WABC - 7 Eyewitness News

[Vlad 333]

On 5/27/2025 at 2:30 AM, abc7 Man said:

When she is doing reporting, will she accidentally close her report “ABC7 Eyewitness News” out of habit?

 

Haha, as a nod to KABC, maybe we can take a piece of their identity by signing off as ABC 7 Eyewitness News, considering they took a piece of ours by pretty much using our music theme now. , the last time this was done was back in 2004.

 

These days the ABC O&Os and affiliates often share resources when WABC uses KABC's reporters, especially for bigger stories that take place on the west and east coast's largest cities (wildfires, natural disasters, etc) and vice versa, they usually sign off as "ABC 7" Eyewitness News. 

 

Edited May 29 by Vlad

[Nynewsguy7 15]

2 hours ago, Vlad said:

 

Haha, as a nod to KABC, maybe we can take a piece of their identity by signing off as ABC 7 Eyewitness News, considering they took a piece of ours by pretty much using our music theme now. , the last time this was done was back in 2004.

 

These days the ABC O&Os and affiliates often share resources when WABC uses KABC's reporters, especially for bigger stories that take place on the west and east coast's largest cities (wildfires, natural disasters, etc) and vice versa, they usually sign off as "ABC 7" Eyewitness News. 

 

It won’t happen again. 
WABC will forever be known as Channel 7. The rebranding of years ago was disastrous - not that people stopped watching, but no one ever referred to WABC as ABC7. 

Btw - for those who didn’t know - Lee Goldberg is an ABC news meteorologist now. He does WNT W-F and prerecords the AM weather for WNN and GMA First. 
 

The move to 7 Hudson has allowed much more integration between network and local. It has been playing out as had been hoped. GMA moves next month.  

[trustno1 8]

On 5/28/2025 at 8:20 AM, civic110 said:

Tom Kaminski, formerly of WCBS880 and Air11 on WPIX was reporting in NewsCopter 7 tonight.

 

Wonder if John or Shannon are cutting back or departing, or if Tom is just filling in?

Wow he's come a long way since reporting traffic on the radio - He was the first person to report on the 9/11 incidents.

[WABC7NYFan 9]

Something I've been wondering, are they not allowed to show sports on the recorded streams? I found it odd that they replaced the coverage of the Knicks' loss at the start of the 11pm newscast with the usual sports scores. Granted every now and then full sports coverage slips in, usually the 6pm news if any, but generally speaking it's almost always replaced.

[MorningNews 1498]

Something you don’t see too often (or ever?) - Liz Cho filling in with Toni Yates for this Sunday morning’s newscast.

[TheNewsTV 260]

WABC's uncertainty about its weekend morning anchor is creating some very unlikely and interesting pairings.

[MorningNews 1498]

They’ve also been running the morning promos with Mike Marza edited out. I would have figured they had the AM succession plans all sorted by now.

[RealNews18 221]

1 minute ago, MorningNews said:

They’ve also been running the morning promos with Mike Marza edited out. I would have figured they had the AM succession plans all sorted by now.

Have they? I’ve seen the one where they edited him out and it’s just Shirleen and the crew, and then there’s other ones “recapping” the show from the day, with the team and whoever is in that seat, usually Pedro 

[MorningNews 1498]

Yeah I’ll try to grab a screen image of it next time if I remember. It ends with Shirleen, Brittany, Sam and Heather standing in front on the old set. It preciously included Mike.

[RealNews18 221]

Effective tomorrow Mike Marza takes over the 5:00 with Sade. Bill stays on the 6 with Liz. 
 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AhpnvNR1h/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Edited Monday at 10:43 PM by RealNews18

[MorningNews 1498]

End of an era. Interesting that he said he’ll remain at EWN at 6 for years to come. 
 

Mike Marza is going to do great alongside Sade.

[TVNewsLover 787]

Not trying to sound mean, but will we have another announcement in 3 more months that he is leaving Up Close. Not sure why he couldn’t have stepped away from both shows (5/11) at the same time. Also, did he make a Hebrew reference with Sade’s name? I feel like sometimes he forgets he has a very diverse audience. 

[rkolsen 1686]

On 6/1/2025 at 4:30 AM, WABC7NYFan said:

Something I've been wondering, are they not allowed to show sports on the recorded streams? I found it odd that they replaced the coverage of the Knicks' loss at the start of the 11pm newscast with the usual sports scores. Granted every now and then full sports coverage slips in, usually the 6pm news if any, but generally speaking it's almost always replaced.

It’s something the ABC stations have done since they broadcasted online. I assume they’re fearful about rights but other chains have no issue.  

[ns8401 957]

17 minutes ago, rkolsen said:

It’s something the ABC stations have done since they broadcasted online. I assume they’re fearful about rights but other chains have no issue.  

With ESPN in the family you would think they’d figure something out as a workaround. It always annoys me when I dip into a newscast from an ABC O&O. 

[GraphicsMan 141]

2 hours ago, TVNewsLover said:

Not trying to sound mean, but will we have another announcement in 3 more months that he is leaving Up Close. Not sure why he couldn’t have stepped away from both shows (5/11) at the same time. Also, did he make a Hebrew reference with Sade’s name? I feel like sometimes he forgets he has a very diverse audience. 

Glad he’s not retiring I’ll give him to 2035. But I’m glad he’s staying.

[WABC7NYFan 9]

Knew it was coming and I understand his reasoning, but I'll miss Bill and Sade working together.

As of tonight, they've also updated the 11pm thumbnail with Mike:

 

Edited Tuesday at 05:35 AM by WABC7NYFan

[TVNewsLover 787]

The morning ones were finally edited too to take out Mike, but they also took out Sam. I wonder if this is a sign of him slowly moving back to the network full time. 
 

Another note about Bill’s second send off - he omitted Michelle’s name when listing all the current long tenured anchors. 

[Vlad 333]

Yeah, it’s the end of an era indeed. This is exactly how it played out for Bill Beutel in the late 90s until he left the station in 2003. And most of the veteran anchors stayed on the 6 p.m. show till their final days. Bill Ritter, now his replacement from 2003, is now 75, so it’s understandable that he's slowly beginning his departure from the career. Hopefully, he stays till 2030! What a solid anchor and face he has been for WABC. 

 

 

[MediaZone4K 2254]

2 hours ago, Vlad said:

Yeah, it’s the end of an era indeed. This is exactly how it played out for Bill Beutel in the late 90s until he left the station in 2003. And most of the veteran anchors stayed on the 6 p.m. show till their final days. Bill Ritter, now his replacement from 2003, is now 75, so it’s understandable that he's slowly beginning his departure from the career. Hopefully, he stays till 2030! What a solid anchor and face he has been for WABC. 

 

 

I was surprised to hear Bill say that he'll be on Eyewitness News at 6 for years to come. Although it's customary for semi retired anchors to ride the 6pm until the end, in this cost-cutting climate I'm surprised they didn't make him fully retire instead of paying him to anchor for 30 minutes a day. Regardless it's cool to still have another veteran anchor around for a while longer. 

 

I grew up watching Bill and Liz together at six,  so it's nice that she will be his final partner.

Edited Tuesday at 05:19 PM by MediaZone4K

[ns8401 957]

36 minutes ago, MediaZone4K said:

I was surprised to hear Bill say that he'll be on Eyewitness News at 6 for years to come. Although it's customary for semi retired anchors to ride the 6pm until the end, in this cost-cutting climate I'm surprised they didn't make him fully retire instead of paying him to anchor for 30 minutes a day. Regardless it's cool to still have another veteran anchor around for a while longer. 

 

I grew up watching Bill and Liz together at six,  so it's nice that she will be his final partner.

If he’s 75 now the odds of him simply disappearing one day aren’t near zero anymore. Sometimes you just gotta know when to hang it up. 

[wabceyewitness 827]

I found the whole 5pm send off /farewell really odd. For most of his career, he’s been known as the 6pm and 11pm guy… he’s been on at 5pm for a little less than 6 years (replacing Diana Williams in September 2019).
 

It made sense to have a big announcement about the 11pm. They probably should’ve done the 5pm at the same time… or just made this a less over the top goodbye. 

[MorningNews 1498]

I also don’t understand the staggered departure from 11pm and then 5pm. Would’ve been more grand to just have it done at once for his and Mike’s sake.

[NowBergen 702]

10 minutes ago, MorningNews said:

I also don’t understand the staggered departure from 11pm and then 5pm. Would’ve been more grand to just have it done at once for his and Mike’s sake.

There may have been some personal issues behind it, or a negotiation with ABC.  Neither of which need to become public.  Whatever, I'd just accept the decision.  

[MorningNews 1498]

20 minutes ago, NowBergen said:

There may have been some personal issues behind it, or a negotiation with ABC.  Neither of which need to become public.  Whatever, I'd just accept the decision.  

Totally accepted the decision, no protest from me. It’s simply an interesting observation.

[Vlad 333]

The staggered departure of Bill, probably is rooted on production side. What the general audience does not know is that these newscasts, while they may look and feel the same on air, they are all very different productions with different staff, producers, etc, news teams, etc working solely for the 5pm show, the 6pm show likely has different people behind it's production as well. 

Edited 21 hours ago by Vlad