lazynetjunkie 34 Posted December 22, 2009 Share Posted December 22, 2009 For the past month and a half, I've been noticing that the iconic silver microphones that WLS has used for years are very slowly disappearing. I'm noticing new black microphones appearing in various reports. The new microphones are similar to or the same as the ones I've seen on KGO and WABC (minus the foam wind guards). I understand that microphones don't last forever and eventually have to be replaced. My guesses are that the manufacturers don't make the silver ones anymore. It's just weird seeing an ABC 7 News report without the silver microphone.. It's something that is just so associated with WLS that I really never thought much about until I started seeing the new black mics. Link to comment https://localnewstalk.net/topic/6099-wlss-iconic-silver-microphones-going-away/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeters 1916 Posted December 22, 2009 Share Posted December 22, 2009 I understand that microphones don't last forever and eventually have to be replaced. My guesses are that the manufacturers don't make the silver ones anymore. It's just weird seeing an ABC 7 News report without the silver microphone.. It's something that is just so associated with WLS that I really never thought much about until I started seeing the new black mics. They still make them, and even weirder is they cost less than the "standard" microphone seen on TV broadcasts... Link to comment https://localnewstalk.net/topic/6099-wlss-iconic-silver-microphones-going-away/#findComment-56604 Share on other sites More sharing options...
caliwxdude 254 Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 They still make them, and even weirder is they cost less than the "standard" microphone seen on TV broadcasts... Dude, that place is WAY overpriced on the RE50. I picked a brand new one up on eBay for $70 a few years ago (yes, my school's broadcast journalism program was so poor that we had to buy our own mics), and even notoriously overpriced B&H lists it at $149. I've worked with both of those mics, and the RE50's performance blows away that fugly Shure every time. Plus when you pair an RE50 with a sturdy mic flag, it's an extremely effective self-defense tool. Link to comment https://localnewstalk.net/topic/6099-wlss-iconic-silver-microphones-going-away/#findComment-56623 Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazynetjunkie 34 Posted December 23, 2009 Author Share Posted December 23, 2009 Dude, that place is WAY overpriced on the RE50. I picked a brand new one up on eBay for $70 a few years ago (yes, my school's broadcast journalism program was so poor that we had to buy our own mics), and even notoriously overpriced B&H lists it at $149. I've worked with both of those mics, and the RE50's performance blows away that fugly Shure every time. Plus when you pair an RE50 with a sturdy mic flag, it's an extremely effective self-defense tool. I'm pretty sure 99.8% of the people out there that watch the news wouldn't be able tell the performance difference of both microphones. Like now when I watch ABC 7 News, there is no noticeable audio difference between both mics used. The Shure mics are long lasting.. Most of the ones WLS still uses are the same ones they've used since they first got them sometime around 1990-91 making them about 20 years old. I know most of the times when WLS had problems with these mics, they actually just had them repaired, replacing whatever broken part. I know the actual casing of a couple of the mics were starting to just come apart more recently and they did a duct tape / electrical tape job on them to keep them together. Maybe those are the ones they recently replaced. WLS just has always prided themselves with the silver Shure mics.. When they have a reporter travel across the country for whatever story, eventhough they may be using WABC, KABC, etc. for the remote, the reporter would fly to the city with a silver WLS mic most of the time. There was a promo a couple years ago for the ABC 7 sports team traveling somewhere and the promo was showing the sports team packing one of their silver mics into a suitcase. Even those recent Chicago News Leader promos WLS aired a couple months ago showcased the iconic WLS silver mic. I just find it hard to believe that WLS would just want to dump those mics now. Since I'm on the subject of WLS, I probably should bring this up now eventhough it's kind of off topic. I know some people were wondering a while back what happened to the daytime bumper and promo cuts of News Series 2000 Plus on WLS? Eversince they went fully automated, those cuts disappeared and they just use the evening bumper on the daytime and early evening newscasts now. The answer is when they changed out some equipment and had to reload the music cuts, the daytime cuts they've used for so many years just sounded bad now. The reason being the daytime bumper/promo cuts were custom edits that were recorded on a tape. As TV sound quality has gotten higher in the more recent years, it has become so easy to tell now that cut sounded like it came from a tape. Plus, someone mentioned to me a few months back that the quality of the original tape has deteriorated so trying to burn a better quality sound file off the tape was out of the question. The 2 original cuts to make their custom edits are still on the original CD's. Why not just re-edit the 2 cuts to make new high sound quality cuts? My guess is just laziness.. Link to comment https://localnewstalk.net/topic/6099-wlss-iconic-silver-microphones-going-away/#findComment-56625 Share on other sites More sharing options...
caliwxdude 254 Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 I'm pretty sure 99.8% of the people out there that watch the news wouldn't be able tell the performance difference of both microphones. Like now when I watch ABC 7 News, there is no noticeable audio difference between both mics used. You're the one who started an entire thread dedicated to an "iconic" silver microphone, so I urge you to exercise caution before splitting hairs like this. While this may be true, you can also use this argument against nearly everything that we discuss on this forum. 99.8% of television news viewers don't really care about graphics, sets and (gasp!) even the music. (I'm sure you're going to tell me that WLS is somehow different, because this is the magical place in the television industry where things like ugly silver microphones are "iconic.") I could go on... but I'm not going to waste my time. Link to comment https://localnewstalk.net/topic/6099-wlss-iconic-silver-microphones-going-away/#findComment-56628 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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