Jase

I'm sure Tom is ambitious, but who really wants to be tied to the anchor desk all day? Rafer (WFLD) only anchors Friday and Saturday and unlike his predecessor, Scott, has never worked the Live Desk @ 5P and spends most of his time out in the field. From Tom's bio- 'When Mark’s busy, you’ll find Tom filling in on WGN Evening News and WGN News at Nine and Ten alongside Micah Materre. But truth be told, he’d rather be out covering a story.' That pretty much speaks for itself. I'm guessing Larry was asked/considered, but probably likes the shift he has. In by 4A out by like 10-11A isn't a bad deal. Get to spend a great deal of time/one's day with the family.

I'm not too surprised by this. I don't think Tom likes anchoring (he would rather be out in the field) and Ben is B team material (C team imo, but..). Larry and Dan were not moving off of mornings for obvious reasons. Steve wasn't going back to evenings and the weekend guys were staying on the weekends.

Let me put it this way.. A corporation, in this case, a media/broadcasting one, has a lot more influence/power than a labor union and can push their political agenda (whether it's pro-right/left/up or down) out to a lot more people. As overly-idealistic as this may sound; I just don't think it's a good idea for a corporation to ask for a 'donation' or a union to use dues towards anything political. Decisions like that should ultimately be left up to an individual. And despite what SCOTUS says, a corporation is not an individual. Back to you Jim.

I wouldn’t put a labor union in the same boat as a corporation.

WFLD does their own version of FNC' 'Outnumbered' during their 9A hour, so it's not uncommon to see this type of stuff.

No media/broadcasting corporation should, directly or indirectly, have a PAC and/or ask their employees to contribute to said PAC regardless of political affiliation. While it may seem like people are piling on Sinclair; believe me that they would be just as critical if this was Comcast, AT&T, Disney, etc...doing the same thing.

They have cut the Friday 9P newscast short before (normally during ratings periods) to run special programs (i.e Chicago at the Tipping Point, Inside the Bears, etc..), so it's unclear if 'Fired Up' will become a regular thing. Feder often complains/points out that WFLD does this to fudge their ratings #s.

In theory, they could do whatever/whenever they want. It’s not like the Winter Games are here in Chicago. Just because it’s sweeps means nothing. They are due for a remodel and could easily do what they have to do over the next several weeks without interruptions to their newscasts. Again, no one said a remodel is officially happening only that it APPEARS something more significant is taking place.

I am assuming that will be the case (remove the wood, etc...) to make everything match, but they have had sets in the past that didn't have a cohesive overall look, so who knows?? With the overall set/space being super small, they couldn't shove the desk over there. If the plan is to stay in place while they remodel, the best option would be to go to the opposite side (between the chroma key wall and weather center). That would give the cameras enough room to move around. Or they could throw up some blue panels behind them during each newscast to cover whatever they plan to do to that part of the set. Guess we have to wait and see what, if anything, happens. I am a little surprise they didn't just go upstairs to the old Steve Harvey studio temporarily and take care of everything at the same time.

I can live with the color. I just hope this is a temporary setup and they plan to do more to finish off this space. If not, this is a wasted opportunity and a huge step backwards.

Here’s the updated stand-up area. Again, this could mean more changes are coming to the rest of the set. February 2018

Yes and upon further review (i just watch the 6P), it looks like they may be (again, i say MAY BE) remodeling the entire set (excluding the weather center??) in phases rather than all at once. I have to watch again at 10p and tomorrow at 4A to get a better sense of things and hopefully some more pics too. February 2012 (Set Debut) 2017 It goes like this chroma key (green screen) wall > monitor wall > weather center. The monitor wall was added at some point (2013?), but wasn’t there originally I believe in 2012. Here’s a pic. Tough to make out, but the only one I could find.

The lighting upgrade, I don't know, but I would guess several months back. I personally notice no real difference, but I have poor eyesight, so...yeah.

They would need to also grab some behind-the-scenes people too from WGN to be really successful. I could see them try to make a play for Larry. I doubt Robin would want to work for her ex-husband or Paul pushing Mike out (unless they get rid of Bill and move Mike to evenings).

Even if Sinclair completely destroys WGN Morning News, I can't imagine anyone leaving for WFLD and/or a huge amount of viewers turning to GDC. Jenny and Mike were a good pair. Can't for the life of me figure out why WFLD dropped her.

This was the team to watch back in the day. No one could hold a candle to them.

One of the biggest problems Megyn Kelly faces is that we really don’t know who ‘the real’ Megyn Kelly is. She was a different person when she was on FNC and said/did a lot of stupid things imo (‘Santa can only be White’, etc..). Now she is on NBC, she has attempted to clean up her image, but that’s tough to do when, for example, you’re an advocate for Women one day and attack an 80 yr. old Woman the next for no reason. This is only one incident/misstep she has made since arriving at NBC. I think she has never fully taken the time for some self-reflection in order to better herself. Granted that may sound like nonsense, but she would have been better off not taking the job at NBC and spending some time with her family out of the spotlight.

I think the easy answer is that Steve had a good run (15 yrs.) as principal anchor and it's time for someone else/new to sit in the big chair. Without question, it should be Negovan. He and Micah have pretty good chemistry and he has earned the spot over everyone else there.

This is a no-brainer. No reason not to keep her.

It's a safe bet that when WGN signed the original contract/and subsequent renewals with the Chicago Festival Association, coverage on WGN America was part of the deal. Any change in station ownership (or the possibility there of) wouldn't instantly nullify that contract. They can however simply choose to not renew it when the time comes. The fact that McDonalds is the title sponsor of the parade is a non issue.

Per the official McDonalds Thanksgiving Parade site , it will be on WGN, WGN America and live streamed on WGNtv.com.

They probably came to the conclusion that they didn't need 3 people doing entertainment-related stuff. Jake has always done features with more of an entertainment angle to them since he arrived @ WFLD, so I noticed no real difference. I also think they're in a bit of a flux @ GDC [ no Corey, Darlene, Richard and Kristen (maternity leave), loss of DNAInfo content, etc.. ] and could be preparing to make more changes leading into the new year.

They, like most other stations in town, do a horrible job when it comes to keeping staff bios up-to-date. Not only that, there was a lot of overlap between him and Bill Z that it seemed Richard didn't really have a lot to do on most days. I think that it got to a point that it wasn't worth his and FOX 32 time to continue this relationship (if you will).

Given that they already moved Anita to an anchor role and recently hired Tia as a reporter/fill in anchor, this seems like a done deal. It's unfortunate they couldn't work something out.

If one of the core three (Larry, Robin or Paul) is off, there's a serious lack of chemistry. I caught a little bit of a newscast awhile back with Larry, Lauren (filling in for Robin) and Paul and you can tell the difference. Plus, as they age, they slowing start sounding like old curmudgeons when talking about certain things (i.e. viewer complaints, etc...). I don't watch them (I rather be informed than entertained), but at some point, the fun times and whatnot will become unsustainable.