NowBergen

He was the Gwinnett County reporter. I suspect that first story was a puff piece to get his feet wet and wasn't suited for him. Subsequent reports have been fine. He doesn't seem to get lost while reporting like another NBC4 reporter does.

I just checked at 9:47 am. WNBC is still with special coverage of the shooting and arrest. WCBS is with Drew. WABC still with twiddle dee and twiddle dumb live. As I typed this WABC finally has jumped in with a report (no one on the scene, unlike WNBC). Just the headline breaking in and a zoom interview.

Actually that was yesterday, 3/31. Today Joe Fryer was the host. Melvin announced rotating anchors until a permanent anchor is selected.

To interpret: Amazon's Friday night MLB games including the Yankees are exclusive to Amazon. They will not be broadcast on YES or any over the air broadcaster. Same goes for all other teams. That was the deal Amazon made with MLB - its called exclusivity. I believe the same will be true of the NFL Thursday night suite of games. Exclusive to Amazon. By not having a local broadcaster simulcast these games, they are attempting to drive people to Amazon Prime. Smart move but it can alienate fans. Same is probably true to the Apple TV+ exclusive games. Evidently some games will also move to. Peacock in a yet to be announced contract.

Her bio has been added to the website as well.

Would she be replacing Judge Judy at 4? I guess CBS doesn't feel a 4 pm news broadcast competing against the ABC and NBC O&O's is worth it?

Fact or speculation?

Honestly, I hardly notice as when I watch I'm more focused on news content. That being said, the NBC O&O's always revert to non olympic ring logos as soon as the Olympics are over. This past year has been a unique situation. The pandemic delayed Summer Olympics were only 6 months ago, give or take, and were quickly followed by the Winter Olympics. It may be one of several reasons viewership was low - Olympic fatigue. Personally I watched the few events I was interested in rather than wall to wall coverage and often watched it live on Peacock.

He also got upset with ABC just before he left because he wanted to lighten his schedule and spend more time with his husband in Miami. It's why his deal with WABC allows him to take Friday's off.

They would be run as separate companies. Otherwise it will never get past the FCC. As it is stated, Apollo will not have any voting rights. They are acting like a bank. If and that's a big if, ownership caps go up, then the two companies may merge down in the future.

Ice storm Friday morning. It’s not unusual for stations to start morning newscasts earlier when there is potential for severe weather. It’s not the first time. It’s not the last. I would not jump to any other conclusions.

I'm sure you are aware this is done often when there is severe weather (hurricanes as well as major snowstorms) and other major news stories by all three big network O&Os in NY as their license is to serve public interests. Severe weather meets that and causes appropriate network disruptions. Yes it seems redundant that all three stations stuck with severe weather broadcasts from early morning until noon, but not everyone turns on the coverage at the same time. It is typical in the midwest for folks to complain when tornado coverage breaks into sports programming. Thing to remember is severe weather coverage hopefully saves lives and injury. That supersedes regular programming. I don't watch WABC but I'm sure they are second guessing the switch to GMAs second hour and they did stay on the air for the rest of the morning. The good news is there were two other choices for those wanting storm coverage to switch to. If you go back to the horrendous day of 9/11 and for weeks after, none of the O&Os went to network coverage, as it was a local story/disaster and even when the networks finally resumed entertainment broadcasting, the local stations kept with local coverage for a bit longer.

Good to know. Today was preempted in my area.

CBS shifted the CBS morning show to WLNY. NBC did not shift Today to either Cozi or LXNY at 7 or 8. There is no storm coverage on WYNY or WPIX. Neither Spanish station has coverage as well this morning.

Hopefully with his change, Joe and Mika will be routinely in DC or NY. When they are there, the show flows much better and the interaction is far better. It's just not the same when they call it in from their home studio in Florida. I'm also hoping former BBC anchor Katy Kay has a larger role.

Michael is back this morning. Yesterday they said he was off and skiing. We hope he had a good vacation.

WNBC morning anchors Darlene and Michael have been stable for many years. They did change meteorologists a couple of years ago now, Now we all are waiting for the permanent replacement of the traffic reporter. People do take vacations, and many being long term employees, like Michael this week, take them. It was mentioned he is off skiing.

I''ve never noticed any routine Staten Island news on News 12 New Jersey. The channel is not broadcast there. From what I read, the major changes are that all the NY stations are merging, with no mention of any changes in CT or NJ. Time will tell. If News12NJ becomes another NY centric station, that will become an issue.

There was an article in the paper last week. Weigel has replaced the Larry Mendte show with another Jersey based show and states it will continue to expand its news presence, on air and online but not maintaining what Press Communications built. Since Weigel owns MeTV, I would expect most of the schedule is cleared. I read the article in the Record, but it is actually an Asbury Park Press story, a sister Gatehouse dba Gannett paper. https://www.app.com/story/news/local/new-jersey/2022/01/12/metv-owner-drops-jersey-matters-launches-new-jersey-politics/9156591002/

Here is the official announcement from the news director which NewsBlues published on the 11th (in addition to Chris Cimino and the new anchor): Alex Lee will also be joining our morning team giving the viewers their morning traffic reports. Alex has been in the market for 10 plus years behind and on camera. For the past 7 years Alex has been connected with total traffic giving her a complete understanding of the market and the commuters needs.

I believe they just hired a new anchor/reporter. From the WPIX news director courtesy of Newsblues: " Arrianee LeBeau is also joining us as and Anchor/Reporter. Arrianee joins us from her most recent anchoring job in Arizona. Local and community news stories are what drive Arrianee and helping people connect is what she is passionate about. She is very excited to join our team and I know is looking forward to getting to know you all and the city we represent." Perhaps she will be on the 4 pm news.

There are several articles today that Altice merged all the NY News 12s, is moving away from hyper local and the cuts are a year earlier than the settlement they made with Dolan. It does not seem they are making a change at News 12 New Jersey (so far). What I read in NewsBlues indicates more may be leaving.

Basically Nester runs PIX11. From management to all programming and station operations. Mission is a sham for Nester to get around ownership caps. Until the FCC or Congress decides to do something about this, they will be permitted to exist.

Almost 8 am on 1/8 and WPIX is still on Optimum (Altice). The PIX11 website has been updated to say Optimum may drop PIX11 on Jan 8 much more predominantly (yesterday it was smaller and used yesterday's date). There is no mention of it on Optimum's or AlticeUSA's website. To be continued....