We're guessing (hoping might be a better word) that WXMI (Grand Rapids) Morning Anchor Mike Avery left his desk with his Twitter account open on his computer.
This is the Tweet that Avery (more than likely a newsroom prankster) sent out around 6:45AM this morning:
Since his co-anchor Sarah Brodhead was very quick to retweet it, we're saying she is the prime suspect. Either that or Avery is the oldest Justin Bieber fan ever. And maybe the first male one at that.
It wasn't that long ago when WGRZ the Gannett station in Buffalo was in last place in the news ratings.
The Number 1 station was WKBW followed by WIVB and then WGRZ.
You can flip that upside down now.
WGRZ topped the news ratings from morning to evening. WIVB gets a win late, thanks to CBS prime time and WKBW continues to suck wind.
As FTVLive told you a few weeks ago, WKBW GM Bill Ransom is going to retire later this year. When Ransom took over the station is was a solid number one. Under Ransom's leadership the station went from first to worst. And you wonder why the guy gets to retire, instead of being fired a long time ago?
There was an interesting trend with viewers this rating book. Read what that was after the leap.
Read MoreWJLA (Washington) Anchor Cynne Simpson is leaving the Allbritton owned station and headed back to the market see was at before she came to DC.
Word is that contract talks between WJLA and Simpson had stalled and the Anchor started to explore other options.
She is now heading to Fox O&O WAGA in Atlanta.
This isn't a first go around for Simpson in the A-T-L, she worked as an evening anchor at WGCL before heading to WJLA.
It appears that Fired KMOV Anchor Larry Connors isn't going to go away quietly.
Connors' attorney Merle Silverstein sent a letter to KMOV GM Mark Pimentel telling the station that they want all records pertaining to Connors employment and firing to be preserved.
Connors was sacked after he posted on his Facebook page that he thought he might be a target of the IRS after his interview with President Obama. Connors later admitted that his IRS trouble started well before the Obama interview.
A copy of the letter sent to the station by Connors attorney is after the jump.
Read MoreBut WESH-Channel 2 won the 5 p.m. news hour, WOFL-Channel 35 dominated the 10 p.m. hour and WKMG-Channel 6 was tops at noon. The May ratings period ended Wednesday.
WFTV was the favorite destination for early morning news. And WFTV continued to win the 6 p.m. half-hour in a close contest with WESH. The numbers in this story focus on the 25-to-54 age group, unless otherwise noted.
At 6 p.m., WFTV averaged 29,900 viewers to WESH's 27,400, WOFL's 22,100 and WKMG's 10,600. But WESH highlighted that it was reaching more 25-to-54 viewers than WFTV from 5 to 6:30 p.m., which has long been a stronghold for WFTV. Both WESH and WOFL were ahead of WFTV at 5 p.m.
More after the hop.
Read MoreThe strong just keep getting stronger. At least when it comes to late local news in Chicago. Long top-ranked ABC-ownedWLS-Channel 7 extended its lead in the hotly-competitive late local news ratings in the Nielsen May ratings book that ended Wednesday night.
Monday through Friday, Channel 7's 10 pm newscast jumped to a 10.0 rating from a 9.0 rating a year ago to lead the pack by a wide margin. Among other things, the station appears to be benefiting from an aggressive schedule of on-air promotions for its newscast — an initiative instituted by general manager John Idler after his arrival a year ago.
Second-place NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 inched up slightly in the May book to a 5.9 from a 5.7, while CBS-ownedWBBM-Channel 2 plummeted to a 4.8 rating from a 5.7, partly the result, perhaps, of a weaker lead-in audience in May. In the Chicago market, one rating point equals 35,000 households.
More on the Windy City ratings after the skip.
Read MoreAttorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.
The disclosure of the attorney general’s role came as President Barack Obama, in a major speech on his counterterrorism policy, said Holder had agreed to review Justice Department guidelines governing investigations that involve journalists.
"I am troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable," Obama said. "Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs."
Read more on the story after the bounce.
Read MoreYou just know that actors hate nothing more than doing the satellite press tours with local TV stations to pimp their movies.
Michael Caine and God himself Morgan Freeman were talking to KCPQ in Seattle about their new movie Now you See Me.
Freeman did not seem very excited and fell asleep a number of times during the interview.
The video after the jump.
Read MoreKIRO in Seattle has parted ways with Reporter James Schugel.
Schugel as you may remember was the Reporter that made news back in late 2011 while working at WCCO in Minneapolis. It was the dog/duck story where Schugel reported that a Minnesota "puppy mill" sending dogs to a Chinatown meat market in New York City.
It caused an uproar in the Asian American community and was a major embarrassment for WCCO.
By the end of 2012 Schugel was gone from the station and landed a job at KIRO in Seattle at the first of the year.
Now....just 5 months in he's gone from the Seattle station.
Sources tell FTVLive that Schugel was fired.
KIRO News Director Bob Jordan says that Schugel wanted to go back to Minneapolis and "we were able to accommodate him."
Jordan says Schugel is already gone from the station and that he left last week.
No word on his future plans in TV news.
The May Sweeps wrapped up Yesterday and the ratings spin machine will start turning out press releases later Today.
But, as stations work hard to come up with sweeps stunts ideas for the entire month, by the end of ratings you start to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
Take WLNS in Lansing for example.
It appears the station was headed into the last week of ratings and had run out of stunts, until they figured out one more.
Find out what they did after the jump.
Read MoreSinclair's station buying spree is moving them up the ladder in the Top 30 ranking of TV station groups.
The company vaulted over three other major TV station groups to land in the No. 3 spot in TVNewsCheck/BIA Kelsey's annual Top 30 ranking of TV station groups.
The ranking is based on advertising revenue estimates for 2012 provided through an exclusive arrangement with BIA/Kelsey.
To land in the third position, the Baltimore behemoth — with 112 TV stations under its belt — catapulted over ABC/Disney, NBCUniversal and Tribune, which found themselves planted in the fourth, fifth and eighth slots, respectively, after the dust settled on this year’s audit. ABC had been fourth the previous year, while NBC had been third and Tribune, fifth.
More after the bounce.
Read MoreAs FTVLive told you yesterday, KMOV in St. Louis has parted ways with longtime Anchor Larry Connors.
Connors was canned after he went on Facebook and suggested that he was a target of the IRS after his sit down interview with President Obama.
Connors then admitted that his IRS trouble started well before that interview.
Connors was then pulled from the air and yesterday the station announced he was fired.
Now, Connors is no longer gagged by the station and he is trying to tell his side of the story.
See what he has to say after the jump.
Read MoreForget banks, liquor stores or jewelry, in Oakland, CA the thieves target of choice is TV news crews.
Bay area crews have been robbed so many times that the stations have hired security guards to tag along with the news crews on stories.
But even that hasn't helped.
Thugs broke into a KGO news van outside an Oakland art gallery on Tuesday.
Not only that, these idiots also broke into the private security vehicle assigned to protect the news van.
The news crew was taping a news segment in broad daylight when the brazen thieves broke the van's windows and helped themselves to whatever iPhones and other little stuff was easily to swipe. Then they busted into the security guard's car.
The guard was inside the art gallery protecting the crew, instead of protecting the van.
The team of four crooks hopped into a green Jaguar and sped away.
No arrests have been made.
KTVX Weatherman Curtis Ray predicted a bit of rain for yesterday morning.
What he didn't predict was a big rainstorm would break out in the newsroom right over his desk.
It appears that the fire sprinklers went off in the newsroom sending a whole lot of water inside the studio.
The video that Ray shot of it pouring inside the KTVX newsroom after the jump.
Read MoreThe first 26 minutes of WJW Channel 8's 6 p.m. Wednesday newscast were pretty much business as usual. Then sports anchor John Telich wrapped up his segment by telling the retiring Wilma Smith, "It has just been an absolute pleasure working with you."
A smiling Lou Maglio, Smith's 6 p.m. co-anchor for the last eight years, promised more emotional tributes were on the way.
"Oh, my," Smith managed to say, a catch in her usually carefully modulated voice.
The tributes were in honor of Smith's final newscast after almost 36 years on the air in Cleveland. They ranged from a taped message by Gov. John Kasich to the last installment in Fox 8 reporter Bill Sheil's series on Smith's life and career.
"I hope I left a positive mark on people," Smith told Sheil. "I hope I'm not forgotten. Who wants to be forgotten?"
More after the leap.
Read MoreAs you read in the story above, longtime WJW Anchor Wilma Smith signed off from the station last night.
Competitor WOIO decided they would do a live shot of them delivering a cake to say goodbye to Smith.
WOIO Reporter Jason Hammond stopped by WJW with a cake in hand. But, WJW also made a cake for WOIO.
So why did they give a cake back?
See how they turned into a promo for a new newscast coming to the station.
See what their cake said to WOIO after the jump.
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