Big Changes Going Down at DC Station

This is another one you will see FIRST on FTVLive (then again that is true with most stories about TV news). 

A number of changes are going down at WUSA in DC and most involve the launch of the station's  weekend morning newscast.

FTVLive FIRST reported that Lord, former GM at WJLA was headed to WUSA as News Director and it appears he is now putting his stamp on the place. 

FTVLive has obtained the internal memo sent to the newsroom at WUSA from Lord, outlining all the assignments for the new newscast: 

From: Lord, Bill 
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2015
To: WUSA-All
Subject: WUSA News Assignments 

All Concerned:

We have a large number of assignment changes as we move toward the launch of our weekend morning newscast on April 11th.   

I thought it would be a good idea to list them all in one place.   You will see the changes affect Monday through Friday mornings, Weekend Mornings and Weekend Evenings.   We believe the changes will result in strong line-ups for all three.

Here we go.

James Hallman is assigned to be executive producer of Weekend Morning News in addition to his Monday through Friday EP role.

Mike Hydeck is assigned to weekend morning news anchor.   He will work three days a week on the Monday through Friday morning news in a sub-anchor role and will be a Noon anchor on a schedule TBA.

Erica Grow is assigned as a co-host and weather anchor for weekend morning news.   She will also have weekday morning and noon weather responsibilities on a schedule TBA. 

Nick Giovanni is assigned as the weekday morning co-anchor with Andrea Roane.

Allyson Rae is assigned as the primary weather person on weekday mornings.

Surae Chinn is assigned as the early reporter of weekend morning news.

Howard Bernstein is assigned as the weather person on the weekend evening news.   He will also do noon and backup weather assignments and report on science issues from time to time.

Debra Alfarone is assigned as the weekend evening co-anchor with Bruce Johnson.

 We still have some other positions to fill but this is where we stand right now.  Please do everything you can to help these colleagues succeed in their new assignments.

Thanks.

Bill

Best Anchor Hair

Super-Hair.Net has honored the top celebrity hairstyles since 2000 and they are out with another list.

Tennis star Victoria Azarenka was voted Best Long Hair for the third year in a row, and also was named Best Blonde.

But, forget tennis and other celebs, who has the best anchor hair?

According to the site, that award goes to an Anchor in the Big Easy and it's not Scott Walker.

The Best Hairstyle in Journalism award goes to Jacki Jing, morning Anchor at WGNO in New Orleans.

Not sure if Jing will include her hair winning and award on her resume, but hey, it's at least as impressive as winning an Emmy.

Just saying.... 

BTW, if we were picking the best Anchor hair, we would have gone with WGN's Paul Konrad, but that's just us. 

TV Agent Goes Missing

It appears that TV Agent Babette Perry is out at IMG. Perry has been the Vice-President Head of West Coast Broadcasting for IMG since 2006.

People trying to email Perry are getting an automated response that says, "Babette Perry is no longer with IMG."

Perry's clients include Tom Bergeron, Marysol Castro and Phil Keoghan host of CBS' The Amazing Race. 

She had Elisabeth Hasselbeck at one point, but Hasselbeck left Perry when she did not like how negotiations were going with her contract on The View (Hasselbeck works for Fox News Now). 

No word on why Perry and IMG have split, some IMG clients tell FTVLive they have not been told anything and are now wondering about their status? 

Stay tuned.... 

Dunston Checks In to Atlanta Station

WGCL announced that Mike Dunston has joined the station as Weekend Anchor.  

“Mike brings a wealth of experience to the CBS46 News team.  He is dedicated to doing great broadcast journalism and has a dedication to the community.  We look forward to having him join the team,” said CBS46 News Director Larry Perret.

“I can’t wait to get into the mix at CBS46 and involved with Atlanta community,” said Dunston.

Dunston comes to the A-T-L from WEWS in Cleveland where he was a Morning Anchor/Special Projects Reporter.  

Prior to that he was an Anchor/Reporter at WOFL-TV in Orlando, FL.  He’s also had stops in Raleigh-Durham, Houston, Dayton and Washington, D.C.

The Weather Channel Fires Back at FIOS

The Weather Channel is stepping up their PR war against Verizon FIOS for pulling the plug on the network.

The two sids are in a pissing match over retransmission fees and now TWC is encouraging viewers to protest Verizon.

Verizon said earlier this week and FIRST reported by FTVLive that it had opted to stop carrying the Weather Channel in favor of the  AccuWeather Network

The Weather Channel has created a website, keeptheweatherchannel.com, that provides contact information for Verizon and urges people to "call Verizon and demand they bring back The Weather Channel."

To show that they are serious, the Weather Channel has included the American Bald Ego AKA Jim Cantore (windshield wiper blade salesman) in their propaganda against FIOS. 

In the end the two sides will agree on a new deal and neither one will discuss the details of said deal. Then 6 month to a year from now, FIOS customers will be told that their bill is going up. 

And yet, these people still wonder why viewers are cutting the cord?

H/T Philly.com

Weather Anchor Back after a Year off Hunting Hurricanes

Viewers of WXXV (Gulfport, Miss) haven't seen a newscast featuring Chief Meteorologist Ashley Feaster in almost a year.

Some may have wondered if she still worked there or had moved on? Feaster took the time off to  hunt hurricanes and chase her dreams.

"Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to be a Hurricane Hunter," she said. "I applied when there was an opening, and got the transfer order to Keesler last April."

Feaster is an officer in the Air National Guard and served as commander of the 127th Weather Flight at Forbes Field in Topeka, Kan.

"My dad was in the Navy," she said. "Very early on, I knew the importance of serving your country."

For the past year, Feaster has been completing various training exercises across the country.

"I've been to Panama City, Spokane, Pensacola and Hawaii," she said. "This year has been thrilling, to say the least."

Feaster is still in the storm-training process but has completed land and water survival training.

"My year of training has helped me learn everything I possibly could about my job," she said.

Joe Sullivan, WXXV news director, said the experience Feaster brings to the newsroom is invaluable.

"With her knowledge of hurricanes, the entire Gulf Coast should feel incredibly safe having her here," he said. "She is unmatched in knowledge and passion for her field of expertise."

Feaster said it feels good to be back in the newsroom, which has been another dream of hers.

"I've always only wanted to do two jobs," she said. "To be able to do both at the same time is surreal."

H/T Sun Herald

Station Ignores Feel Good Story of the Year

It seems that the students at one Bristol, VA High School have shown the power of email and social media.

Clintwood High School is in their  final year of existence. Next year, Clintwood will merge with another school to form Ridgeview High School.

In their last year, the Clintwood girls basketball team won the state title in a game that came down to the wire. 

It was an amazing story as the team won in their final year of being Chitwood HS. It seemed like a perfect feel good story for a TV newscast.

Problem was, WCYB ignored the story and didn't cover the game. 

Parents, students and teachers took the station to task for not covering the game and one of the better feel good stories of the year. Plus, what the hell us can be going on in Bristol, VA for the station to ignore the game?

The station's tagline is "getting the facts right," in this case they ignored the facts and the story and got it completely wrong. 

The station took to their webiste and said they were sorry and are going to try and make it up to the students.

This is what they posted:

We want to take this moment to acknowledge our mistake in our lack of video coverage of the Clintwood High School basketball team.

I spent 13 years as sports director of WCYB, so I know how much that victory meant to the Dickenson County community, and our friends in southwest Virginia.

We dropped the ball, and then fumbled it out of bounds.

We’ve received your emails and social media posts. You’re angry and disappointed, and rightfully so.

We can apologize, but that can’t undo our failing to cover the game, but we will do our best to make this right.

Our news director has already spoken with the vice principal of Clintwood and we are planning a video tribute soon.

It’s been a lesson to our whole staff, and we want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Sincerely,

Paul Johnson, News Anchor
John Soares, News Director

Roanoke Station Looks to Move, Start up Own Newscasts

Roanoke Fox station WWCW/WFXR currently has their newscast produced and done by WSLS, but the station wants to change that.

The Fox affiliate is looking to move into a new building and start producing and airing their own newscasts.

Joseph McNamara, who has been the station’s vice president and general manager since December, confirmed the station’s plans to move.

“Everyone here at WFXR and WWCW is extremely excited to be part of the planned relocation of the station to a new state-of-the-art broadcast facility that will allow us to better serve the entire Southwest and Central Virginia region with stellar news and entertainment,” he said.

Station management at Fox 21/27 has told WSLS that it will be ending its news relationship with WSLS in the near future, according to Garry Kelly, general manager at Channel 10. He said no timetable for the change has been set.

“That’s the plan,” Kelly said of the changes. “They’ll give us some kind of notice.”

Fox 21/27 and WSLS have worked in conjunction on the 10 p.m. news since 1996. The morning newscast began in 2012. The Fox station pays WSLS for use of its facility and some of its staff. Kelly would not reveal how much the station receives from Fox 21/27, but he said that WSLS has already planned for the loss of that revenue in its budget.

“We factored that into our plans, so we’re good,” he said.

Some of the newscasts’ on-air staffers — which include 10 p.m. anchorwoman Becky Freemal and morning co-hosts Bob Grebe and Tara Wheeler — are employees of Fox 21/27. However, the newscasts also feature Channel 10’s meteorologists, reporters and some news producers. Fox 21/27 will have to add those positions to its news team when it takes over its own newscasts.

The station expects to add about 25 new jobs when they move. 

H/T Roanoke Times

Sacked at Univision

A popular Univision host was fired  after making on-air comments comparing first lady Michelle Obama to a character from Planet of the Apes.

Rodner Figueroa appeared on Univsiion's morning show El Gordo y La Flaca to discuss the guy who could transform himself into various female celebrities, including Kim Kardashian and Michelle Obama, using makeup. 

“Mind you, you know that Michelle Obama looks like she’s part of the cast of ‘Planet of the Apes,’ the film,” he said.

That racist statement got him pink slipped.

Here is the internal email, obtained by FTVLive that was sent to the staff announcing Figueroa's firing:

Dear Colleagues,

Yesterday during “El Gordo y La Flaca,” Rodner Figueroa made comments about First Lady Michelle Obama that were completely reprehensible. As a result, Rodner was immediately terminated.

As a mission-driven Company, our core values of diversity, integrity, and mutual respect are a compass for our actions. We will not accept anything else. We must continue to hold ourselves to a higher standard because of the trust that our audience places in us every day.

Thank you for your commitment to our mission and values.

Sincerely,
Alberto Ciurana

Like We Said.....

10 days ago, FTVLive FIRST reported that Scripps will be putting a digital content person in the News Director's chair at some of their stations. We wrote, "It is first expected to happen at KNXV in Phoenix and spread to other Scripps stations."

Well, we hate to say we told you so (actually we love saying that) but, Scripps just announced that Chris Kline has been named News Director at KNXV.

Scripps says that Kline will oversee all cross-platform story gathering. In his new position, Kline will lead the newsroom to distribute stories across both television and digital channels to better serve Arizona communities and meet changing audience habits.

“Chris is a passionate, innovative leader with the vision to help us reinvent local journalism in this digital age,” said Anita Helt, vice president and general manager at ABC15.  “His proven track record of success as a digital journalist, combined with an entrepreneur’s drive to innovate, make him an ideal leader to work with our talented team.”

For the past three years, Kline has served as director of new media at KNXV, managing the station's growing digital strategy. He’s also served as an executive producer, web producer and reporter during his eight-year tenure at the station.

Told ya!

The Doctor is Out at NBC News

It's not like no one saw this coming....

As NBC enters into a new leadership under Andy Lack and tries to clean up some of the mistakes of the last regime, Dr. Nancy Snyderman has announced that she is leaving the Peacock.

“Throughout her career with NBC News, Dr. Nancy Snyderman has provided her expertise on countless health and medical topics that are vitally important to our audience. She’s been a valuable voice both on air and in our newsroom, and we wish her all the best,” according to an NBC spokesperson.

Snyderman made headlines when she broke and ebola quarantine and then refused to offer a real apology for doing so.

Many inside NBC News figure Snyderman was soon going to be gone from 30 Rock and now she is. 

Fox News Hires Navy SEAL That Claims to have Killed Bin Laden

Like a match made in heaven, Fox News Channel has hired the Navy SEAL that claims he killed Bin Laden.

Rob O'Neill has been hired on as Contributor to Fox News.  O'Neill "will offer military expertise and analysis across various daytime and primetime programs," the channel said in a statement.

O'Neil had also been a regular on CNN and appeared on Erin Burnett's Outfront a number of times.

We're guessing that will no longer happen since he is paid by Fox News. 

H/T CapitalNewYork

Weather Anchor Out the Door in SFO

Word is that KRON has handed Weather Anchor Erica Kato her walking papers.

Kato had been the weekday mornings Weather Anchor.

She joined the station in 2008, working first at the assignment desk and then as a traffic producer.

KRON News Director, Aaron Pero told the staff Today, "Erica no longer works here."

No word on why she was bounced, her bio remains on the KRON website (for now). 

H/T Rich Lieberman

NBC Crew Witnesses Ferguson Police Shooting

An NBC News crew was on the scene as hot lead flew in Ferguson. 

Producer Jennifer Roller went on the Today Show this morning and described the scene. "Loud noises, pop, pop , pop, " is how Roller described the gun shots. 

She said that police yelled to get down and they all hit the floor and soon after she saw the officer that was shot. 

“It was a frightening moment,” Roller said.

Since it was an NBC Producer telling the story and not Brian Williams, we believe her. 

Ummmm.....

I could have done without the picture. Thanks for ruining my appetite right before lunch:

You could have framed it like this and it would be fine:

The Person that Really Runs NBC also Anchors the Today Show

It was reported that Today Show host Matt Lauer was behind Ann Curry's firing from the Today Show. 

It was also reported that Lauer was the one that got Today senior vp and GM Jamie Horowitz fired, before he even officially started the job. 

Now, word comes that it was Matt Lauer that brought Andy Lack back to NBC, by putting Lack in front of NBCUniversal chairman Steve Burke.

In a report about Lack, the Hollywood Reporter writes that when the scandal over Brian Williams' Iraq war stories broke, Lauer, out of both personal loyalty and grasping the brand issues, became Williams' defender. Lauer recruited Lack to the defense. Then Lauer became a driving force in pushing Lack in front of NBCUniversal chairman Steve Burke as a substantive news presence — in juxtaposition to Pat Fili-Krushel and Deborah Turness.

So it appears that not only has Lauer pushed out Curry and Horowitz, but is doing the same to Fili-Krushel and Turness.

So, despite what you hear about who is running NBC, make no mistake....it's Matt Lauer.

Just saying.....