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Does a shooting where no one even suffered life-threatening injuries really warrant national anchors on the scene? Sometimes events in New York get treated with exaggerated importance simply because it seems so much bigger to the entire staff. I was working at at station one night when there was a minor car accident outside the front of the building during our newscast. People in the newsroom got excited and sent a photographer down there because they wanted video on the air as soon as possible. In the minutes that followed, cooler heads prevailed and it was determined that it shouldn't even register as a story. Clearly a subway shooting is a much larger story but I think network producers based in New York need to take a breath.

portions of all network evening newscasts are pre-recorded, including headlines and some anchor interviews with experts, newsmakers and correspondents. it’s great that Lester and David made it to the scene, but it didn’t add to or take away from coverage by the anchor being there or not.

Stations in New York and Philadelphia, and to some extent Washington, are having illness problems right now. You don't make people work marathon double shifts in top ten markets unless it is an emergency.

He's worked at other "major" stations before so the question must be asked why is he doing this? Didn't make it there so trying to do it on his own? I know his health may have been a factor at one point. But making a TV newscast on your own isn't gonna happen. I get the feeling he just likes being on TV or thinks it's impressive to others that he puts out videos....but anyone can do that nowadays with the internet. It was impressive what he did when he was young but why does it seem like he is doing the same type of thing? As others have said, many Youtubers with basic equipment can put out compelling high quality content. Why doesn't he try that instead? He needs to put himself in the shoes of potential viewers and what would be interesting to them. Low quality stolen clips from competitor newscasts is not it. The ratings may never be great, but you could do some interesting stuff. I saw a "drone 53" in one of his videos. If he actually has one, why not take it out daily and broadcast a 5-10 minute flight over an area. That's 10 minutes right there of unique local content which beats out what he's currently doing. That's just one of many ideas I'm randomly thinking of as I write this. If "news" is what he wants to stick to though, why not go to an event of the day and do a 15 minute story on it, even if it's just a long straight interview. At least it'd be on-site and not in "the basement". Use a smartphone to record HD, an external mic, and stabilizer, and the quality right there should be quite good. Wouldn't be too hard to edit in some b-roll, etc to elevate it. I can root for him like others want to, but there are also expectations that someone with his "experience" level (if we can call it that?), should be able to put out better content than this at this point in his career. Which brings us back to the question of....why is he doing this?

It’s a truck with a weather station on top. Sorry but these chase vehicles have jumped the shark.

In terms of the newscast format, this isn’t the first time WABC broke convention. Witty anchors like Roger Grimsby and the whole concept of “happy talk” were specifically implemented to break from the traditional newscast of the period and stick out from their competitors. However, deciding not to cover a news conference on TV and breaking into programming late don’t fall under the “breaking convention” strategy. WABC still does a solid job overall, but they could’ve done a bit better with today’s coverage IMHO.

My guy, your attitude about, and position on this topic is absolute trash.

At the end of the 6pm, I heard Bill saying that the press conference were going to be aired on their streaming channel. They should've still aired it anyway, even if it wasn't going to be long.

Doing your show from the nation's capital has some advantages... You main anchor stationed there when news breaks in America's largest city isn't one of them.

Good perspective. People get the impression that the station doesn't care when they see regualr programming running. Perhaps in a major event like this where no new details are immediately avalible, it might help to run a red ticker at the bottom of the screen with updates, or a message to say that the news team is following the situation.

I think MSNBC’s decision to have Rachel do her show only on Mondays is a clever business strategy for ratings. Viewers would take her for granted less. It’s all about supply and demand. Take away supply and demand will skyrocket. If she only appears once a week, MSNBC viewers will feel more incentivized to watch on days when she does. Where they once might go “I wanna watch Maddow but there’s this great movie on HBO tonight so think I’ll just watch her tomorrow” will figure “hey, Rachel only airs once a week. I can watch this movie anytime on Netflix. I’ll just watch Maddow then.”

Surprised they did that, given that they pre-empted their regular programming to show that. I already had no idea why they take off their regular programming to show soccer in the middle of the day on a weekday.

I think that's why some stations WABC and WLS are hesitating to go back to normal sitting. If I was an anchor, I would rather be distanced than sitting right next to someone.

The decision to be the only station not carrying the presser looks pretty bad. It reminds me of their fail last summer when strong storms moved through the tristate area. Train stations were flooded and the MTA service completely suspended stranding passengers all across the city and WABC still went to Jimmy Kimmel Live lol. Their closing image was passengers stranded at Times Square station followed with “we’ll see you at 4:30am.” Sam Champion has to be reading this board because today he doubled down on his wardrobe. I don’t mind it personally but they have to be intentionally having him dress down right?

WABC did do a brief update at the top of the 7pm hour saying they were awaiting the news conference and that it would stream online. That said, I’m pretty disappointed that they felt airing Jeopardy was more important. Obviously most news conferences are not something you interrupt programming for to carry live, but this was an emergency presser where new information was released that served the public. At the very least, WABC could have ran a breaking news crawl directing viewers to ABC7NY.com, but they didn’t even do that. It’s moments like this that your regular viewers and those that tune to you for breaking news depend on you to be on air and it’s your chance to showcase your commitment to serving the public. WABC gets credit for being on air most of the morning but dropped the ball in the 7pm hour.

That seniors comment was really unnecessary. I would usually have no problem switching to Localish for shows that are pre-empted, and wish that they did it more often, although in this case I wasn't home and DVR'ed Jeopardy (fortunately, this senior is smart enough to know how to do that) and wouldn't have been happy if it had moved. But they've made a big deal about their streaming channels, so I don't see any reason why they shouldn't have directed people to it for the news conference.

Forget the music… it looks like he’s spreading himself WAY too thin here. Again, I appreciate that he’s at least providing an alternative in a market where there’s really only one good station (KFSN), but when his main newscast alone is a bare bones show with limited local news on a low power station, he’d be better off doing one thing at a time. There comes a point where you can’t do it all yourself and expect the eyeballs to roll in. Also, naming your operation after yourself seems a bit off-putting imho, but I guess you could chalk that up to me being particular.

WCBS had strong coverage today. Kudos to them. Nice to see experienced hands of Dana, Cindy and Maurice at the helm.

Last I saw on the socials was that Jim is out if the country. Besides, these interviews are frequently granted to those whose profiles are looking to be boosted...and not the guy retiring within a year.

Then with one control room how were the able to do it live from the Newsroom.

Or just log on to the station's website.

Ehh….honeycomb is worse. The WBTV graphics are the best hands down! It’s a Bruce evolution of the LIM4 graphics package. I wish that WOIO’s graphics would become available to all stations.

FWIW, this constant coverage when they don't know all the details, it's not a current situation and no new information is coming in doesn't seem warranted. I know that it's a big story and a terrible thing that happened, but having the anchors and reporters just talking about what happened is not a good use of air time when they could be showing regularly scheduled shows. They could easily have broken in when more information became available.

FWIW, the TV was on during the 9am hour and Ken Rosato did break in twice to update the story before going to full wall-to-wall coverage. Didn’t seem like there was much to report on at the beginning as WNBC’s coverage was mostly centered around train delays for the first 30 mins.

Agreed that Joe & Sandra are the strongest team and that Maurice & Kristine are strong at 5. I dont mind male anchors steping outisde the blue black gray suit monotony, so longs as its in the relm of business formal. ESPN anchors nail this. Sam's choices however sometimes look odd . EDIT: Overall I like WABC's team because it has the least reporter turnover and great, consistent anchors.

I would agree the talent really isn’t strong as they once were. And the product isn’t all that great. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous with what Sam Champion goes on air wearing (1/2 the time not even a jacket) Bill Ritter in my book has no credibility and his comments are ridiculous (his social media posts about how many masks he’s wearing and how many Covid tests he’s taken arent so great either). And I would rathe see someone else at 5.. I would agree the strongest team they have right now is Joe and Sandra. Michelle needs a weekday spot at the desk. I actually like Maurice and Kristine at 5 fwiw.

Aside from the need to update the aesthetics, the music is fine. Actually I'd opt to return to the late 80s/early 90s version of Cool Hand Luke. In terms of news product I think WABC has the most recognizable brand but WNBC is my prefrence. WNYW has the weakest news product outisde of it's feature specials like Street Soliders. WPIX isn't strong either outside of the "Morning News". Overall News 4 and Eyewitness News are the strongest news wise. Is no one behind the scenes speaking to Ritter about his editorializing or does he have leeway as the station's lead newsman?

Constantly changing the anchors isn't ideal, but I can also understand the mindset of "We can pay someone much less to keep us in third place."

Agreed, their talent is okay, but some of their tans look awful and dress like it's 1950's aka Lee Goldberg. Others can dress whatever way they want and doesn't have to wear a suit and tie aka Sam Champion. I don't get the hype about either of them, especially Sam. Their best team is the Weekend PM team.

Really WABC’s actual news product is not very good either. It’s overtly sensationalized and editorial from the graphics to the on-screen commentary. Horrible horrible. Channel 4 and channel 2 are in a different league compared to 7.

I agree! KABC has always been superior and just cleaner with their on-air look and presentation, graphics, music and etc. (All the California O&Os KGO ABC 7 in SF and KFSN ABC 30 in Fresno have a variation of the KABC graphics package.) KABC out of all the O&Os has arguably the best set, backdrop, on-air look (simple and clean but still elegant) and consistency in their music package which is also great. Honestly to me, KABC's package still works though they've adopted it in 2015. WABC is really just boring, overall with their overall on-air look. They adopted these subpar flat basic graphics which look like they were designed in house or something or by a cheaper company which in my opinion is worthy of a medium to small market. Complete step behind their previous package from the Giant Octopus update they had from 2011-2015. Their current street side set is nice, but their backdrop is just pretty awful. Its 2022 and yet they still are using a static backdrop and the music while iconic, should be replaced at this point. Over 20+ years with the same music package and theme, maybe they are holding off on updates till they move into the new studio and building in the West Village, and by then we'll see a complete overhaul. Maybe in May we'll see something new from that department? Since the sweeps are coming up? Fingers Crossed, I feel like its due time for them to change or update their appearance. Or perhaps we'll have to wait till they move to their new studio in the West Village later in the decade. https://abc7ny.com/wabc-west-village-disney-upper-side/3733784/

LOLOL at all the apologists and shills on here (and you know you are) for something that is in reality a non-factor in the Fresno market and never will be a factor. It’s almost like you want Austin to credit you as a “Consulting Producer” at the end of his newscast. I don’t think anyone at KFSN or KMPH is even aware this newscast even exists, let alone thinking it poses anything close to a “threat”.

My problem isn't with potentially ripping off the news music, which seems to be the main gripe here, though a superficial one. The problem is with the content. There wasn't a single original story and not a frame of newsworthy video he or anyone else shot outside of a studio. If he tried to shoot and put together his own story (or two) like a proper reporter and then put in a few "pacer" stories from police, press releases and other material that don't require too many resources, then he'd probably be able to come up with a decent 15-minute newscast. Throw in a longer interview or two and you might be able to stretch it to 30. That would be a better use of his time and his viewers' time than an hour of old content ripped from other news outlets from YouTube. Go out into the world, talk to people, and do your own story instead of repackaging everyone else's.

I realize it's a globally recognized brand, but it's the tail wagging the dog.

I get this pov. I will say that the idea of a mass shooting/smoke bombing in the NYC Subway, the climax of years of being dangerous, is what drew the national hype. Add a manhunt to that and it's the perfect storm for media hype. International stations like 9 Australia were covering it. I even had relatives calling me from out of state to check to see if everything was alright.

This problem was resolved long ago. A news control room was built at least five years ago when the station completely overhauled and remodeled the engineering floor. Live is not automated. It still does TV the old-fashioned director/TD, full switcher and audio board way. On the other hand, the news is fully coded and automated. So, the two control rooms are very different. There might be other reasons behind the WABC response. But the control room is not one of them.

Yeah it just alludes to the direction Local TV News and WABC is going, from the complaints about Sam Champion not wearing a suit, to Bill's emotional rants, to not breaking in when warranted, it just goes to show that the standard that WABC has set is starting to decline or perhaps in alignment with the today's generation of viewers. They indeed seemed to be more relaxed as attitudes and expectations shift with new generation of viewers. It is 2022. I'm sure Sam's on air look is intentional. Maybe him not wearing a suit and tie is appealing to a certain audience. The requirement of needing to be polished, have a suit and tie seems to not be prioritized as much anymore. Lets not forget, that nowadays people dont even have TVs anymore they go online or stream online, so maybe they felt like the efficiency of being in air broadcasting a news story that was developing wasn't warranted at the time especially when most people have internet access and can go on the web and get more information much faster than the news can deliver it on TV.

WABC was the only local station that did not cover the 7pm press conference where officials released photos of the "person of interest." Heck, even WNYW broke away from Extra. I guess they did not want to upset the seniors by cutting away from Jeopardy, and since they are so reluctant to use Localish 7.2, I guess people wouldn't have been smart enough to find it.

Today, Lester and David were anchoring their respective evening news shows from Brooklyn while Norah stayed in Washington.

That’s the worst of them all. I thought they’d get the wkyt package.

I just checked at 9:47 am. WNBC is still with special coverage of the shooting and arrest. WCBS is with Drew. WABC still with twiddle dee and twiddle dumb live. As I typed this WABC finally has jumped in with a report (no one on the scene, unlike WNBC). Just the headline breaking in and a zoom interview.

There's been a major subway shooting/explosion AND the Lieutenant Governor has been arrested. WNBC has dumped out of Today, WCBS has left Drew, and WABC is still with Live...tells you all you need to know of WABC's priorities here.

Something tells me management actually likes having the anchors editorialize. I guess it’s supposed to make them more relatable, but it’s a bit condescending to those of us who would rather not hear opinion on a straight newscast. Reminds me more of Bill Bonds than Bill Beutel. That said, the format works for NYC.

Rachel Maddow says she's reduced her show to once a week Mondays, effective May.

Here are a couple of vintage WWL clips, beginning with a complete 10 PM newscast from Feb. 6, 1990: https://archive.org/details/wwl-eyewitness-news-at-10-pm-feb-6-1990-b Here's an open to a 10 PM newscast from Sept. 30, 1989 - shortly before the set and graphics from the above clip were fully implemented along with the first generation of Stephen Arnold's "WWL News" theme package: https://archive.org/details/wwl-eyewitness-news-start-mid-sep-30-1989 10 PM opens from May 19th and 20th, 1985: https://archive.org/details/wwl-eyewitness-news-nightwatch-start-may-19-1985 https://archive.org/details/wwl-eyewitness-news-nightwatch-start-may-20-1985 A 10 PM open from February 1, 2002 (the Friday before Tom Brady led the Patriots to their first title in Super Bowl 36 in the Superdome 2 days later): https://archive.org/details/wwl-eyewitness-news-at-10-pm-start-feb-1-2002-b A 10 PM newscast from December 14, 2003 (the top story was the capture by U.S. forces of infamous Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein months after the fall of his regime): https://archive.org/details/wwl-eyewitness-news-dec-14-2003-b From WDSU, a partial 10 PM newscast from Sept. 17, 1995: https://archive.org/details/wdsu-6-news-tonight-start-sep-17-1995

I'm telling you guys, it's only going to continue to improve. It's not about ratings right now, it's about establishing a product, and allowing the audience to grow with that product. Hopefully this will continue to grow into competative news operation. In a time where big companies are shutting down newsrooms and outsourcing the newscasts to be produced from stations in neighboring markets (sometimes markets from all the way on the other side of the country), it's extremely rare to see a start up news operation, especially from a small broadcaster that doesn't have the resources that a big corporation does. Once again, there really should be nothing but support here. I think it's easy to forget that local news at its core is a public service, and that';s exactly what's being provided here; a public service.