Signing Off the 6

WKBT (La Crosse, Wis) Anchor Lisa Klein is signing off from the station's 6PM newscast to....say it with me...."spend more time with her family."

After 10 years Klein leaves the 6PM newscast after Today, but will continue to anchor the Five and remain the station's education reporter.

The station says that Klein's decision to give up the anchor seat next to Mike Thompson on News 8 at Six was to allow for more family time with her husband and two daughters.

"Sitting next to my friend and co-anchor Mike Thompson for the past eight years has been an honor," said Klein. "However, I am thrilled to be able to eat dinner with my family on a consecutive basis for the first time since my children were born, while maintaining a career in journalism with the news station I love."

Klein plans to continue to serve the News 8 viewing area for many years to come.

"I am thankful viewers welcomed me into their homes every night at 6 p.m," said Klein. "I will always be grateful for their support and look forward to a long relationship with them on News 8 at Five."

Wait a Minute!

Here in Jacksonville, there is a story of missing  21-month-old Lonzie Barton.

 Police have been looking for the young girl after they say the mother left the baby alone with a known drug dealer. 

According to WJXT here in Jacksonville, police have arrested both the mother and the boyfriend.

Interestingly enough, according to the station the two have the exact same name as the station's main Anchors. 

Bounced Out in Palm Beach

Scripps owned WPTV in West Palm Beach is shaking up their morning news. 

Longtime Anchors Roxanne Stein and John Favole are being pulled off the show that’s been theirs for 20 years.

An internal memo to the staff says that Stein and Favole are getting re-assigned to WPTV’s other morning newscast on the lowly rated WFLX the Fox affiliate.

Later in the day, Stein and Favole will be back on WPTV with a brand-new, one-hour broadcast set to start airing on at 11 a.m. before Rachael Ray.

Stein and Favole’s last day on the WPTV morning anchor desk is Sept. 4.

They start on WFLX Sept. 7 and on the new Channel 5 broadcast a week later.

The longtime Anchors will be replaced by Ashleigh Walters and Mike Trim on the morning newscast.

H/T Gossip Extra

That Was Quick

WISN in Milwaukee announced a few weeks ago that Chase Cain was the new morning Anchor replacing Patrick Paolantonio and along side Melinda Davenport.

And he was just that....for a little while. 

But then Cain went M-I_A and the station isn't talking.

WISN News Director Chris Gegg confirms Caine is no longer at the station, saying only, “Chase Cain is no longer a member of the WISN 12 News Team.  We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

Cain is not responding to questions as to what happened? 

Any mention of Cain on WISN's website has been scrubbed away. 

So how does an Anchor come on the air for 4 weeks, is suddenly gone and the station won't say anything.

Because folks, this is TV news where they want to know all about the Mayor and why he fired a certain staffer, but grows suddenly silent when the news is about them.

Damn Hypocrites!

Pitch a Bitch

According to WBRE (Wilkes-Barre) a young girl became the first to throw out the "First Bitch with a robotic hand" at a Major League Baseball game.

Wait!

What?

Oops! DC News Director Emails New Hire's Salary Information to the Staff

Yesterday, FTVLive FIRST told you that WJLA is hiring CNN Sports Anchor Erin Hawksworth to replace Sports Director Tim Brant, who left the station after not being able to come to terms on a new contract.

Hawksworth will be making $125,000 a year working at WJLA.

How do we know this?

Because WJLA News Director Mitch Jacob accidentally sent out the HR memo with salary info in an email to the staff about her being hired.

On a scale of 1 to 10 in the Oops Department, this one is an 11.

Here is the document he sent out with Hawksworth starting pay:

We Told You!

2 1/2 months ago, FTVLive FIRST told you that WOIO (Cleveland) was going to dump the "Action News" branding in August.

On June 1st, FTVLive wrote, "The station is making a number of changes, including changing the station's branding from Action News to "Cleveland 19 News" in August. But, don't tell anyone that just yet, it's supposed to be a secret."

Well here we are in August and guess what?

Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes, "Starting noon Monday, Aug. 24, you'll notice some changes in the tone and style of the WOIO Channel 19 newscasts. The station is saying a formal farewell to the wild and woolly 19 Action News format, rebranding its news operation Cleveland 19 News."

We hate to say we told you so, but.....who are we kidding we LOVE to say WE TOLD YOU SO. 

"You can feel this sense of pride growing in Cleveland over the last few years, and we're trying to make sure we have a brand that reflects that," said WOIO News Director Fred D'Ambrosi.

Since D'Ambrosi has been in the market less than 6 months, we're not sure how he has been able to, "feel this sense of pride growing in Cleveland over the last few years"? But hey, this is TV news branding, so you got to make up something.  

More Out the Door at Columbus Station

FTVLive has been telling you for months about the staffers that have been leaving WBNS in Columbus, like rats off a sinking ship.

We told you about Anchors, Reporters and News Directors leaving the station. 

Well, you can add some more names to the list. 

Sources tell FTVLive that Weather Anchor Erin Carroll (pictured) is leaving. Reporter Chris LaGrand has also left the station and is now working as a News Writer at KTVU in the Bay Area.

We also hear that longtime Sports Anchor Beau Bishop is also leaving the station. Bishop has been there since 2007. 

Not sure what's going on, but this amount of turnover is just about unprecedented....even for TV news.

Stay tuned.... 

Fired Florida Anchor Sues Station

Former WINK (Ft. Myers)  Matthew Dougherty says he was wrongly terminated and is suing the station. 

The suit alleges that WINK News fired Dougherty on July 27 because he would not destroy notes, video, photos and other information related to a story involving about 100 boxes of patient medical records found in an auctioned-off storage unit.

The records included credit card receipts, shot records, Social Security numbers and other detailed patient information.

Dougherty, who was one year into a three-year contract with WINK, said he had originally been directed by the station to cover the storage unit auction and the discovery of the records.

However, the suit alleges that once WINK news director Russ Kilgore saw that the story involved Dr. Gerardo A. Gamez, his family physician, he directed Dougherty and his producers to “kill the story.”

The suit, filed Aug. 13, alleges that Kilgore ordered Dougherty to conceal what he discovered, ordered him to return computer gear containing information about the story, not speak to any state or federal investigators involved and that the reporter had violated HIPAA and would be in trouble if he spoke about the story.

Further, the suit said Kilgore told Dougherty that he would meet with the doctor’s attorney to ensure him the story would not go public and that in texts to the reporter, ordered him to “gather up all your notes, put them into one big seal-able envelope and get it to me.”

Dougherty said Wednesday that Kilgore’s connection to Gamez is what got the story killed. “The story would have run if it had been another doctor,” Dougherty said.

Kilgore on Wednesday would only comment that the station has not yet been served with the suit and that the issue is a personnel matter.

H/T News Press

Out the Door in Connecticut

WTNH ( Connecticut) has parted ways with Morning Anchor Jim Watkins.

New England One reports that sources inside WTNH say that staff was notified yesterday morning that Watkins would no longer be working at the station.

Watkins joined the station as freelancer to anchor the weekend morning shows. He was upped to weekday morning anchor after Chris Velardi left the station for a job in public relations.

Before joining WTNH, Jim was the anchor of the weekend editions of "PIX News at Six" and "PIX News at Ten" on WPIX in New York City.

The station is not commenting on why Watkins is out because, you know, it's the news business. 

Who is that Again?

You get the feeling that getting the chance to say "Deez Nuts" on the air really made WJLA Anchor Leon Harris day:

Being able to say "Deez Nuts" obviously made his day. pic.twitter.com/DJ7Bv6Aue1

— Black Guy Emeritus (@ReverendDrDash) August 19, 2015

Back Where it All Began

Starting Monday, Philadelphia-born Lauren Mayk will join WCAU as their newest General Assignment Reporter.

Mayk signed off from WFLA in Tampa to return to the city where she was born. But she won't be the first in the family to be on the air in the City of Brotherly love. 

Her dad, Richard Mayk, worked for then-CBS affiliate WCAU radio and TV in the 1960s and '70s.

Timber!

KELO (Sioux Falls) toppled an old microwave tower yesterday and it took just a few seconds to come down. 

Actually this tower was shut down in 2009 when the microwave signal KELOLAND TV was using was replaced by fiber optic lines.

"We had to keep monitoring the tower and monitoring the building because it had tower lights on it. That's an FCC and FAA requirement to keep the lights working and monitored, so the tower was generating expenses more than it was doing anything else," KELO TV Chief engineer Paul Myrick said.

And just like a washed up News Anchor it was time to knock the tower down.

Let's go to the video:

Chicago Station to Expand Morning Newscast

A couple of days ago, FTVLive told you that WGN in Chicago was adding a 10PM newscast this Fall to try and open up more space for political ad dollars.

It looks like NBC O&O WMAQ is hoping for some of that pie as well. 

The station is moving up the start of its weekday morning newscast to 4 a.m., with Zoraida Sambolin anchoring the additional half-hour solo.

Stefan Holt (Lester Holt's son) will continue to co-anchor with Sambolin from 4:30 to 7 a.m. Holt also co-anchors NBC 5’s 11 a.m. weekday newscast with Marion Brooks.

“NBC 5 News has a commitment to deliver the best local breaking news and weather coverage, and this expansion will help us serve our viewers who wake up earlier,” Frank Whittaker, station manager and vice president of news, said in a statement.

H/T Robert Feder

Ummmm... You Might want to Check Your Math

Fox Business ran a graphic and then also tweeted it out saying that former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle was paying restitution of $100,000 to 14 of his victims. The graphic said Fogle would shell out $14 million bucks.

Ummmmm....Fox Business, you might want to check your math. 100,000 times 14 is 1.4 million, not 14 million.

You guys are the money channel....right? 

Really?!

CNN's new host W. Kamau Bell, joined Don Lemon on his program on Tuesday to poke fun of the Iowa State Fair. Lemon touted Bell's "visit to one of the whitest places in America." The former Current TV correspondent, who hosted a show on the FX network named Totally Biased, cracked that people at the fair were "taking pictures of me. I don't think it's because I'm famous. It's because I'm a black dude."

The two continued to joke about the fair and the food. It was more like stand up comedy than it was a news program on what claims to be a "news network."

If Anderson Cooper did a live shot from Harlem and claimed, "this is the blackest place in America", we're fairly certain there would be some backlash.

Could you imagine what CNN's media critic Brian Stelter would be saying if Bill O'Reilly did something like this? 

This was not The Daily Show, it was a news show and CNN should be embarrassed in letting this happen on air. 

H/T NewsBusters