Spring Rubber

Oh my goodness. I had no idea that Mike Hamernik was unwell. Total shock to me. My condolences to his loved ones.

https://www.robertfeder.com/2021/03/03/will-mark-giangreco-ever-return-abc-7/ Feder seems to be suggesting that Giangreco will not be returning. If that's the case, what a way for a career to end without a proper goodbye.

Right after Feder wrote that piece about Giangreco being AWOL for several weeks now with no explanation. Could these two things be related?

This does seem like a situation where they might only staff in-house weather on weekdays and outsource either weekends or middays to the Fox Weather service. I would agree with Jase that perhaps the launch of Fox Weather is at least part of the reason why Bellis is out, which is what we feared when the service was announced - the departure of local meteorologists from Fox O&Os nationwide.

Was she broadcasting from home or from one or both of the stations' studios?

I haven't watched the Sunday 9pm news much this fall, but I noticed that tonight, they dedicated the entire 9:40pm-10pm block to sports. Even though the actual show Instant Replay was quietly cancelled during the pandemic sports shutdown, they still basically did a pseudo-Instant Replay tonight. Have they been doing this all throughout the fall sports season, or did they only do it tonight because the Bears are trying to make a playoff push and because it's slow news during the holidays?

I never like large graphics that hug the bottom of the screen with no gap. It feels so claustrophobic. Don't they basically modify the NBA score graphic almost every season now? It seems absurd.

Wow, that's ridiculous. Honestly, sports betting is a huge turn off for me. When SportsCenter started running full segments based around betting a few years ago, I tuned out.

Nice, I always have fond memories of that era. I didn't realize that the format launched without Robin Meade at the helm in the mornings. I just looked it up, and apparently Robin Meade joined CNN Headline News on 9/11/01 of all days. What the heck. Is that a sports cut of the theme because of the Bulls in the NBA Finals? Kinda has a sports cut vibe to it.

Rest in peace, Joel!

Just in case anyone was anticipating Ray Cortopassi's debut, his on-air debut was postponed from the original September 28th date to the following Monday, October 5th.

The ticker text is above the Look N ticker. If you look at it on a different angle, you can see it. I have to tilt my monitor upwards to see the distinction.

Wow, that's weird then. Can't think of why they'd go outside for video, then.

I was wondering why the national Fox outlet was talking a feed from WBBM, but then I saw the mic flags. Looks like everyone else in town was there, but WFLD is nowhere to be found.

The score graphic is the epitome of following the same standard layout as every network, including their own MNF as you mentioned. It's surprising to see all networks following the same general format, except with different skins.

Wow, I missed out by not waking up early this morning. I wonder what viewers saw on air.

As a Chicagoan who was used to local games on WGN Sports where they didn't use sideline reporters, I was fine with it. When they needed to interview someone, they would have a producer and a camera operator slap a headset/mic on a player or coach, and the play-by-play commentator would interview them from the booth. The teams all split games between WGN and NBC Sports Chicago. When I would tune into their games on NBCSC, I would always find the addition of the sideline reporter (plus the "insider" and sometimes the extra "field commentator") to be extra fluff. I actually preferred the "less is more" approach of the WGN telecasts. At the national level, the NFL on CBS didn't use sideline reporters for a number of years. Their coverage seemed to do just fine. For injuries, I assume they would have a producer gather the information from the locker rooms/training staff and would feed it to the play-by-play commentator to relay it to the audience whenever needed.

Oh, I totally forgot about the premiering today. I'll have to catch it one day later this week.

There's gotta be some funny business going on, because otherwise, it makes no sense to have Michelle only be a "news update" anchor of the 5am-7am block rather than a full anchor of the full three hours. There must be some issue where they don't want to pay whatever salary comes with being named anchor of the 5am-7am portion of the show.

Wow, never thought I'd see them go with a solo-anchored weekday morning newscast. I always figured that would be a thing that could only be seen at WBBM.

Even with the Cubs and Sox back in action, WGN did not bring back Instant Replay this Sunday. I'm wondering if they decided to either permanently cancel it or if they will make it a football-season-only show. Now that GN Sports is around Monday-Friday. I'm thinking the COVID-19 shutdown was probably a perfect time to just phase out Instant Replay permanently. Even during football season, I assume more eyes are on WMAQ's Sports Sunday due to the SNF lead-in compared to WGN.

I used to have laughing fits like that as a teenager. Haven't had them in a long, long time. Maybe it's time to take a page from Jerry and laugh it up a little when times get a little better. Jerry was the man!

RIP Jerry Taft. A true legend and one of my all-time favorites.

New general assignment reporter at WGN. She's reporting on shootings tonight. I didn't notice any announcement about her hiring. https://wgntv.com/author/bronagh-tumulty/

Who even is the weekend crew now that the weekend crew has become the 4pm crew?