Tag Archive for 'WFOR'

Brian Andrews’ RCN Newscast Gets Some Mojo; Jim Robinson Joins

Author admin on 6/24/2009 in Local Media.
Jim Robinson Photo: @allplatform

Jim Robinson Photo: @allplatform

Former WFOR photojournalist Jim Robinson, aka the news mojo, recently joined Brian Andrews’ RCN News in English newscast as a South Florida based correspondent.

Jim shoots, edits and reports stories from South Florida then uploads the file to Bogota, Colombia where Brian Andrews and the RCN News in English team are based. US Americans call that a VJ (video journalist) or one-man band, which we’ll probably see a lot more at local stations in the future.

Jim was a photojournalist at WFOR and worked with Brian Andrews until Brian left CBS4 and moved to Colombia. Last year he became the station’s first mobile journalist (hence the mojo moniker) but ended up laid off at the end of 2008 when CBS went trough yet another round of layoffs at their local stations .

Some of the RCN News in English Staff

Some of the RCN News in English Staff. Photo: Brian Andrews Facebook Profile

Brian’s creation has grown like weeds since it launched an year and a half ago. What started as one-man band web newscast, with just one video a day, is now supported by 14 staff members who write, edit, report, encode video, upload and perform hosting duties for the newscast. They’re also adding video twice or more a day and in addition to news there are also entertainment reports, plus even if you have no interest in Colombian news you can check out some some of the stories on life in Colombia.

Recently RCN redesigned the site with a new look and its own domain name, ColombiaNews.tv. And also (my personal obsession) added a new large video player with big, clear video that doesn’t look like a postage stamp on my 27″ monitors unlike say some local stations. (WFOR and WSVN I’m looking at you!)

As a web geek I really like seeing how they grew backwards, if you will, at least by traditional TV standards, going from the web to now getting aired on RCN’s global channel TV Colombia as well as on those TV screens tucked in the headrests of Avianca Airlines’ airplane seats.

You can check out RCN News in English at ColombiaNews.tv and Jim is on twitter @allplatform

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WFOR’s Cool New Radar

Author Alex on 6/24/2009 in Links, Local Media and graphics.
cbs4weather

WFOR's New Doppler 4D

WFOR CBS4 just launched a new cool weather radar this Thursday! They call it Doppler 4D, and it’s like nothing else in the South Florida TV news market. According to Craig Setzer’s Inside Weather Scoop Blog:

“A typical radar view is two dimensional.  It is also typically the lowest “slice” out of a thunderstorm and indicates the intensity of rain (or possibly hail) falling out of the storm.  If you loop the image you add the dimension of time and how the storm is changing over time.  This, in some respects is three dimensions.  We can also look at a radar image in the form of a “range height indicator” or RHI.  Then you not only see a horizontal slice of the storm, but a vertical slice as well.”

“[…] So simple intensity of the storm is important and that’s what most radars show, but Doppler 4D shows the entire depth of the storm, revealing details we rarely see.  Potential hail, extreme winds, even tornadoes show up when viewed in this much detail.”

With hurricane season already a month old, and a tropical weather system inevitable, this may be an edge WFOR needs. It seems to be common knowledge that WTVJ doesn’t have a chance in hell of gaining any viewers this hurricane season with their (small) all-star weather team – but WFOR has a chance. Read more of this personal opinion in the SFLTV Forums.

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WFOR Shoots Story About iPhone 3GS Using an iPhone 3GS

Author admin on 6/23/2009 in Local Media.

UPDATE: Gio Benitez in comments says that CBS4 is looking for viewer feedback. However you must do it using your iPhone 3GS. Contact Gio at his email address: gbenitez@cbs.com or @GioBenitezCBS4 on Twitter

The new iPhone 3GS, or whatever this thing is called now, has camera!!! Best thing since sliced bread!!! Nothing new for a cell phone but to the iPhone it is, considering the gadget didn’t even have copy and paste until recently.

And of course what’s a newscast without the obligatory video of crazy people who slept on sidewalks so they can get their hands on a piece of plastic and metal the day it’s released?

WFOR of course reported on the new super duper iPhone but went with a different angle. Instead of showing video from news services, or lug one of those big TV cameras around, they had producer Geo Benitez (who I guess didn’t sleep on a sidewalk for his iPhone?) shoot the story about the new iPhone 3GS … with an iPhone 3GS using the gadget’s new video camera.

Thankfully it appears they either used a device or someone with a steady hand because there were no vomit inducing hand shaking video.

I think the story came out pretty good, you can watch it here

Considering some stations are already using cheap video via Skype I’m thinking it is safe to assume that live video via iPhone (or any phone with video camera) is not too far off. It will make AT&T’s 3G network completely fall apart but who cares about them it’s the future today.

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WFOR Now an ‘Advocacy Journalism’ Station

Author admin on 6/23/2009 in Local Media.

In an ‘Inside the Newsroom’ post on June 19th WFOR’s news director Adrienne Roark writes that we can pretty much consider the station an advocacy journalism shop.

‘We are the station that is by, for, and about the people” she writes. “Consider us a media advocate; working to improve the lives of the people who live here. We take this commitment very seriously”

Wikipedia describes advocacy journalism as:

… a genre of journalism that intentionally and transparently adopts a non-objective viewpoint, usually for some social or political purpose. Because it is intended to be factual, it is distinguished from propaganda.

…

News reports are intended to be objective and unbiased. In contrast, advocacy journalists have an opinion about the story they are writing. For example, that political corruption should be punished, that more environmentally friendly practices should be adopted by consumers, or that a government policy will be harmful to business interests and should not be adopted.

Lately there has been a noticeable trend where the CBS4 I-Team label is showing up quite a bit in WFOR’s newscasts or I-Team newscasts as some might argue.
Continue reading ‘WFOR Now an ‘Advocacy Journalism’ Station’

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WFOR Site Gets New Look

Author admin on 6/3/2009 in Local Media.

WFOR, and all CBS-owned-and-operated stations, had their website’s design refreshed.

The layout is pretty much the same save for a bigger header that now more prominently shows the station’s logo, a bigger search box. And the site is centered instead of aligned-left.

Sadly the video player didn’t get tweaked, same flash player as before though it sounds as if the audio was improved and it’s not as compressed anymore.

check it out

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Tom Doerr Considered for WTVJ News Director Job?

Author admin on 5/27/2009 in Local Media.

FTVLive Newsblues, says the now former WFOR VP and Station Manager Tom Doerr is being considered for the news director job at WTVJ which was recently vacated by Yvette Miley who left WTVJ for a gig at MSNBC

In November 2006 Tom Doerr moved to WFOR from the CBS-owned station in Dallas, TX where he was the news director as the network tried to revive WFOR’s sagging ratings. He replaced Shannon High-Bassalik who also left for a job at MSNBC.

In February of 2009, Doerr was canned by CBS after the network decided to get rid of all managers at their owned-and-operated stations, of which WFOR is one.

Doerr is University of Florida graduate and the last time he worked in the Miami-Ft Lauderdale market before coming to WFOR was from 1993 to 1998 when he was news director at WPLG.

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WFOR to Lose News Chopper Too

Author admin on 5/25/2009 in Local Media.

cbs4chopper4Chopper 4 will be no more. When WFOR’s contract with Helicopters Inc expires at the end of 2009 the station won’t be renewing it.

We have heard rumors though, about WFOR, WTVJ and WPLG possibly/maybe sharing a helicopter, but nothing we’re able to confirm yet just rumors and hear say.

So. Essentially, with Sky6 Chopper 6 already gone and Chopper 4 going away in about 6 months, Sky10 could end up being shared between WFOR, WTVJ and WPLG.

Our sources are telling us that WSVN has no plans of giving up on Skyforce.

The costs of operating a news helicopter are about $1million per year so 2 or more stations sharing a bird stands to save them quite a bit of money.

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Current’s infoMania Has Fun With WFOR Story

Author admin on 5/8/2009 in Local Media.

A WFOR story about Michelle Obama’s hot arms ends up in CurrentTV’s infoMania show mocking the media coverage

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Huge Layoffs at WFOR Today?

Author admin on 5/8/2009 in Local Media.

update2: more info… another tipster telling us they heard also laid off were CBS4 Broward bureau manager, 2 photogs.
update: getting info… All live truck ops have been fired, two sports producers, weather producer, Liv Davalos’s contract expired and was not renewed. Weekend morning show axed.

Last night we got a tip about an impending layoff at WFOR. This morning we have a ton of tips from people frantically telling us that after the morning at WFOR meeting layoffs will be announced. I haven’t been able to confirm i, but FTVLive.com has it in their update today.

Curiously WFOR’s boss Adrienne Roark has been tweeting the last couple of weeks about being in meetings and that “…the biz is changing”.

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Nick Bogert to Leave WTVJ

Author admin on 5/5/2009 in Local Media.
nick-bogertfor-web

Source: NBCmiami.com

Nick Bogert hosted the Silver Circle Awards this past weekend honoring several long time employees at the local TV stations.

There, we’re told by tipsters attending, he mentioned he’s leaving WTVJ soon and moving to Chicago. Bogert joined WTVJ in 1981 after anchoring and reporting at WCIX (now WFOR) for two years.

/thanks tipsters/







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