, WFOR in the 3pm. Both stations will have news at 4pm – WFOR will take Oprah down from 4-5pm to 3pm slot so they’d have a nice lead-in for their 4pm newscast. WSVN on the other hand doesn’t have much in terms of afternoon programming, but I’m pretty sure the Judge Judy slot will be news much like their sister station WHDH who have a newscast at 4 in the afternoon.

Insiders have said that WPLG General Manager David Boylan has pretty much given up trying to push the ailing 5pm newscast from it’s miserable 3rd place in the ratings and has decided to “find other ways to sell the station”.

Miami Herald
Channel 10 to add Dr. Phil, drop 5 p.m. news

NBC Weather Plus will be coming to WTVJ’s digital spectrum within the next 90 days. The new service from NBCU was launched yesterday in New York on WNBC’s digital multiplex. It will be a mix of national weather updates and cut-ins from the local NBC affiliates to provide local weather.

All stations will need to be equipped with $110,000 in extra gagetry to be able to broadcast the new digital channel.

There’s one problem though, unless a vewer has a digital terrestrial antenna or Comcast and the satellite services are carrying the digital broadcast of WTVJ nobody is going to see anything of this weather plus thing. The Weather Channel in comparison is available in 83 million homes accross the United States.