Jase

Is this some type of joke? Not sure why he would openly acknowledge one of the reasons he quit was because he was passed over for a job he was never going to get. Why burn the bridge of possibly returning to WMAQ some day? I'm just not getting the overall point it seems.

I haven't heard anything, so I would consider the issue/matter dead (for now). Maybe once they reach the 10 yr. mark, they will get a new set.

WLS has been able to hang on to their #1 spot despite the lost of Ron. As previously mentioned (in this thread & in others), WMAQ is thisclose to overtaking them at 10P and is #1 in some key demos over WLS, among others, in nearly every other newscast.

One would assume that management doesn't believe he's the problem which why he has outlasted 4 different co-anchors. They are willing to back him no matter what the reason behind their ratings woes are.

This gradual elevation of Scott over the past 2 yrs. has been a disaster. From the start, WLS should have just officially named her Jerry's successor and after a 2-4 year period, he would retire and she takes over. Period. End of story. Ratings/viewers be damn. If they were not 1000% behind her, then she shouldn't have been hired in the 1st place. The current situation doesn't help her at all and if I were her agent, I would be coming up with an exit plan ASAP. So what happens next yr.? They take the 6 away from Jerry too and he's left with 7? I'm tired of those silly joint pr releases, Facebook post, etc... too. Scott- 'Jerry's Great!!'.. Taft- 'I love Cheryl'. It's all a bunch of nonsense. It shouldn't be Jerry's job to continue to sell viewers on her. Baby bird needs to fly on her own.

Yes, he was the EP of Good Day. They can't seem to catch a break at WFLD. It feels like someone is either leaving or being fired every couple of months over there.

There seems to be zero desire to either make serious improvements to/replace the set. I guess it would have to fall apart in one fell swoop before they would ever consider replacing it. It's a shame really. The newsroom is arguably the best (design-wise) in town.

I believe Alicia was on this morning too, so bringing in Brant to help out I guess makes sense. But Mark @ WFLD is handling everything alone and so is Mary Kay @ WBBM.

The vacancies keep piling up @ WMAQ. Ponce wasn't going to get that weekday morning spot (Alex was the only choice from the start). Plus, while it's a move from weekends to weekdays, what young person really wants to wake up at 3A, work until 12:30/1P and go to bed at 7/8P? Given he has a newborn at home, I figured Ponce would want to keep the schedule he had. Guess not...

It's possible they may start at 4A someday, but GDC is poorly produced. Whatever talents George and Natalie have are not showcased at all really. They would be better off splitting the hours up (i.e. Fox 32 News @ Sunrise from 4A-6A & GDC from 6A-10A) like it was in the past (the Sirott era).

Mon.-Wed., Scott anchors at Noon/reports @ 9P. & Thurs-Fri., Kristen anchors @ Noon/reports @ 9P. It's been that way for at least two weeks. For more than a month, Lisa anchored at Noon (in addition to reporting for GDC every so often), right around the time Corey and Darlene added the 6A hr. to their duties thus relinquishing the Noon newscast. This new arrangement makes more sense and creates some type of structure. Pretty much everyone under the sun anchored at Noon, now that's no longer the case (I believe/hope so). I'm guessing that if they still plan on hiring another meteorologist, that person would work at Noon and fill in for Bill at 5P & 9P.

Scott and Kristen currently split the anchoring duties for the Noon newscast, so it would make sense to continue that arrangement @ 5P.

I like what I see so far. I'm guessing this is a slow role out just to get a general sense of things (could be why there's no new music, etc...). I hope the 'swoosh' sound effect era is over too. That drove me crazy.

There's no harm in trying really, but with little over a week until launch, I haven't seen/heard one promo about this. One would hope they put something together soon to build interest. I guess that's asking too much of them.

I would think it's a safe bet that Byron will pick up the 4 (or at least split the hour with Brant). I think they do something like this (if no one is leaving/retiring)... Weekdays 4-7A: Andy Weekdays 11A & 4P: Byron (Brant too maybe) Weekdays 5P, 6P & 10P: Brant Weekends AM: Kalee Weekends PM: Alicia There will still be enough (with vacations, weather emergencies, etc..) for Pete to fill-in from time to time.

A lot of their primary people are tied up with pre/post game coverage of each Chicago team (ie. , Boden -Blackhawks, Garfein-White Sox, etc..) that adding sports coverage for WMAQ to the mix may be too much to handle given their (CSN) current resources.

I agree. I would have left WCL at 11am and added the newscast at Noon.

Why not just hire Blanzy on a part-time/per diem basis? There's really no need to have 4 people filling in. Boden worked at WFLD also right before, I believe, he went to CSN. Holmes isn't any good and the same can be said of Boyle.

He's part-time. I think they still have him visit schools and such during the week too.

Wow...this is totally out of the blue. Both Andy and Pete own their own respective businesses, so either one could be looking to cut back/retire. Byron has only been back at WMAQ for less than 2yrs., so I would rule him out (unless of course he wants to head back to the West Coast). I guess we will find out soon enough. Hopefully, they say what the deal is soon. If it's Andy, Alicia is likely to move into his spot with Kalee taking over weekend duties.

Seems a little half-hearted... Why run the ad AFTER he officially retires and on a Saturday (which has the lowest daily circulation)? I guess it's the thought that counts.

From CRM... http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/news/8199-abc-7-nbc-5-win-may-2016-sweeps-for-evening-newscasts 'The news is even better for WMAQ-TV in the key demographic of Adults 25-54. NBC 5's 10:00pm newscasts won in that demo for the 13th consecutive book. WMAQ-TV pulled in a 3.6 rating, while WLS-TV only pulled in a 2.7 rating for the May sweeps period. In fact, WMAQ-TV beat WLS-TV in the Adults 25-54 demo in nearly every newscast, including 4:00am, 4:30am, 5:00am, 6:00am, 4:30pm, 5:00pm, 6:00pm, and 10:00pm. (For the 11:00am newscast this past sweeps period, WMAQ-TV wins in the demo of Women 25-54, but narrowly comes in second for Adults 25-54.)' - CRM 'For the first time since the introduction of Nielsen's LPMs (Local People Meters) in 2004, WBBM-TV's midday newscast is #1 for households in the Chicago market. WBBM-TV's 11:00am newscast pulled in a 2.1 rating/8 share to be the #1 rated midday newscast, narrowly beating WMAQ-TV and WGN-TV, each with a 2.0 rating and 7 share. For the early morning and evening newscasts, WBBM-TV can applaud its extremely high year-to-year increases found in the May 2016 sweeps period results -- far more than any other Chicago station, especially in Adults 25-54. For the early morning weekday newscasts (4:30am-7:00am), WBBM-TV has seen a 100% increase percentage for the Adults 25-54 demo. For the 11:00am weekday newscast, the Adults 25-54 demo increase was 20%. For the 5:00pm weekday newscast, the increase was a whopping 67%. (In stark contrast for the 5:00pm newscasts in this demo, WMAQ-TV only increased by 22%, WGN-TV only increased by 14%, while WLS-TV decreased by 31%.) For WBBM-TV's 6:00pm weekday newscast, ratings in the Adult 25-54 demo are up 33%. With the 10:00pm newscast, ratings increased in this demo by 11%.' -CRM

Shiba Russell isn't headed to WFLD/Chicago, but WXIA/Atlanta instead. It's unclear if she was deciding between the two stations and picked WXIA or if WFLD wasn't really in the running. FYI: The weekend anchor job posting has been removed from WFLD's site which either means they won't fill it (any time soon) or they found someone (internally or externally). We shall see... http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/shiba-russell-to-join-wxia-morning-show/170579

Never say never....They would jump at the chance to get him back (in any role). In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they ask him to be a guest on Election Night. Given that it will be a historic night (regardless of who wins), how could he say no? Heck, they probably could get Dick Kay to show up too.

Lietner's (former) position has been posted too, so they have 3 on-air spots to fill. No justifiable reason why the anchor positions haven't been filled. I guess they think the next Ron Magers is out there somewhere or something.