alex979

There is likely more to this. Whether it was the last straw for Burton, or others in the newsroom have come forward, who knows, but that comment alone does not seem like enough to warrant a 5-week+ suspension and possible termination.

Now we know: Giangreco is suspended indefinitely after Cheryl Burton complained to management about a remark he made on air. Feder suggests that his exit may be imminent. 

https://www.robertfeder.com/2021/03/03/abc-7s-mark-giangreco-fire-ditzy-remark-cheryl-burton/

First time I’ve seen them play with the colors of the L3. It looks kinda sloppy with the different shades of red though. There were rumors on here of a NewsNation package rolling out - maybe a refresh is coming soon at WGN-9?

I think this new role will be a better fit for Donlon. Hopefully they go with “homegrown” talent to replace him on the evening newscasts moving forward... I’d really like to see Ben and Lourdes at the helm at 9pm. With all these departures, WGN should pick up some of the recently laid off CBS2 staffers. 

Gaynor Hall was basically assaulted during a live shot tonight at 10 by a guy shouting FHRITP (that’s still a thing in 2020?) Hopefully the police were called, WGN should press charges against this creep.

Julie Unruh to join Midday. She should fit in well there. 

Nexstar graphics are here...

Over two years later, the old news set lives again. 

A really nice upgrade to the score bug this year. Boxes are shaded for the team colors and logos added too, kinda reminiscent of CBS. Amazing how much better this looks than last year. 

Larry is hosting a new weekend show on WGN, “Backstory,” which will delve into Chicago-related historical, cultural, and religious topics. It premieres Sunday, October 28th and runs for the subsequent 4 weeks, and new episodes will be produced periodically throughout the year. Good to see more original local programming on GN.

A historic night on WGN.

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Mike Janssen is the successor to Jim Ramsey:

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So have they dropped the weather-in-the-first-five-minutes thing at 10? Watching for the first time in a while tonight and Tom@Ten didn’t come on until after the first commercial break. He even joked that they should call it Tom at 10:15 now.

So WGN is already part of a vast right wing conspiracy now? C'mon. Heaven forbid they run any story which showcases a different viewpoint, since people will flip out on social media. Sinclair's executive board is not watching WGN's every move. They do not own the station.

Of course WGN management is going to try to downplay the impending merger. While I agree with the sentiment of Hoover's tweet, and I could not see any anchor at WGN reading such a canned and inauthentic statement, it's probably not the best idea to talk about future bosses like that in public. I think Paul Rennie, Jen Lyons, etc. are trying to protect their people by telling them to keep their (legitimate) concerns on the DL. At least don't tweet them out. On the other hand, if they start to embrace Sinclair with open arms, Twitter will demand an immediate boycott of the station and all of its advertisers. So the play is to stay quiet and continue with business as usual.

I've seen a lot of calls to preemptively boycott WGN because of this deal, because people have read some hot takes about Sinclair online, but are unwilling to wait and see how much their news product actually changes, and make their own judgement. I might be the only one, but I'm starting to get tired of the constant speculation and fear-mongering regarding this deal. Feder brings it up every other week it seems, but really only offers "what-ifs" and ominous predictions. Is that really helpful?

Here's a short clip of the new sports graphics in action

They’re running a promo for the Cubs game Thursday featuring the new graphics, logo, and music!

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I miss Suppelsa on election night. But Ben Bradley has been outstanding in the anchor chair tonight.

It seems like there might be something in the works at WGN’s graphics department, too.

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I think it's interesting that in the press release, they say that he "will join the evening/late news team of Micah Materre, Ben Bradley and Lourdes Duarte." They make no mention of the specific newscasts he will be anchoring. Maybe they want to try pairing him with both Lourdes and Micah?

http://wgntv.com/2018/02/13/veteran-anchor-joe-donlon-to-join-wgn-news-as-evening-anchor-starting-mid-april/

It might be funny as a Giangreco bit, but when this happens... not a good look.

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WGN has found its replacement for Mark Suppelsa.... and he’s from Portland. Whoa.

http://www.robertfeder.com/2018/02/12/robservations-wgn-finds-suppelsas-replacement-portland/

KGW’s Joe Donlon will reportedly join the station this spring, if all goes as planned. I really thought they were going to promote from within...

Morgan Kolkmeyer doing the weather at 9pm tonight, Man of the People debuting at 10... the morning news is taking over this station.

Yep, that's studio 3. The desk is where the interview area used to be. A lot of remnants from the old news set are there if you look closely. Overall, it looks pretty good for a weekly half hour show.

If I had to guess I'd say Chris Matthews is about to be out of a job...

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WGN didn’t have a sports reporter in today. It’s Christmas and no Chicago teams played today, but I can’t remember the last time that happened.