first on fox 18 Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 WTAE-TV (Pittsburgh) noon and 5 p.m. meteorologist Don Schwenneker will leave the station Dec. 31 for a job at WBBM in Chicago, a larger TV market. His last day at Channel 4 will be Dec. 31. Schwenneker, who will become weekend evening meteorologist at Chicago's CBS-owned station, said he wasn't looking to leave Pittsburgh's Channel 4, but with family in the midwest, Chicago was one of the few locales he'd leave Pittsburgh to work in. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07341/840098-352.stm What a loss for WTAE and Pittsburgh. What a great guy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazynetjunkie 34 Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 Hopefully, he's good. I don't want another Amy Freeze here in Chicago. She was hired from Philly and she's been here for quite a while now but she's still too "smaller market-ish" for Chicago. Her presentation style and over-exaggerating of everything is something I'd expect in a higher number market. Heck, even Mark Strehl that was hired from Market 133 (Rockford, IL) adapted to the Chicago style of weather forcasting much faster than her. However, I really like Mary Kay Kleist and don't want to see her go. Where is Mary Kay Kleist going? Is she being demoted to weekend mornings only or getting the boot altogether? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
former newsboy 50 Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 lazynet, agree with everything u said. And to think, Rick DiMaio got booted for Ms .Freeze - she doesn't belong in Chicago. Speaking of Rick, anyone think he'll pop up one of these days on another station in town? I keep hoping Channel 2 will hire him to replace the nerdy Ed Curran. But for whatever reason, Ahern & Co. seem happy with him. But this news surprises me. I knew they were looking for a new weekend morning meteorologist - any chance the columnist got it wrong about this Don Schwenneker doing weekend EVENINGS? I can't imagine they'd demote (or even fire) Mary Kay Kleist after 5 years of good work and picking up the slack for being short-staffed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
former newsboy 50 Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Hey, I got my wish!!! Well, kinda. Feder's reporting today that Channel 2 has hired Rick DiMaio as a fill-in meteorologist starting Monday! And Don Schwenneker will in fact be on weekend evenings, bumping Mary Kay Kleist to only weekend mornings. So with 4 mets on-staff already, u gotta think they have more in store for DiMaio down the road than just filling-in. Cuz the way I see it they don't need a fill-in nor have they ever had just a fill-in. Could Ed Curran be on the way out? I hope I hope I hope. Maybe Channel 5's mock-up of him in that commercial got Channel 2 bosses thinking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderJay27 27 Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 If yall don't want Amy Freeze out there, send her back to Philly. She's a great meteorologist and knows what she's talking about. Plus u can't expect someone to just instantly change their style of presentation, it takes time, plus there' other factors such as the personality of the station, etc. Plus what kind of presentation are yall talking about? Amy aims at everyday viewers and youth/children. She's very community and school oriented. If yall talk about anyone, it should be the WGN dude. Smart guy, more than likely very nice, but his style is "depthful". Is that Chi-town presentation style? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazynetjunkie 34 Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 If yall don't want Amy Freeze out there, send her back to Philly. She's a great meteorologist and knows what she's talking about. Plus u can't expect someone to just instantly change their style of presentation, it takes time, plus there' other factors such as the personality of the station, etc. Plus what kind of presentation are yall talking about? Amy aims at everyday viewers and youth/children. She's very community and school oriented. If yall talk about anyone, it should be the WGN dude. Smart guy, more than likely very nice, but his style is "depthful". Is that Chi-town presentation style? No, we're not talking about Tom's Skilling's "depthful" style. He's on a planet of his own which I don't exactly go with either but many around like him. I don't like a weather segment that goes on for 10 minutes just to get to what I need to know. Since WGN Superstation is the Chicago station all the rest of the country sees, many people around the country think that's what Chicago news/weather is like. Plus, almost every meteorologist in town is school/community oriented. The Chicago style of forcasting can easily be seen in ABC 7's Jerry Taft, NBC 5's Brant Miller, CBS 2's Steve Baskerville, former FOX Chicago meteorologist Rick DiMaio, current FOX Chicago meteorologists Tammy Souza and Mark Strehl, and many others in town. A calm weather person that isn't trying to freak you out and that gives a down to the point very accurate forecast. In my opinion, Tammy Souza should have gotten the Chief Meteorologist position at FOX Chicago. And no, Freeze's style is nothing having to do with what the station is asking. Just watch her weathercast and watch others in town. You'll just see a big difference. Watching her weather is like watching weather in a higher number market. She likes to over exagerate the forecasts which Chicagoans don't like. She's also too equipment relying. She'll use and state she's using every piece of equipment in her presentation but there's one big thing that seems to be missing from many of her weather forecasts. HER forecast/imput. That's why she's a meteorologist. She's gotta come up with something and the times she does, it's like she's adding a couple inches of snow, more rain than there is, more wind than there is, and trying to be too much on the safe size in weathercasting. It's a case that she may just not ready for this town. Not everyone is fit for Chicago. I know it can take time; however, it's been a long enough time. She should have studied the market first before coming. Others that came from much smaller markets got into the Chicago way faster and are great Meteorologists in town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazynetjunkie 34 Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Well, according to today's Feder column, Mary Kay Kleist is getting knocked down to weekend mornings only. That's a major kick in the butt; however, it could be something she just wants too. However, CBS 2 also has a new catch in addition to Don Schwenneker. Former FOX Chicago Meteorologist Rick DiMaio starts at CBS 2 on Monday as fill-in Meteorologist which I think is awesome to have him back on the air. http://www.suntimes.com/business/feder/690396,CST-FIN-feder11.article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5Viewer 1 Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Hopefully Don does good at WBBM. I am also glad to see Rick is coming back on the air. I agree with everything said about Amy Freeze. WBBM is finally getting somewhere. Now they just need to get rid of Diann. Does anyone have a video of Don doing the weather? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
former newsboy 50 Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 lazynet, u must've missed my 2nd message above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazynetjunkie 34 Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 lazynet, u must've missed my 2nd message above. I did.. sorry about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderJay27 27 Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 If yall don't want Amy Freeze out there, send her back to Philly. She's a great meteorologist and knows what she's talking about. Plus u can't expect someone to just instantly change their style of presentation, it takes time, plus there' other factors such as the personality of the station, etc. Plus what kind of presentation are yall talking about? Amy aims at everyday viewers and youth/children. She's very community and school oriented. If yall talk about anyone, it should be the WGN dude. Smart guy, more than likely very nice, but his style is "depthful". Is that Chi-town presentation style? No, we're not talking about Tom's Skilling's "depthful" style. He's on a planet of his own which I don't exactly go with either but many around like him. I don't like a weather segment that goes on for 10 minutes just to get to what I need to know. Since WGN Superstation is the Chicago station all the rest of the country sees, many people around the country think that's what Chicago news/weather is like. Plus, almost every meteorologist in town is school/community oriented. The Chicago style of forcasting can easily be seen in ABC 7's Jerry Taft, NBC 5's Brant Miller, CBS 2's Steve Baskerville, former FOX Chicago meteorologist Rick DiMaio, current FOX Chicago meteorologists Tammy Souza and Mark Strehl, and many others in town. A calm weather person that isn't trying to freak you out and that gives a down to the point very accurate forecast. In my opinion, Tammy Souza should have gotten the Chief Meteorologist position at FOX Chicago. And no, Freeze's style is nothing having to do with what the station is asking. Just watch her weathercast and watch others in town. You'll just see a big difference. Watching her weather is like watching weather in a higher number market. She likes to over exagerate the forecasts which Chicagoans don't like. She's also too equipment relying. She'll use and state she's using every piece of equipment in her presentation but there's one big thing that seems to be missing from many of her weather forecasts. HER forecast/imput. That's why she's a meteorologist. She's gotta come up with something and the times she does, it's like she's adding a couple inches of snow, more rain than there is, more wind than there is, and trying to be too much on the safe size in weathercasting. It's a case that she may just not ready for this town. Not everyone is fit for Chicago. I know it can take time; however, it's been a long enough time. She should have studied the market first before coming. Others that came from much smaller markets got into the Chicago way faster and are great Meteorologists in town. Ahh, I understand. Thanks for the clarification. She fit well over here in Philly though and many wouldn't mind having her back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazynetjunkie 34 Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 Hey, I got my wish!!! Well, kinda. Feder's reporting today that Channel 2 has hired Rick DiMaio as a fill-in meteorologist starting Monday! And Don Schwenneker will in fact be on weekend evenings, bumping Mary Kay Kleist to only weekend mornings. So with 4 mets on-staff already, u gotta think they have more in store for DiMaio down the road than just filling-in. Cuz the way I see it they don't need a fill-in nor have they ever had just a fill-in. Could Ed Curran be on the way out? I hope I hope I hope. Maybe Channel 5's mock-up of him in that commercial got Channel 2 bosses thinking... I'm starting to really think that Mary Kay Kleist on weekend mornings only is something she wants. I don't think she likes to work evenings. Just look at the weeknights that Meteorologist Steve Baskerville is off. Who's filling-in for him 98% of the time? Not Mary Kay Kleist. It's Ed Curran. I've seen numbers of days in a row where Ed Curran is doing the weather for ALL the newscasts (5-7AM, 11AM, 5PM, 6PM, and 10PM) during the day. On some occassions, Ed would fill-in for Steve on the evening newscasts and Mary Kay would fill-in for Ed on the morning newscasts. Heck, they've flown in retired Meteorologist Jim Tilmon from Phoenix (his home now) to fill-in for Steve Baskerville a number of times. I really don't think WBBM should dump Ed Curran. Sure, he's geeky (He's got a segment called "Technogadgets"), but he's a really good weather forcaster. He's had some good special reports too. WBBM can have 5 on-air Meteorologists. WLS does. WLS has Jerry Taft, Mike Caplan, Tracy Butler, Phil Schwarz, and Mark Bishop. So why can't WBBM have Steve Baskerville, Ed Curran, Mary Kay Kleist, Rick DiMaio, and Don Schwenneker? However, Feder never mentioned in his column is Rick DiMaio is actually going to be a part of WBBM's staff or if he's just going to be per-diem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
who?cares 253 Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 WBBM can have 5 on-air Meteorologists. WISH has five and i'm pretty sure WTHR has 5? This is a smaller market than chicago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spring Rubber 614 Posted December 14, 2007 Share Posted December 14, 2007 What don't people like about Ed Curran? I've never really watched him that often (only in passing), so any constructive details would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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