kdex86

Is there a significant financial or marketing gain by going "national weather --> ad --> local weather" (in that order) vs. "national weather --> local weather --> ad" during the 7:00-7:30 half hour? Seems very weird to me.

I've noticed some weird quirks about the weather hits during Today: 1. During the 7:00-7:30 half hour, the weather hit is around 7:17. During the 7:30-8:00 half hour, the weather hit is around 7:35 AM, just 5 minutes after coming back from a local station break. Why is this? Doesn't it put a strain for the meteorologists at the local NBC affiliates since they're not evenly spaced out? 2. Why does Al Roker NOT say "here's what's happening in your neck of the woods" during the 7:00-7:30 half hour? It seems so weird for him to say something along the lines of "now here's your local forecast" instead.

Someone explain how WCVB is #1 in the Boston market? Today their Facebook page posted another obnoxious caption photo that read “Sunday without the Patriots is Boring!” Focus on local and national news!

Really? I used to like this station. Now they're slowly becoming very tabloid-y like WHDH. Plus, their weather graphics are the worst of the 5 Boston local news stations. And don't even get me started on their Facebook page. It has become the digital equivalent of a tabloid newspaper. Every other day they post a photo with an obnoxious-sized caption in capital yellow or white letters.

Aren't the :25 through :30 and :55 through :00 time periods handed back to the local affiliates though? In Boston, both WCVB and WBTS (and WHDH prior to 1/1/17) air local news updates at :25 and :55. Still, that equates to two 5-minute commercial breaks (with no local insertions) on GMA, which is just as bad.

Has anyone found the commercial breaks during Today to be very lengthy? I turned on my TV and changed the channel to NBC at 7:38 AM. They were on commercial. It wasn't until 7:42 AM when the show finally returned from commercial break. Then at 7:44 AM they go right back to break, which lasts another 4 minutes until 7:48 AM. In a span of 10 minutes, that's 8 minutes of commercials vs. 2 minutes of "regular programming". But wait, it gets WORSE... They come back from break at 7:48 AM, go to the "Orange Room", then at 7:50, guess what? ANOTHER commercial break! This one lasts at least 5 minutes, all the way to the local news insert! WHAT THE HELL!!??!?!?!?!? Over the course of 17 minutes, that's 13 minutes of commercials vs 4 minutes of actual Today show programming. For a major broadcast network (NBC) that's available for free OTA, this is absolutely unacceptable. It's a surefire way to lose viewers and ratings. Also, what is the "Orange Room", why is it called that, and what purpose does it serve?

I have a couple questions about WCVB. 1. Why do their reporters say "WCVB, News Center 5" at the end of their live reports? They used to just say "News Center 5", . Reciting the call letters at the end of a live report is verbose and unnecessary. 2. Why does the Ch. 5 logo during Chronicle look much sharper and vibrant? Why can't this also be used during the regular newscasts? Instead, the logo is superimposed on 2 blue parallelograms, which looks ugly.

Since January 1, they've been drinking "earlier" in Massachusetts. This is because the NBC affiliation in Boston moved from WHDH (which tape delayed the 3rd and 4th hours) to a new O&O (WBTS, which airs the 3rd and 4th hours at its normal 9 AM and 10 AM timeslots).