Mrknowitall526

 

I think they air four episodes of Judge Judy a day. Perhaps they'll cut back to two a day and reshuffle the rest of the line-up?

 

Hopefully, with Jim & Melanie on at 4pm, they will utilize them as fill-ins on the 5,6,&10, instead of solos when one anchor is off.

 

Where'd you see the billboard?

 

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.

 

Not to take away from the (great) discussion we're having about 6 vs. 10, but it's official at least as of tonight... it's Walter and Sarah doing the 6, 10, and 11 on Sundays. Updated weekend intros have been recorded, just about one year after Walter took over from Rob without the newscast missing a beat.

 

It's important for two reasons. It cements the well-deserved promotion of Walter to weekend anchor, where he's excelled. And, on Sundays, for the first time in history on Action News, an anchor team is handling the main newscasts. That's 44 years, people.

 

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 was watching their live stream online and I am wondering if the Always on 7 Day is inserted through master control. I did not see it during the radar / headline section of the forecast. I wonder if it's just a general metro forecast or if they rotate the seven day forecast for different regions of DMA. As I mentioned before KNBC was the first to have the seven day forecast on screen through out the entire segment with about ten different variations.

 

 

 

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.

 

why does 6 need a sports desk? The idea of a sports desk reminds me too much of WSVN. I know almost every station in America is doing it now, but why should everyone do it? How can they do banter with Jim if s/he is in another part of the set or in another studio?

 

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?

 

As I understand it, they're moving all news operations to the arena, including the primary newsroom.

 

Sweet! How do you know this?

 

No you are not actually controlling the camera. Most likely it is a one way datalink.

 

Have you ever seen what a Google Streetview Car or even images before? If so it's exactly like that.

 

Here's the camera I think they are using: http://www.ptgrey.com/products/ladybug3/Ladybug3_360_video_camera.asp. It has six cameras which stitch the image together and is sent back to the server as a panoramic image. But the server and software manipulate it in a way that only a certain part of the image is displayed.

 

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?!

I remember there used to be an actual theme song in the early 2000s. I remember really liking it.

Also, didn't realize the weekend show used to be from Times Square. When did that stop?

Didn't catch the 1-hour noon newscast yesterday, but today Alicia Vitarelli is doing a "big board" report - don't think they usually do that on the noon show. So maybe that's one thing they'll do everyday to fill up the extra time.

Still can't stand Sarah Haines's voice - it's like nails on a chalkboard to me!

I don't think there is a thread for WFMZ yet, but I want to discuss them, so here it is.

A few weeks ago Rob Vaughan posted on Facebook that people at the station told him more people in the Lehigh Valley watch 69 News at 5 pm than "any other channel on TV" - I commented asking for the actual rating/share, and he said he would ask those in the know if they wanted that info public. Apparently they didn't since he never responded.

They appear to have a new reporter/anchor - someone I never saw before anchored the 6 pm news tonight. It's not uncommon - their talent comes and goes pretty frequently - but they don't usually make it to the anchor chair right away. She had sort of a "big market" vibe about her - at least more so than being on WFMZ. She's obviously not local since she butchered common place names like Schylkill and Nesquehoning.

Also - more interestingly - 69 News at 5 tomorrow night is broadcasting from their new street side studio at 7th & Hamilton Streets in downtown Allentown. Allentown is on the verge of reinventing itself, and a $200 million minor league hockey arena is nearing completion with the first event being held this Friday. Downtown Allentown has been on a downhill climb since Hess's closed and without this arena it would have continued getting worse. There's been all kinds of other buildings constructed and they are hoping to attract lots of offices. Several large companies have already moved their headquarters to the new "City Center" buildings as they're being called.

What I'm not sure of is if WFMZ hopes to moves it studio permanently to the new arena (the studio is actually contained within the building), or just use it for reports on hockey games and occasional newscasts. It seems odd to me to build an entire street side studio - complete with full pane windows - just to anchor the occasional newscast. But, I'm not sure what other purpose it may have, because their current studios are a good 10 miles and 20-25 minute drive from the downtown site.

 

Four sets. Let me explain.

 

There are two "halves" of the newsroom. The one you saw up until they went HD was the on-air half; the other half, containing the edit suites, was rarely seen on camera. The introduction to the first 4pm newscast uses the newsroom extensively. Larry is walking through the not-camera half.

 

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What you don't see is that the newsroom opens out to the rest of that floor, to what is now the streetside studio. Believe it or not, that area has always been set up for on-camera work. It was part of the NewsCenter when that was established, and the EarthWatch weather center was around the spot where they've shoved the desk in now.

 

More importantly... this was the location of one of their older sets.

, but the second set shown clearly showed a large window to the outside in some camera angles.

 

Anyone else miss that old school theme music? Whenever I think about NBC10 that's the theme that plays in my head. (When did they stop calling it "News 10" ?)

I gotta say, Monday's soft launch felt like Muir filling in on Sawyer's 'World News', but tonight was different. I can't put my finger on it, but the most subtle changes, likely/probably his international report elevated the broadcast above any singular episode in the last year...at least.

 

 

 

Finally, voices of reason that prove I'm not losing it. A thousand points to each of you for making me look good. Unfortunately, as we all know, the points don't matter.

I liked the "David Muir Reporting" graphic they showed at the beginning of that segment. I have a feeling we're going to see a lot more of that!

Thoughts on the Instant Index? They've changed the graphics for that a little, too. Seems less tabloidy.

They didn't cut to commercials until 6:46 tonight. Wow! Although I missed the first 6 minutes or so because there was a storm and my Directv went out.

 

So how long do we think it'll be until a new set and graphics? Diane Sawyer got hers on the first day of the broadcast and new music about three years later. Charles Gibson got a new set a year and a half after taking over. Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff got new graphics on day one.

 

For David Muir, maybe a new set isn't in order just yet but I'm hoping a new open and maybe a shift back toward the Jennings-era music down the line. For now, though, it seems that everything will remain the same as he settles in.

 

To this day, this remains as my favorite WNT open and set:

 

Well there's already links to promos of the new openings and it's the same music they've been using. So, I doubt that will change in the next 2 days.

My Directv guide has updated to reflect the name changes!

 

 

 

As for the name, I'm wondering if the show is entering a week-long purgatory where the WNT name returns, but using the WN logo design. It makes no sense to come up with a temporary logo incorporating the iconic name, when they could've just made a mock-up without the red byline, leaving only the WN moniker. Just a thought.

 

my Directv guide still has it called "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" until Monday. Tuesday it changes to "ABC World News with David Muir." I really hope the "tonight" comes back too!

Has anyone noticed the small black dot that runs along the bottom of the screen during the newscast? I started to notice it just after they introduced the ticker redesign. It goes the same speed as the ticker, but in the opposite direction.

My mother even noticed it ... and she never notices anything like that! It's usually still on the screen during network programming, too.

I emailed 6ABC about it and got no response. But, it's NOT my TV because it is on both sets, and I also saw it on a screen shot they posted to the Action News Facebook page.

 

My biggest complaint with the animation was that one beam appeared to be gaining speed on the other one and that there was no set interval.

So it's exactly as I thought.

 

This makes me wonder of this new technology called CASA radars which are being studied by MIT are in operation in Northern Texas and Oklahoma. The radar system uses several low powered radars spaced maybe 50 miles apart which they can selectively point an individual radome to focus on a small section of the storm so instead of having it spin 360° it pivot 90°. It makes me wonder if there are any tv stations in the country looking to deploy this method.

 

I think they appear to rotate with no set pattern so that it can show the word DOUBLE SCAN in between them, and nothing more. When there's actually weather going on I don't think they show that.

The previous iteration, when they would be zooming in, you could actually see the radar sweep as a rotating white line and noticed a difference as it swept by. It was fast enough that you could usually see it at least once during the short time they would focus on one area during a storm.

They do say it's powered with 1 million watts of power.

 

Could someone explain to me why when I see their weather forecast when they show the Doppler radar there are two beams rotating different speeds from the same radar site? Correct me if I'm wrong but dual polarization radar "scans" the horizontal and vertical resolution at the same time from the same radome at the same speed.

 

I realize that double scan is their marketing term that refers to nothing in particular but those two radar beams also move way to fast considering the average radars on the market (including private manufactures, NEXRAD and the TDWR) take 5 minutes to do a full 360° rotating

 

Here's a link to Adam Joseph's discussion on it on his Facebook page on the day of its debut: https://www.facebook.com/6abcAdamJoseph/posts/10152154014898696

Also another link: http://abclocal.go.com//story?section=weather/forecast&id=9234826

I do know they used to talk about being able to change the speed of the radar I think they used to say it would update once every 10 seconds, but that was before the Double Scan radar.

I thought the same thing - he never did officially come out prior to this. I follow his Facebook page, and he posts pretty personal things sometimes, but never mentioned anything about it.

The blurb Jim Gardner said about him even included something about the woman that carried the baby. Interesting.

I always thought he should date Melissa Magee, they have such great chemistry together! They haven't been Down the Shore together much, though, lately.