Tag Archive for 'WSVN'

7News in HD Imminent

Yes, people! Finally, 7News will end stretchovision madness and launch real HD.

Here’s what I learned:

- rehearsals were happening Friday evening
- the plex will/receive(d) subtle changes, nothing major
- anchor desk has grown a bit. The 7 logo at the front was replaced
- the blue duratran between the floors is going back to
how it was before, small. Or at least smaller than it is now.
- flat screens will be added to it?
- monitor wall may or may not change. WHDH replaced theirs
with almost a dozen large flat screen tvs

Graphics
- “very ESPN-sportscenter ish”
- “LOTS of swooshes and flying 7s”
- “everything looks like its flying out of the screen”
- the new opens are much shorter
- color scheme is blue, black, red with chrome

Music
no info but I’m working on it. My guess, something original
by Chris Crane, naturally

Field photogs will be shooting in 16×9 SD which will be upconverted
to HD. NO stretchovision and as few sidebars as possible.

Don’t expect any more major changes after this. Even with holding nearly 20% of the local tv ad market WSVN is still pinched by the bad economy.
They like every other station are having budget problems and allegedly won’t be filling open positions.

Doesn’t appear like they’ll acquire the WTVJ building at this point in time. Of course you never know but at the moment it doesn’t appear likely (maybe it never was?)

Sunbeam is still in litigation with the company that wants to build condos right next the studios.

7News HD will swooshhhh in with a bang sometimes during the first or second week of December.

And now you know. Thanks to the tipster for the info.

Vanessa Ruiz Returns To 7

Vanessa Ruiz who left Channel 7 in January of this year to finish her college degree has returned to 7News.

She will be freelancing and going to school. Look for her mostly on the weekend editions of 7News

Following the Election Online

WFOR: 7pm EST live chat with live video stream of CBS4 (?) coverage
website

WTVJ: WTVJ live online (website); Windows Media player link

WSVN: WSVN live (website); Windows media player link

WPLG: Election Marathon video (website); Windows Media Player link

WPTV: Live election coverage video stream (click player on the right side)

Election Day Coverage; Who’s Doing What

Overall in terms of election day coverage it will be pretty much the usual.

WFOR, WTVJ and WPLG will have local coverage during the regular newscasts. National coverage will begin at 6:30pm with each network’s evening newscasts and go on from there until whenever the whole thing ends.

Affiliate stations will break in at designated breaks to show local election results.

WPLG is doing something unique online though. They’re having an Election Day Marathon which will offer live streaming video and election results the whole day.

WSVN as usual is going their own way and leaving Fox’s coverage in favor of their own.

They’ll start at 4pm with the regularly scheduled newscasts. Then at 7pm continuing coverage begins with Belkys and Craig who will stay and “…won’t go off until it’s over,” as Sunbeam’s VP of News Alice Jacobs told Broadcasting and Cable.

Dave Kartunen is in Chicago, IL at the Obama rally. Derek Hayward is in Phoenix, AZ at the McCain rally. Other WSVN reporters will be stationed at local races rallies.

In 2000 when Rick Sanchez and Laurie Jennings anchored they stayed on until 9am. In 2004 Craig and Belkys remained on until around 7-8am the next day.

FOX has offered coverage to their affiliated stations anchored by Shepard Smith.

WPTV will be live today commercial free from 1pm to 5pm on their digital channel. Otherwise all West Palm stations are going with the network, incluing WFLX-FOX.

Being out of state I’ll keep a check on things via the internet I’ll have something up on here later today probably if you want to watch along.

2008 Suncoast Emmy Nominations

The nominees for the 2008 Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards have been announced.

The list is big, 341 in total, you can see it here. Below, total nominations for South Florida stations.

And yes it’s a pay to play so if you’re not seeing your favorite station represented enough or at all they didn’t submit material for review and pay the requisite fees required to compete.

Miami/Ft Lauderdale:
WFOR - 22 nominations
WTVJ - 19 nominations
WSVN - 5 nominations
WPLG - 12 nominations
WBFS - 1 nomination
WSFL - 1 nomination
WSCV - 26 nominations
WLTV - 23 nominations
WPBT - 11 nominations
MEGA - 21 nominations

West Palm Beach:
WPTV - 7 nominations

In all Miami/Ft. Lauderdale has 166 nominess counting local production companies and such. West Palm Beach market has 10 nominations

7’s Oralia Ortega Leaving

Oralia Ortega who freelanced at WSVN as a reporter will be trading South Florida sunshine for El Paso, Texas.

She was hired as an anchor at KTSM, the NBC affiliate for the El Paso, TX area. Ortega will anchor that station’s 5, 6 and 10pm newscasts and also report.

She graduated Florida International University, interned for Deco Drive, was a writer for Today in Florida, anchored the morning newscast at KPAX, worked as a reporter and weekend anchor at KTLV, ABC affiliate in Tyler, TX

Rick Sanchez on The Economy in 2 Minutes

It wasn’t long ago when Rick Sanchez was pontificating reading (while almost falling trough my TV) news about the latest shooting in Miami.

Then he went on to bigger and better things, at MSNBC, came back to WTVJ as a daytime show host. Left for CNN where he got tasered in the name of journalism, sparred with anti-immigrant loudmouth Tom Tancredo.

Here’s Rick talking economy on CNN.

And he’s super hip. He knows what Twitter is and reads tweets from twitters. Cool!

No She Wasn’t

Someone has confused Belkys adjusting her mic with … um … something else, like grabing/adjust certain parts of the female body.

But that’s not as striking as the fact that the video as of this writing has gotten over 405,000 views and climbing steadily.

That’s more eyeballs than Channel 7 newscasts get in one day probably.

/thx Brandon/

WTPV Voice Over Guy Dies

Chris Clausen WPTV voice over, and also the voice over to WSVN’s segment sponsor passed away yesterday after suffering a stroke last week.

Clausen was the voice over for many stations across the country including WFTV in Orlando, stations in Memphis, St. Louis and others. He was 63

/thanks Adam/

Uh Oh WHDH Meltdown Again?

Tipster tells me WHDH’s video server crashed last night at 9pm and WSVN had help them by feeding them stories until everything was back on.

Couple years ago they had to scrap a whole newscast when everything crashed then

New WSVN Reporter

While keeping an eye on WTVJ’s on-again off-again problems this afternoon I notice that Blake Burman who joined WSVN from NBC2 in Ft. Myers, Florida is now at 7. He started July 7th.

Blake Burman WSVN

Blake Burman WSVN

WHDH in High Definition

WHDH finally fliped the HD switched at Noon today.
This is a pretty good preview of what to expect from WSVN whenever they get around

/hat tip Andy from Boston/

more video, the embeding feature and player have not been officially released so you might have to try and play the video more than once.

Breaking News bump

updated news desk

developing story bump

How NBC6 Might Look Very Soon

NBC has a new graphics package that should be disbursed around all NBC-owned stations before teh Olympics. KNTV in San Francisco already has it and someone posted videos on YouTube.

An interesting note, with the new graphics and HD came a re-brand. The station is now known as simply NBC Bay Area and the bug in the lower right displays only NBC. There’s no mention of channel number at all.

Below an open, a bit dizzying me thinks, with former WSVN-er Jessica Aguirre who’s also Louis Aguirre’s sister.

Coming up tease

WHDH in HD on Monday; WSVN Ummm Whenever

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.

SunSentinel’s Visit With Local TV Meteorologists

The Sun Sentinel paid a visit to the local TV meteorologists for a behind the scenes look at their jobs and get their take on working during hurricane season

Picture slideshow meteorologists behind the scenes

Video
WPLG’s Trent Aric emphasises their no-hype approach

WSVN’s Phil Pherro: “We’d rather err on the side of too much warning, than not enough”

WFOR’s David Bernard: Recalls WFOR during Wilma

WTVJ’s Paul Deanno

WTVJ’s Jennifer Gray explains working 12hr during hurricanes

WPTV’s chief meteorologist Steve Weagle

Inspired by?

Interesting similarities between German ProSieben studios and WSVN’s Newsplex from the 90s. Wonder who inspired who, hm.

Pro Sieben Germany in the 90s

WSVN in the 90s

Pro Sieben (spoof newscast) in the 90s