Plane Crashes into Texas Station's Transmitter, Knocks Them Off the Air

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KCBD in Lubbock, Texas was off the air after a small plane crashed into their antenna on Wednesday.  

The station was knocked off the air and the studio was evacuated after the crash. Engineers said that the rest of the tower left standing only had one guy wire left and the tower could fall at anytime. 

"It is unsafe to stay in the building," said Steve Holland, a spokesman for the Lubbock Fire and Rescue Department.

The station aired their 10 p.m. Wednesday newscast from an alternate location.

They used sister station WSFA's (Montgomery) live stream to air their newscast.

The pilot of the plane died in the crash. 

Philly News Crew Hampers Firefighters Battling House Fire

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WCAU in Philadelphia showed up to the scene of a house fire and caused some problems.

According to firefighter scanner traffic, the WCAU crew parked their news vehicle on top of one of the fire hoses and it restricted water flow to blazebusters trying to fight the fire.

Maybe they were just trying to keep the fire burning long enough to get the live truck set up.

It is ratings you know.  

You can listen to the scanner call here.

CNN Producer to Leave Fareed Zakaria

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Sujata Thomas — longtime producer of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” — has left to join a venture co-founded by Dan Senor.

Zakaria was seen at a recent gathering for Thomas, hosted by Senor and former CNN Anchor Campbell Brown at their home.

Thomas will head up a news venture, launching this year, headquartered in Tel Aviv and covering inventors, investors and startups.

CNN is now looking for a new Producer for Zakaria's show.

Send the best stuff you copied from someone else along with your resume to CNN boss Jeff Zucker. 

H/T Page Six

Could Apple Being Offering a TV Service to Compete with Cable?

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Once again, Word is that Apple is in discussions with unspecified TV networks about offering a bundle of channels similar to Dish’s Sling TV service, which gives subscribers a limited number of networks delivered over broadband at a price lower than the traditional cable or satelllite package.

Details on what the Apple venture could be are scarce as conversations are said to be preliminary.

It’s unclear whether the new Apple idea would be available through the hardware giant’s existing Apple TV device or a brand new gizmo. There’s been endless speculation over the years that Apple would manufacture its own Internet-connected TV, but that product has yet to materialize.

Given the multiplicity of so-called “skinny” bundles, or virtual MSOS, coming to market–Sony and Verizon are also expected to launch similar services this year–it’s only natural that Apple would emerge as another possibility. But with the company’s hardware prowess and track record across a range of “i”-branded consumer devices, any entry into the TV world would be game-changing.

In various public comments since succeeding Steve Jobs, Apple CEO Tim Cook has given mixed messages about how big a priority for his company breaking into the TV business actually is.

Stay tuned....

H/T Variety

Ummm... You Left Something out of That Story

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KTVA (Anchorage) did a story about a woman who wants to open the state’s first medical marijuana dispensary  more than a year before the state issues any licenses for commercial marijuana sales.

KTVA reported that Charlo Greene owns the Alaska Cannabis Club. Greene says paid members come to the club to smoke, socialize and take classes but says no marijuana is sold there. She says when she starts supplying medical cardholders with products later this month, she won’t be violating the law.

“As long as we aren’t selling, we aren’t violating,” said Greene.

What KTVA did not report is that Charlo Greene used to work for the station and made headlines when she quit live on air using the words, "Fuck it...I quit."

So why did KTVA Reporter Lauren Maxwell leave that information out of her report? 

Maxwell tells Romenesko, "Honestly, I think that is pretty common knowledge. We did stories closer to when she quit that acknowledged that fact and even interviewed people who questioned our integrity as journalists.

Our News Director went on air and was very open about asking our viewers to accept his apologies for her behavior and to assure people that we are a serious news organization that strives to hold reporters to the highest standards. 

That being said, Charlo Greene continues to make news and her past employment wasn’t the focus of this story."

It might not have been the focus, but it surely should have been mentioned. 

Just saying.... 

Where was The Coverage?

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It is no secret that both broadcast networks and the cable networks really only consider it news it is happens in New York.

There is no better example of that then the recent weather.

You remember how the news networks were falling all over themselves for the historic snowstorm that was going to bury New York City.

The coverage was non-stop and continued well past the point when it was obvious that NYC was not going to get the snow that was predicted.

This week, the midwest did get hit with a historic snowstorm and the news coverage has basically been just a blip. 

In Detroit, 16.7 inches of snow were recorded at Metro Airport, making for the city’s third biggest snowstorm on record. In Plymouth, Indiana, in the far northern part of the state, 19.6 inches of snowfall was reported during the storm.

And in Chicago, 19.3 inches of snow fell Sunday into Monday morning, making for the city’s fifth largest blizzard in its recorded history.

So where was the hype? Where is the coverage?

Why hasn't CNN dispatched the "Blizzard Mobile" to Chicago?

Oh....that's right...it didn't happen in New York.

Never mid. 

H/T HuffPo

Buffalo Anchor is kind of Sorry for Cat Comment, But Not Really

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WIVB (Buffalo) Anchor Teresa Weakley found herself under fire for a very cruel comment that she made about the cat that was buried alive and dug its way out.

Weakley ad-libbed after the story of the mircle cat story and said talking about the hole the cat was buried in, “it freaks me out. Maybe it should have been deeper.”

Needless to say animal lovers and people with any kind of heart were upset with the comment and let Weakley and the station know on social media. 

This week, Weakley went back on the air to try and explain her comment. She said she was distracted and then talked about and showed mean comments people made about her.

Her appology was anything but, she never said she was sorry, was extremely condescending and only made excuses why she said the comment. "As far as what happened, it was a mistake and I misspoke," Weaklyey said in a condescending voice. 

She also felt that she need to show the viewers that people on social media were mean to her. 

Never once did she say she was sorry for the very cruel comment, she only talked down to viewers and offer excuses.

Sadly, it appears that her ego is so big, she couldn't "Im Sorry."

In the end, she might have been better off keeping her mouth shut. In both cases.

Just saying....

Here is video of her non-apology 

Post by Teresa Weakley.

Signing Off In Fargo

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KVRR (Fargo) main Anchor Candace Thornberg says she is leaving the station and TV news to focus on being a mom.  

Thornberg says she's leaving the news desk to stay home and raise her first child, due later this month.

She announced Monday night that her last day on the air will be Friday when she broadcasts the 9 p.m. news.

She’s been the weekday news co-anchor for two years, and before that anchored the weekend broadcasts for four years. She’s been with the station for a decade, starting out as a production assistant, she said Tuesday.

“Everything is very questionable, very up in the air now. I’m not entirely sure what the future holds,” she said, adding that she’d miss the job.

“It’s an exciting field,” she said. “Every day is a little bit different.”

KVRR news director Lezlie Johnson said Tuesday she doesn’t know who would be taking Thornberg’s spot opposite co-anchor T.J. Nelson.

H/T Inforum 

NBC Nightly Pulls Away from ABC's World News in the Demos

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Brian Williams and NBC Nightly News continues to put distance between themselves and ABC's World News Tonight.

Nightly News was number 1 in both total viewers and the key demo A25-54 for the month of January, marking its second straight monthly demo win.

Nightly topped ABC “World News Tonight” by an average of +219,000 viewers A25-54 in January.

The NBC broadcast was #1 across the board for the week of January 26-30, 2015, according to Nielsen Media Research data. Nightly has been #1 among viewers A25-54 for 4 consecutive weeks, 8 of the last 9 weeks, and 10 of the last 13 weeks. Nightly has now been the #1 evening newscast in total viewers for 280 consecutive weeks.

Rosie Perez is Back on The View

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Despite reports to the contrary, Rosie Perez returned to ABC's  “The View.”

“That’s your seat girl,” said her co-host Nicole Wallace when Perez walked onto the live ABC talk show.

A number of websites and media outlets (not FTVLive) reported that Perez would leave the coffee-klatch after her run on the Larry David’ Broadway show “Fish In The Dark.”

She took the entire month of January off to rehearse for the stage comedy.  ABC executives strongly denied Perez was leaving.

Yesterday, she returned. Perez was showered with confetti and a big round of applause from the studio audience as she walked on.