WHBQ adding 10 PM News Starting 8/16

[Jterry 43]

Word is leaking out this evening that WHBQ will officially announce at the end of their 9 PM newscast tonight (8/9) that they will be adding a 30-minute 10 PM Newscast starting a week from tonight on 8/16 adding to the growing list of Fox O&Os that have been adding 10 PM shows in recent years. In fact the 10 PM show is already showing up on my DirecTV guide tonight.

 

WHBQ has been rapidly adding newscasts in the last couple of years to their schedule, though up to this point all of the expansion had been to Good Morning Memphis, first adding a 9 AM hour last Fall then adding a 4:30 AM half-hour this Spring to compete with WREG's Live@9 and WMC's 4:30 AM newscast, respectively. The addition of a 10 PM newscast will officially and directly put them in late evening competition with WREG, WMC and WPTY.

 

The announcement of 10 PM news to WHBQ comes just days after the debut of Darrell Greene on the evening anchor desk.

 

Update... Fox 13 just gave details of the 10 PM show. It will be hosted by Ernie Freeman and will feature in-depth reporting and interviews on the day's biggest stories.

[TennTV1983 804]

Word is leaking out this evening that WHBQ will officially announce at the end of their 9 PM newscast tonight (8/9) that they will be adding a 30-minute 10 PM Newscast starting a week from tonight on 8/16 adding to the growing list of Fox O&Os that have been adding 10 PM shows in recent years. In fact the 10 PM show is already showing up on my DirecTV guide tonight.

 

WHBQ has been rapidly adding newscasts in the last couple of years to their schedule, though up to this point all of the expansion had been to Good Morning Memphis, first adding a 9 AM hour last Fall then adding a 4:30 AM half-hour this Spring to compete with WREG's Live@9 and WMC's 4:30 AM newscast, respectively. The addition of a 10 PM newscast will officially and directly put them in late evening competition with WREG, WMC and WPTY.

 

The announcement of 10 PM news to WHBQ comes just days after the debut of Darrell Greene on the evening anchor desk.

 

Update... Fox 13 just gave details of the 10 PM show. It will be hosted by Ernie Freeman and will feature in-depth reporting and interviews on the day's biggest stories.

So, in other words, it'll be like News Edge pretty much. Should be interesting.

[Jterry 43]

So, in other words, it'll be like News Edge pretty much. Should be interesting.

Yeah, definitely so, though probably adapted to WHBQ's style so it won't be a fast-paced feel I would have to think. Certainly won't be a traditional newscast though a roundup of headlines, weather and sports is being promised as well, with the main portion of the show likely focusing in on one or two stories. Will be interesting indeed.

[NewEnglandNewsInsider 0]

It's about time they added one. Though as much as I like Ernie, I can't figure out why they moved him up...

 

What's going to happen to mornings? Valerie & Darcy the whole show or two new male anchors to hire?

 

We'll there easily going to beat WPTY! Wonder if the'll ever have a 6PM newscast?

[Jterry 43]

It's about time they added one. Though as much as I like Ernie, I can't figure out why they moved him up...

 

What's going to happen to mornings? Valerie & Darcy the whole show or two new male anchors to hire?

 

We'll there easily going to beat WPTY! Wonder if the'll ever have a 6PM newscast?

 

They announced this morning that Tomorrow they are going to introduce a new addition to Good Morning Memphis. Somebody coming from Philadelphia was all that was mentioned. I assume this will be Curtis Jay's replacement after his departure several months ago. As far as if Ernie will continue in the mornings, haven't heard anything yet on that.

[TennTV1983 804]

They announced this morning that Tomorrow they are going to introduce a new addition to Good Morning Memphis. Somebody coming from Philadelphia was all that was mentioned. I assume this will be Curtis Jay's replacement after his departure several months ago. As far as if Ernie will continue in the mornings, haven't heard anything yet on that.

Well, if they're going to be shifting Ernie Freeman from mornings to evenings, it would make reasonable sense to have a suitable replacement lined up for him.

[NewEnglandNewsInsider 0]

Just a thought, it makes me wonder why they just promote Ernie in the 1st place...and hire Darnell for the 10PM show. More diverse with 2 African-American anchors.

[Jterry 43]

Just a thought, it makes me wonder why they just promote Ernie in the 1st place...and hire Darnell for the 10PM show. More diverse with 2 African-American anchors.

That certainly could have been a possibility but the Memphis market seems to have this weird unwritten rule that the evening anchor team must consist of a Caucasian male and an African-American female. Its like that at every station and has nearly been that way at every station for a good 30 years almost. Only WPTY/WLMT originally started their news department differently, before morphing into the same after about 2000.

 

BTW, the new anchor for GMM is Greg Coy - who appears to have most recently been at CN8/Comcast Network. Ernie Freeman's last day at GMM is indeed Tomorrow.

[TennTV1983 804]

BTW, the new anchor for GMM is Greg Coy - who appears to have most recently been at CN8/Comcast Network. Ernie Freeman's last day at GMM is indeed Tomorrow.

Greg Coy appeared on the show today during the 9AM hour. His first official day on the job is August 23.

[NewEnglandNewsInsider 0]

Greg is a good anchor and he'll do fine...he's been out of the business for a while.

 

Is he anchoring the whole show or just with Valerie? Is he replacing both Erie and Curtis?

[TennTV1983 804]

Greg is a good anchor and he'll do fine...he's been out of the business for a while.

 

Is he anchoring the whole show or just with Valerie? Is he replacing both Erie and Curtis?

Good Morning Memphis is anchored by four people altogether. Darcy Thomas and Earle Farrell typically do the first couple of hours of the show, with Valerie Calhoun and Ernie Freeman doing the show from 7-10AM.

 

Greg will be co-anchoring alongside Valerie when he starts in two weeks, but I don't know if he'll be co-anchoring the Midday news as well (alongside Darcy Thomas).

[Jterry 43]

Was able to catch the premiere broadcast last night. Definitely similar to NewsEdge, it started off very fast-paced doing a rundown of headlines with live reports in the first segment and a quick weather forecast in the second, but the pacing came to a crawl when they did their feature segment that had guest interviews and then a "Man-on-the-Street" segment by Darrell Greene.

 

What made it weird is that when they came back from that they did a very very quick 2 minute or so sports segment that was basically just sports director Matt Stark and Ernie Freeman talking back and forth about a couple of the sports stories of the day which is a major change from their previous format, which was a good 5-6 minutes featuring reports and such during the last 10 minutes of the 9 PM broadcast. There was no sports at all in the 9 PM hour.

 

It seemed to me the format didn't flow that well going from fast-paced to really slowing it down and then cramming in sports and a sign-off in the last few minutes. They should consider moving the in-depth segment toward the end and doing all of the fast-paced stuff at the beginning and that would help the flow I think. They'll also need to rework the new sports format, they probably should keep what they had at 10 but have a regular segment at 9 as they previously did.

 

I haven't heard anything yet about how well it did in the ratings, but it does have some potential and it will be interesting to see if Memphis viewers give it a try. Its certainly different than what the other 3 are providing at 10. One final note on the look, they had a new opening and different music, but the remainder of the graphics was the same. Ernie was standing at the chroma-key with a virtual set for much of the broadcast.

[lazynetjunkie 34]

WHBQ's format took some elements from the format WFLD FOX Chicago had.. It takes a while for talent to get adjusted and the newscast to fall into place. When the FOX stations start this new 10PM (or 11PM in Eastern and Pacific time zones), it usually takes at least a month before the station has what they want to do down. Don't take what you see on the debut day or debut week as how this newscast is going to be permanently..

 

Unfortunately, ratings for "The Ten" at WFLD were really bad and it was cancelled in 2 years time and replaced with reruns of "The Office". I don't know if any other FOX O&O has cancelled their 10PM (or 11PM) newscast..

[Jterry 43]

WHBQ's format took some elements from the format WFLD FOX Chicago had.. It takes a while for talent to get adjusted and the newscast to fall into place. When the FOX stations start this new 10PM (or 11PM in Eastern and Pacific time zones), it usually takes at least a month before the station has what they want to do down. Don't take what you see on the debut day or debut week as how this newscast is going to be permanently..

 

Unfortunately, ratings for "The Ten" at WFLD were really bad and it was cancelled in 2 years time and replaced with reruns of "The Office". I don't know if any other FOX O&O has cancelled their 10PM (or 11PM) newscast..

 

Yeah, definitely agree, it will take some time to adjust and things will be tweaked around as necessary. Certainly don't feel any issues last night will end up being permanent.

 

Have heard that WHBQ did apparently beat WPTY's 10p last night. Not sure whether that's really good for WHBQ or just very sad for WPTY. If they can at least maintain 3rd, the show will probably end up being around for a while.