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Anyway... Harry Porterfield was mentioned on tonight's 6 o'clock news for an award he received today coinciding with Black History Month. While I can't imagine he'd be rejoining the station, it's nice that they're acknowledging the former 24-year employee, now that he is without a station affiliation.

Tom Doerr is no longer news director at WFLD...and it appears that he wasn't fired. He's moving back to his family in Florida. Even though the station's newscasts never got out of the basement under his watch, he at least helped bring some stability (both in ratings and personnel) back to a long-suffering newsroom. Best of luck to him. http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/wfld-news-director-steps-down/164699

Side-by-side, one of them has definitely had something done. That said, I think that person looks better now because of it. However, just because it's posted and it may be obvious, that shouldn't open them up for criticism by us armchair news directors. I give Krashesky credit for apparently not being too self-conscious to post it.

Usually Feder is on the mark, but he sometimes needs to learn to pick his battles. Lord knows there are things to pick on at ABC 7, this really doesn't need to be one of them. To be fair, though, he probably knows what his readers will respond to, and most of them long for how things were in the 70's. http://www.robertfeder.com/2016/02/24/blizzard-of-hype-abc-7-falls-short-with-fake-snow/ Not one mention of how NBC 5 spent 5 minutes of the 5pm news taking viewers on a virtual test drive, shamelessly plugging the bells and whistles of 'Storm Chaser 5', or how Steve Baskerville on CBS 2 has become a Lonnie Quinn clone, rolling up his sleeves to make the viewers think he's so much more committed to his job and that the sky is falling. Really, if someone is so stupid to believe that that was a live image, I commend them on their ability to have gotten this far in their life. I know 99.9% of the snow we get doesn't change our atmosphere to a shade of baby blue. Plus, it's not like the station's other backdrops are accurate, either. It's not dusk at 7 and it's not still sunny at 4. There also aren't glassy panes floating through the sky. Are there some numbnuts that have fallen for that, too? And when is someone gonna start bitching that there's no rain in the graphical loop when it's pouring for real? Seriously, people need to get a grip.

Damn, people done got old... https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=564327143717411

And WMAQ in the late 70's.

It's apparently snowing for the first time ever in Chicago, and some new features are being rolled out at the ol' Circle 7 this afternoon. New today is an updated, larger area map bug, now including the time/temp and the station's hashtag. To make room, the school closing text has shifted left out of the safe zone (I guess some cable companies are letterboxing their feed, but my carrier has yet to make such a change). The bar also appears to have dropped a few pixels, not covering the L3's as much as before. Also new is a wintry skyline backdrop on the 7x3, that is remaining through the broadcast. It looks good from a distance, but is a little too vibrant and distracting in a close-up.

Could we not quote people's TV viewing habits 2 months later just to paint them as dishonest? Comes across as a little creepy and vindictive. Thanks.

Renee Chenault-Fattah is out. Finally. http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/renee-chenault-fattah-out-at-wcau/164543

I can't imagine that this affects her long-time employee, especially if she had a clean record coming into this.

Stop. Please. There hasn't been a rumor or peep of her exiting the show. Just because she's been on the show for more than a decade doesn't automatically mean that she wants to leave or the bosses want her out.

I'm a little surprised that CBS and NBC (or any other station group, for that matter) don't have exclusive deals with certain automakers for these gimmicks.

I like their odds of survival in the F-250 versus CBS 2's BMW. Should be interesting if the others in town follow suit, though. WGN has enough to tout with Skilling, these storm chasers don't seem to be an ABC thing, and I don't know that Fox has the budget.

Based on their sister stations and a competitive landscape at home, I guess this was inevitable... [MEDIA=vimeo]155008358[/MEDIA]

In two parts, here's a complete WGN Chicago late night newscast from 1965. Anchor Len Johnson fills in for Carl Greyson on this night. From the video's description...

Damn. Could we stop losing Holts to New York? That'd be great. My money's on newbie reporter and frequent fill-in Alex Maragos to replace him. That said, this does nothing to help that 4:30pm vacancy.

If by "sad" you mean "a little disappointing", and by "breaking news" you mean "happened a week ago", then yes, that's some "Sad Breaking News".

I'm guessing they want to promote the A-team whenever possible, even if their weekend duo is better. As for the open, I still don't like that blue-backed open, but I love that cut.

I guess the countdown has started to see if Shiba's Chicago interview leads to anything.

With a school-issued subscription to the Chicago newspapers' online archives and some free time, I've been going through 23 years of Robert Feder columns, covering most of his three decades at the Sun-Times. It's not as obsessive and time-consuming as it sounds, but it's been really informative to see how Chicago television evolved from 1986 to 2009. I'm currently in 1994 and just stumbled on this ironic note from WGN. A new news program was being marketed as an alternative to the freewheeling, irreverent antics of Bob Sirott's 'Fox Thing in the Morning'. It's amazing how things change, and who came out on top. From July 5th... "With a Sept. 6 start date, WGN-Channel 9's new morning newscast is shaping up as a straightforward hard-news product. "It won't be a goofy, gooey kind of show," said Channel 9 news director Jennifer Schulze. "In the WGN tradition, it will be very local, very solid and it will give Chicagoans information to get their day going." At the outset, the weekday newscast will air from 7 to 8 a.m. Within six months, Schulze said, it may expand to two hours. Eventually, a third hour also may be added. The new newscast replaces "The Bozo Show," which shifts to Sunday mornings this fall. Channel 9 noon news anchor Dave Eckert, a recent hire from KMBC-TV in Kansas City, will double as morning news anchor alongside a female partner to be named by the end of July. Also hired for the new newscast was meteorologist Paul Huttner from WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. He previously worked for the north suburban-based weather forecasting firm of Murray & Trettel Inc. Joining Channel 9 as morning news executive producer is Ken Ericson, a Chicago native now working at WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, Larry Potash, a weekend news anchor and reporter at KOTV-TV in Tulsa, Okla., has been hired as a general assignment reporter."

As much as I love this concept, let's see what Weeters has to say. From the WLS set thread... That said, someone else's leaked concept tells me they've entertained offers. I'm excited to see what's in-store come March, May, September, November, or anywhere in-between.

It doesn't look bad, but the f*ck is the with the music? Ewww.

That's...unexpected. Does it look like an in-house job?

I sense a bit of sarcasm there, but I could totally live in a world where Krashesky (a must-retain), Elgas, Jordan, Hsu, and Baca are the team of the future. Remember back in 1984, Joel Daly was given a lot of perks, including the opportunity to get his law degree in exchange for missing out on the 10, so perhaps similar tactics could be on the table for the current roster, if push comes to shove. Also, whether or not you were serious, I've thought about the idea of calling on Chiaverini over Miller, but he's stated many times that he doesn't miss the travelling involved with the sports beat.

Unfortunately, I just don't see 8 weeknight anchors happening, even if two of them are being eased into feature reporting/retirement (that being the 7pm crew). That has only happened once in the station's history, and even then, back in the hey-day of their dominance, it was an arrangement that lasted for only a few months. (Two points if you can give me the year.) I have a feeling they're not going to be that creative with the afternoon shows, merely replacing Ron at 5 with either Rob or Ravi, elevating that gentleman to primary back-up at 10, unless Krashesky gets passed over. The real fun could really be in the weather department. Yes, Jerry's expected to hand over the 10 sometime this year, though the rumor going around is that he might still retain two newscasts, trading the 10 for either the 4 or 5. If that's the case, I think Phil, Tracy, or even Troy (in that order), are shoe-ins to join the weeknight team...whenever Jerry permanently leaves.