Jacksonville Anchor Quits, Sick of the Hype

FTVLive was the FIRST to tell you WTEV in Jacksonville is basically blowing out their entire main Anchor team.

The station is not renewing the contracts of up to 5 of their main anchors.

Weather Anchor Julie Watkins is not going to wait around for the Anchor purge, she's getting out now.

Watkins signed off from the Cox owned station this past weekend and she was brutally honest on her way out.

Watkins wrote on her blog: “I won't miss the local news environment. It's pretty intense. I don't want to be intense about weather anymore. At least not all the time. During life threatening situations, yes, but not every time there is a thunderstorm. I'm not saying it's a bad environment, it's just not for me. I no longer thrive in how news' markets function. I'm at odds with it, but I guess people are responding to its current formula because it appears to drive ratings which drives content and the cycle goes on.”

Taking a shot at WTEV's news philosophy and local news in general is another shot for a station that is taking some hits.

Sources tell FTVLive that a staffer has been assigned to kill negative comments about the anchor purge of the station's Facebook page. FTVLive has seen at least a dozen comments deleted from the station's FB page. 

One of the station's bigger advertisers has at least considered pulling their ads from the WTEV over the recent news. 

Watkins' very honest comments are not going to do anything to smooth the choppy waters at Action News Jacksonville.

Stay tuned.... 

Pushed out in Columbus

FTVLive FIRST told you on Friday that longtime WBNS Anchor Kurt Ludlow is gone from the Columbus station.

Sources tell FTVLive that it wasn't Ludlow's decision to leave the station and that he was pushed.

If you watch his sign off from Friday night, you will get feeling that is exactly the case. Voice cracking, tissue in hand, Ludlow tossed to the 6PM newscast after his final goodbye.

A Facebook page and online petition popped up to protest his leaving the station. 

Let's go to the goodbye video: 

Post by Kurt Ludlow.

GM is Out at Indy's WISH

Indianapolis insiders tell FTVLive that after 9+ years, Jeff White is out as the General Manager of WISH.

White has been at WISH since 1998 as GSM and moved to the GM job in 2005. 

WISH is owned by LIN has gone through a number of News Directors the past few years. The station saw their ratings drop when their popular weather anchor crossed the street to go to WTHR.

No word yet on a replacement for White. 

Weather Anchor Battles the Hiccups on Air

WHSV Meteorologist Aubrey Urbanowicz said she had a fear of ending up on YouTube and her fears came true. 

Urbanowicz went on air with a nasty case of the hiccups. Twice during the weather cast she said she was affaird her weather report was going to end up on YouTube.

It also ended up on FTVLive.

Let's go to the Video: 

Ummm....Where's the Weather Guy?

KSTP (Minneapolis) was getting ready to hit the air with their newscast, when they noticed that there was no Weather Anchor in the Weather Department.

Sports Anchor Chris Long (pictured above) jumped in and pulled double duty on the show. He explained what happened on his Facebook page:

"Schedule snafu with the weather guys.  Nobody noticed there wasn't anybody in until the show was just about to start.  I said if they could get the graphics computer up, I'd do what I could with the graphics that were still in there from the noon newscast.  Made it work.  Tried to have some fun with it."

Needless to say, we have a feeling that someone in the Weather Department is in hot water.

Just saying.... 

Matt and BriWi Locked in a Feud

Brian Williams is locked in a feud with one time Today Show golden boy Matt Lauer.

At least, that's what Page Six says is happening.

Page Six dishes that Williams and Lauer — rivals for big exclusive interviews, and for the attention of their bosses — are said to be feuding.

When the “Today” show aired excerpts of Williams’ interview with NSA leaker Edward Snowden (which ran Wednesday evening during a primetime news special), Williams refused to introduce the segments, sources said, leaving the task to Andrea Mitchell.

“It was a great promotional opportunity, but Williams wouldn’t go on ‘Today’ even for his own interview,” said one insider. “He wants nothing to do with ‘Today.’”

An NBC source denied there was any feud going on between the two anchors and said Williams was busy into the wee hours editing the five hours of Snowden videotape.

“Brian was booked on ‘Today,’ but at 2am the night before, when it became clear he would not get home anytime soon, he wrote his friends Matt [Lauer] and Savannah [Guthrie, show co-host] personally to . . . apologize for bailing.”

But another network insider said feelings have been hurt because NBC News boss Deborah Turness, who took the reins last August, is giving all of her attention to helping Lauer and the “Today” show regain supremacy in the ratings. “Brian feels like an orphan,” the insider said.

Can't everyone just get along? 

CNN's Sixties Special Sinks in the Demos

CNN boss Jeff Zucker was puffing his chest out about the big ratings that CNN's The Sixties pulled.

CNN spent months promoting the special and even threw a big party to kick it off. The ratings were good, but the demos?

Not so much.

In fact of all the CNN special reports including Zucker's favorite Blackfish, the 60's did the worse when it came to the demos that advertisers love. 

This Nielsen chart shows that the 60's was at the bottom of the CNN specials in the demo:

Of course when you do a special about the 60's even someone born at the very end of the 60's (1969) would still be 45 years old. And really the audience that are most likely interested in the 1960's were most likely born in the 40's or 50's. 

So, it wasn't like this was going to be a demo hit when CNN first planned it. I wonder if anyone at CNN figured that out before they started the project?

Just asking.... 

CNN Reporter Detained in Middle of Live Shot

It's not very often that a Reporter is detained by police in the middle of their live report. But, that is exactly what happened to CNN Correspondent Ivan Watson.

Watson was reporting live on air from Istanbul, Turkey Saturday when he was detained and kicked by police there who demanded to see his press credentials. Watson was in the midst of telling viewers about this weekend's protests that will mark the one year anniversary of the clashes between demonstrators and police in Taksim Square when authorities there interrupted his report asking, "Are you journalist?"

Let's go to the video:

Watson tweeted that he and his crew with eventually released. Cops also said sorry for kneeing him in the ass.

Moving on from OKC

A couple of staffers at KWTV in Oklahoma City are headed to new gigs.

Sources tell FTVLive that Reporter Michael Konopasek (Pictured) will be leaving in July after 3 yrs. to be a reporter for KING-5/Seattle. He'll join another former OKC reporter Adam Mertz (KFOR now also at KING) and his wife, Q13 FOX morning anchor Liz Dueweke. 

Also...Special Projects Producer Courtney Clevenger is leaving to be SPP at sister CBS affiliate KENS-San Antonio.

Out the Door in Columbus

Longtime WBNS Anchor Kurt Ludlow is gone from the Columbus station.

Ludlow anchored his last newscast and is done at the station. This was his second stint at the station. Ludlow joined WBNS in 1986 as a general assignment reporter. He left WBNS in 1999, accepting the primary anchor position at KPTV in Portland, Ore. He returned to WBNS-TV in 2003.

Now he's gone again. 

WBNS Political Reporter Jim Heath Reporter let viewers know that Ludlow was history: 

Signing Off in Carolina

WXII (Winston-Salem) meteorologist Austin Caviness signed off from the station this morning.

After 17 years he said his final goodbye. 

As FTVLive told you back in April, Caviness said he was leaving the station to become the pastor of Salem Fork Church in Dobson.

This morning with his family at the anchor desk and his colleagues looking on, Caviness said his final goodbye.

You can watch his goodbye at this link

Station Backtracks on Twitter Photo Story

WJBK in Detroit thought they had a juicy story. After a guy had a seizure and crashed his truck into a tree. Paramedics responded and were working the scene.

A passerby took a picture and posted it on Twitter. The victim and WJBK thought the Paramedics stopped and smiled for the picture while they were helping tend to the victim. The station passed along the photo to the Paramedics boss and wanted him to explain the smiles.

Social media went off on the station for making up a bogus story. The Paramedics boss said they guys were not smiling and doing their job correctly. 

WJBK Reporter Andrea Isom says she was hurt by all the comments on social media ripping her and her station for making up the story.

The station backtracked and aired another story to follow up, making it the first time a simple one car crash with no fatalities, made the newscast two nights in a row.

Let's go to the video:

Fox 2 News Headlines

Damn! Can we Blame the Intern?

FTVLive calls out stations and networks that get fooled by fake news stories in the Onion and such.

So fair is fair and we need to call out ourselves.

This morning, FTVLive got an email from one of our reliable tipsters pointing us to a story in a local paper.

The story was about an FCC fined leveled against a Buffalo station. 

The story had the look and feel of the Buffalo News website, but it was a parody site instead. Normally we always check the URL to make sure, but this morning we screwed up and got fooled.

In the 14 years of FTVLive, we can only think of one other time that we got fooled on a fake story. But, in reality it will likely happen again, although we will try like hell to make sure it doesn't.

We have seen TV stations fooled, networks fooled and a number of other websites fooled. It sucks when it happens, but it does happen.

We could blame it on being really tired, or better yet blame the intern, but the bottom-line is we got fooled and for that we are sorry. 

We own up to the mistake.  

TGIF!!!!!!!

Out the Door in Phoenix (Updated)

Phoenix sources tell FTVLive about changes going down at KTVK.

Word is that Yetta Gibson is out as AM anchor of Good Morning Arizona. Insiders tell FTVLive that Gibson was on maternity leave and the station opted to not renew her contract.

Also, Bruce Haffner has been grounded. The 30-year employee and chopper pilot was told he is no longer flying/needed.

The status of the station remains murky. KTVK was one of the BELO stations that was sold to Gannett. Gannett was going to pass off the station to Sander in a sidecar deal, but then decided to sell the station to Meredith. 

But the deal seems to be moving very slow and many staffers are wondering what is going on? 

Stay tuned... 

Update: Gibson's agent says that she was offered a new contract, but she and her agent declined the offer.

An email went out to the staff from News Director Cameryn Beck saying that she has decided to spend more time with her family. We're guessing the truth lies somewhere in the middle. 

Here's the email:

From: Beck, Cameryn
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 5:48 PM
To: KTVK News
Cc: KTVK Leadership Team
Subject: Changes
Newsies,

I always preach that family comes first.  And that couldn’t be more true for one of our own.

Yetta Gibson has decided to take a time out from news and remain at home with her family. Yetta contributed great work to KTVK over the last several years.. always with a smile and a special spunk.

We will miss her and wish her the best!

Cameryn Beck
Executive News Director

Sinclair Gives up on 3 Stations to Make the FCC Happy

Sinclair really wants their deal to buy WJLA and the Allbritton stations to happen.

How badly do they want the deal to go through.

Sinclair says that it was surrendering its licenses for three Albiritton stations in Charleston, S.C., and Birmingham, Ala., because they failed to find a buyer for them.

Sinclair's original intention was to operate the three stations through sidecar companies and joint and shared services agreements. But, the FCC crackdown on sidecar ownerships and Sinclair is now looking to just give up on the 3 stations. 

Sinclair said it was making the move to win speedy FCC approval of its deal to buy Allbritton Communications. That deal could unravel if the approval doesn't come by July 28.

Stay tuned....