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A couple of signs have popped up in the last few days that hint at the retirement of the 'First Alert Weather' branding in favor of the Accuweather name. First, Cheryl accidentally let this 7-day demo make it to air last week, and then a promo (screenshot only) was posted on Vimeo this afternoon...

According to their daily morning news preview on Facebook, Ana will be anchoring through Wednesday. Whether or not Erin returns before then (and Sarah can move back to evenings) is unknown.

Lourdes hinted on Friday that this morning was her last shift. She and Ben are doing a radio hit or 2 this morning, though, which made get unavailable.

I totally forgot he returned before. I do remember him popping up on CBS2 a few times.

Tanja, Terrell, and Hosea (before he got sick) have made several appearances, as well. Liz Nagy seems to only show if they want a co-anchor AND Stacey is off. I actually like the rotating chair (though they really could use another regular anchor in the fold right now) alongside Stacey for now. It's fun to see some of the reporters get some desk time. Someone on Twitter said that Stacey is like Kelly Ripa right now. If they did, by some chance to go internal for the official replacement, I'm cool with Eric. He was pretty good for having never anchored on 7, and that's promising for a first time. On the other hand, Goudie was hilariously awkward when doing a cooking segment and then grilling a circus performer about animal abuse in a light feature.

Chuck Goudie anchored this morning. No, that's not an April Fools joke... [MEDIA=twitter]848147980020592640[/MEDIA]

Nope. You're good.

Still don't know why 7 hasn't expanded to 4am. I would've thought that 2 newer anchors without the leverage of their predecessors would have opened the door to adding the extra half hour.

Also, just poking around the station's website, and there appears to be a new reporter. Meghan Dwyer of WITI just moved down the lakeshore at the beginning of this month (though her bio says March 2016). http://wgntv.com/author/meghan-dwyer/ https://twitter.com/meghananndwyer She ruffled a few feathers a couple of years ago for an acceptance speech at the regional Emmys... http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/public-schools-suck-says-reporter-who-won-emmy-for-public-school-report/134747

I just checked it out for giggles, and my DVR is listing the new line-up as the 'WGN Early Evening News' at 4, with the 5 to 7 block remaining as the uninterrupted 'WGN Evening News'. Whether or not that branding on the first hour actually makes it to air remains to be seen.

She changed her Facebook page over to a travel blog when she retired, and she gave a heads up after the Thursday taping. She and her actress daughter know some people on the Ellen staff/crew.

Linda Yu was back on NBC 5 on Friday...

They shouldn't. The hour that 9 has just started winning (5am), is about to see an anchor and meteorologist leave that slot. Can WGN maintain the trend? Yes, but it wouldn't be crazy if those same people who just switched over left if they don't like Duarte and Ivory's replacements.

"I told ya. Traffic is exciting." [MEDIA=twitter]841623991500566528[/MEDIA]

It could be worse...

I've used this as my profile pic before, but a visual reminder is always fun...

After working part-time for awhile, Frank Mathie will officially retire on April 3rd. The significance of that Monday? April 3rd, 2017, will mark the 50th anniversary of his arrival at then-WBKB. http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/wls-to-remember-50-years-of-frank-mathie/186959 Fun fact: the only remaining employee with any chance to reach such a milestone would be Alan Krashesky. At age 56 with a 35-year tenure, he'd have to remain with ABC 7 til he's 71.

I don't really recall what the network backdrop is, but the station uses an angle with the lit 'NBC 5' logo on the wall, so I'd assume they are two separate locations. Also, the station's position is right behind the main set.

They heard you...

Simply put, the A-team gets better ratings than the B-team. Of course, that was before they installed a solid, popular team at those hours. However, since they're "breaking up the band", there's no reason to change those hourly shifts.

With the new 6 o'clock hour, WGN will have more than doubled their weekday news output compared to this time a decade ago. (Note: WFLD canceled their 10pm news since, and WLS and WBBM each canceled and reintroduced a newscast in the decade span.)

Did they need more news? Heck no. Did we need 4 episodes of Two and a Half Men? HELL NO. Skilling > Sheen

By my math, and everything we've been told, yes, but 3.5 hours of broadcasts plus radio, newspaper, and online work might be all they want to load on him. Throw on that 4 o'clock show, and a man so dedicated to the quality of his work would eventually run out of hours in the day.

...And this sets up Ben to succeed Steve when he retires, right? That would be the only logical reason why he's only getting an hour while Suppelsa's still carrying 3.5.

I'm glad Lourdes will be back in the evenings, but I'm a bit surprised Dina Bair didn't get the nod, as she's the main back-up on the show. That's said, I'm very happy for what should be a very solid 4pm team, with the bonus of a designated sports segment each of the 3 hours. BUT COULD WE PLEASE SEPARATELY BRAND EACH HOUR?