Mrknowitall526

Jim & Alexandra seem like good additions so far. Which probably means they won't be here long.

I'm surprised that Jamie Stover and Hillary Lane are still around - they are some of the best reporters currently. Although I think Hillary Lane is from the area, so this might be where she wants to be.

Anyone know what happened to Bryan Salmond, WFMZ's new Sports Director? He seems to be MIA. His bio is gone from the website as well. I may have just missed his departure if it was over the holiday weekend...or maybe he is just hanging out with Rick Edwards.

Was his bio ever up there? I tried looking once and I couldn't find it. The way their talent comes and goes, it's probably hard to keep that updated!

One thing I thought was funny was that I saw several news clips on 6ABC showing prep for the shows and they still said "Wawa Welcome America festival" just without the usual taglines, promos, etc.

Did NBC10 show the parade also? I think Philadelphia parades and Rick Williams & Cecily Tynan go hand in hand. In the past I have watched several of the 4th of July events - but to be honest, this year I turned it on and since I don't normally watch NBC10, didn't know who the two hosts were (I know they are the anchors), so I cared a lot less, then tuned out.

Perhaps channel 6 realized they don't need these types of events -- or the lottery -- to stay at the top.

From FTVLive.com -

 

Allentown Reporter Headed to DC

June 20, 2016/ Scott Jones

WFMZ Reporter Ryan Hughes is headed to DC.

 

Hughes, who has been at the Allentown station since 2011, is going to WJLA. He came to WFMZ from Salisbury, Maryland and WMDT.

 

No word yet on his start date at the Sinclair station.

Just lost another good one!

Look who it is on the brand new KWTX news set....

 

 

We miss you, Troy.

I miss him also! The new guy is starting to grow on me ... but he is almost TOO excited.

Yes and no. Marc last anchored in September 2002 but was on paid leave until December 2002. Lisa went on medical leave shortly after Marc left the newscast. She made a short comeback at 5pm but officially left Action News the first time around at the end of 2003. Lisa did return around 2006 but in the capacity of a features reporter. Around the same time as Marc and Lisa's disappearance Dave Roberts gave up the 5:30pm half hour (as well as the 11pm). Scott Palmer's head must have been spinning. Scott left himself a few years later.

And during that time when Lisa and Marc both left (Marc, btw, went over to channel 3 as the 11 pm anchor and eventually retired soon after), Monica and Rick pulled double shifts for a LONG time. 5am and 5pm. They eventually let up with them at 5 am, but during sweeps they did both shows. It took a long time before Rick & Monica were named official 5 pm anchors. Scott Palmer and Anita Brikman took over the mornings for a while, but I forget why but they stopped (I think one or both of them left around the same time). Eventually Matt O'Donnell took over and anchored with Sarah Bloomquist for a bit, before Tamala Edwards came along. I personally like Matt and Sarah a lot together in the morning.

Idk if its been posted on here yet or not, but Dann Cuellar just put on his Facebook page that Lisa Thomas-Laury is retiring on Wednesday.

Wow! Good for her, though. Was just thinking that I haven't seen her much recently, I think her health issues made it difficult for her the last few years.

I did notice the new traffic graphics, they look good. The current U3's for the weather and the new way the weather looks IMO are great. But the L3's are so old and I am so tired of them. Lately I've been watching WFMZ from 5-6:30 (since I live in the Lehigh Valley) but would go back to 6 if they would update the graphics!

WPVI shows a daily planner on the side bar during the morning forecasts. I've heard David and Karen both refer to it as the "always-on day planner."

I don't see why this is so ... revolutionary? Yeah, it's neat, especially the partnership with WU, but WPVI has been showing temps in regions / specific towns for ... years? Especially in the morning and the 5:20ish forecast. They zoom in to Philly proper, the Lehigh Valley, Jersey, Delaware and show temps. They also show forecasts everyday for Philly, Allentown, and Atlantic City. And, WFMZ does the same. They zoom in on Lehigh & Northampton Counties and show temps in various places. I don't watch NBC10 ... do they not do this??

Adam & Cecily have been doing live behind the scenes videos on Facebook. Just watched one now. It was really cool! Cecily did it from her page but Chris Sowers (who is working during the week????) took over for a bit and actually showed Cecily and Adam on the video feed while they were live on the air! Neat concept!

FYI - Liz Keptner is currently the Director of Multimedia Innovation Center at Penn State - Lehigh Valley.

She used to work at WFMZ - did the morning show with John Derr in the late 90s / early 2000s.

Nice send off for Troy Hein tonight. Big shoes to fill!

Sportscaster Troy Hein announced via twitter that he's leaving WFMZ next week to work for the CBS affiliate in Waco, TX.

Holy cow!!!! He is a high school sports institution in the Valley. I'm really shocked!

I've used the term. Run with it. As for the graphics, and whether or not they're signaling something new, I'm a little surprised they're not using Gotham, as that's becoming the go-to for ABC, showing up on KABC, KTRK, and the network.

But they've never really done anything else the "others" have done IMO. They have basically used the same font on-air for several decades, just changing it a bit here and there when necessary.

The new weather graphics have a "retro" yet fresh look to them. I don't think "retro" is the best word, but at first I thought they were a step backwards, especially the italic caps on the yellow background with the plain-ish font, but I like what they are doing with the 2nd line of the title in radar loops, etc. The new 7-day forecast looks really clean. I like that they highlight the weekends in the same yellow color, and they also appear to be highlighting "big events" in red, with Friday & Saturday having a red highlight.

I would be pleased if new L3's mimicked the weather ... "upper thirds" ... if that's a phrase?

Close to 5 years

A refresh of the L3s is badly needed ... Everything else IMO still looks nice

Found this news interesting... WFMZ is buying KJWP (the relatively new Me-TV affiliate in Wilmington, DE). KJWP is our source for Me-TV in the Lehigh Valley as well as Grit, Escape and Justice. I wonder how the two operations will operate / co-exist. Will they share resources? Will the mighty 69 News team coverage area expand into Delaware? Will we see KJWP's married news duo of "the" Larry Mendte and Dawn Stensland-Mendte up on South Mountain in the 69 News room...ohh, the possibilities??? How about a commentary pairing of Dick Dean and Larry Mendte - whose head explodes first. WOW!! things could be getting good!!!

Wow, that is so random. I really hope they don't create a Delaware newscast. I'd like to see them cover the LV proper more in depth rather than go down to DE.

Someone on Twitter asked why they're referred to as powerhouse and she responded with this...[MEDIA=twitter]685876609405050880[/MEDIA]

Nice that her first story got to be from Philly ... I wonder if she is still living in the area?

I never realized until this report what a good reporter she is. She wasn't my favorite as an anchor, but this report was really well done. Glad ABC snatched her up!

Can I say that as much as I love Rick & Monica as a team, I really enjoy Rick & Sarah as a team equally as much. Which brings me to ask, why isn't she used as a fill-in for Monica and Sharrie when one of those women is off? Monica and Sharrie are typically each other's fill-ins, but it'd be nice to throw Sarah into that mix.

I agree, they are a great team together, and I wish she would fill in it 5 pm! But Sarah is an excellent reporter, too, so maybe they'd rather have her put to use there.

Just saw Dan Skeldon do the weather on the 10pm show. A quick Google and it looks like he was on NBC40 in Atlantic City before it shut down last year. He was really good! Wonder who he is replacing??

Btw, what about Kathy Craine? you missed her on that list.

I find her presence on the news laughable - my family and I often say that we don't understand why she is allowed to still be on the newscast, aside from the fact that she's been with the station since its inception (and before then, in its radio days!). The things she says, and her choice of outfits, are just beyond words.

I suppose these issues you brought up (many of which were dead-on IMO) are because of a lack of competition - there are literally no other option for super-local LV news aside from the cable news channels (Service Electric and RCN - I'm not even sure if either of them still have a news product? Blue Ridge TV 13 does - and it's actually really good in terms of being hyper-local - but it is mostly in the Poconos and reaches only the northern fringes of Berks/Lehigh/Northampton counties at best).

Reporter David Henry retired today.

Wow, that was unexpected!?

WFMZ is a fine station. The set could use a re-fresh. But, that's not their big issue.

 

Last evening at 6pm, their second story was "are pedestrians more likely to be involved in accidents now that the sun goes down earlier." Cutting edge journalism at it's worst. They have some good reporters, who won't stay very long. The station is very lazy in it's day to day coverage.

 

The morning anchor team is polished, but tired. The evening team hasn't changed in years. And, the fresh idea for their 4pm news was to add another cooking segment. It's suburban TV at it's best. But, hardly Philadelphia worthy.

 

Trashing the owners commentary at 10pm is old news. Sometimes he makes a good point. And, it's clearly not part of the newscast. Crying about the commentary tarnishing your high journalistic standards, makes you sound like an out of control intern.

No, it's not "Philadelphia worthy" but they also don't use Philadelphia as their main focus. Many people up here in the LV do not watch the Philly news simply because it is one murder, rape, scandal, etc. After another. We don't have as much crime up here, so they don't need to report on that.

I'm fine with Wendy & Rob, I think they're a great team. The problem I see more often is blatant technology problems. Also last night during the 6 pm show, they cut abruptly back to Wendy and then Rob during at least two reports, mid-sentence. It was quick enough for them to say, "Sorry about that, we're having some technical problems" then went back to the story right where it left off. Things like this happen several times a week.

Another one comes to mind. WFMZ seemed to be one of the first to arrive on scene (from what I saw, anyway) at the runaway blimp's landing site near Williamsport last week. In the middle of a live shot of Hilary Lane interviewing a witness, the feed was lost and they cut back to the studio and did the weather. Now, I realize that is quite a distance from the station, and someone said once that they use a lot of those portable back packs that use cell coverage to send video, but they need to be reliable!

They really try hard during the 6 pm news, during the first 10-12 minutes. There are often reports by at least 3 or 4 different people. What bothers me is the History's Headlines at 6 pm nearly everyday, and then replayed again at 10 pm!

They try really hard and have 9+ hours of news everyday, but IMO not enough happens in the Lehigh Valley proper to warrant such extensive coverage. But people will keep tuning in because the only other choice for "local" news we have are the Morning Call and the Express-Times newspapers. Even the radio stations get copy from WFMZ to read during morning news segments.