The Channel 6 Action News Thread

[SF1964 63]

Reporter Leland Pinder has joined 6ABC news.  He did a report on the 11PM newscast.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=754438316502799&set=ecnf.100058099117093

[Mrknowitall526 115]

I wonder if they will get a new Chopper 6?  It was leased from a company.

[Abraham J. Simpson 315]

Absolutely they will, in due time. There’s a zero percent chance they will forego having a helicopter as part of their news gathering in the long term. Much as the newscasts must go on even when they have to report on their own sad event, they’ll eventually need to go back to having a helicopter.

[Abraham J. Simpson 315]

On 12/21/2023 at 6:03 PM, EVVTV12 said:

I don’t know about the other newscasts, but Chopper 6 was removed from the new intro of the 6PM newscast. (First day of winter.) 

Catching the 4 pm open (hooray for a day off?), and the winter 2023 open includes a Chopper 6 shot. 

[ThunderJay27 44]

Channel 6 just aired a comercial, and showing now on air, that they added a new radar in Lancaster County to fill the gap in the western part of the area left by radar sites in Mt. Holly, NJ & Dover, DE. 

Did they get rid of their radar that was in Montgomery County for the longest time?

Edited January 9, 2024 by ThunderJay27

[SF1964 63]

2 hours ago, ThunderJay27 said:

Channel 6 just aired a comercial, and showing now on air, that they added a new radar in Lancaster County to fill the gap in the western part of the area left by radar sites in Mt. Holly, NJ & Dover, DE. 

Did they get rid of their radar that was in Montgomery County for the longest time?

Adam Joseph has been talking about the new radar during the broadcasts.  He also tweeted about a 3rd radar.  I don't know if it replaced another radar.

https://twitter.com/6abcadamjoseph/status/1744716035075535177#m

[Abraham J. Simpson 315]

3 hours ago, ThunderJay27 said:

Channel 6 just aired a comercial, and showing now on air, that they added a new radar in Lancaster County to fill the gap in the western part of the area left by radar sites in Mt. Holly, NJ & Dover, DE. 

Did they get rid of their radar that was in Montgomery County for the longest time?

Warminster? That’s been gone a while. The tower is there, but the big ball (heh, heh, big ball) is long gone. 

[rear_flank 43]

3 hours ago, ThunderJay27 said:

Channel 6 just aired a comercial, and showing now on air, that they added a new radar in Lancaster County to fill the gap in the western part of the area left by radar sites in Mt. Holly, NJ & Dover, DE. 

Did they get rid of their radar that was in Montgomery County for the longest time?

I believe they stopped using that radar in December of 2022. The last time I saw it on air was for a tornado warning on November 30, 2020. It stinks that they stopped because it was the only live radar in the area. The National Weather Service radars are slow and update about every five minutes.

[cg41386 132]

On 1/9/2024 at 8:14 PM, rear_flank said:

I believe they stopped using that radar in December of 2022. The last time I saw it on air was for a tornado warning on November 30, 2020. It stinks that they stopped because it was the only live radar in the area. The National Weather Service radars are slow and update about every five minutes.

 

3 and 10 used to have their own radars as well. 10's was located not far from 6's and 3's is/was at their transmitter site.

[ThunderJay27 44]

On 1/9/2024 at 8:14 PM, rear_flank said:

I believe they stopped using that radar in December of 2022. The last time I saw it on air was for a tornado warning on November 30, 2020. It stinks that they stopped because it was the only live radar in the area. The National Weather Service radars are slow and update about every five minutes.

 

On the latest showing of StormTracker 6 today at 4p, the radar scan that is in Montgomery/ Bucks County was active, along with the new Lancaster County one. So it looks like they have 2 of their own now, while the other stations rely on NWS only?

[ekt8750 50]

17 hours ago, ThunderJay27 said:

 

On the latest showing of StormTracker 6 today at 4p, the radar scan that is in Montgomery/ Bucks County was active, along with the new Lancaster County one. So it looks like they have 2 of their own now, while the other stations rely on NWS only?

WCAU uses the NWS sites plus WNBC's site in Edison which has pretty good reach into the region. It just misses southern Delaware but gets the rest of the region very well. Plus they still do have the Storm Ranger.

 

Pre pandemic they did have a building permit to put up a fixed site in Aston, PA (someone here actually found it) but I dunno what became of it. I'm guessing it was scrapped.

[rear_flank 43]

Is Channel 6 changing their graphics package to the new ABC O&O look? WABC switched in mid-January. It seems WPVI is one of the last.

 

[susquvalleywgal 517]

36 minutes ago, rear_flank said:

Is Channel 6 changing their graphics package to the new ABC O&O look? WABC switched in mid-January. It seems WPVI is one of the last.

 

I would say they have most of the graphics ready for it ... except for the open.  

 

I really believe they are having trouble matching the style of the collage-style open to the Action News theme.   to the graphic look.  I still think they will keep the Action News open but will adopt the rest of the package.  Some things, you cannot change.

 

-- Matt

[wofchristian 44]

1 hour ago, susquvalleywgal said:

I would say they have most of the graphics ready for it ... except for the open.  

 

I really believe they are having trouble matching the style of the collage-style open to the Action News theme.   to the graphic look.  I still think they will keep the Action News open but will adopt the rest of the package.  Some things, you cannot change.

 

-- Matt

What will probably happen is the usual scenes you see in the intro, followed by the new flying graphics in the new package.

[Abraham J. Simpson 315]

Yeah, not seeing a compelling reason to shoehorn the new package into the existing open style. Tweak the final graphic of the open, ok, sure. That’s been done plenty of times. And while the current graphics for the newscasts are fine, so are the new ones. 

[wofchristian 44]

To my complete surprise, Action News has a new meteorologist!

 

https://x.com/paytondomschke/status/1752096810137436165?s=46&t=kSdgGOGiaM-lEjfQmkMEig

[Abraham J. Simpson 315]

The posting for that job was up a while ago, so the timing makes sense. What the plans are for using her is another question. While Cecily is giving the party line answer that they've been down a person since David Murphy left, that's also a bit disingenuous. Insomuch as they don't have two meteorologists on the morning shift with built-in coverage when one is out and just making Matt Pellman cover traffic, they made Matt a permanent part of the morning show, effectively replacing Karen's primary role when she took over for David. Still four bodies. The main difference is Chris and Brittany now cover Karen, while there was almost never an "outside" meteorologist before. 

 

Brittany is, if not officially, clearly effectively full time, on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule. Noon Wednesday-Friday, plus afternoon coverage as needed, and weekend nights for the most part. And for whatever reason, they refuse to throw much more to Chris except the occasional coverage. Is there any compelling reason not to have him do Monday and Tuesday at noon, vs. Adam being in there regularly? But whatever, so be it. 

 

So where does this new person fit in the mix is the question. Is she full time, yet again bypassing Sowers getting a full time role? Is she part-time? Does she do the extra-early morning gig and let Karen sleep in a bit to do the second portion of the morning show + 10 am? Where do they need another body on a regular basis? 

[wofchristian 44]

15 minutes ago, Abraham J. Simpson said:

The posting for that job was up a while ago, so the timing makes sense. What the plans are for using her is another question. While Cecily is giving the party line answer that they've been down a person since David Murphy left, that's also a bit disingenuous. Insomuch as they don't have two meteorologists on the morning shift with built-in coverage when one is out and just making Matt Pellman cover traffic, they made Matt a permanent part of the morning show, effectively replacing Karen's primary role when she took over for David. Still four bodies. The main difference is Chris and Brittany now cover Karen, while there was almost never an "outside" meteorologist before. 

 

Brittany is, if not officially, clearly effectively full time, on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule. Noon Wednesday-Friday, plus afternoon coverage as needed, and weekend nights for the most part. And for whatever reason, they refuse to throw much more to Chris except the occasional coverage. Is there any compelling reason not to have him do Monday and Tuesday at noon, vs. Adam being in there regularly? But whatever, so be it. 

 

So where does this new person fit in the mix is the question. Is she full time, yet again bypassing Sowers getting a full time role? Is she part-time? Does she do the extra-early morning gig and let Karen sleep in a bit to do the second portion of the morning show + 10 am? Where do they need another body on a regular basis? 

It seems like it may be Chris making that decision. He seems to always be with his kids, so I assume he may be a mostly stay at home dad while his wife is working.

[LVForward 94]

27 minutes ago, wofchristian said:

It seems like it may be Chris making that decision. He seems to always be with his kids, so I assume he may be a mostly stay at home dad while his wife is working.

I thought Chris primarily had an off-screen role as weather producer.

[Abraham J. Simpson 315]

18 minutes ago, LVForward said:

I thought Chris primarily had an off-screen role as weather producer.

Paul is the full time producer. Chris has sometimes done some coverage, like one ti e with a tornado warning when they referred to him instead of Paul. He started as the producer, left for on air work then returned.

50 minutes ago, wofchristian said:

It seems like it may be Chris making that decision. He seems to always be with his kids, so I assume he may be a mostly stay at home dad while his wife is working.

I’d wonder if that’s chicken or the egg. If you’re only getting two and a quarter days work on average, Karen’s days off notwithstanding, heck, I’d spend the time with the kiddos, too.
 

But it’s a little more than that. They’ve clearly limited his exposure on the air.

[Mrknowitall526 115]

On 1/29/2024 at 7:18 PM, Abraham J. Simpson said:

Paul is the full time producer. Chris has sometimes done some coverage, like one ti e with a tornado warning when they referred to him instead of Paul. He started as the producer, left for on air work then returned.

I’d wonder if that’s chicken or the egg. If you’re only getting two and a quarter days work on average, Karen’s days off notwithstanding, heck, I’d spend the time with the kiddos, too.
 

But it’s a little more than that. They’ve clearly limited his exposure on the air.

 

Which is so odd because I think he's great, always enjoy his forecasts and he really explains stuff well.  Maybe he does do stuff behind the scenes?  He was this amount of "part time" even before he had a daughter.  i remember a few years they even left him out of the Flower Shower special!

 

This new position just seems really odd.  Doesn't seem to be any logical place to add a new face.

[Abraham J. Simpson 315]

Couldn't agree more. He's a great explainer, and helps the layperson (cough, like me) understand the more complex topics and how they arrive at the forecasts based on the data. That's what makes limiting as they have so baffling. He spent months doing weekend nights when Melissa left (pulling double shifts on Saturdays no less), filled in for her most Fridays at noon when she normally was there in place of David Murphy, and covered many if not most of the "shore weather" hits for a summer. Yet instead of promoting from within and giving the also talented Brittany the weekend mornings, he was passed right over. As you said, also left off the flower show special (in fairness and balance, I believe he was included in one edition, but most...no). And for years, almost until Jim retired, Chris was conspicuously left off any coverage rotation for the 6 pm shows even if he was covering at noon and they were otherwise shorthanded. For a hot second, he was included once a week on the 10 am show doing what he does really well--showing the patterns and what they meant for general trends over the following few weeks. That seems to have gone "poof" as well. 

 

The job listing for this role was somewhat broad, as you'd expect. We all know the "other duties as assigned" thing. It does mention "bolster streaming platforms." Huh. It's not as if Chris does streaming on his own when he's not at work...oh wait, he does. They also have used him for streaming cut ins in severe weather at times, yet...nope. Hire a new person. 

 

If I were a betting person, I'd wager the new hire gives Karen relief in the early morning. God knows Karen has earned a little relief there, given she was the one in first even when David Murphy was still there, since he had to do noon most days. But then when one or the other is off, they have built-in coverage, and fewer shifts for the weekender. The listing also specifically mentions field work, so they may envision using her out doing reporting during unusual weather events, not always chained to the studio. OK great, but you had someone in-house who could easily do that. 

 

They do a lot, and I mean a lot, right there, as evidenced by their track record. But for whatever reason (hmmmm), the news director forsakes the proven formula of moving people up in this case. 

[cg41386 132]

On 1/29/2024 at 5:36 PM, wofchristian said:

To my complete surprise, Action News has a new meteorologist!

 

https://x.com/paytondomschke/status/1752096810137436165?s=46&t=kSdgGOGiaM-lEjfQmkMEig

There were some rumors (nothing widespread) last month or so that Payton would be joining WPVI.

[cg41386 132]

I’d really like to know what the hell is up with Jamie Apody’s job status.

[Abraham J. Simpson 315]

It would be great to see her back, but it  seems relatively easy to surmise she is not returning at this point. It's unusual the way this one played out vs other, but whatever the contractual matters and whatever led to the scenario, none of our business.