Chicago Station Going Back to The Future

WLS in Chicago is going back to the future and it will be just in time for the November book. 

Robert Feder writes that seventeen years after “Eyewitness News” disappeared from Chicago television, it’s making a comeback.

Just in time for the November sweeps WLS-Channel 7 will go back to branding itself as “Eyewitness News,” the station’s well-known franchise from 1969 to 1996.

“The reality is ['Eyewitness News'] still has a very strong identity with this station — even though it was dropped a number of years ago,” said John Idler, president and general manager of the ABC-owned outlet. “It’s still very important to our viewers, and they associate it with ABC 7. That’s principally why we’re bringing it back.”

Details are still under wraps, but Idler said the new branding “will be incorporated appropriately throughout the station,” including show opens, graphics and advertising.

Idler emphasized that the goal isn’t to go retro. “The execution of this is going to be very contemporary,” he said. “It is not going to be a look back to ‘Eyewitness News.’ It is going to be a look forward to what ‘Eyewitness News’ means to viewers today.”

Asked about the timing of the move, Idler said it was “driven by a desire to freshen up the look of the station.” It also comes as ABC 7 is battling to retain its status as the top-rated news operation in the market. After more than a quarter-century of local news dominance, its margins of victory have been shrinking and, in some key demographics, have evaporated.

Read more from Feder's blog post  

Alycia Lane is Out at KNBC

Another chapter in the Alycia Lane soap opera has been written.

Word is that Lane is out effective immediately as the morning Anchor at KNBC in LA.

Traffic Reporter Sean Murphy was also pink slipped from the station.  

“Alycia Lane and Sean Murphy’s last day was today, October 16. We are grateful for the contributions they have both made to NBC4 and wish them the best in their future endeavors,” a station spokesperson told TVSpy.

Both Murphy and Lane came to KNBC after spending time at KYW in Philly.

Lane as you may remember was the co-anchor of Larry Mendte at KYW. Mendte was convicted of hacking into Lane's email account and leaking information to the tabloids. 

TVSpy says that  Michelle Valles will co-anchor the morning newscast with Michael Brownlee.

Valles is being bumped up from KNBC’s weekend morning show

About Damn Time!

Shooting the Bird

Albuquerque police are looking for person that shot the bird.

No, they didn't give the finger.

They say the idiot shot at a KOAT's news helicopter and satellite truck.

Police said they believe a gunman in a gold Nissan Maxima with turquoise New Mexico plates fired four or five rounds toward the KOAT news station early Thursday, and some or all of those rounds struck the station’s helicopter, disabling it. The gunman also soon after fired one shotgun round into a satellite truck at a nearby park.

Police said they have a “very strong” lead in the case. The station’s general manager, Mary Lynn Roper, said that the helicopter will be disabled for the next couple of weeks, but that the station has access to another one in the meantime.

“We appreciate the efforts of APD to find who is responsible for this,” Roper said. “Sky 7 is a tool we use to serve the public interest. It has saved individuals and gives officials a bird’s-eye view when residents, communities or pueblos are in trouble.”

H/T Albuquerque Journal  

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Any longtime reader of FTVLive knows that my number one pet peeve is when News Directors and Producers let someone highjack a newscast to make a marriage proposal.

Why take up the viewers time with this crap? It happened again at WICS in Springfield, IL when the boyfriend of WICS Anchor Liz Foster went on the air to propose. The best part was when the station screwed up and rolled his video early.

Serves them right for putting this crap on the air to begin with.

Here's the video, watch it while I go and pour bleach in my eyes! But not before I barf. 

When a Newspaper Runs a TV Newsroom

Insiders at WHIO in Dayton say morale has sunk ever since the station moved their studios to the Cox Media Center building in late 2010. 

WHIO now works under the same roof as the Cox owned Dayton Daily News. Cox has placed the newspaper, radio and WHIO all under the same roof in an effort to streamline operations and share resources. 

WHIO insiders say that The Dayton Daily News has essentially taken over operations of the TV station and it hasn't been going well. 

Sources say the Newspaper is running (or ruining) the TV newsroom.  

A number of staffers have left the station and more have their eyes on the exit.  

Some of those that left recently: Erica Collura, Jenna Deery, Anne Yeager (after just ONE week) and Mark Bruce

Sources say that they have only hired ONE person to replace them so far "because job candidates keep getting scared off by morale and the newspaper atmosphere."

With the state of the newspaper industry these days, do you really think these are the people that you want running your TV station?  

Just saying.... 

WABC Reporter Questions the President

It's not often that a local reporter gets to sit down with the President in the White House. But every now and again the White House hands picks a few Reporters that get to go to DC and get a few minutes with the President.   

WABC reporter Diana Williams was one of those that got 8 minutes with the President and asked Obama some tough but fair questions about the Shutdown and the the Affordable Healthcare Act. 

Here is her live report from DC: 

H/T Mediaite

Babs is in Jenny's Corner

The crew at 'The View' says that the Radar report that the show is unhappy with Jenny McCarthy’s performance as the new co-host is not true. 

“There is absolutely no truth to this story,” a rep for the show said, echoing Walters' response earlier this year when asked if she was planning to retire (she is) and about Elisabeth Hasselbeck leaving the show (she did).

Stay tuned... 

H/T NY Daily News

Anderson vs. Alec

Alec Baldwin is on MSNBC. 

Anderson Cooper is on CNN. 

And the National Enquirer says the two are in a feud.

According to the tabloid the battle blasted off when hothead Alec Baldwin has openly gay newsman Anderson Cooper all riled up over nasty, homophobic slurs he hurled at an English reporter.

The fireworks began in June when the 55-year-old actor went on a Twitter tirade against a “Daily Mail” reporter who wrote about Baldwin’s wife supposedly tweeting in the middle of James Gandolfini’s funeral.

Baldwin blasted the reporter, calling him a “queen” and a “bitch.”

And that threw Anderson into a fury!

Cooper tweeted, asking: “Why does Alec Baldwin get a pass when he uses gay slurs? If a conservative talked of beating up a ‘queen,’ they would be vilified.”

A source close to the 46-year-old CNN anchorman added: “Anderson knows that Alec is a pro-gay rights liberal and made those remarks in anger, but that doesn’t excuse him.”

Baldwin denied that the comments were directed toward the reporter’s sexuality, but, upset at Anderson’s comments, the “30 Rock” star blasted him on Howard Stern’s July 23 radio show. He accused the newsman – who came out of the closet just last year – of trying to “reinforce his credibility in the gay community.”

And in a stinging slap, he added: “You couldn’t get him out of the closet for 10 years with a canister of tear gas.”

Now he’s acting like a “sheriff,” bristled Baldwin. “Writing everybody a ticket.”

Good Day Sacramento Meets Scooby Doo

Here's the Halloween promo for Good Day Sacramento.  

We Paid For This?!

You and I have paid almost $40,000 since the Government shutdown to keep taxpayer-funded television and radio studios inside the U.S. Capitol open for business so that the Congress can make sure they will get on TV.

The studios have been deemed essential during the shutdown and remain open.

Congress members have held at least 50 news conferences since the shutdown, to go with hundreds of more appearances on network, cable and local news.

Here is a report WRC in Washington: 

Cracking Up Colbert

Stephen Colbert normally does a great job of keeping a straight face while he anchors the Colbert Report.

But, sometimes playing the hard nose conservative anchor with a straight face and delivery gets the best of him and he loses it.

Here are some of the times that Colbert cracked up: 

Sacked in Sin City?

KTNV (Las Vegas) morning weatherman Mike Tsolinas has been missing from the air for the past 2 weeks.

Yesterday, his bio was pulled from the station's website. KTNV management isn't talking (surprise, surprise).

Sources tell FTVLive there are an unusual  number of closed door meetings going on. 

People that work in the KTNV newsroom are left in the dark when it comes to news about one of their own.  

Tsolinas hinted to his firing on Facebook: 

Is Kate Bolduan Zucker's Modern Day Alexis Glick?

Yesterday, FTVLive reported Exclusively about the trouble behind the scenes at New Day, CNN's latest attempt at a morning show that is relevant.

Boss Jeff Zucker made it clear that the morning show was a top priority when he took over CNN. 

Zucker hired away Chris Cuomo from ABC and promised him that he would build a top notch morning show around him. Zucker planned on pairing Cuomo with Erin Burnett. 

But, as FTVLive FIRST reported, Burnett balked at going to the morning show and Zucker had to find a new female co-anchor to sit along side Cuomo. 

Zcuker turned to 29 year old Kate Bolduan. Bolduan showed herself has a capable reporter and Zucker felt she would make a good anchor.

The network spent millions of dollars promoting and building New Day and it has been nothing short of a dud.

The reviews have not been good and more importantly the ratings have been awful.  

Last week Cuomo told Jeff Zucker that he wants a new co-anchor. 

FTVLive reported that news yesterday and it put the CNN PR department on edge. News outlets and blogs contacted CNN to get confirmation of the FTVLive story. CNN PR is doing all they can to try and calm the waters and downplay our story.  The story has struck a very exposed nerve at CNN. 

As for Zucker, it appears that history is repeating itself.

Back in 2006, Zucker was hell bent on trying to make financial reporter Alexis Glick a star. Like Bolduan, Glick was young and had showed she was a solid reporter. Zucker fast tracked Glick to the Today Show.  

It became quickly clear that Glick was swimming in deep waters and was starting to drown. The Glick experiment on Today ended almost as quickly as it started. 

It was one of many of Zucker's failures at NBC. 

Now, in 2013 it appears that Zucker may have made the same mistake with Bolduan. He rushed her to the line before she was ready.  

And while many could argue that Cuomo might not "be all that" as well, it seems that CNN is more likely to pull the plug on Bolduan than Cuomo. 

No matter how you look at it, New Day is failing and Zucker needs to make a move. But, his hard headiness has cost him dearly in the past.

Will history repeat itself once again? 

Stay tuned...