WCBS - CBS2 News

[cbs2idiots 24]

I feel like a part of my soul just left knowing this news. 

[bc485 87]

So sorry to hear the news about Dana Tyler and Dick Brennan, especially Dana, given her tenure at the anchor desk. She survived a lot of format and management changes over the years and has been an evening anchor for over 30 years!

 

Also, how boring to have Maurice and Kristine at 6. It was weird to have Dana and Dick there only for a half hour at 6, but better than the same anchors from 5-6:30. 
 

Bad decision in my opinion. 

[MediaZone4K 2165]

16 minutes ago, bc485 said:

So sorry to hear the news about Dana Tyler and Dick Brennan, especially Dana, given her tenure at the anchor desk. She survived a lot of format and management changes over the years and has been an evening anchor for over 30 years!

 

Also, how boring to have Maurice and Kristine at 6. It was weird to have Dana and Dick there only for a half hour at 6, but better than the same anchors from 5-6:30. 
 

Bad decision in my opinion. 

My thoughts exactly.  Instead of having Mary & Chris who start work pre 4:30am doing the noon, they could have used Cindy Hsu or Dick & Dana, all of whom get only 30 minutes of airtime. 

Edited March 1, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[bc485 87]

1 minute ago, MediaZone4K said:

My thoughts exactly.  Instead of having Mary & Chris who start work pre 4:30am doing the noon, they could have used Cindy Hsu or Dick & Dana, all of whom get only 30 minutes of airtime. 

I was thinking the same. Pair Dana and Cindy at noon!  Cindy anchored the noon newscast for a long time in the late ‘90s-mid ‘00s. Dana anchored at noon in the mid-‘90s. How nice would it be to pair them up?
 

Also, Chris and Mary do not even co-anchor at noon anymore. Instead, they rotate each day. Not having a fixed anchor makes the newscast feel like an afterthought. 
 

Chris and Mary are also co-anchoring the 7am streaming newscast, and Chris anchors a streaming hour at 8am. It feels like a lot. Why not break it up with a few other anchors?

[NYNewsCoverage 300]

I think we can all agree that Mary, Chris, and now Kristine and Maurice are too overworked. Most decisions happening at WCBS are not making sense these days... have they undergone a recent management change?

I'm also thinking of how they have Tony as field meteorologist in the morning (even on sunny days); it seems quite unnecessary- they should give him the noon or rotate with John for in-studio weather or something..

 

[badabing 29]

This is honestly devastating news to hear.

 

I know linear television is in decline, but this is how you start turning off those viewers who you do have left. 

 

I’ve recently been thinking about how the NYC TV news market has evolved over the last three decades. What I thought was interesting is that WCBS went from being the most unstable operation to the most stable (at least in terms of the anchor desk). Not a single weekday change occurred from when Chris replaced Rob in mornings in 2013 until 2019 when Alex Denis left and John Elliott was moved to weekends. Even then, until John came back to weekdays, the stability was incredible— with the only anchor change being to add Dick at 6 and bring Cindy back to weekdays. (Speaking exclusively about WCBS weekdays— weekends and WLNY went through a lot of evolutions during this period.)

 

The problem with the WCBS operation is not the anchors— the anchors are familiar faces now. It is the massive churn of reporters. Part of the reason why WABC thrives is because their reporters don’t spend a few years at the station on the way to something else. 

 

Dana is the soul of WCBS. The station neglected and diminished her for the last decade, but she has been the constant. Maurice and Kristine are great anchors, I cannot take that away from them. They do not come off as people who really like each other much (Kristine would much rather be back next to Wragge), but they are good anchors. But we don’t need more of them.

 

Dick has been a solid contributor since he joined WCBS. He also deserves a prominent role at the station. 

 

For a while now I’ve wondered why WCBS is wasting talent that they have. I think Cindy is probably the single best anchor they have— she has a way of striking the right tone that Chris and Mary just don’t. Why does she only do 30 minutes on linear daily? Why does she not coanchor the noon newscast — a newscast that was hers for 15 years— with her friend Dana?

 

I also think Natalie Duddridge is under-utilized (she has grown significantly the last few years and is a very good fill in anchor). At the same time, I think Doug Williams is overrated (he lacks the charisma of his father and is awkward with reporters and coanchors). Regardless, he won’t be at WCBS for long, just like his father wasn’t. I also, contrary to many in this forum, find Alice to be bland and boring and I also think Jessica is fine on weekends but could never be a weekday talent. 

 

Let’s also acknowledge the industry might be moving in the direction of less anchors doing more newscasts, but this city isn’t. WCBS is returning to a period of four weekday anchors (plus Cindy at 9, but since she is underutilized, it is essentially four)— reminiscent of 2003 when Cindy/Michael did AM/noon and Dana/Ernie did 4:30-6:30 and 11. Back then, the station produced 5 hours of daily news; currently the station produces 8 + the half hour Atlanta newscast. Meanwhile, PIX just expanded to a fourth evening anchor, WNYW just moved a morning anchor to have a third in the evening, and depending on how you count, WABC has more than seven anchors for 7.5 hours of daily newscasts.

 

 

Dana has been on the weekday anchor desk since 1992? 1993? More than 30 years. She has been on from 6-6:30 at WCBS for more than 25 continuous years— since I believe 1999 (for a few years post-massacre she was moved to 5pm). And this is a horrible and cruel way to work her out the door. “Fill in anchor.” Yeah, we will see her do that a half dozen times before her contract isn’t renewed and she is pushed out of the station. 

 

Just want to put a few stats out there before I close:

Dana is the longest ever anchor at WCBS (nearly 34 years total, 30+ years weekday — Jim Jensen spent 31 years at the station and was a weekday anchor for 29)

Kristine is the longest serving 11pm anchor at WCBS (Kristine is currently at 16+ years; Michele had about 14.)

Kristine and Maurice are the longest ever anchor pair at WCBS (13 years; previously Jensen and Rolland Smith spent 12 years together)

 

But you know, this was always the most likely outcome at this station. Look at the way they treated other station icons like Jim Jensen and Michele Marsh. 

 

I genuinely thought Johnny/Sarah were an improvement over Peter/David. Doesn’t look that way now.

 

It is a cruel business, but it doesn’t have to be like this.

[cbs2idiots 24]

I was just wondering if this was a part of paramount global cuts? I know their cutting and firing people all across the organization.

 

They should have let Dana bow out gracefully than throwing a bone and give her. Any changes that needed to be made would be the morning team. Chris and Mary are bland. Yes they are good anchors but bland for a morning news team.

[MediaZone4K 2165]

5 hours ago, badabing said:

The problem with the WCBS operation is not the anchors— the anchors are familiar faces now. It is the massive churn of reporters. Part of the reason why WABC thrives is because their reporters don’t spend a few years at the station on the way to something else. 

Agreed. In hearing from reporters, constant turnover usually equals unimpressive pay, a toxic work environment, or burnout from being overworked. WABC appears to have the most reporters with a 20+ year tenure. They must have great pay and a decent working culture.

[newsman123 112]

2 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

Agreed. In hearing from reporters, constant turnover usually equals unimpressive pay, a toxic work environment, or burnout from being overworked. WABC appears to have the most reporters with a 20+ year tenure. They must have great pay and a decent working culture.

Its a few things. The ABC's have always been better run operations. WCBS has been a shuffle of management in addition to talent. And yes, pay. WCBS starts GA reporters at around 150-170K. WABC 180K-200K. 

[bc485 87]

Derick Waller has joined CBS 2 as a reporter. He left WABC a few months ago, citing the difficult morning hours. Since leaving WABC, he freelanced at WTTG in Washington, DC. 
 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C386yHVOj1i/?igsh=MTVhcnNlODJlZGI4cA==

[NYTV 117]

The Saturday morning news was hosted by Tim McNichols and Jennifer Bisram

[MisterBill 99]

6 hours ago, NYTV said:

The Saturday morning news was hosted by Tim McNichols and Jennifer Bisram

 

Yeah, that seemed strange.

[TVNewsLover 777]

16 hours ago, NYTV said:

The Saturday morning news was hosted by Tim McNichols and Jennifer Bisram

Dave Carlin and Jennifer Bisram today, although Dave’s Instagram indicates he’s filling in for Doug.

Edited March 3, 2024 by TVNewsLover

[NowBergen 681]

9 hours ago, TVNewsLover said:

Dave Carlin and Jennifer Bisram today, although Dave’s Instagram indicates he’s filling in for Doug.

 

Dave Carlin specifically stated he was sitting in for Doug Williams at the beginning of the 7 am hour.  

[Colortini 76]

The more I think about Dana getting demoted, the more it annoys me. I get if there are budget cuts to make, but to make her a fill-in anchor is such a classless move when she’s nearing the end of her career. If you want her off evenings, fine. However, why not just make her the official noon anchor at this point instead of having it rotate between Chris and Mary. Give that newscast some stability, similar to how ABC 7 has Sandra Bookman on at noon. Lighten their workload, give Dana her own newscast, and then if she has to fill in for the evening newscast it doesn’t appear as insulting, because we know she’s already there in the studio for the noon newscast. Just a thought. Or, they could also have her and Cindy do 9am and Noon so there could be some conversation, similar to how ABC 7 does their 10am show. Dana, Cindy, and John is a great pairing in my eyes at least. Plus it pairs up to two longest-tenured anchors, and they’re friends, so the chemistry is already there. 

[Big Rollo Smokes 260]

On 3/1/2024 at 1:43 AM, badabing said:

This is honestly devastating news to hear.

 

I know linear television is in decline, but this is how you start turning off those viewers who you do have left. 

 

I’ve recently been thinking about how the NYC TV news market has evolved over the last three decades. What I thought was interesting is that WCBS went from being the most unstable operation to the most stable (at least in terms of the anchor desk). Not a single weekday change occurred from when Chris replaced Rob in mornings in 2013 until 2019 when Alex Denis left and John Elliott was moved to weekends. Even then, until John came back to weekdays, the stability was incredible— with the only anchor change being to add Dick at 6 and bring Cindy back to weekdays. (Speaking exclusively about WCBS weekdays— weekends and WLNY went through a lot of evolutions during this period.)

 

The problem with the WCBS operation is not the anchors— the anchors are familiar faces now. It is the massive churn of reporters. Part of the reason why WABC thrives is because their reporters don’t spend a few years at the station on the way to something else. 

 

Dana is the soul of WCBS. The station neglected and diminished her for the last decade, but she has been the constant. Maurice and Kristine are great anchors, I cannot take that away from them. They do not come off as people who really like each other much (Kristine would much rather be back next to Wragge), but they are good anchors. But we don’t need more of them.

 

Dick has been a solid contributor since he joined WCBS. He also deserves a prominent role at the station. 

 

For a while now I’ve wondered why WCBS is wasting talent that they have. I think Cindy is probably the single best anchor they have— she has a way of striking the right tone that Chris and Mary just don’t. Why does she only do 30 minutes on linear daily? Why does she not coanchor the noon newscast — a newscast that was hers for 15 years— with her friend Dana?

 

I also think Natalie Duddridge is under-utilized (she has grown significantly the last few years and is a very good fill in anchor). At the same time, I think Doug Williams is overrated (he lacks the charisma of his father and is awkward with reporters and coanchors). Regardless, he won’t be at WCBS for long, just like his father wasn’t. I also, contrary to many in this forum, find Alice to be bland and boring and I also think Jessica is fine on weekends but could never be a weekday talent. 

 

Let’s also acknowledge the industry might be moving in the direction of less anchors doing more newscasts, but this city isn’t. WCBS is returning to a period of four weekday anchors (plus Cindy at 9, but since she is underutilized, it is essentially four)— reminiscent of 2003 when Cindy/Michael did AM/noon and Dana/Ernie did 4:30-6:30 and 11. Back then, the station produced 5 hours of daily news; currently the station produces 8 + the half hour Atlanta newscast. Meanwhile, PIX just expanded to a fourth evening anchor, WNYW just moved a morning anchor to have a third in the evening, and depending on how you count, WABC has more than seven anchors for 7.5 hours of daily newscasts.

 

 

Dana has been on the weekday anchor desk since 1992? 1993? More than 30 years. She has been on from 6-6:30 at WCBS for more than 25 continuous years— since I believe 1999 (for a few years post-massacre she was moved to 5pm). And this is a horrible and cruel way to work her out the door. “Fill in anchor.” Yeah, we will see her do that a half dozen times before her contract isn’t renewed and she is pushed out of the station. 

 

Just want to put a few stats out there before I close:

Dana is the longest ever anchor at WCBS (nearly 34 years total, 30+ years weekday — Jim Jensen spent 31 years at the station and was a weekday anchor for 29)

Kristine is the longest serving 11pm anchor at WCBS (Kristine is currently at 16+ years; Michele had about 14.)

Kristine and Maurice are the longest ever anchor pair at WCBS (13 years; previously Jensen and Rolland Smith spent 12 years together)

 

But you know, this was always the most likely outcome at this station. Look at the way they treated other station icons like Jim Jensen and Michele Marsh. 

 

I genuinely thought Johnny/Sarah were an improvement over Peter/David. Doesn’t look that way now.

 

It is a cruel business, but it doesn’t have to be like this.

Can you please do the fellow posters/readers a favor and give us full names? Not all of us have total recall.

[bc485 87]

CBS News reporter and streaming anchor Elaine Quijano is anchoring with Doug Williams this Sunday morning. Doug and Craig Allen have been welcoming her all morning, so it appears that she is the new anchor, replacing Andrea Grymes. 

Edited March 10, 2024 by bc485

[Georgie56 3303]

6 minutes ago, bc485 said:

CBS News reporter and streaming anchor Elaine Quijano is anchoring with Doug Williams this Sunday morning. Doug and Craig Allen have been welcoming her all morning, so it appears that she is the new anchor, replacing Andrea Grymes. 

Pulling a Jamie Yuccas.

[NYNewsCoverage 300]

I was almost ready to think Jennifer Bisram was the new anchor (she's been covering a lot recently); but we'll see if WCBS makes any additional announcement about Elaine. 

[MediaZone4K 2165]

14 hours ago, bc485 said:

CBS News reporter and streaming anchor Elaine Quijano is anchoring with Doug Williams this Sunday morning. Doug and Craig Allen have been welcoming her all morning, so it appears that she is the new anchor, replacing Andrea Grymes. 

That's quite big actually. *If* Elaine is permanent, I'm surprised they would put a network correspondant who'se moderated presidential debates on weekend mornings instead of weekdays.

 

*Speculative: unless that would allow her to continue some national duties a few days out of the week.

 

13 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

Pulling a Jamie Yuccas.

Yup. 

Edited March 11, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[Roadgeek Adam 170]

On 3/1/2024 at 8:32 AM, MediaZone4K said:

Agreed. In hearing from reporters, constant turnover usually equals unimpressive pay, a toxic work environment, or burnout from being overworked. WABC appears to have the most reporters with a 20+ year tenure. They must have great pay and a decent working culture.

 

Stephen Clark told me that he was through 4 directors in 4 years. He wasn't much happy there either. 

[MediaZone4K 2165]

4 hours ago, Roadgeek Adam said:

 

Stephen Clark told me that he was through 4 directors in 4 years. He wasn't much happy there either. 

Yeah the station was really unstable from 1996-2006. The format prior to the "1996 Massacre" of firings was pretty good.  Ancient history but it still sucks that Roz Abrahms didn't last longer there, now this with Dana Tyler.

[Roadgeek Adam 170]

14 minutes ago, MediaZone4K said:

Yeah the station was really unstable from 1996-2006. The format prior to the "1996 Massacre" of firings was pretty good.  Ancient history but it still sucks that Roz Abrahms didn't last longer there, now this with Dana Tyler.

 

Which is funny given I think Clark-Tyler was probably the best combo in that group. 

 

When it was Hsu-Grove | Hill-Rosenfield | Clark-Tyler it was fantastic. Ira Joe, Mark and Warner fit. (Of course Mark Danon did himself in) 

Edited March 12, 2024 by Roadgeek Adam

[MediaZone4K 2165]

Elaine was anchoring both days this weekend. No official announcement per WCBS or social media however, **curbing any speculation** we'll have to wait for any announcement.

 

Elaine would be a solid addition to the team. Again-- surprisingly she's being utilized on weekends and not weekdays at 6, since they're apparently pushing Dick and Dana out. 

Edited March 17, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[civic110 18]

The news at 8 on WLNY appears to be a full, live hour of news.