rkolsen

Well this is a surprise. Adam May is leaving Baltimore to his hometown of Minneapolis for corporate communications and a better work schedule for him and his family. He rejoined Baltimore news in October 2016 after Al Jazeera America closed. Before that he was at WJZ. http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bs-fe-zontv-adam-may-wbal-20180314-story.html

Probably been there forever. You said executive right? Sounds like EPs.

Somehow WMAR has been saved from The Now. Syndicated fair in prime access includes The List and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. During the day part they have The Doctors, Rachel Ray, pay to play Midday Maryland, RightThisMinute, Pickler & Ben and Harry. While not top quality syndicated shows they haven’t given WMAR a complete death wish while they still pushed most of their produced programming on WMAR. I imagine if they put The Now instead of Harry at 4PM as the lead in for the 5PM news WMAR would be in worst shape. Are there any other Scripps (save for possible Journal) stations not clearing The Now?

That’s sad to hear especially the loss of technical positions. Were the positions specifically in the production unit or included possible automation for Un Nuevo Dia, Al Rojo Vivo and Noticiero Telemundo? I am not sure about bilingual actors I imagine native bilingual journalists could be a differentiator in a job application for dual language duopolies (which of course is NBC/Telemundo). I wonder if they are paid more? I’ve noticed some photogs in Chicago and Boston swap back and forth between WMAQ/WSNS and WBTS/WNEU. NBC has been sharing lately - I forget the woman’s name - and in their coverage of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Also at the end of Telemundo’s superseries they have the Telemundo endcap along with Getty Hispanic. I can only find information about their stock / news images in Latin America. Could Getty be used just to set the scene?

But if the stations had the choice they likely wouldn’t choose it. Thereby making it useless. Plus Scripps isn’t exactly investing in high priced syndicated programming.

Yes but those are special high profile events. This is an essentially local only project.

One thing I’ve noticed with TEGNA is not afraid to send their reporters on long stories. Mike Valerio of WUSA was on a 24 hour flight to Tarawa, a remote pacific island, on bringing buried WWII soldiers home. It’s not his first trip there either. I think he’s made two others. Apparently he’s their chief International investigative journalist.

And the gripping motion. It’s like they are squeezing a stress ball.

Here’s the playlist.

Yikes. I’m amazed she still has time to roll the prompter with all her jumping around.

WBAL’s running a 70th Anniversary Special Tuesday at 7:30pm. Really they signed on March 11th but you know sports.

I seem to recall it wasn’t that big. I believe when they moved in 2014 they stayed in SD widescreen. http://www.wmtw.com/article/photos-wmtw-prepares-new-westbrook-studio/1971169

The studios an easy way to imitate the backdrop of the plaza.

I almost want to say it’s because it’s live Coast to Coast. Everything’s happening in real time and we now have to wait through entire events versus the carefully edited pieces and events in previous Olympics.

Horrific.

KITV in Hawaii is having some twitter trouble. I noticed yesterday that many of their tweets just link directly to an AP article with text in the tweet saying it’s copyrighted. [MEDIA=twitter]964940265659207681[/MEDIA] Edit In case they delete it here’s how it appeared:

Well that’s a lot. A few of their shows are inked in for a while like Ellen and Steve. Kate Amara did the arching jo for a while she launched the 10PM newscasts before doing a few years in the DC bureaux. She returned to WBAL and I think is happy at being their lead political reporter. One show they could drop would be Access Live if they want to do a 4PM. It’s been used for years as a filler show. Also WBAL still doesn’t clear the fourth third hour (Megyn Kelly is considered seperate) of Today. The shows preempted in the morning for Live with Kelly and Ryan and at night with Access Live.

You mean the weather isn’t like that locally? I thought that was standard NameDropper HD. Maybe WBAL’s running it through a different system. Do other stations have some issues with the text disappearing when the ticker background disappears like around 3:55 of the video?

That sounds interesting. There have been times when both of the morning people have filled in in the evenings. Megan’s a good fit. I found it odd that she would leave a coanchor job at WMAR, to go do some PR, and come back and basically be an in studio reporter (but let’s be honest the PR gig was just a job during a non compete - she was there for seven months). Either Scripps wasn’t renewing her contract/paying enough or WBAL pays a lot more for a breaking news anchor vs a coanchor at WMAR.

[quote name='TVNewsLover']Seems like they can promote from within. Pair Deborah Weiner with Stan Stovall, and pair Andre Hepkins with Lisa Robinson. Stan & Deborah can do 5&11, while Andre & Lisa handle 6&10, and morning team of Jason & Mindy can handle noon. Or Stan & Deborah can handle 6/10/11, while Andre & Lisa handle noon/5.[/QUOTE] Sounds good. I just know Deborah is going to be there somewhere - she already was a known personality but lately in the past two or three years they’ve elevated her profile. For example the evening news promo spots include her and Andre in the group pose and they’ve promoted the 10PM newscast a lot more now. Before the 10PM would get a spot here or there but now it’s one or two spots (promoted as “the early advantage”) in every newscast plus a tease at the end of the 5:30 half hour (makes me wonder if it’s a strong competitor against WBFF). I also wonder how long Stan’s going to hang around as he’s atleast 65. I think that Andre Hepkins is the obvious heir apparent to Stan. They moved him into do the 5:30PM half hour and 10PM while reporting at 5,6&11 from the studio. I doubt they would do anything to the morning show as they have a great chemistry and still are young. Sorry in advance @Weeters I didn’t mean to get on the speculation train with all these fantasy rotas.

I think if the parallelograms were pointed in the opposite direction it would be close in size to the Hearst one.

WBAL’s Donna Hamilton is retiring from the station on May 23 after spending 22 years with the station. No word on a replacement. I am assuming Deborah Weiner will take over one of the slots as she’s Donna’s fill in when she’s out and Friday evenings. Would be interesting to see how this will effect their ratings. http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/111219/longtime-wbal-anchor-donna-hamilton-retiring

Here's a video showing the various opens to Today and different program elements.

Here are some more pictures of the Saturday Today setup and some images of the graphics that I uploaded for the folks over at TVForum who were curious. (Note they revert back to the regular graphics for non Olympic stories - for some reason they do not insert the Today Show logo in the lower thirds) Like in Rio they edited the ticker space that the affiliates use. The affiliates did not have to change any of their settings rather the Today team changed the backdrop for the affiliate text to overlay.

It’s their larger insert studio. Frequently Noticiero Telemundo came from there and Wake Up With Al. Anyone notice how their graphics are just a reversed version of the old hearst chyrons.