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They should have moved Mary Kay to weekends and promoted Robb to weekdays (at 4P) given her current semi-retired status. I can't see many people being interested in taking on double-duty on weekends (WFLD's Mark Strehl being the exception).

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  • 3 months later...
On 2/5/2024 at 6:12 PM, Jase said:

They should have moved Mary Kay to weekends and promoted Robb to weekdays (at 4P) given her current semi-retired status. I can't see many people being interested in taking on double-duty on weekends (WFLD's Mark Strehl being the exception).

Mary Kay is at "work whenever she feels like it" status now. Her filling-in is even becoming much more rare now. She very rarely comes in to the station anymore. She's been doing the weather remotely from her Florida home (or some other location down there) the past few months. You can easily tell by the chroma key and lighting quality during her weather segments in addition to her being absent from the CBS 2 studio itself. I can't believe she's been at the station for 22 years now.. Time flies..

 

Albert Ramon has to be the most absent "chief meteorologist" I've ever seen at a local station here in Chicago. Did his contract include two-thirds or three-quarters of the year off? He seems to always be off or absent from the newscasts. For most bad weather events we've had this year, he's been absent too. They may as well have given the evening chief position to Ed Curran..

 

The one who's been getting the most screen time lately is their new meteorologist, David Yeomans who came to the station in March.. I'm just not liking him. He comes across too much like a salesman at a car dealership.

 

There's just no "connection" or "chemistry" between the new talent being hired at WBBM and the station veterans and even the viewer at home.. Their newscasts feel so mis-matched now with no flow between talent. But what do I know.. My local TV station days are long over as it just doesn't pay what it once did.

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5 hours ago, K77 said:

Mary Kay is at "work whenever she feels like it" status now. Her filling-in is even becoming much more rare now.

It was her choice to downshift. She has done just about every shift there when she was alongside Cynthia Santana and John Davis since she got back to Chicago. She wanted more time with family. I agree that Ed should have more (but it’s his call if another promotion was in the books). 
 

When it comes to anchor talent, I’ll give Jen some credit for at least having a few Local native roots pairs anchoring. Jim, Marie, Ryan, Dana, etc.

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5 hours ago, R.R. said:

It was her choice to downshift. She has done just about every shift there when she was alongside Cynthia Santana and John Davis since she got back to Chicago. She wanted more time with family. I agree that Ed should have more (but it’s his call if another promotion was in the books). 
 

When it comes to anchor talent, I’ll give Jen some credit for at least having a few Local native roots pairs anchoring. Jim, Marie, Ryan, Dana, etc.

I'm sure Ed is looking towards winding down and retiring too. The reality is CBS (top level, not local level management) wants old talent out. Many local levels are just keeping them on payroll to avoid age discrimination lawsuits.

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After a long delay… the (reimagined) street side studio will be unveiled soon (tentatively scheduled for July).
 

Not sure if it’s just a state-of-the-art weather center (as previously reported) or something more. Nevertheless, glad to see the studio fully back up and running.

 

IMG_1511.thumb.jpeg.8a614b318da2c0a52a7151aff64775a5.jpeg

 

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There is a job listing for a meteorologist, but I'd guess that the podcast she had with Erin Kennedy burned all bridges to returning to any broadcasting, and she's probably okay with that.

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Posted (edited)
18 hours ago, 24994J said:

but I'd guess that the podcast she had with Erin Kennedy burned all bridges to returning to any broadcasting, and she's probably okay with that.

Megan already said she was talking bout leaving the business before CBS 2 even laid her off.

 

And to add on, both stated in episodes of “Broken News” that they were offered news gigs after CBS 2 laid the two of them off but they chose to decline and had enough. They both have lives too, and at that rate, being with their families would matter more than to wake up at 1:30 in the morning it seems.

Edited by R.R.
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On 5/21/2024 at 2:52 PM, Jase said:

After a long delay… the (reimagined) street side studio will be unveiled soon (tentatively scheduled for July).
 

Not sure if it’s just a state-of-the-art weather center (as previously reported) or something more. Nevertheless, glad to see the studio fully back up and running.

 

IMG_1511.thumb.jpeg.8a614b318da2c0a52a7151aff64775a5.jpeg

 

 

I really hope they use the full studio and that it's used for news. It's a huge space for just weather...

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32 minutes ago, cbs2worksforyou said:

 

I really hope they use the full studio and that it's used for news. It's a huge space for just weather...

 

I think they will (use the entire space). Based off the orange signage promoting the street side studio, my guess would be that the morning/streaming newscasts will move here. Plus, if designed properly, there should be enough room for an AR weather center/space as well.

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  • 3 weeks later...

They really need to hire 2 more meteorologists as Mary Kay Kleist has been working double time, unlike the part time she wanted(Robb Ellis leaving quietly didn't help). Now she gets a break with Laura and Ed back. Ed seems like he's heading towards retirement or has more health issues now.

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On 6/10/2024 at 6:20 PM, WeatherandTraffic said:

They really need to hire 2 more meteorologists as Mary Kay Kleist has been working double time, unlike the part time she wanted(Robb Ellis leaving quietly didn't help). Now she gets a break with Laura and Ed back. Ed seems like he's heading towards retirement or has more health issues now.

David Yeomans was hired a couple months ago to fill opening left by Robb Ellis.. Mary Kay works as part time as it gets. She doesn't come into the station anymore and just works directly from home in Florida via green screen. Most of the work is done for her and sent to her via computer so she pops on camera for a few minutes a couple times a day. She can take off whenever she wants or choose not to do any forecasts if she chooses to.

 

Ed and Mary Kay aren't going to be "forced" or "pushed out" otherwise the station will face some trouble..

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