Jterry

Multiple reports indicating Josh Elliot is leaving ABC for a position within NBC sports.

 

Per Mediaverse (via Facebook), Tracy Rogers has been named the new VP/GM at WMC-TV. Rogers once served as the station's news director before taking over as VP/GM at KAIT in Jonesboro.

 

Very interesting. I thought her period as ND at WMC was pretty good actually, coming off the PP era. Will be looking forward to see how this turns out.

In hindsight I totally should have seen this move coming.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal is confirming what NewsBlues reported yesterday, that WMC VP/GM Lee Meredith is leaving the station and being reassigned to sister station WAFB in Baton Rouge, replacing the outgoing Sandy Breland who is heading to WVUE. Meredith's successor at WMC has not yet been named.

It will be interesting to see who replaces Meredith, as his tenure at WMC has been during a period of near continuous ratings declines along with a worsening of WMC's news product through reliance on increased sensationalism.

Links not provided since both would be behind paywalls.

 

That and the two University of Memphis coaches' shows WHBQ does every week during basketball season, but it'll be interesting to see how WATN manages to do its Sunday night sports show if their intent is to cover all levels of basketball and not just at the prep or college level.

 

I agree. Some weeks it would be easy to know what gets more coverage but how its balanced will be interesting to watch. They're claiming it will cover everything from Grizzlies to Tigers to preps and SEC, etc.

WATN is continuing its expansion of its local sports programming by starting a new, weekly Sunday night show beginning this week. The interesting angle: It will be a show purely dedicated to local basketball coverage, called "Local Hoops Live", in similar vein to its "Local Prep Live" that ran during the high school football season. It's unclear whether it will be a separate show from its newscast, or have a 10:15 start time - running until the normal 10:35 newscast time as "Local Prep Live" did.

We'll see if it catches on, but this is a very smart move by them for the Memphis market to focus in on basketball as a weekly show.

Just came across this live overnight - near 2 AM - news update from WMC back in early 1994. This during that nationwide trend where local stations went "24-hour". Joyce Peterson, now at WATN, anchors from what had to be very near her debut on Memphis television. Not surprisingly this is where the newest anchors/reporters began.

The end also features the classic WMC ID of the era.

 

Yeah, but with the government shutdown, nothing's going to get approved now (depending on how long that lasts)...

 

Just some confirmation on that...

http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/10/01/tv-mergers-worth-billions-put-on-hold-as-fcc-shuts-down/

Don't expect any news on Albritton/Sinclair, Local/Tribune, Gannett/Belo, etc until the shutdown is over.

Beginning September 16, WMC is shortening its Noon newscast to 30 minutes, in order to fill its commitment to the god awful "America Now", that will then begin airing at 12:30. It previously aired for one hour at 11 AM, but Katie is being moved to that time to make room for the Queen Latifah Show.

 

In September, WFRV will be debuting a new morning program. Local 5 Live will feature discussion about the day's stories, as well as events in the area. By the looks of it, it'll be their answer to WTMJ's Morning Blend program. Former WFRV anchor Lisa Malak will be returning to co-host the show with meteorologist Justin Steinbrinck. The show will replace "Live with Kelly and Michael", which will be moving to WLUK after many years on WFRV.

 

Is it me, or does the logo look way too early 90s? Kind of sensing a J. C. Burns influence in it.....

 

On a side note, with WATN getting ready to start their own infotainment show, I have a feeling it will follow this model closely. Even backs up the speculation of a 9 AM slot replacing Live with Kelly and Michael (maybe Nexstar is getting stations to dump that?)

Unfortunately more tragic news for the folks at WATN (formerly WPTY) Memphis. Former sports anchor Corey Maclin was killed last night in a traffic accident. Maclin served as primary sports anchor for ABC 24/CW 30 for about 2 and a half years from 2010-2013. Maclin was far better known in Memphis as a wrestling promoter and announcer (in a city where that sport has been historically huge), and his tenure at ABC 24 was more of an experiment at WPTY's worst period of Newport ownership and just didn't work out that well, and he was let go just weeks before their recent relaunch.

Regardless of that, Maclin was still very respected in the community and comments on social media this morning reflect a big, big loss. This makes now 4 WPTY staff members that have unexpectedly died in the last 5 years.

Thoughts and prayers to the Maclin family and those at WPTY and elsewhere that knew him well.

 

Also from Wikipedia (KUTV's page):

It's a known fact that Nexstar hates weekend morning news. WBRE, the only pre-Newport station that has weekend morning news, airs them for one hour on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, while rival WNEP airs them for about two-three hours both days. Now WSYR, a station at which Nexstar has largely maintained the status quo (they're a huge moneymaker for Nexstar and were likewise with Newport), also has weekend morning news for one hour (7AM) both days. None of the remaining Nexstar stations have them even though it would ideally make sense on stations like KARK, KTVX, and WATN. It costs money to staff a weekend morning newscast (and nobody is probably going to watch it anyways) so I truly don't see that happening, even at a station they spent $5 million on. Also of note, when they finish their acquisition of the Comcorp stations, KETK also has one-hour weekend morning newscasts at 8AM both days. I don't see those getting cut, at a station that is pretty much already run like a typical Nexstar station.

 

Case in point, at the end of the year, I see three Nexstar stations with weekend morning news; WATN won't be in that three. Sorry...

 

Ahh, I see your point now. I completely misunderstood your Nexstar "hating" as against WATN, the station itself, not just weekend morning news in general. Now there I agree with you. It could happen eventually, probably moreso if WATN starts making some moves in the market, but not for a long while. There are other areas they could work on first, for sure. In the Memphis market at least, weekend morning shows usually are a rehash of old news or just interviews, it's very rare to see big news happen at those times.

 

WATN won't add weekend morning newscasts. Nexstar hates them for whatever reason and only WBRE and WSYR air them currently. KDFW only had them on Saturdays for years until very recently when they expanded them. Maybe this is a sign KTBC will add weekend editions of Good Day Austin. God, I hope so :drool: .

 

Are you sure about that? I don't think Nexstar would spend more than 5 million dollars on a station they 'hated'. Maybe you're thinking back to Newport, before the relaunch? Nexstar is most definitely committed to WATN. I don't expect weekend morning newscasts anytime soon, but they have promised expanded programming in the months to come already.

 

That's anyone's guess since Wendy has been doing freelance work as a fill-in meteorologist after becoming a full-time mom (Holly Hancock recently left WHBQ to become a full-time mom herself).

 

Speaking of which, WHBQ has job postings up for a new weather anchor as well as a traffic reporter (is Heather York leaving?).

 

From what I understand Wendy Nations has taken the WHBQ opening vacated by Holly Hancock, so she is back to full-time. I think that's the opening that's still on their website, though I'm not sure. Now whether that covers both mornings and evenings I don't know either. Both WREG and WMC use the same meteorologist for both mornings and evenings on weekends.

As far as Heather York, I haven't heard anything there. I would bet they want to bring in somebody to do traffic in-studio, Heather York has done traffic for GMM about as long as I can remember, but has always done it via phone.

 

Per Kristin's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=384877324946386&id=319104684856984

 

Thanks for the confirmation on that (I noted on the original post about the same time as you posted).

Looks like Wendy Nations will be doing weather. Both have been on the weekend evening newscasts as of late. I wonder if they will continue to do that or if somebody else is stepping in.

Looks like WHBQ is doing something I thought they should have done years ago - weekend editions of Good Morning Memphis. Promos airing tonight indicate a launch on August 3, with Kristin Tallent anchoring. It will start as Saturdays only from 6 to 8 am, though I bet they expand to Sundays within a few months. That will leave WATN as the only Memphis station without weekend morning newscasts of some kind.

According to a blog report, legendary OKC KWTV meteorologist Gary England is being reassigned within parent company Griffin to a new management-level position. His duties on-air will be ending as of August 30. England is very well known in the market (and even outside) for his superiority in severe weather coverage, especially after the high profile tornadoes of earlier this year. David Payne will take over primary duties. With England still within Griffin, I wouldn't rule out occasional appearances, however.

http://www.thelostogle.com/2013/07/23/breaking-news-gary-england-is-leaving-channel-9/

 

 

It is an atypical setup, and something WTVF in Nashville did as well to some extent following the retirement of Hope Hines. Not sure if they still do that type of arrangement.

 

Also, according to a press release on the LocalMemphis page (http://www.localmemphis.com/content/newstation/story/TV-Stations-Welcome-New-Talent-to-Local-Sports/qg0WzyQ-2USvw_3vH0JKsA.cspx), Doc will have a dual role as both a general assignment and sports reporter for the stations, which is also not unusual as WHBQ did that with Marcus Hunter and Kristin Tallent in the past.

 

 

That should be interesting considering the fact that WREG no longer does a sports show on Sundays (they used to have one that was hosted by George Lapides, who does a morning sports show on WHBQ-AM), WMC dropped their show to do an hour-long newscast on Sunday nights, and both stations do abbreviated 10pm newscasts on Friday nights (dedicating the rest of the half hour to an extended sports segment).

 

Somehow I missed that press release. Very interesting - counting Doc WATN will have a pretty big lead in the sports department area compared to the other stations in town. Definite commitment being made there where most stations in the market (and country for that matter) continue to reduce.

WATN doing a Friday night extended segment could also occur, but they do have a leg up in being able to provide that every night if you count WLMT. I do fully expect they will restart a high school Friday football show in the fall which they first dumped a few years ago.

As far as the specials, the specific mention they made last month was 30-minute shows, so if it becomes weekly programs Sunday makes the most sense. In the era when WREG and WMC had Sunday night shows, WPTY aired the U of Memphis's football/basketball coaches shows in that timeslot for ~half the year. WHBQ has since gotten the rights to that however (maybe they might make a play to regain that?)

 

A follow up on the Gil Tyree hire by WATN/WLMT in Memphis. His first day on the job at the Twin Stations will be July 1st, according to this article posted today.

 

http://www.accessatlanta.com/weblogs/radio-tv-talk/2013/jun/20/gpbs-gil-tyree-leaves-memphis/

 

Another follow up on the Gil Tyree situation. His first day was today as advertised, but Joyce Peterson revealed they will be doing an atypical anchor lineup. Gil Tyree will anchor Wed - Sun. Andy Burrell will anchor Mondays and Tuesdays, then report Fri - Sun. Essentially they want to emphasize sports for the weekend since that's when many major events happen anyway. Doc Holliday will apparently go back to news reporting though I imagine will be the primary fill-in for either one.

Also as revealed last month, the new sports department is expected to begin producing special programming in the future as well. Speculating but maybe a Sunday night show will be in the works.

Starting this morning, WMC Memphis is launching a 7 AM newscast on its 5.2 Bounce TV subchannel. It will essentially be a one-hour extension of its morning show with "extra emphasis on traffic and weather". WREG previously had a 7 AM newscast on it's 3.2 subchannel but ended it some time ago. Wonder if they may start it up again with this move. WHBQ and WATN (through WLMT) also have 7 AM news hours in the Memphis market.

 

Gil Tyree, former sports director/anchor of WGCL CBS 46 is now the new main sports director/anchor of WATN Local 24.

 

I noted this in the WATN thread as well, but one side note - he is not the sports director, just their main weekday anchor. WATN has had a sports director for a while now that works primarily off-air (unusual I know).

*shakes head* That is 1999, sadly. I wrote the WDYR page because it was missing.

 

It's just small market, no fault of their own and credit to the guy for trying. There's other WDYR material on his channel too.

 

The Palmer package is still in use — and it's 27 years old this year. WJET dropped it last year, making it a race between KESQ Palm Springs et al. and WPTY Memphis et al. to see who will drop it first.

Actually, Dyersburg, TN isn't even its own market. Its technically part of Memphis. WDYR was a small, brief startup I think by a local reporter that tried to recruit other locals into it. Obviously it never went anywhere and as said shut down within a year or so.

ETA...if I had watched the whole video through - it goes through that a bit. Tommy Stafford - he had been around Memphis TV for many years before going off to do that, and then briefly returned to Memphis after at WPTY/WLMT. His wife Yvette Mena featured in there also was in Memphis TV for a good while too.

Some people understandably mad at WMC for the DB "announcement" but the real fury is for those few (and it seemed by FAR most people tuned to WMC) that chose to watch WREG tonight. Twitter and 3's FB page is hilarious.

I saw both "big announcements", and both of them were disappointments with one being another sweeps gimmick.

 

Dave Brown, who has been in broadcasting for 50 years, will be sticking around at WMC-TV for at least a couple more years even though he's close to retirement age as was mentioned on air, so that was a bummer. WREG, on the other hand, announced a shopping spree at a luxury retailer as the last part of their Prize Box promotion, and included Claudia Barr "showing off" a pair of black Christian Louboutin heels with her hands.

 

I got nothing else to say. :bang:

Ha! We posted at about the same second.

I don't give a lot of grief to Dave Brown's announcement, the fact is he is a Memphis institution and when he does retire, it will be a huge deal. But WREG's stunt was a tasteless, classless gimmick rushed together to try and draw away viewers from WMC on one of the last night of sweeps, likely not knowing whether a real retirement announcement was coming from Brown. Just totally ridiculous - WREG loses a lot of respect for that one.

LOL, couldn't have gone much better. WMC's announcement was that Dave Brown was staying a couple more years (I had heard earlier in the evening that he signed a 2-year extension with plans to leave after that), but WREG? Yes, Claudia Barr was excited to announce that one lucky person will be the recipient of a shoe shopping giveaway at a high-end store! Ridiculous on both accounts, but at least there was appropriate background to Dave Brown's with tonight his 35-year anninversary at WMC and 50th year in radio/TV broadcasting coming up in a few weeks.

Here we go again...

A few weeks after WHBQ's "big announcement" which ended up being anchor switches at several of its newscasts, two Memphis stations are touting big announcements about one of their main personalities tonight at 10. At WMC, its Dave Brown, and at WREG, Claudia Barr. Both could conceivably be about pending retirement, especially Dave Brown who's been on Memphis TV for nearly 40 years, but will have to again play skeptic given we're at the end of sweeps and 3/5 are very very close in the 10 PM ratings so far this month. Both have gotten a good amount of buzz on social media today like WHBQ had with theirs.