Spring Rubber

Are you referring to the set that they used up until 2006? I have so much nostalgia for that set.

Speaking of the newsroom... Remember when they built that newsroom set for the morning news? How long did that even last, and what year(s) was that? I don't even remember it that clearly.

A temp set during sweeps? What?!

Maybe somebody misunderstood what "sweeps" meant and thought you're supposed to wait for the logo to fall on the floor and then sweep it up with a broom and dustpan.

Today, Dick is back, but Rob is now off. It never ends!

I don't remember the last time I saw the "Dick Johnson at 4pm, Rob Stafford at 5, 6, and 10pm" format. Ever since the holidays, it seems that either Dick or Rob has been off every weekday, whoever is present that particular day will anchor all of the day's newscasts. Today, Rob is in, but it's been mostly Dick Johnson for the past two weeks, and I think it was mostly Rob for the two weeks before that. Maybe someday they'll both be back together on Monday-Wednesday.

Maybe they could have placed a bench there and had Phil sit on the graphic.

Cute graphic, but now to work on the spelling...

Bulls have a rare 8pm game on WGN tonight, so we'll be seeing the latest WGN newscast that we've seen in a while.

I have never seen the 4 AM news in my life, but today's show is being anchored by Susan Carlson solo in the Weather Center. I wonder if there's a reason she's not at the anchor desk, or if they're just trying to be creative with the solo anchor format on today's (observed) holiday show. Unless this is actually the norm for the 4 AM show...? EDIT: I guess it's the norm. Apparently Alex Maragos doesn't join the show until 4:30 AM, at which point they move over to the anchor desk.

Ah ok, but there were some years on the old set where they didn't decorate it, right?

Also, I noticed that ABC 7 is using poinsettias on set this year. Is this their first year doing it, or did they start it last year when this set debuted? I can't recall them using poinsettias on the previous set, but I might be wrong...

We've got Hosea Sanders on this morning alongside Stacey Baca. I almost feel like I'm watching a pre-Terrell weekday morning newscast.

ABC 7 just had a huge automation fail. It started with lower thirds popping up over the wrong videos, but when it switched to a single shot of Karen in the studio, the camera tried to back up to show an OTS graphic on the video board, and the camera hit something and started shaking. It stayed steady for a second, but then the camera hit something again and violently turned wide left toward the empty seat at the desk (Ravi is off tonight). The control room cut hard to the b-roll for the story, which again had an incorrect lower third. Karen broke down and started laughing at the hilarity of the dumpster fire of technical fails taking place. They then went to a weather update from Phil, but they had no camera available to show Phil. They just put Phil's lower third on top of the full-screen weather graphics, and Phil did not make an appearance on camera the entire time. Once they went back to Karen, she read the lead-in to a prerecorded story, and when she finished reading, sure enough, the recorded video could not be played, so she just sat there in silence for a bit while trying to find the correct paper script on the desk so that she could narrate the story herself. As soon as she started narrating the story, the pre-recorded story abruptly kicked in and cut her off. Things seem to have stabilized after that segment. I think we're good now.

Sean Lewis was on tonight instead of Tahman. I wonder if we'll see Tahman tomorrow.

The double white bar just looks wrong.

I nominate Anthony Ponce.

I didn't see the 5pm newscast, but it's Larry doing the 10pm tonight. EDIT: Karen Jordan is off tonight and will be filling in for Tanja Babich on the morning news tomorrow, which will be beginning at 4AM to compete with the others on winter storm coverage.

Looks like Larry Mowry is off this weekend. Phil is in the studio with Mark McGinnis reporting on the roads.

I'm not a fan of the bug position. Maybe I'll warm up to it, but right now, it feels awkward. It's also silly how close the radar is zoomed in at each location. You can't really glean much information by the super-zoomed radar.

Looks like we've seen the last of the late night WGN News after 9pm sporting events. The Bulls have a 9pm game on Tuesday, and they'll be doing the newscast at 8pm, with no news following the game. I guess this shouldn't come as a surprise, as this is what WGN would do in the past on Saturdays when there was no CW programming to get in the way.

Was it Stacey solo this weekend in the mornings?

The weather info is back below the time and temp tonight on the weekend 5pm.

I want to say Marion was out at 11am yesterday, as well. IIRC, Lauren Petty or Michelle Relerford was in for her. That's 4 different female anchors across 5 different newscasts.

I don't like the transparency in the circle 7. Looks dingy.