ttvn2000

Their new news director "director of content" seems to want to make his impression on WKYC....and it isn't a good one. He's trying to turn their morning show into something like the Today show, but without the actual personalities who can pull this off. (Though arguably, Robin Swoboda could easily be the Kathie Lee Gifford in this scenario.) They're pulling a Fox 8 by making the news all about the personalities (Hollie Strano's "deeply personal story", an official dog "mascot," putting chocolate syrup on cereal) - but to me, it is just falling flat. (If you notice, their director of content rarely tweets actual news...it's an endless stream of love for Kathie Lee and Hoda...) These days are long behind us...

Interesting - especially since viewers likely assumed Johansen was going to get a full-time anchor role when Crabtree retired. This is speculation, but I wonder if this opens the door for him to come back to Cincinnati. A little digging on his Twitter feed reveals his high school age daughter is still attending HS in the Cincinnati area. And Kyle Inskeep isn’t terribly captivating at the anchor desk. (They should’ve given that role to Adam Clements, who was very publicly trying out for the role, but I digress.) It has to be frustrating to leave WKRC after 20+ years (with no Rob Braun retirement in sight) for a lead anchor gig, only to get sidelined a year into it.

I have to wonder what this means for Brad Johansen - who was hired to replace him. The station is responding to folks asking about Brad on Facebook rather ominously... :

Nice reversal of trend! But the sports guy needs socks.

I think it could’ve worked. Not sure if it would’ve been enough to turn the ratings, but I’ve always thought Gill should’ve had a better chance there...especially compared to Danita Harris, who I think was best-suited for Good Morning Cleveland. ‘09 was a volatile time for channel 5...it seemed like they were trying all kinds of different pairings around that time. (Even Joy Benedict had some anchor time during that period if I’m remembering correctly.). This was when they started calling themselves “channel 5” outside of newscasts and had a very inconsistent look and feel.

She isn’t as stiff as Romona Robinson...who was pretty successful in Cleveland. Or Lorna Barrett, the face of a much-stronger WEWS in the 1990s. But I do think Gill is doing well in Carmen Harlan’s seat at WDIV.

Agreed. That’s when they decided to go for the Ohio City/hipster/club crowd with promos like this: And going way back...I still think they made a HUGE mistake ditching Kimberly Gill. Cleveland (and Pittsburgh’s) loss is definitely Detroit’s gain. WEWS should’ve sent to Danita back to mornings in 2009 and put Kimberly in the main slot.

Will WEWS ever learn?! They should’ve never ditched Tera Blake for the short-lived duo of Somara Theodore (pre-ticket-scandal) and Jason Nicholas (pre-WOIO). But I guess things worked out for Tera Blake since she’s now at a dominant WKRC instead of a weak WEWS...

History is repeating itself - the same thing happened 10 years ago with Sue Ann Robak. http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2007/05/clevelands_am_tv_personalities.html

She's already worked at WTOL - she was one of the folks let go during the Cards Against Humanity debacle. Totally agree that she deserves better.