Sunday, November 30, 2014

News for Sunday, November 30th, 2014

  • Both WKRG-TV and WPMI-TV had video recordings of holiday greetings from members of the military of the United States who used to reside in their local broadcast areas inserted into their local news programming this Thursday, November 27th (Thanksgiving Day).

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Commentary: A sign

Friday, November 28, 2014

News for Friday, November 28th, 2014

  • Yesterday's edition of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") was produced in advance of its broadcast that day and not streamed live like previous editions of it that were broadcast live on both television and the World Wide Web (parts of yesterday's edition still became accessible on the World Wide Web after their television broadcasts, though, through both the official World Wide Web site for WALA-TV and their official YouTube page). 
(note: in case you have a program like Adblock Plus in your browser, you may disable it for this site since I believe the advertisements you may see here should not bother you or any other person).

Thursday, November 27, 2014

News for Thursday, November 27th, 2014

  • WPMI-TV had portions of Christmastime songs on today's edition of their local morning news program ("Local 15 Today"). Most of them were broadcast immediately after some of its commercial breaks when it had live videos of different locations in their local broadcast area on display (one of the portions was played during the last few seconds of today's edition of the program)
(note: the report about WFGX-TV in the post for this past Wednesday (November 26th) was corrected)

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

News for Wednesday, November 26th, 2014

  • According to Zap2it, TitanTV, and TV Guide's digital programming guides for WFGX-TV, they would have a live syndicated TV program about a parade (to be called "America's Thanksgiving Parade") expected to take place in Detroit, Michigan, this Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 27th), between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. as part of their main broadcast channel's programming (the channel is radio frequency channel 50-1/virtual channel 35-1) instead of an edition of the syndicated TV program it usually had in that time period from Monday through Friday ("Maury").
  • According to Zap2it, TitanTV, and TV Guide's programming guides for WKRG-TV, they would have "The CBS Morning News" and "CBS This Morning" broadcast during their regular time period for broadcasting their local morning news program ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") this Thanksgiving Day (they would have two more editions of "The CBS Morning News" broadcast between 5:00 and 6:00 before having one edition of "CBS This Morning" broadcast from 6:00 until 8:00. They usually had only one edition of "The CBS Morning News" in their regular weekday programming plans for 4:30 to 5:00 in the morning and usually had weekday editions of "CBS This Morning" broadcast from 7:00 until 9:00 in the morning before today). 

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

News for Tuesday, November 25th, 2014

  • This past Monday's (September 24th) edition of WKRG-TV's local 10:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 10:00") began about 30 minutes later than originally planned (it began at 10:29 p.m. and ended at 11:01 p.m.) due to special network TV news programming causing some of the regular primetime (7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.) network programs they had before it as part of their main broadcast channel's programming to end later than expected (their broadcast channel is radio frequency channel 27-1/virtual channel 5-1). 
  • One of the news presenters on today's edition of WKRG-TV's local morning news program (the name of the news presenter was Bill Riales; the name of the news program was "WKRG News 5 This Morning") asked whether the program's weather reporter (John Nodar) would be part of the musical acts being planned for a celebration of the coming of the next calendar year (2014) being planned for downtown Mobile or not while presenting a report about officials for the city of Mobile planning to release details of their plan for holding such a celebration (Bill Riales' reference for John Nodar was "John Nodar and the Flaming Zambonis"). 

Monday, November 24, 2014

News for Monday, November 24th, 2014

  • Robert Battles of the local weekly public affairs radio program titled "Pass It On" (for WGOK-AM (900)/WXQW-AM (660)) and the local weekly public affairs TV program titled "Rise and Shine" (for WALA-TV) became a member of the Mobile County Board of School Commissioners last Wednesday, November 19th, after being elected to it on the Tuesday of November 4th (both programs were usually broadcast on Sunday, with "Rise and Shine" between 6:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. and "Pass it On" between 3:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.)
  • A registered nurse and author from Mobile named Paulette Horton used most of last week's edition of "Pass It On" to promote and give away copies of her most recent book ("Treasured Memories: the Beginning of an Era, Mobile, Alabama's Historic Black Baptist Churches 1806-1945") while substituting for Robert Battles as its host (she told listeners of this edition of the program he was was "out enjoying" events involving former students of a former school in Mobile called Central High School since he was one of its students).
  • Her giveaway involved her asking 17 questions about the histories of certain churches in the broadcast area of WGOK-AM/WXQW-AM along with a question about the name of her primary job (a registered nurse) for listeners of the program to answer through telephonic audio recordings (she gave them a specific telephone number for them to use for answering the questions).

Sunday, November 23, 2014

News for Sunday, November 23rd, 2014

  • None of the local TV stations with local news operations (WKRG-TV, WALA-TV, WPMI-TV, and WEAR-TV) had video of the president of the United States' (Barack Obama) announcing executive orders concerning certain immigrants in the United States live in their programming this past Thursday, November 20th (between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.), since their respective primary providers of network programming had no plans to provide the speech live to all of their network stations.
  • Some of the news presenters in WKRG-TV's local news programming this past Wednesday (November 19th) and Thursday had said they would have the aforementioned speech broadcast live as part of their programming in spite of their primary provider of network programming having no plan to provide the speech to them live before one of them had suggested that viewers and/or listeners of their programming watch and/or hear the speech live through other broadcasters without saying whether WKRG-TV would still have the speech broadcast live or not.
  • Erin McPike of the Cable News Network (CNN) provided a live report for WALA-TV's local 4:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 4:00 p.m.") this past Thursday while in a remote location outside of the local broadcast area of WALA-TV (the report was about the president of the United States' plan to announce executive orders concerning certain immigrants that day). She also interacted with one of the news presenters for the news program (Lenise Ligon) at WALA-TV's broadcast facility in Mobile afterwards (they were having a conversation about the report).

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Commentary: A rare choice in syndicated TV programming

  • I liked the fact that WJTC-TV had a theatrical movie that was made before the 1980s in their syndicated TV programming plans this past Friday, November 21st (it was broadcast between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.), since they and other local TV stations rarely had such movies in their syndicated TV programming over the past ten years. I especially liked the fact it was a movie that I liked and felt would be of interest to many other folks due to its main character being very popular at one point in time. It was called "A Shot in the Dark" and its main character was Inspector Jacques Clouseau. Even though I was happy to know that WJTC-TV had this movie in their programming, I still wished they had a better copy of it since its aspect ratio (or picture format) was not the same as the one for its original version (1.85 : 1 rather than 2.35 : 1). If its aspect ratio were the same as the one for the original version, its pictures would have appeared much wider on TV sets receiving the high-definition version of WJTC-TV's programming.

Friday, November 21, 2014

News for Friday, November 21st, 2014

  • One of the news presenters on this past Thursday's (November 20th) edition of WALA-TV's local 5:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m.") had a message for customers of the Comcast Corporation's subsidiary in Mobile receiving the program through the subsidiary (Lenise Ligon of WALA-TV's news department delivered the message): it was about engineers for the corporation working on technical problems that may had been affecting their receptions of the program through the subsidiary (she not mention either way for receiving the program through the subsidiary: cable TV and Internet video streaming)
  • One of the programs to be broadcast by WDXZ-AM (1000) on a regular basis from Monday through Friday as part of their new regular programming format (sports) is not a national network program like most of the programs they would have on a regular basis from Monday through Friday: it's a regionally-syndicated program titled "Southern Sports Tonight" (the radio station formerly known as WABB-AM and WTKD-AM (it is now known as WERM-AM 1480) used to broadcast "Southern Sports Tonight" on a regular basis back in the year 2012 before it stopped broadcasting anything on a regular basis from December of that year until August of this year).

Thursday, November 20, 2014

News for Thursday, November 20th, 2014

  • WPMI-TV, WEAR-TV, and WALA-TV each had a news conference from Tallahassee, Florida about bullets being fired at Florida State University in Tallahassee this morning broadcast live on today's editions of their local morning news programs (the news conference took place between 5:00 and 5:15; the title of WPMI-TV's news program was "Local 15 Today; the title of WEAR-TV's program was "3 in the Morning"; the title of WALA-TV's program was "FOX 10 Morning News").
  • WPMI-TV had today's grand opening of a new Chick-fil-A restaurant in Mobile broadcast live as part of their local morning news program (the opening occurred between 6:00 and 6:05) along with interviews with some of the folks who had been camping outside of the restaurant since the previous day as part of a contest in which each of them had the chance win a card that could be used to receive a meal free of charge from any Chick-fil-A restaurant over a period of 52 calendar weeks (link to one of the interviews). 
  • This past Wednesday's (November 19th) edition of WKRG-TV's local 6:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 6:00") had a report with their news reporter named Joseph Blake (J. B.) Biunno commending a student of the school system in George County, Mississippi (the George County School District) on his attitude while interviewing him about how he and other folks survived a collision involving the school bus he was riding that day (the reporter had said, "You're a brave young man. You know that?" and, "You're a very brave young man" afterwards).

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

News for Wednesday, November 19th, 2014

  • The sports presenter for WKRG-TV's local news programming (Randy Patrick Setterstrom) made a cameo in the aforementioned report about the football programs at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and Mississippi State University (he was speaking into a microphone in the broadcast studio for WNSP-FM). 

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

News for Tuesday, November 18th, 2014

  • WPMI-TV's local morning news program ("Local 15 Today") recently had a new series of weekly segments about Mobile's history in which their Internet specialist Taren Reed asked some inhabitants of Mobile certain questions about Mobile's history before having the curator of the History Museum of Mobile (Jacob Laurence) elaborate on the correct answers to the questions (the series was titled "Taren It Up").

Monday, November 17, 2014

News for Monday, November 17th, 2014

  • Today's edition of WPMI-TV's local morning news program ("Local 15 Today") had a digital map of counties in their local broadcast area partly obscure the names of some of the people featured in some of the program's news reports.
  • The purpose of the digital map used by WPMI-TV was to indicate certain counties of their broadcast area under thunderstorm watches at the time it was used. 

Sunday, November 16, 2014

News for Sunday, November 16th, 2014

  • The edition of the nationally-syndicated TV program titled "Storm Stories" about how a tropical cyclone named "Ivan" affected the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo in Gulf Shores, Alabama (southeast of Mobile) in the year 2004 was broadcast by WJTC-TV today between 5:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.
  • WKRG-TV's regular weekend news presenter named Avery Cotton was assigned to provide live reports from Tuscaloosa, Alabama for their local news programming this past Saturday, November 15th, about some of its inhabitants and their perspectives on the football game that took place in Tuscaloosa that day involving the football games of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and Mississippi State University in Mississippi State, Mississippi.
  • Avery Cotton's colleague Peter Albrecht substituted for her as news presenter for the local news programming WKRG-TV had past this past Saturday (he usually only presented news for WKRG-TV's local news programming from Monday through Friday between 5:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. by this past Saturday).

Saturday, November 15, 2014

News for Saturday, November 15th, 2014

  • WALA-TV had their regular programming interrupted for a special news broadcast this past Friday, November 14th, during the second half of the time period in which they usually the syndicated medical advice program "The Doctors" broadcast from Monday through Friday (2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.).
  • The special news broadcast WALA-TV had this past Friday was about a person suspected of having symptoms of the virus known as Ebola being taken to Providence Hospital in Mobile that day to be tested for whether he or she had it or not (according to their regular news programming later that day, the person did not really have it). 

Friday, November 14, 2014

News for Friday, November 14th, 2014

  • The national cable TV and satellite TV programming service Country Music Television was set to have a special program about a concert that took place near the Flora-Bama lounge in Pensacola, Florida (southeast of Mobile), back on the Saturday of August 16th during the current calendar year broadcast today between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., and again this Saturday, November 15th, between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. (the name of the program is "Kenny Chesney: Live From the Flora Bama")
  • The national cable TV and satellite TV programming service Investigation Discovery was set to have a program about the relationship between a former councilor for the city of Mobile and commissioner for Mobile County named Stephen (Steve) Nodine and a realtor from Gulf Shores, Alabama (southeast of Mobile and the rest of Mobile County) he was accused of killing named Angel Downs broadcast on the Wednesday of December 3rd, between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. (the name of the program is "Love the Way You Lie"). 
  • One of the news presenters on this past Thursday's (November 13th) edition of WKRG-TV's local morning news program ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") used the courtesy title "mister" in reference to a resident of Foley, Alabama who was killed and dismembered recently while presenting a report about him. She and other news presenters for WKRG-TV usually referred to people in news reports by only their last names after introducing them by both their first and last names as part of their presentations of those reports before then.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Commentary: Local news broadcasters commenting on Veterans Day

  • Some of the local TV news presenters and reporters in the Mobile, Alabama-Pensacola, Florida TV market used their positions to express what may or may not had been their own personal feelings about Veterans Day, certain veterans of the military of the United States, and veterans in general as part of their jobs this past Tuesday, November 11th, when they should have not made any comments about them at all. They should have only done their jobs as news presenters and reporters and not acted like commentators. News presenters and news reporters should never express their own personal feelings or their bosses' personal feelings in their news presentations or reports. 

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

News for Wednesday, November 12, 2014

  • WKRG-TV began having programming about their sixth annual "Great Toy Drive" on a regular basis this past Monday, November 10th, such as report about members of their news department shopping for toys to donate to the drive, reports about visitors of the station who had donated to the drive (such as a singer named Jimmy Wayne), and live broadcasts of the part of the broadcast facility where the toys for the drive were to be kept (the "News 5 Toy Center"). 
  • WALA-TV had said the phrase, "Your most local news at 5:00 p.m." spoken on more than occasion in their local news programming recently; mainly by members of their news department promoting (or doing "teases") for news reports to be broadcast after commercial breaks for their local news programming. 

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

News for Tuesday, November 11th, 2014

  • WKRG-TV, WALA-TV, and the Mobile Press-Register had reports about the president and general manager of WHEP-AM (1310; licensed to Foley, Alabama) and their FM translator W223AX (92.5; licensed to Foley) named Clark Stewart discovering a severed arm and hand near his home in Magnolia Springs, Alabama, last Sunday, November 9th.
  • Both WKRG-TV and WALA-TV had special reports about William Sandys (Sandy) Stimpson of Mobile's first year as mayor of Mobile (he became the mayor  of Mobile on the Tuesday of November 4th, 2013) on their local 5:00 p.m. news programs this past Monday, November 10th (WKRG-TV's report was part of a series of reports to be broadcast during this calendar week).

Monday, November 10, 2014

News for Monday, November 10th, 2014

  • One of the news presenters for WKRG-TV's local morning news program ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") used today's edition of it to apologize to members of its audience who were unable to receive it through linear methods (such as cable TV) between 5:41 and 6:31 due to technical problems (there was no mention of any linear method in the announcement).
  • WKRG-TV was set to have representatives of the Alabama Career Center in Mobile use their broadcast facility in Mobile to help members of the public via telephone find jobs during their local news programming today between 5:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and between 6:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.  

Sunday, November 9, 2014

News for Sunday, November 9th, 2014

  • According to TitanTV, Zap2it, and TV Guide's electronic TV programming guides for WKRG-TV, they would have the second half of today's edition of "Face the Nation" broadcast later the next day (Monday, November 10th) between 2:05 a.m. and 2:35 a.m.
  • Ashley Knight of WKRG-TV's news department and Shelby Mitchell of WKSJ-FM's (94.9) group of radio announcers spoke to students of Daphne Middle School in Daphne, Alabama (east of Mobile) this past Thursday, November 6th, as part of the school's "Career Day" celebration that day.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

News for Saturday, November 8th, 2014

  • WMXC-FM (99.9) had a ceremony for their switch from having contemporary music broadcast on a regular basis to having Christmastime music broadcast on a regular basis between now and the Thursday of December 25th (Christmas Day) this past Friday, November 7th (it took place in their radio studio between 12:00 p.m. and 12:10 p.m.). 
  • WKRG-TV had WMXC-FM's ceremony broadcast live as part of their local midday news program ("WKRG News 5 at Noon") since it involved their morning news presenter and news reporter named Bill Riales (the studios for WKRG-TV's midday news program and the ceremony were located in the same building). 

Friday, November 7, 2014

News for Friday, November 7th, 2014

  • A former weather reporter for WALA-TV named John Edd Thompson appeared on this past Thursday's (November 6th) edition of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") during his visit to the broadcast facility for WALA-TV that day.
  • John Edd Thompson used his appearance on the program to say he had "brought along" two friends of his who were set to appear in the same edition of the program a few minutes after his appearance as part of a separate segment of it (the friends were identified as a couple of musicians from Fairhope, Alabama (southeast of Mobile) named Roger Fritz and Christy Wells-Fritz).

Thursday, November 6, 2014

News for Thursday, November 6th, 2014

*WPMI-TV's main broadcast channel is radio frequency channel/virtual channel 15-1.
**WEAR-TV's main broadcast channel is radio frequency channel 17-1/virtual channel 3-1. 

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

News for Wednesday, November 5th, 2014

  • WKRG-TV and WEAR-TV had special broadcasts about the results of elections and referendums held in their local broadcast areas this past Tuesday, November 4th, as part of their main programming for that day between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m (meaning they were on their main broadcast channels (radio frequency channel 27-1/virtual channel 5-1 for WKRG-TV; radio frequency channel 17-1/virtual channel 3-1 for WEAR-TV)). 
  • Each of WKRG-TV and WEAR-TV's special broadcasts this past Tuesday evening took the place of a special network broadcast about the elections and referendums in the United States in general that day from their respective primary providers of network programming (WKRG-TV's primary provider of network programming is the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS); WEAR-TV's primary primary of network programming is the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). 
  • The live video stream on the official World Wide Web site for WKRG-TV normally used for their local news programming had video of some of their network programming for their main broadcast channel this past Tuesday, including commercial advertisements, the aforementioned episode of "Naval Criminal Investigative Service", and a special network news program about some of the elections and referendums held in the United States that day.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

News for Tuesday, November 4th, 2014

  • John Nodar of WKRG-TV's weather department and Deitra Tate of WPMI-TV's weather department had each used a weather report in their respective stations' local morning news programming since this past Monday to tell members of their audiences eligible to vote in civic elections they had no excuse for not voting in the civic elections being held in their local areas today.

Monday, November 3, 2014

News for Monday, November 3rd, 2014

  • WALA-TV was among the stations affiliated with the FOX Broadcasting Company set to have three episodes of the dramatic network TV program "Sleepy Hallow" broadcast consecutively this past Saturday, November 1st (WALA-TV's broadcasts of those episodes were set to occur between 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.), while the rest had no plans for broadcasting them.
  • WPMI-TV had Stu McCann of the sports department for WBMA-TV* in Birmingham, Alabama appear as if he were a member of their own sports department as part of their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("Local 15 News at 5:00 p.m") this past Sunday, November 2nd, by having their own sports reporter named Paxton Boyd refer to him as "Local 15's Stu McCann" ("Local 15" is the brand name for WPMI-TV) while introducing a report Stu McCann did for WBMA-TV recently and by having Stu McCann's sign off for the report muted (the report was about this past Saturday's football game between the football teams of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, and the University of Mississippi in University, Mississippi).
*WPMI-TV and WBMA-TV are members of the same company, the Sinclair Broadcast Group

Sunday, November 2, 2014

News for Sunday, November 2nd, 2014

  • Renee Dials of WALA-TV's news department returned to her position of Saturday news presenter in their local news programming this past Saturday, November 1st, after being away from it since the Saturday of October 4th (she had been presenting news for their Saturday news programming on a regular basis over the past ten years).
  • Matt Barrentine of WALA-TV's weather department used one of the weather segments for their local news programming this past Saturday to express disgust at the time he said the sun was expected the disappear below the horizon in Mobile today (he said the time would be 5:04 p.m. before saying, "Ooh, I hate that, but that's just the way it is as we move to standard time")

    Saturday, November 1, 2014

    News for Saturday, November 1st, 2014

    • This past Thursday's (October 30th) edition of WKRG-TV's local 10:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 10:00 p.m.") had a report about a member of the special forces unit of the Army of the United States originally Mobile becoming a "military analyst" for WKRG-TV.