Monthly Archive for July, 2006
Tipster says CBS4 has formally announced that CBS4 Bryan Norcross is stepping down as chief meteorologist but will continue to work at CBS4 as hurricane specialist and be the primary meteorologist during hurricane coverage. David Bernard is taking the chief meteorologist job and will now be seen doing all the weather segments on CBS4 News
Browsing CBS4.com I saw they’re offering to watch the latest video from CBS4 news, weather, sports and traffic on your cell phone. It costs $4.95 month and is only available from Sprint! Bummer for those of us who want to use only GSM phones.
One of the regular readers of the blog emailed to say that WPLG will be updating the design of their site - local10.com - as early as tomorrow! The design will be similar to what WKMG has.
You can preview the new site by clicking here
Update: new design is live already, I think they put it up Wednesday evening
Old Site:
7News have given their anchors the stretched weight gain too, like WPLG they’ve started stretching the video on their HD channel.
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It’s funny watching Phil Ferro doing the weather as he goes from normal looking to … I guess you’d call him stretched? LOL
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It broke. The video is gone, only audio and there’s a 4:3 screen with a beep showing up every few seconds
WESH have announced Martha Sugalski is coming to the station. On their site they’ve even posted videos of WESH’s 2 main anchors meeting with Sugalski who was at the station and apparently anchored the news!? Or at least she was at the anchor desk.
Follow the link below to watch the videos
In the latest Q&A with Sun Sentinel TV critic Tom Jicha one viewer says the WPLG HD feed has been turned off by Dish Network due to “contractual issues”. This has been confirmed by a WPLG spokesperson who says they’re working to resolve the issue in weeks and not months!
Ouch, sux if you pay them the extra $5 to get those, alleged, HD feeds!
They’ve refreshed the ‘Crisis in the Middle East’ bump graphics with the new font that 7 has been using lately.
The dumb senator who has no idea what the internet is and how it works, yet keeps cozy with the telecom industry was parodied about his now famous “series of tubes” remark during a hearing on net neutrality. A user on MySpace created a song singing out the senator’s words over a folksy ditty. According to Wired 2500 people listened to the tune.
But then MySpace, owned by FOX(News) censored the song by deleting the user’s account!!!
When Wired News ran the story, and the blogs picked on it, the account of the poster magically came back online with MySpace claiming they deleted it by mistake.
Yeah, and the internet is a series of tubes. Looks like someone needs to realize the internets aren’t Faux News
I’m bored so let’s play ‘Guess the replacement anchor’.
If Lynn Martinez leaves I think she’ll be replaced by Christine Cruz. Cruz has been substituting for her for a few days now. That or they’re testing her to see how she’d do at 4pm but I find it unlikely.
So here it is:
Christine Cruz replaces Lynn Martinez.
Sharon Melton replaces Christine Cruz in the morning newscast.
Natale Solis replaces Sharon Melton in the weekend evening news.
Although Solis could end up replacing Chrisitne Cruz.
No matter, I think the suits at 7 should keep Lynn, it would be too bad if they let her go 
- Bryan Norcross told people at the National Hurricane Center he is giving up his daily forecasting at CBS4! He’ll stay on as a hurricane specialist during hurricane coverage and special reports. David Bernard will probably take over the daily duties as chief meteorologist.
- 7News has been looking at two female anchors for their 4pm newscast which will be lunching in the fall but so far no one has been selected.
- Lynn Martinez was seen interviewing with other stations and networks recently fueling rumors she may be looking to leave 7news!
- Roger Simmons is reporting that Martha Sugalski is leaving NBC6/WB39 for Orlando’s WESH to anchor their 4pm and 11pm newscasts.
I’m surprised of this move but I guess the suits at CBS thought this had to be done to save the station. I happen to disagree WBFS would be saved by going network but who’s asking me.
So it looks like the launch date will be September 5th 2006 and the press release states that “MyNetworkTV is the first all Hi-Definition broadcast network”.
WTCN in West Palm Beach, also owned by CBS, will be taking the MyNetworkTV affiliation as well
Thanks to those that alerted me to the news.
Senate bill 786 seeks to shut down the National Weather Service from competing with the likes of AccuWeather a.k.a. CrapUWeather which charges for weather information and is very very unhappy you can get your weather info for free on the web. How dare you look for free weather forecasts!
The NWS is a government agency supported by tax dollars and makes available all kinds of information on the web, including live radar info, maps etc.
The bill would basically forbid the National Weather Service from providing any information that a private weather service could. The only exception would be in cases of severe weather.
A lot of boaters here in South Florida depend on the National Weather Service when they go out in the ocean they will have to pay AccuWeather and other similar services for the daily forecast other than those at the local TV station sites and perhaps your weather radio will be out of commission unless you pay a monthly fee!!!
And who knows what would happen to awesome sites like Weather Underground which renders local station sites pretty useless
If you’re concerned about this bill and the future of the National Weather Service you can contact your senator and give them a piece of your mind, politely! They need to hear from you and really get a feel of how bad a bill this is!
I’ve heard Bill Nelson answers his emails sometimes so those of you who lurk here and have your own weather sites and boat would probably be able to convey to him in much better terms how vital the NSW is to you.
Weather Underground
Text of Senate Bill S.786
WINK-TV
Senate Bill Could Change National Weather Service Mission
ABC wants MSOs (Cable companies) to disable fast forwarding on DVRs to prevent people from skipping ads. According ot MediaPost ABC and other networks have held discussions about the idea. Mike Shaw ABC President for Advertising sales came up with the genius idea and is hoping a deal will be reached soon before DVR use, currently estimated at 10%, grows more!
The suits are hoping there won’t be much backlash because “consumers prefer DVRs for their ability to facilitate on-demand viewing and not ad-zapping”.
They should also think about a way to disable channel changing when commercial breaks come on and straping viewers in their seats to prevent them from going to the bathroom because after all isn’t this why we use ad breaks for?!
Media Post
ABC Looks Beyond Upfront To DVR, Commercial Ratings Issues
What Else is There Besides Cable Around Here?
I just took a look at our cable bill and at $159.69/ month or $1916.28 I’m a bit miffed. Especially with Comc/rap/cast internet connection being slow while I’m paying for top of the line speeds!
So what options do you have in your neck of the woods? Those in South Florida - how do you get your TV? Or are we stuck with the Comcast monopoly overcharging?