Ted Hall spent 18 years anchoring the news at Knoxville's WBIR before he bolted for WXIA in Atlanta.
Now Hall is returning to Knoxville, but he's doing so across the street at WVLT.
Hall was a popular anchor during his time in Knoxville and WVLT are betting on the fact that viewers will still remember Hall and tune in.
Stay tined...
NBC's Brian Williams has been anchoring the news from South Africa, but he will not be joined by either Scott Pelley or Diane Sawyer.
The AP writes that ABC and CBS are keeping top anchors Diane Sawyer and Scott Pelley in New York, where George Stephanopoulos will also be located Tuesday when he anchors an early morning ABC special on Mandela. The moves show how economics and a dwindling interest in international news are changing the biggest broadcast networks, where a decade ago there would have been little question that their most prominent faces would be on hand for such a big story.
‘‘We agreed here that this is a moment in history and he needed and wanted to be there,’’ said Patrick Burkey, executive producer of Williams’ ‘‘Nightly News.’’ ‘'We spent a whole lot more time figuring out how to do it than whether or not we should.’’
It was particularly important to Williams, who interviewed Mandela shortly after he was released from a South African prison, he said.
The only other time Williams has anchored from overseas in 2012 and 2013 was surrounding the London Summer Olympics, for which NBC was the exclusive rights-holder in the United States, said Andrew Tyndall, a consultant who tracks evening news content.
Both Pelley and Sawyer reported from Rome this year on the selection of a new pope. Pelley also anchored a night from London last year, though it wasn’t clear why he was there, Tyndall said.
All three of the news broadcasts have cut back on foreign coverage, with that trend most apparent in anchors’ travels, he said.
More on the story from The AP
Sad news out of KTRK in Houston.
Longtime News Photographer Bob Dows has passed away.
Dows was most notably the photographer putting Marvin Zindler on TV every night along with producer Lori Reingold in the Action 13 unit.
"I've had friends throughout my life, but I learned how loyal a real friend can be," Dows said in a panel discussion on Zindler's life in 2011. "Marvin, I think, worked very hard, very long and I think he worked very hard and very long to keep the team together. Because it meant a lot to him and it meant a lot to us."
KTRK abc13 reporter Deborah Wrigley wrote the following on her station Facebook page about Dows:
"You may not have known his name but for years, you saw his work. Bob Dows was Marvin Zindler's photographer, which was a job that required much patience and good humor. Bob had both in abundance. Tonight, after a long illness Bob passed away. He leaves behind a family of devoted friends he made through and at Channel 13 who will miss his smiles and friendship and his good soul."
H/T Mike McGuff
Last week, FTVLive told you that former Fox News PR Head Brian Lewis has reached a settlement with FNC that will keep him quiet.
How much did Fox News pay to stop him from pulling back the curtain on FNC?
$8 Million Dollars!!!
That's what a Fox News executive with knowledge of the negotiations told Gawker.
After Lewis was fired, Fox News tried to downplay his role at the network, but anyone that really knew FNC, knew that Lewis could blow the lid off the place.
Everyone expected Fox News was going to pay, but not many thought it would be $8 million bucks.
Gawker writes that it became apparent to Fox News employees that discussions had ended, the executive said, on November 5, a Tuesday. On that day, “they cleaned out [Lewis’s] office after not touching it for three months.
Needless to say, Brian Lewis doesn't have to work anywhere else for a while....a long while.
You may remember back on November 21st, FTVLive told you about Marion Stokes.
She is the woman that recorded every Philly newscast on VHS for 35 years.
Now, her collection is going to go digital
The Philly Inquirer reports that by 2012, when Stokes died at her home on Rittenhouse Square, she had filled roughly 140,000 videocassettes with about a million hours of programming.
How much is that? If someone watched eight hours a day, every day, it would take 342 years to see it all. Together, the tapes weigh about 31 tons, a little more than a railroad freight car.
"My mother had a keen sense of the uniqueness of her mission," said Michael Metelits, 53, who helps run Overdue Press, a new e-publishing company. "She would resist, forcefully, anybody who told us this was useless or a waste of time."
She was possessed, he said, by a belief that the miles of news footage would someday, some way, prove useful to somebody.
And they have.
On Tuesday, the tapes are due to arrive at a warehouse operated by the Internet Archive in California, a giant on-line library that plans to digitize the videos and make them available to the public. The gift will expand the archive's collection of national news, and open new, local collections on Philadelphia and Boston.
The project is expected to take years and cost at least $2 million.
"We were awestruck by two things," said Roger Macdonald, Internet Archive director of TV archives. "One, the size of the collection. And two, the human story behind it, that one person could create so extensive a collection."
Stokes, who died last December at 83, worked for the Free Library from the 1940s to the early 1960s, but was much more than a librarian - social-justice advocate, technophile, investor, thinker, reader, and, at one time, coproducer of a local Sunday-morning TV talk show.
KBAK Weatherman Aaron Perlman predicted snow in Bakersfield on Saturday.... it didn't happen.
So the news anchors made Perlman sit in the corner in a "time out" and deliver the forecast.
If all weather anchors were forced to sit in a "time out" every time they got the forecast wrong, many would be spending large blocks of time in the corner of the room.
Here's the video of Perlman's time out:
This is just a heads up to tell you about the next 3 days of FTVLive.
Starting this morning, tomorrow and Wednesday, I am playing in the Gate PGA, my last golf tournament for the year.
The event is about an hour away from my house and a pain of a drive through traffic. That means FTVLive will be updated when I get some free moments and when I can find some decent WiFi.
Being a one man news operation has some advantages, but when I do take time out to do other stuff, the site is not updated as much as I like.
The other problem is I need a new laptop in the worst way. If you're thinking about buying me a Christmas present...and let's be honest, who isn't think that?
You can donate to FTVLive and help us get a new laptop, which will be a huge help when we're on the road.
Here is a link to the Support FTVLive Page
WTKR in Norfolk is running a promo claiming to be number 1.
But when you check out the fine print, you see that the station needed to massage the numbers a bit to make that claim.
The station claims to be numero uno, but they used the time period 10/31 to 12/3. The November book ended on 11/27.
Hold on tight....it looks like we have entered the SPIN Cycle.
Sources tell FTVLive that KTLA Anchor Rick Chambers has signed on to work on the show "Bad Girls All Star Battle Ground."
We have no idea what the show is. But judging by a few screen shots from the show, we're going to go out on a limb and say, it might be something you don't want your News Anchor involved with.
Just saying....
WTIC was introducing the weather segment with Weatherman Joe Furey. It wasn't hard to figure out that the news anchor was stalling and then we see why.
Plus, it looks like old Joe might not be the most coordinated guy at the station.
Before Granite purchased WKBW in Buffalo, it was one of the stronger number 1 stations in the entire country.
But Granite took the station over, named Bill Ransom as the General Manager and it has gone downhill ever since.
Ransom and Granite cut the station to the bone and it went from first to worst in the ratings.
Bill Ransom finally retired and that was great news for anyone still left at the station.
Now word is that Granite could be selling out the group and that includes WKBW.
Scripps-Howard, Sinclair and Nexstar have all been rumored to buying the station. Scripps suits were spotted in the station last week.
No matter who takes over WKBW, you can bet that the staff will be excited to see Granite go bye-bye.
As one staffer at WKBW told FTVLive, if the station is sold in the next couple of weeks it will be a "Christmas Miracle."
Stay tuned...
While some former TV Anchors dress up as a nun and sing to their cat, one former Reporter took a different route.
Elizabeth Fanciullo thought it would be the dream job of her life. Working as a television editor and producer and, later, on-air reporter, she covered presidential visits, the mania of the Kentucky Derby and the public panic that ensued in the wake of a sniper’s shooting spree near Indianapolis.
But nearly five years after Fanciullo began her career in broadcast journalism in Kentucky, the young woman who had decided when she was 16 that all she wanted to be was a television reporter, decided that something was missing.
“I felt like I was talking into the camera and not knowing whether people were caring what I was saying,” said Fanciullo, “I wasn’t feeling fulfilled.”
More after the jump.
Read MoreHere is a video of former WTVJ (Miami) Anchor Kelly Craig dressed as a Nun and singing to her cat.
4 years ago, the NBC O&O told Craig that her contract was not being renewed and she was let go from the station. Criag spent the better parts of two decades delivering the news in South Florida.
So, if you wondered what happens to longtime Anchors that are told they are no longer needed.
Here's your answer:
This is the internal memo sent out to the one air staff at ESPN.
Which might tell you all you need to know about the on air staff at ESPN:
From: Talent Office
Date: December 6, 2013 5:13:56 PM EST
Subject: Important Reminder
All,
All of us in Production and throughout the company take great pride in the work of our on air talent.espn You are our direct connection with sports fans and contribute significantly in making ESPN the leader in sports media. Recently, there have been numerous incidents in which the word “sucks” has been used on our air. This word is simply not appropriate for ESPN. What you say and the language you use is important for our audience and sports fans of all ages. Please be mindful of this starting immediately.
Thank you,
John Wildhack and Laurie Orlando
ABC News has lost a number of on air talent over the past year.
Some that left might have actually been a blessing for ABC News to lose them. But others have been a hit to the network.
The NY Daily News writes that the sudden departure of Sam Champion from “Good Morning America” (FIRST reported by FTVLive) caught viewers by surprise last week and has industry insiders buzzing about a growing “brain drain” at ABC News.
In less than a year, there have been several other high-profile departures from the network, including Jake Tapper, Chris Cuomo and “Nightline” correspondent Bill Weir.
“It’s curious,” said an agent who represents news personalities now working at ABC. “It’s not quite troubling yet, but it has caught our attention.
Tapper, Cuomo and Weir left their jobs at ABC for larger roles at CNN, while Champion has taken the title of managing editor at the NBC-owned Weather Channel and is expected to put in appearances on “GMA” arch-rival “Today” and other NBC News programs like “Nightly News.”
There also has been buzz that ABC brass is elbow-deep in talks to keep other “GMA” talent, including George Stephanopoulos, Lara Spencer and Josh Elliott.
Read more after the leap.
Read MoreFTVLive is wrapping up another week with record traffic to this website.
We like to look back on the week that was and see which stories you guys read the most.
Here are the Top 5 from the past week"
No. 5 - WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS BUFFALO ANCHOR THINKING?
No. 4 - THE SANDY HOOK 911 CALLS
No. 3 - THE DISMANTLING OF CNN?
No. 2 - ZUCKER WANTS CNN/HLN TALENT NY BASED
And the No. 1 most read story this week was: NBC NEWS BOSS'S MEMO ABOUT 911 SANDY HOOK CALLS
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