alex979

Same music. I like this package, I think. It certainly does look very nice and polished. I was really only disappointed in the open... too short and very underwhelming.

Well that's too bad. Their talent opens are really nice... This reminds me of how they used to run those cool talent bumpers when the new graphics package first debuted. I haven't seen one of those in ages, which is a shame becuase they were probably the most unique and beautiful parts of the package.

Damn... [MEDIA=twitter]736555289030234112[/MEDIA] I guess this makes up for the WGN Morning News ad incident?

Per Feder, Ron's final newscast scored an impressive 10.0 rating, which amounts to about 350k households. As for the entire month, the 10pm shaped up like this: Total/Demo WLS 7.8/2.7 WMAQ 7.0/3.6 WGN 2.8/1.2 WBBM 2.7/1.0 And FWIW, at 9pm WGN had 4.2 and WFLD had 2.0 total.

Who would have thought Ron Magers' name would pop up here? https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153703926238406 I'm holding out hope for a Magers appearance on the show after he retires...

The Chicago weather wars continue...

Troy's out. Feder reports that this is Christiansen's final weekend at ABC 7 before he heads to FEMA. Freelance meteorlogist Mark McGinnis, formerly of WDJT in Milwaukee, will take over for Troy "in the short term."

Oh. My. God. I love that man. And Kasich just won my vote :D:D

According to Feder, this guy is on his way in to the ABC 7 weather department. https://twitter.com/CBS11Larry Mowry worked weekends at WLS in '04, and also had a brief stint at CLTV. The plot thickens...

Giangreco left a Facebook comment on that article, and it is amazing.

I would think Anthony Ponce has to be in the mix for the AM shift, too.

Unbelievable... [MEDIA=twitter]688139634639933445[/MEDIA] Condolences to her family and coworkers....

Wow, so no Kathy, Cheryl B, Linda, or even Karen. I know it's Friday, but it's not a holiday... Pretty weird to have to use your morning anchors for the evening shows. Where the hell is everyone?

I think you're referring to that NewscastStudio article about WLS' new digs that briefly mentioned that about WGN and WBBM? I believe it said early this year... NS is generally pretty reliable, and think the guy who runs the site is from Chicago. We're probably just going to have to wait and see, though.

Per Feder, NBC5 beat ABC7 last night: 17.1 to 14.2 at midnight.

Taking a look at Feder's "Things to look for in 2016" post this morning, and there it was: Cheryl is a shoo-in for the 10pm newscast this year... BUT Taft will likely stay at the station and work on "earlier weekday newscasts." The Cheryl point is no surprise, but the idea that Jerry won't retire is highly interesting. The prevailing notion has always been that he would hang it up and Scott would take over as chief, and weather anchor for the flagship 10pm news. But if he stays and they essentially switch places, I have a feeling that this will be a very awkward and problematic transition... Not only would it come as a shock to regular viewers who don't follow this as closely as we do, it would also create other delicate issues like who would be named "chief?"

Some people just don't like him or his demeanor I guess... I don't really have a strong opinion on him, but they've gone through like four female co-anchors in the less than a decade for which he has been a 10pm anchor, which leads some to wonder if he might be a part of the ratings problem. It's just interesting that he hasn't been a victim of the revolving door at that station.

Raise your hand if you're surprised.... Anyone? No? [MEDIA=twitter]678907914610974720[/MEDIA]

Good for them, I guess.... I wonder who will anchor. Didn't they hire some guy from out of town for weekends when they announced Caplan had joined the station? Maybe this is where Strehl will be reassigned to do the weather. I'm kind of surprised they beat WGN to this time slot.

Apparently they've got a lot of work to do before they put it on the market... http://wgntv.com/2015/12/17/paul-to-wgn-heres-a-list-of-repairs-to-help-sell-the-place/

It seems a little odd to have a separate anchor team for just half an hour...It would make sense to have Tong and Blackmon do the whole 6pm hour, as others have mentioned. But the fact that they're adding another evening anchor team makes me wonder if an 11pm (anchored by John and Tamsen) may be in the cards over the next year or two. It would be certainly be an uphill battle, but so is 6:30... That didn't deter KTLA or WGN at the late time slot either. It might at least do somewhat better than whatever they're airing now....

Yeah, that's not surprising. I mean, they currently have 6 afternoon/evening news anchors, so it would certainly be kind of strange if they only had one meteorlogist for that time period. Cheryl will be the face of ABC7 Weather, but there'll be someone to back her up. After all, she's no Tom Skilling...

It's really too bad they didn't do something like this for their 20th anniversary last year... 20 hours of WGN Morning News, now that would've been fun. This GMA stream is pretty cool though... I've found myself tuning in a few times, and I'm not really even a fan of the show.

Wasn't WGN third in the demo at 10? I think they were just ahead of WBBM (2's demo numbers are so bad, they're lower than WFLD's at 9pm. Ouch.) Either way, those three have some of the strangest banter I've heard, anywhere. Sometimes it seems like Micah talks to Tom like he's a child...

Looks like we have new protocol for days when Skilling is absent... McGill handled Midday and (I think) 4-6am. Now, Demetrius is in for Evening, and presumably the nine and ten. I wonder if Jim is finally done with being Tom's #2.