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Monthly Archive for September, 2005

WB39 News promo and observations

Published

by

on 9/30/2005

in Local Media and Videos

. 7 Comments

They just ran a promo pitching them as “all the news in 30 minutes”. I found it interesting that they’ve shot the promo with the steady cam while for example Julia Yarbough walks towards it giving her lines out, then Martha Sugalski on the set, then weather guy sports and final shot of Julia and Martha on the desk in a very upclose shot.

Quality-wise no eyecandy in terms of graphics and it looks a bit cheap and amateurish, but overall they’ve tried to make it edgier and fast paced having on-air talent pop-up suddenly. Maybe it’s the lighting but the overall quality feels like it was shot with a store bought camera.

They also just ran an “Organize before the storm” promo and the text graphic was made with the same font WSVN uses for their main graphics

I’ll try to get some screen caps and video if I manage to catch it on the DVR

Update: here’s the video. Now that I watched it with sound I find it better than seeing it with the mute ON

WMV format - 5.04MB - 640×360 HD source - download video link

Rumor: 7’s Rod Burks to leave?

Published

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on 9/29/2005

. 6 Comments

Someone emailed anonymously and said that Rod Burks will be leaving WSVN and a new guy named Larry Ridley will be joing 7Sports. Ridley currently the weekend sports anchor at WAPT in Jackson, MS has left allegedly left the station and will be joining 7Sports soon.

Anyone know if this is true or not? Use the link in the red space above or post in the comments if you want to
Larry Ridley bio on WAPT’s site

7’s talent bumps even shorter?

Published

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on 9/28/2005

. 12 Comments

They just ran a talent bump for 5:30 and it had only the main anchors and meteorologist, no sports guy!

5:59pm - there was no sports during the 5:30 newscast, wonder if that was permanent. I forget if they had sports at 5pm

CBS4’s HDTV quality

Published

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on 9/28/2005

in Site News and Comments

. 1 Comment

I’ve been meaning to post this for sometime now but keep forgetting. CBS4’s HDTV feed on Comcast 212 looks very … um cartoonish? Faces and just everything looks really smudged like it’s been painted over. The picture up close is clean, but objects further from the camera are not sharp where you can see details you’d expect seeing from a 1920×1080i HDTV feed. When they have a wide shot of the anchors and the meteorologist you can’t see their eyebrows or even their eyes, it’s all smudged.

I was wondering if anyone who has HDTV can confirm this. I suspect it’s happening because CBS 4 isn’t broadcasting in true 1920×1080i but instead the feed is an upconverted standart definition.

WTVJ sort of has the same problem but I don’t think theirs is as bad. I’ll post a couple of screen caps in a bit

Susan Barnett may be leaving WFOR

Published

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on 9/28/2005

. 14 Comments

Thanks to an alert reader who tipped me that the Philadelphia Daily has a snippet saying CBS4 News morning anchor Susan Barnett may be making a move back home to Philly and co-anchor the morning newscast at Philly CBS affiliate station KYW. One of KYW’s morning anchors has left recently to teach and apparently Barnett is being considered as a replacement.

Susan Barnett joined CBS4 in 2003, before that she worked at KDKA the CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. WFOR, KDKA and KYW are all CBS O&Os (Owned and Operated Stations)

Philly.com - Coming Home? (bottom of the page)

Update: Two insiders confirm it’s a done deal. Barnett is leaving WFOR at the end of November sweeps. Former WFOR VP/GM Michael Colleran had a lot to do with her move, he is now the General Manager at KYW.

Update 9/30: Deal is done, Susan Barnett will be leaving for KYW at the end of November sweeps

Rumor: WHDH angers NBC?

Published

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on 9/26/2005

. 3 Comments

Note: It is very likely this isn’t true. The guys over at BTVN say that although WHDH preempted half of NBC’s golf game, the network hasn’t complained to WHDH as someone who claims to know what happened says! I guess some WHDH hater acting like a troll and spreading false facts! At any rate thanks for the emails and tips, unfortunately for the rumor trolls that one won’t last long

WHDH, owned by Sunbeam TV, the same people who own WSVN if you don’t know that by now, chose to pre-empt part of NBC’s golf tournament game this weekend and instead simulcasted MSNBC coverage of Hurricane Rita at a time when everyone was finding out what the damage was after the storm. When NBC saw what WHDH did they threw a hissy fit over it because they’ve shelled so much green for this golf event and it’s costing them money.

On the btvn.net forum someone, I presume from the inside, said WHDH’s ratings during the golf game were around 1.2-2.5 down from a high of 5.8. Couple that with the seriousness of huricane Rita and it’s not hard to see why the suits at 7 decided the way they did.

Ofcourse if I were waiting for the golf game I’d be pissed too, but what WHDH did shouldn’t really be surprising considering WSVN regularly pre-empts programs to show news. Their main product is “more news than any other station” not really surprising they kibosh whatever they wish in favor of a news event as big as Rita, however redundant it’s coverage may feel to most of us

NBC6 NewsNet

Published

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on 9/26/2005

. 2 Comments

I just remembered to tune in to NBC 6’s noon newscast dubbed “NewsNet”, which also broadcasts online. The open isn’t anything special, The music is dramatic and agressive sounding though, unlike the regular NBC6 theme. The logo at the bottom right spins very annoyingly from NBC6 to NewsNet the same way Fox News logo spins, except faster and your eye always ends up staring at it with each turn.

But at least they are trying to tie their website and TV newscasts

CBS4’s half the commercials

Published

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on 9/26/2005

. 0 Comments

I watched CBS4 This Morning and whoever came up with the genius idea of shaving 5 minutes of ads for each half hour newscast needs to be awarded some cookies. I watched the last half hour of news 6:30am to 7:00am, they started at 6:29 and went commercial free to about 6:50am I think. The rest of the time they varied content with ad breaks as they normaly would.

The whole newscast felt watchable and had more continuity feel to it although without the ads weather and traffic kind of feel repetative. Weather especially since the forecast doesn’t change at all.

Nice move though, it would be nice if all newscasts had half the ads. It would be interesting to see if other stations adopt the formula. Of course some pocket books are bound to be hit, unless they charge double the rate, but with DVRs becoming more common I’m not sure 30 second ads are what they used to be.

November sweeps closing in

Published

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on 9/26/2005

. 0 Comments

There’s just one more month to go untill the local stations pull all the stops for the most important ratings measuring period in TV. With the November sweeps period will come some long awaited changes to some of the news stations, hopefully. Here’s what to expect barring any unforseen circumstances such as yet another hurricane:

WTVJ-NBC 6 is rumored to be unveiling their fourth graphics makeover since 2002, possibly with new music

WSVN will complete the Newsplex refresh underway now, updating the news desk, new stand up area, satellite center and weather center. A brand new look and music are also expected to be unveiled at the start of sweeps

CBS 4 already unveiled their new look and music during the 2005 May sweeps. I don’t know of any impeding changes at WPLG their graphics/music package is from November 2003 so it still has some ways to go

ex-NBC6 reporter named Sexiest by Rolling Stone mag

Published

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on 9/26/2005

. 11 Comments

On NBC6 this morning they said Michelle Kosinski, who’s now reporting for NBC News, was named sexiest reporter by Rolling Stone magazine. Bob Mayer said he always knew Michelle “was something special”.

WPLG sacks Jilda Unruh for allegedly being drunk on the air

Published

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on 9/25/2005

. 33 Comments

The Miami Herald is reporting Jilda Unruh has been off the air and off the WPLG website since Thursday after she gave an odd live report from the Miami-Dade Couty Emergency Operations Center. She allegedly slurred words and giggled, and employees at the EOC said she smelled like alcohol.

She filed the report late at night during the hurricane coverage of WPLG.
If anyone has the video or tips regarding this story and wants to send it anonymously, use the red box on top right side of the site to get in touch.

Miami Herald
A familiar TV face yanked off the air

Bryan Norcross - CBSNews hurricane analyst

Published

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on 9/23/2005

. 13 Comments

Went to CBSNews.com and the big headline on the front page had video of Bryan Norcross giving the projected path and ladfall time for hurricane Rita. I thought it interesting that the lower third graphic stated he was a CBS News Hurricane Analyst. It seems CBS is integrating a lot of WFOR on the air during the hurricanes this season.

Videos: Post Rita coverage promos

Published

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on 9/23/2005

. 10 Comments

Of course there’s already “we’re the best” promos for the just passed hurricane. Download Videos here
CBS4’s slogan - The most powerful name in local news. I guess they had the highest ratings during the hurricane coverage?!

John Guaraldi on WPLG

Published

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on 9/21/2005

. 13 Comments

As I previously noted, it was sort of a rumor that John Guaraldi will jump from WTVJ to WPLG. Now an alert viewer emailed me to say that yesterday at 2am Megan Glaros introduced Guaraldi to the viewers.

Now you know why he’s not on WTVJ anymore. I’ll try to get around and set the DVR to catch any promos or if he’s on the air today

Whoever emailed, thanks for the tip.

Added function: Polls

Published

by

on 9/21/2005

in Site News and Comments

. 2 Comments

Now there’s a poll function to the blog. It looks a little weird on Firefox but I can’t figure out yet how make it better so it will do for now.
You can feel free to test it and give your vote

Possible downtime tomorrow

Published

by

on 9/20/2005

in Site News and Comments

. 2 Comments

It is possible that this site will be inaccessible starting tomorrow (Wednesday) at around 6pm eastern time due to server move which will involve a 2 stage sync. The 2nd stage will require the server be unplugged from the web while all the data and OS settings are migrated over to the new machine. Hopefully without hickups. If something gets fudged my server in Bulgaria would probably show up online to say hello and keep my other sites barely floating. So if things look very weird and slow know it’s all on purpose.

Just giving heads up so you all won’t be going around having withdrawals and panic attacks, I’ll be bak - as that guy who runs Cali likes to say.