Spring Rubber

WGN execs are reading my posts. Ana is anchoring the 4am show today.

Mark Strehl did the past two weekends at 9pm. I wonder if Rick's done now or what...

Ana seems to be the clear #2 female for the morning news now that Erin is an evening reporter. Larry anchoring the 4am is surprising, though. I would have expected a solo show and/or literally any available general assignment reporter filling in before I would have expected Larry on the 4am show. P.S. Do we have a permanent 4-6am female anchor yet? Could the plan be to groom Ana for the slot? Not sure if she could still do Around Town PLUS anchoring. Maybe they'd give Around Town to someone else if Ana became an anchor.

Tahman anchored the morning news on Friday, and Steve is anchoring the weekend news today? What a bizarre weekend!

Has anybody watched Morgan on the early morning news?

No, that was never a thing. Good question. Has Dick taken any days off since Rob went on leave?

The evening anchors implied that Alicia will be filling in for Brant Miller the entire week now that Byron is gone. The previous arrangement had been Alicia Monday and Tuesday, Byron Thursday and Friday, and of course, either of the two on Wednesday. Now that Byron's gone, we'll probably see weeks where Alicia has to work Monday-Friday quite a bit. Kalee might have to pull Monday-Friday shifts on the 11 am show as well. Either way, we'll probably see a lot more Pete Sack on weekends again since I imagine Alicia and/or Kalee will be off on weekends after their Monday-Friday fill-in shifts I wonder if we'll see more Andy Avalos appearances on the 11am show whenever Alicia or Kalee are unavailable. I've seen Andy a couple of times on the 11am show when Byron was off and no one else was available to fill in.

Byron said goodbye at the end of the 11am news today. Apparently he decided to depart a few days ahead of the planned June 9th last day. I'm upset that I didn't record it.

Did Morgan Kolkmeyer debut yet? I know almost none of us watch the early morning show. Not sure if anybody knows.

Funny, WMAQ was having severe playback issues at the end of their 5pm show yesterday. The final two segments ended in black screen with flickering graphics. Not a good day for Chicago News tech.

The late night newscast was Phil on weather, Ravi anchoring, and Jim on sports. Save for Jim, it felt like a weekend evening newscast (which it basically was)

Sarah Jindra worked a double shift today, doing traffic on both the morning and evening news.

Look, this is the most exciting thing to happen to that set in 8 years. We gotta find something to talk about.

Feder published it last week, but I think we forgot to talk about it due to our collective WGN obsession last week.

Wow, Tom stayed for the late news? Typical situation used to be that Tom would go home, and Jim would come in. Maybe Jim was also unavailable tonight.

I wonder if that's permanent. Did they ditch the box saying "EVENING NEWS", "MORNING NEWS", etc.?

Yes, it has been quite bumpy so far.

Nothing new for the sports division at all. They're even still using the old logo. Looks kinda lame using the old logo when the station is trying to sell this new identity so hard. Guess they're waiting for hockey season to overhaul the sports stuff.

Also, I read this a long time ago and forgot to reply. Yes, I agree with this. They'll most likely go with this strategy, now that you mention it.

WMAQ? Picking an "official weekend anchor"? I think you're asking a little too much. A simple coin flip will determine who anchors day-to-day, I'm sure.

It's definitely a big month of changes at the ol' number 9.

Any idea what the arrangement would be if Byron departs? I doubt they'd hire another meteorologist. I'd say either Kalee would take the 11 AM, and Alicia would go back to doing all weekend newscasts, or vice versa. Given Alicia's seniority, I'd actually expect Alicia to be offered the 11 AM while Kalee gets assigned full weekend duties

Make sure you follow him on Facebook before it's too late! Click that Thumbs Up button!

If true, that's a shame. I've always enjoyed his unique, somewhat comedic take on the forecast.

I'm a bit bored of full-screen video walls as the main backdrop for sets. WMAQ, WLS, and WFLD might as well all have the same set. You can just change the video source, and voila!