Reporter Busted for DUI while Riding Motorcycle

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WTVR (Richmond) Reporter Mark Holmberg has been suspended from his job after being arrested for driving under the influence early Friday.

Holmberg posted on his Facebook page that he was riding his motorcycle westbound on Interstate 64 about 2:30 a.m. when he was pulled over by a New Kent County deputy. Holmberg said his blood-alcohol level registered 0.1 percent on a Breathalyzer, above the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

He's got a date with the judge on July 2nd. 

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Chicago Station to Expand Morning Show

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Last week, FTVLive told you that WLS in Chicago was pulling the plug on their 11AM newscast. 

Well, while WLS is dumping a newscast, WGN is expanding their news commitment.  

Starting September 3, WGN Morning News is expanding an extra hour from 9-10am.  The added hour will feature anchors Larry Potash, Robin Baumgarten and weatherman Paul Konrad.  “There will still be a mix of news and fun,” commented Greg Caputo, WGN News Director.  “The new hour of WGN Morning News from 9-10am will take on a more conversational approach to the news and allow viewers a chance to transition into the rest of their day.”

WGN Morning News’ expansion until 10am on September 3 also means Chicago’s Very Own WGN News will add to the most television news hours (54) delivered to Chicago viewers every week, including the continuation of WGN Midday News from 11am-1pm, around the same time WLS cancels their midday news broadcast.

KSDK Will Quit Producing KDNL Newscast

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It looks like Gannett's KSDK is done helping out the station across the street. 

KSDK says that this year will be the last that they produce a  newscast for KDNL Channel  the ABC affiliate in St. Louis.

KSDK began producing newscasts for KDNL in January 2011. Under the deal, KSDK controls decisions on hiring and news content for KDNL's newscasts.

KDNL, which is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, cut its newscasts in October 2001. 

Tom Tipton, KDNL's General Manager, said it's undetermined whether KDNL will offer local news after the end of the year. "We haven't decided," Tipton said. "We won't make a decision anytime soon, probably the third or fourth quarter."

A Gannett spokesman said the decision to end the partnership is unrelated to Gannett's announcement last week that it is acquiring Belo Corp. of Dallas, which owns KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis.  

H/T St. Louis Post Dispatch

Today Show Books Paula Deen...again

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Matt Lauer and the Today Show gang are going to give Paula Deen another shot.  

Deen has said that she will appear on the NBC morning show this Wednesday.  

Last time Deen promised to be on the show, she stiffed them. That action along with others ended up getting her fired from her TV show. 

So, it looks like she now has enough time on her hands, she might actually show up this time.  

Tucson Weatherman Missing from the Air...again

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Tucson Weatherman Missing from the Air...again

We are outside a rating book, so that means that KOLD chief meteorologist Chuck George is off the air and on another leavce of absence.

This is the forth time that George has gone missing from the station since 2010. 

So far, KOLD General Manager Debbie Bush is not talking and George has not posted to his Twitter account since June 6.

George’s last leave was four weeks, ending May 2, when he revealed in an interview on air that he suffers from depression.

Reached by phone today, George said he is not ready to talk about his absence.

That was not the case in early May when he disclosed struggles with depression.

More after the hop.    

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Zimmerman Trial Kicks Off Today

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Opening statement in the George Zimmerman trial and expected to start at 9AM this morning and you can bet Nancy Grace is as excited as a school girl.

But, Grace isn't the only one jack up for the Zimmerman trail. 

The Orlando stations will be making major changes to their schedules, so they can go wall to wall with Zimmerman.

Basically all the O-Town stations are moving their regularly scheduled shows over to their secondary channels.  

"We've seen a lot of activity both on our web and our mobile app," hsays WESH GM Jim Carter. "We've had a lot of streams of the jury selection process."

"There is a significant appetite for the case," WKMG news director Steve Hyvonen said. "We're going to keep going with it as long as viewers want to watch it."

He said high interest in the Zimmerman trial was reflected in ratings, web traffic and social media streams. But he added that WKMG will "constantly reassess" its plan and could adjust it.

Nancy Grace will do no readjusting and will be all Zimmerman all the time, until the trail is over or another white woman goes missing. 

Stay tuned.... 

H/T Orlando Sentinel  

Hey NBC's David Gregory WTF?!

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Hey NBC's David Gregory WTF?!

Tim Russert died just over 5 years ago and his loss is still being felt... especially to anyone that watched Meet the Press yesterday.

When Russert died, David Gregory took over the show and many feel that it really never has been the same.

Yesterday, Gregory interviewed Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who has broken much of the news on National Security Agency (NSA) story.

Gregory asked Greenwald for details on where his source, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Gregory wanted to know where Snowden was headed and if he felt Snowden had broken the law?

All fine questions, but then he went over the edge, asking whether Greenwald himself had broken the law?

And that's when it got nasty, see why after the jump.   

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F-Bomb Flies in Spokane

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F-Bomb Flies in Spokane

KHQ (Spokane) Reporter Linsday Nadrich had the F-Bomb flying all over the station's air while reporting some hard news from the local strawberry festival.

“Fuck me, I can’t even fucking talk” was the gist of Nadrich's stand up, before the station dumped out to a very stunned Anchor Kjerstin Ramsing. 

The anchor quickly apologized. and blamed it on bad editing.

The poor editor, always gets the blame.  

The video after the jump.

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The Bad Timing Award Goes to....

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Last week the big news story in the Birmingham market had been the disappearance of a 19 year old University of Alabama student after a river rafting accident.

Sadly, on Friday morning around 11AM her body had been found. 

At 11:30AM, WVTM aired their locally produced show "Daytime Alabama."  The show opened with host Wendy Garner standing beneath the covered bridge at the waters edge.

Where Garner was standing was just downstream from where the girl's body was discovered just a half hour before.

Garner made no mention of the searches in the area, still packing up their gear from the 40 plus hour search.

Why? Because the show was pre-taped and Garner's story was a fluff piece about the history of the covered bridges in the area. 

You would have thought someone at the station might have caught that and not aired Garner's report and pull something else from the can.  

Just saying....  

Headed to Chattanooga

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Headed to Chattanooga

After five years at WWMT (Kalamazoo) Newschannel 3 as the morning anchor, Josh Roe is leaving the station for a gig in Chattanooga.

"We are going to miss Josh terribly," said Steve Koles, WWMT news director. "He is a great member of our new team and morning team, but we are happy for him personally because it's a great opportunity for him and his family."

Roe is originally from Tennessee and Koles said Roe's wife still lives and works there. Over the past several months, WWMT has assisted Roe with the transfer, Koles said.

Roe will work as an evening anchor at a Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. station in Chattanooga. WWMT is also owned by Sinclair.

More after the leap.   

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Rock Center Signs Off, BriWi Pissed

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Rock Center Signs Off, BriWi Pissed

NBC's "Rock Center" which changed time slots as much as a Paula Deen apology on YouTube ended its run on Friday night.

NBC rolled the rock around the schedule  and the show nevercould never find its footing in the ratings.

The show was canceled in May.

Anchor Brian Williams finished what he said was the 76th episode with a look back on, as he put it, "what we believe what was a very good run." He ran through some of the highlights of the show's nearly two-year tenure.

Most of them served to underscore what will be missing from NBC News' lineup when "Rock Center" is gone--namely, long-form, serious journalism. The network's sole other newsmagazine, "Dateline," is heavily weighted towards tabloid fare, and none of its other programs feature the kinds of stories "Rock Center" did.

After the hop see how mad BriWi is with the plug being pulled on the show.  

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The Top 5 Most Read Stories of the Week

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It's time to look at the stories you guys found most interesting on FTVLive this past week. 

Here are the Top 5 most read stories the week:

No. 5 -  Sacramento News Director Out

No. 4 -  Scott Pelley: Cable News Doesn't Matter

No. 3 -  Retired BELO CEO to make $300,000 for Doing Nothing

No. 2 -  Whatever Happened to....

And the most read story on FTVLive this past week was:  Here is your Next TV Anchor