Commentary: More doubt and unprofessionalism on new local TV news programs

The news presenter for WKRG-TV's new local morning news programs for Saturday and Sunday mornings (the name of the news presenter was Chad Petri; the names of the news programs were "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday" and "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Sunday") used many phrases that made him seem very doubtful about whether any person was actually watching this past Saturday and Sunday's editions of the programs or not while presenting those editions (he appeared the same way in the first edition of the program for Saturday mornings on the Saturday of June 20th).

Here is a list of those phrases:

• "I don't know who's watching, but I'm glad you are at least" - he said this at the beginnings of both programs (shortly after 5:00 a.m. on the program for Saturday mornings and shortly after 6:00 a.m. on the program for Sunday mornings)

• "We never know who's watching, but we're happy that you are" - he said this on the program for Sunday mornings shortly after 7:00 a.m. )

• "I'm Chad Petri and I'm glad you're up early with us" - he said this on the program for Sunday mornings shortly after 6:30 a.m.

• "Stay tuned, because there is another hour of "News 5 This Morning" on a Sunday morning straight ahead. So stay tuned, don't go any where, please" - he said this on the program for Sunday mornings shortly before 7:00 a.m. )

• "...we never know who's watching, but we're happy that you are" - he said this on the program for Sunday mornings shortly after 7:00 a.m.)

• "thank you for joining us, thank you for watching" - he said this on the program for Sunday mornings shortly after 7:30 a.m.) 

I wish he had not used those phrases on the programs; for they were really unnecessary, unprofessional, and really of no use to folks who may or may not have been watching the programs. He and other news presenters and news reporters in broadcasting should always strive to be very professional in their positions and not be forced or allowed to be unprofessional in those positions. This would really help their stations and their careers in many ways (note: the news presenter sounded unprofessional at other times with phrases unrelated to whether any person was watching him on the morning news programs or not, but since such phrases were very common in local TV news programming in recent times, listing the other phrases along with the one I had listed all ready is not really necessary).