alex979

Can't help but think WGN's Skycam promo is a subtle shot at WMAQ's nifty new "Sky 5" commercials.

NBC5 decided it was their turn to add a new reporter, and he's currently a morning anchor in.... West Lafayette, Indiana??? Alex Maragos, who's from Chicago, will start August 11.

He doesn't strike me as someone who's really interested in boosting his stature or looking for a bigger TV job, though. He just seems like a genuine weather guy, which is awesome.

Hamernik is excellent, especially during severe weather. His Twitter feed is probably the most informative of all the meteorlogists in town.

For context, NBC5 has 31 listed on their bio page, 'BBM has 27, WGN has north of 50, and 'FLD has 22.

Construction is beginning on the NBC News Deck.... errrr I mean a new set for Brian Williams that "will be a fully-exposed glass enclosure in the middle of the newsroom." Here we go!! http://www.mediaite.com/tv/msnbc-to-begin-construction-on-brian-williams-war-crimes-trial-like-set-this-weekend/

Bringing Chuck Todd back for 5PM is a good move; they desperately need more hard-news credibility over there. 3-5PM could be Brian Williams? I didn't think they would keep him around just to be a breaking news anchor... what would he do all day? It looks like they're going to have him do a daily afternoon show, and anchor breaking news coverage when necessary, which is essentially taking a page out of FNC's book. But will BriWi really be able to rival Shep and his spaceship? Why Sharpton will still have a show is a mystery to me. The ratings are almost as abysmal as Ed's, not to mention the conflicts of interest/ethical issues. I imagine he (and Chris Hayes) will be the next to go, because Concha hinted that the 6 and 8PM ET hours are due for a shakeup as well. There have been rumors that soon-to-be former ESPN employee Keith Olbermann might be in talks with MSNBC.... Lord help us. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/msnbc-rumor-alert-olbermann-coming-back-several-shows-getting-slashed/

Actually I do think there are similarities between CLTV and WFLD. I doubt that CLTV's ratings are anywhere close to WFLD, because no one who has satellite or U-verse has access to it. But still, both are basically irrelevant hangers on to relatively successful enterprises. CLTV just sits in a corner of the WGN newsroom while management, for whatever reason, continues to not give a crap about it. 'FLD rots while FOX, for whatever reason, does nothing to fix it. Both have a lot potential, but no one's interested, because apparently it's not worth the risk.

They finally got the weather crawl to work with the other graphics. IMO they should move the radar down and take the bug off like 7 does, but at least this is better than the disaster they were using before.

Sooo... is this an acceptable way to use "shut up" in a headline? http://wgntv.com/2015/07/13/illinois-sen-mark-kirk-to-donald-trump-shut-up/ ... It's looking like we could have another wild night of weather coverage. Phil said last night he'll be in with Jerry and Cheryl. At NBC5, I believe Alicia Roman will be working with Brant today, and I imagine Byron will stay later too.

Yep, it's Steve at 9. I don't think he's done the news at nine since Mark took over, or at least I haven't seen it. By the way, Bob Jordan was on with Micah all of last week, and that was the first time I'd seen him anchor the weekday evening shows in a very long time.

I could definitely see that happening. I'm not sure if it will be this fall, but I think he'll cut back to one newscast before he retires altogether. And IF that happens, he'll most certainly leave the 5, because there's no way in hell they'd take him off the 10 with NBC5 so close. In fact, I think Ron could still be doing the 10:00 for several years to come.

So Jerry did the early shows? Is Cheryl supposed to be on vacation?

Hmmm... I'm not a fan of this concept at all. The orange/yellow rectangular bar at the top of the L3 just doesn't go with the angled blue box below it. It looks incongruous to me. What's the point of making the main body of the L3 way smaller than it needs to be? All that translucent white area just seems like an awkward waste of space.

"Rob NBC 5's talent" -- good one. :lol: Honestly though, I'm not sure where else Elgas would have gone. He must not have wanted to wait around at NBC 5. WBBM's morning news would have made sense in theory, but who knows if their management is even competent to make a play for him, or if he would have even considered going to that mess. WGN wouldn't make much sense; they have enough good talent. WFLD is... well, WFLD. He probably looked at places out of town and didn't find much. Feder hinted that Rob really wanted a national correspondent gig... likely another interesting similarity between him and Ms. Scott.

Feder has a story up, and this says it all: "In an interview Monday, Elgas said he was pleased to continue to work in his hometown and considers the move to ABC 7 a step up — although it’s not clear when if ever he’ll become a weekday anchor at his new station." It's not clear, but it's a step up? Pfffft... Someone is going to be the odd man out. Alan? Hosea? Ravi? Ben? All bets are off.

Oh my. Did not see this coming at all. Does WLS really need another anchor? I feel like 'MAQ needed Rob much more than ABC7 does, since they don't really have many options for successors to Stafford. But clearly NBC5 must not have agreed, and WLS offered a better deal. This is eerily similar to the meteorologist situation earlier this year; I'm worried someone is going to be the odd man out at WLS. One thing's for sure: It's going to be one of hell of a November sweeps this year, especially between 5 and 7 at 10pm.

I honestly don't really have a strong opinion on her, although I do think some of the other "younger" meteorlogists in town, like Demetrius or Mary Kay Kleist, are better than her right now. I'm surprised the folks over at that other Chicago media message board haven't started flaming her yet. I feel like she somewhat unfairly gets a bad rap (especially on CRM) for decisions her bosses made. IMO, ABC7 should be blamed more than she should. They fired Mike, they put her in that position, and I think she's trying to give it her best shot.

Feder wrote a story about this is very subject today. If you can't get around the paywall, the gist is that the main three stations in town are increasingly willing to do extended weather coverage. He mainly focused on MAQ cutting into Nightly yesterday to cover storms a hundred miles away, GN breaking into the Cubs game last week, and how stations are getting a lot of flack from viewers for their preemptions. They all say it's about keeping people safe, but for NBC5, it might be more about getting ahead of 7. It worked last week (June 22), as NBC5 had a 3.3 demo rating, while WLS had a 2.2. So, yes, it sure looks like the competition over weather coverage is only going to heat up from here.

Last night, some guy managed to pull off a phone interview prank on NBC5's Storm coverage. After saying that he thought there was a blast of wind "from Howard Stern's asshole" live on air, the interview abruptly ended and Brant Miller was clearly pissed. He quickly moved on, and actually recovered pretty well. But then, clueless Rob Stafford really screwed things up: "concerned for his safety," he tried to get the guy back on the phone. Rosati looked bewildered. Ouch. http://thevane.gawker.com/news-anchors-worry-about-howard-stern-pranksters-safety-1713273748

Here are just a few gems (I removed the names): "Wow. WGN decides to stay with weather coverage over Cubs-Dodgers. That's allowed?" "This isn't the weather channel, just leave the game on" "it's not all about you wgn. show us the game" "this is inexcusable. The majority of your viewership isn't affected by the weather you're showing." "You care about ratings and weather is a huge rating boost @WGNTV. Put the @Cubs game back on please" "wgn can't have it both ways. If they wanna have Cubs baseball they can't do this s**t. If they wanna be news, fine be news" "Ok, so the tornado is not in my area so why are you interrupting the game right now?"

This is actually very impressive. Kudos to WGN.

WGN has dumped out of the Cubs game in favor of severe weather coverage, and people are going nuts on Twitter. Edit: at 9:28, they put the Cubs on a split screen. Nice.

Hey, they have a weather center again! To put it nicely, it's not the best effort, but at least it's something, right?

Janssen is in again tonight, and Jim's not. Very interesting.