Chris Gilks, an executive producer at WPLG, passed away last week after battling cancer.
Gilks produced the weekend morning newscasts for WPLG as well as many of the special features such as Dwight Lauderdale’s trip to Egypt.
Prior to WPLG Chris Gilks was the news director at WGCL, the CBS affiliate in Atlanta, GA.
WPLG aired a very nice tribute to Chris in which fellow colleagues remembered him. Even Suze Orman shared her experience of working together. You can check it out here
Now that every english speaking television station in the Miami/Ft.Lauderdale market has made the switch to High Definition, I decided to check them all out and see what’s different from when they were all doing news in SD. Read my personal opinions after the jump. Continue reading ‘Review: Finally, All Our Local News in HD’
Photo Via: "Lyrikill" Myspace
If you watch South Florida local news on a regular basis, you’ve no doubt seen the live shot-interrupting asshole who goes by the name of “Lyrikill.” Well, according to a NewsBlues.com tipster, WSVN is allegedly being sued by the music legend for alleged ”mental distress;” after he claims he was chased by a baseball bat-wielding live truck operator, after screwing up and interrupting a report by Dianne Fernandez. How much is he asking for his severe “mental distress?” A modest 35 thousand dollars. Funny; I always thought you needed brain cells in order to claim “mental distress.”
Check out his MySpace page for multiple videos of him nearly getting his ass kicked by reporters, live-truck operators, and cameramen.
The music superstar… rapper… performer... Errrr, “Lyrikill,” who prides himself on preforming at local South Florida middle schools, can be seen chasing down and interrupting live shots on your local South Florida station of choice.
Check out one of his forced and free advertisement after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Live Shot-Interrupting Asshole Sues WSVN?’
‘Southeast Toyota Distributors’, a consortium of 173 Toyota and Lexus dealers has told their ad agency to pull all commercials from every ABC affiliated station in the Southeast region of the United States.
ABCNews.com Blotter Blog says the dealer group’s ad agency informed affiliated stations the ads were canceled because of “excessive” coverage of Toyota’s gas pedal problems. The dealers instructed their ad agency to divert the advertising to other local affiliates. ABCNews quotes a station manager as saying that the move is designed “as punishment for the reporting,”
According to their website, Southeast Toyota Distributors is the world’s largest independent distributor of Toyota and Scion automobiles. They represent over 173 dealers in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina. The company’s headquarters are in Deerfield Beach, FL in the same building as JM Lexus and accounts for about 20% of Toyota’s sales in the United States.
WPLG is pre-empting ABC’s Supernanny at 8pm tonight to air a special one-hour program titled ‘Haiti: In Our Own Words’.
The program will feature WPLG staffers sharing what it was like to cover the devastating aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. It will also be commercial-free. Instead of ads, WPLG will encourage viewers to contribute to the Haiti relief effors.
In May 2009 we told you CBS-owned WFOR had decided not to renew their helicopter rental agreement with Helicopters Inc. which expires at the end of 2009. We are now learning that as Chopper 4’s final days are coming to a close, Sky10 is being repainted sans logos because WFOR and WPLG have entered into a helicopter sharing agreement.
As of January 1, 2010, CBS affiliate WFOR and ABC affiliate WPLG are entering into a helicopter pool agreement where the two stations will share video and dispatching responsibilities of what was formerly WPLG’s helicopter Sky10. A memo sent to WFOR employees announcing the pool agreement says the helicopter is now owned by stations and encourages them to treat WPLG as a partner and not a competitor. Sky10’s current pilot and photographer crews, supplied by Helicopters Inc., will be the ones working with both TV stations. Sky10 itself is getting repainted to strip away the WPLG logos from it. We have no information on what’s next for Chopper 4’s crew.
According to the memo, the “new” pooled helicopter will be available to both WFOR and WPLG daily from 6am to 6pm, though WFOR at least still has an agreement with Metro Traffic to use video footage from their helicopter.
Details of the pool agreement are after the jump Continue reading ‘First on SFLTV: WFOR & WPLG Enter Chopper Sharing Agreement’
The @StandupKid a.k.a. Mark Joyella, also former WPLG reporter, interviews Michael Rosenblum on the death of local tv news.
If you don’t know who Michael Rosenblum is, he helped create New York’s all news cable station NY1 and also Current TV
Tri-County Chase
I’d like to offer my kudos to WFOR and WSVN today. In case you missed today’s top story, there was a huge car chase spanning 3 counties, with excess speeds of 130 MPH. But you wouldn’t know that if you were watching WTVJ’s or WPLG’s afternoon soap operas. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the basic duty of local news station’s to keep the public informed, safe, and out of harms way? WSVN broke into regularly scheduled programing to do just that; as did WFOR. This pursuit wasn’t a short chase. It went on for nearly a half-an-hour, gaining national coverage on cable news stations, and other affiliates across the nation. Yet there was no mention of it on NBC6 or Local 10, both on-air and online. Local 10’s site, which claims to be “Just News,” didn’t have a mention of it until the chase was over. As for the joke called “NBCMiami.com,” nearly 30 minutes after the chase ended, there’s still no mention of it.
I would expect this from WTVJ, but I expected better from WPLG.
So what are your thoughts? Who’s right in this situation? Was WFOR and WSVN right for cutting into programing?… Or did WTVJ and WPLG do the right thing in not covering the story. Vote below.
Several weeks ago someone on Twitter posted a picture showing WFOR being picketed by a small group of people. Last week while poking around the interwebs I found out WPLG got picked also. The small group of people, about a dozen or so, can be seen standing on the grass and sidewalk next to WPLG’s building holding sings saying “Media won’t ask so we will. Where’s the birth certificate”, holding signs that promote a popular right wing website etc…
Photo: Flickr@beleaveme
Olga Bichachi, a former reporter at WSVN and then at WPLG, appears to have been at the protest as well. In a video recorded at the protest, and posted on Youtube, Bichachi criticizes the media for covering trivial stories like house fires and shootings and for being run by “liberal people”.
“…the good citizens of the US are protesting the changes that are being made in our nation, in our liberties, in our schools and no one is listening to us… and we’re not going to stop trying to get this nation back on its right track until its on its right track”
“…the people who control the media are very liberal. There’s no doubt about it. I’m not making this up. These people are liberal. They’re following their own agenda”
The complete video of Bichachi’s statement after the jump
/photo credit: Beleaveme on Flickr/ Continue reading ‘Former WPLG & WSVN Reporter, Blasts Liberal Media’
Image of The Day: Larry King at Dolphins Game
Larry King at the Miami Dolphins vs Patriots game yesterday.
He joined former WPLG sports director Jimmy Cefalo and WTVJ NBC6 sports director Joe Rose for their radio broadcast on WQAM
King was a Dolphins radio analyst from 1969-1971 and in 1977
/via TVnewser/