for the week of December 16 trough 22 Miami loaded up on sports and telenovelas again. Seven of fourteen spots were for Spanish telenovelas. WFOR channel 4 at least claimed the top two spots to the NFL games on CBS. The station also split 5th place thanks to NCIS with The Voice on WTVJ
After an exhaustive three-month search WFOR/CBS have finally settled on a replacement for Josh Benson.
The station announced just a few minutes ago they hired Walter Makaula as the new CBS4 News This Morning co-anchor. He comes from San Diego’s Tribune-owned FOX 5 (KSWB) where he currently anchors weekend evenings. And if you thought his last name might seem interesting that’s because Makaula is a native of Hawaii. Prior to KSWB he anchored weekdays evenings at KHNL NBC, and before that reported for KGMB the CBS station in Honolulu.
“Walter is a multi-talented broadcaster who is equally skilled as a breaking news anchor and as a storyteller who reports on captivating human interest stories. We’re thrilled to have him join our team,” CBS4 Vice President/General Manager Adam Levy said.
Look for Walter Makaula on CBS4 News This Morning January 13, 2014
Jeff Berardelli Photo: cbs12.com
The Sun Sentinel’s Johnny Diaz had a short Q&A with new WPEC meteorologist Jeff Berardelli where he asked him about his recent move away from WFOR. Jumping from the 16th largest TV market to the 38th is usually not the trajectory most on-air personalities take with their career but Berardelli says he made the move to WPEC because he “wanted a job where I could really help make a difference in the weather department” and that his position at CBS12 requires him to be more creative. While at WFOR Berardelli says he was “more of a worker than someone who had the ability to change things.”
If I were to consult the non-existent SFLTV crystall ball, I think it would say that we’re looking at the next WPEC chief meteorologist.
You can read the rest of the Q&A at the link below
Courtesy of the Sun Sentinel’s Johnny Diaz here are the most watched TV shows for the week of November 25 until Sunday.
WFOR/CBS have top 3 most watched TV shows in the Miami market thanks to the NFL, and 60 minutes which placed second with 234,000 viewers. Dancing with the Stars finale helped WPLG/ABC split 5th place with NFL on WTVJ/NBC and Jenni Rivera special on WLTV/Univision.
Channel 4 is imploding on itself. CBS HQ has ordered an internal investigation of WFOR management, and the working atmosphere at the station, according to GossipExtra after hostile work environment accusations by employees. There are allegations that employees were told to work over time without pay.
CBS 4′s ratings have been in the gutter for a while, and stress levels in the newsroom are high. Recently the 11pm newscast producer quit right before air time because she was “fed up”. Then there’s the issue of pay, with on-air staff being told they have to take a pay cut, and some of them wondering whether they’ll even have a job come contract renewal time.
To make matters worse long timers have left the station. Shanno Hori, Jeff Berardelli, David Bernard. And then there’s Josh Benson’s strange firing. SFLTV thinks it’s because he was praising CBS arch rival Aereo, but the station denied the allegation and told us it was because he streamed CBS 4 newscasts without authorization. An odd reason, considering what Benson actually did was to embed the station’s publicly accessible video player on his own website.
Insiders have told me a few times that CBS management at HQ in New York City often doles out orders to local bosses about how they want things done, and overrides their decisions regularly, including hiring decisions and news story judgement. Unfortunately for them the Miami market is unique, and running it from out-of-town cookie-cutter style doesn’t produce great results. We have Spanish-language stations that are strong performers, and who attract sizable audiences. Whatever is left for English-language stations is dominated heavily by WSVN, which excels in the 25-54 demo for a while now. They’re also a stable, and predictable station that connects with viewers better the other outlets. And let’s not forget WTVJ, whose resurgence, deservedly so I would say, seems to have sucked viewers away not just from WFOR but also from WPLG.
Would WFOR recover?
