Mrknowitall526

It's been almost 2 months and, maybe it's just me, but I think that they are definitely doing more hard news. Well, maybe I should just say the amount of "fluff" seems to have decreased. Also, often times the first commercial break isn't until many times 6:45. Diane didn't do that too often.

No, Allentown is part of Philly. The Lehigh Valley (Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton) has a population of over 500,000, but because of the geography (a large mountain in the way on the way to Philly), only small sections of the area can even get the Philly channels OTA.

Ah, that makes sense about the weather. I was wondering why Amanda was shown in the Facebook picture and then not on the show. She does weekend nights, so that makes sense. I didn't watch at 5 or 6 but I did at 10. There were actually 3 live reports, which is more than usual. It just depends on the news of the day. Yes, more content would be nice. They need to get people to regularly attend municipal meetings and report on super local issues.

They just built the current building in 2005, so it's a shame if they won't use it for something. The studio itself is huge, but I think the set is getting a bit tiring.

No! Good use of it though. I guess that wouldn't work during the regular newscast because the anchors are sitting there and not at the "kids table"

Watching the 4pm show ... They appear to now have a Big Board, and Meghan Packer is the one using it. I like her reporting, but her presence in this situation is great, too. They started off with a "Top 4 at 4:00" news stories that they went through at a surprisingly fast pace for WFMZ. Then, at 4:30, they revisited each of the Top 4 and had more detailed reports on each one, and went straight through from 4:30 to 4:42 before a commercial break. It was a nice show - felt like it breathed "new life" into 69 News. Wonder if that will continue through to the rest of the newscasts.

1. They just showed a teaser to Nydia's target grocery story. And I've also seen at least 2 promos about starting at 4:30 so far tonight. 2. Sarah is off tonight, but Walter didn't say "Sarah is off." ??

David Murphy just posted something on his Facebook page about Nydia Han airing a report about buying groceries at Target. ... ? Not sure at all why that's noteworthy!

Since the only other local competition is effectively the Service Electric TV 2 news (does RCN have a local news?), it really doesn't matter much for them. But yes, it'll be interesting to see the 4pm show. I'd really like to see them step up their style of news. When you watch one of the half hour shows, it's predictable...in that most of the news occurs in the first 10 minutes. Then it's weather and sports and some random clips of silly things that happened. At least in Philly, there are still substantial news stories that take place after the breaks, in between the weather and sports. They have such ubiquitous marketing and advertising all over the Valley, and while they really have stepped up the game in the past year or so since their new graphics package, I really think there is a lot more they could be doing. Just saying... that being said. When there's a snow storm coming it's the place to turn to for school/business/library/church closings and delays, and that list really gets quite extensive.

HulkieD just posted in the NBC10 thread how 6 is finally using the video wall for something besides a background... I've noticed this, too. Finally... took long enough!

Interesting choices for the Saturday morning - I wonder if it will be expanding to Sunday mornings also? The Saturday show only started less than 2 years ago. I wonder if any of them will be used more for fill-ins when someone is off. I've already seen Eve or Jaciel do the entire 4 hour morning show by themselves. I don't really care for that new Chandi person. I miss John Derr doing the weekend news. They do have a large staff but really seem to have difficulty holding on to people. When new people start, they never even get introduced, like other stations (channel 6, anyway). And then they tend to leave with the same amount of acknowledgement. I wish they would actually focus more on other places besides just Reading and Allentown. They could really cover a lot of more the surrounding boroughs and townships better than they currently do, maybe just one a day. The reason I worry about filling the whole newscast is because most of the stories that air at Sunrise are the same stories from the 10 pm. Sometimes even the same recordings. It gets repetitive when you watch both, so I tend to stick with 6ABC in the mornings.

I'm not sure who is taking over the Saturday morning show ... unless they keep doing that as well? I've seen commercials and they keep mentioning it will be "interactive," and the Facebook pictures they have uploaded show the two of them sitting at a high table with 2 chairs and coffee mugs. So I don't know if that means they will host the show from there, or what. The only thing I wonder is, if there's really enough news happening in the area to sustain 2.5 hours of news in the evening. Oftentimes I feel like not enough happens around here to even fill up a 1/2 hour show. Hence the focus on Eric Frein. Maybe people vacation/weekend in the Poconos so naturally it's on everyone's mind. They've done some neat pieces on the effects the search has had on businesses and tourism. I'm still surprised that people want to watch news at 4 pm. Especially for the stay-at-home mom/dad types who probably also watch the noon show. I work at a school and when I get home between 3 and 4 I want to watch something mindless right away, not the news. And usually settle on Friends on TBS.

Wonder if this will coincide with their move to the downtown arena studio?

I always thought having them go solo was weird. Saw it on 22 West between Airport Rd and the Lehigh River bridge. One of the big digital signs. I also wonder if any of the 4pm parts will be the Berks Edition. It would be interesting to seem them do an actual 1-hour show. The 5 & 5:30 and 10 & 10:30 shows are separate in that they re-start at the half hour and name it Berks Edition.

The new ABC show "How To Get Away With Murder" showed a mock version of Action News during Thursday's episode. They did a pretty good job copying 6's graphics. Would've been even neater if they got 6ABC reporters to "act" on the show during news clips.

I saw a billboard ad today that WFMZ is starting a 4pm newscast with Jim Vaughn and Melanie Falcon (who do the Saturday morning news). Coming "this fall". I'm not sure what "this fall" means, because they currently air the talk show The Doctors at 4pm everyday. Perhaps they will move it. They air Dr. Phil at 8 pm and Steve Harvey at 9 pm daily.

Wonder if Rick will say that "Sarah's off" on Fridays at noon now. I really do like Walter and Sarah together, way back to their days filling in on the AM when Monica & Rick took over for Marc Howard & Lisa Thomas-Laury

I do know that it wasn't on the whole time - and David said at some (random) point in the middle of his forecast, "I've just put the Always On 7 Day up in case you can't wait till the end" or something to that effect.

First time I've watched the morning show on an HDTV in a while (still have a CRT in my bedroom). Kept hearing David talking about the "Always On 7 Day" on the HD feed. Finally checked it out today, and I thought it was a really neat concept! Never seen another station (aside from the cable networks) use the "extra" part of the screen for anything useful. (If any of the other locals do this, I don't watch them, so I don't know). I think it's a concept they should expand, maybe showing other things there instead. I can't imagine it fitting in anywhere else besides the morning show, though.

They only seem to use it during the 5:30 pm half hour, so I'm not really sure what its purpose is

Yeah, I don't really understand it either. And if you look at when they do a pan with a camera it looks like it's in the corner of a conference room? Why couldn't the sports person just use the Big Board?

Sweet! How do you know this?

Gotcha. Don't know why I didn't think of that connection to Streetview

So, you're not actually "controlling" it - it's just panning around? I don't understand how multiple people could do this at the same time.

They launched a new app, Chopper 6 360, also found online here http://6abc.com/chopper6/. What's the point of this? Also, how does it work?!