Announced today by NBC News president Steve Capus Weather Plus will be history by December 31st.
And with good reason, NBC (over?)spent $3.5 bilion on The Weather Channel in July. Then put WTVJ and WVIT in Hartford, Connecticut on the chopping block to help offset some of the cost.
Post Newsweek won the bidding war for WTVJ but in late September NBC took WVIT’s for sale sign off due to the bad economy and not getting as much as they wanted for the station.
They call it NBCU: College Edition. College kids get to play NBC6 TV news anchor at WTVJ. Wannado City called, they’d like their attraction back. Just kidding. I really is a great oppertunity for these soon-to-be anchors and reporters. Most of them you can tell are new and really don’t have an idea of what to do, but others you can really see potential. Watch their 30 minute “fake” newscast here.
WSVN’s sibling in Boston is turning the HD switch on Moday at 4pm (or tuesday at the latest) according to Boston media blog The Scoop and btvn
They just got done re-modeling their newsplex. The video wall behind the anchors with all the little monitors was shortened a bit and in their place are several large flat screen tvs.
The 2nd floor has a projector screen like WSVN’s with blue columns on each side.
The light boxes in the middle between the floors are now all red instead of blue! And the anchor desk has received a rather nice update.
WSVN is expected to probably do similar changes to their newsplex, but unfortunately couple weeks ago I was told they’ve pushed their HD transition date from August into the fall. I don’t know what caused it or if it’s definitive delay or what, yet.
MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, announced the winners of their 6th annual MADD Media Awards program today and WFOR took home one.
CBS4 News was awarded an Award for Excellence for Broadcast for their series on alcohol-laced energy drinks. The Pensacola News Journal won the print award.
Nationally ‘Inside Edition’ picked up an award in the National Television: Underage Drinking Issues category. CNN Headline News Nancy Grace won in the National Television: Drunk Driving Issues category.
MADD will host a luncheon in Dallas, Texas on September 5th, 2008 to honor the Media Award Winners during their National Conference.
