Monday, November 30, 2015

News for Monday, November 30th, 2015

  • WXQW-AM recently got a new Facebook page and a new Twitter page based on the programming format they had adopted this past October (the earliest post for the Facebook page was dated for last Wednesday, the 25th day of this November, whereas the earliest one for the Twitter page was dated for last Sunday, the 29th day of this November).  

News for Sunday, November 29th, 2015

  • WKRG-TV had an interview about advent with a pastor from their local broadcast area (Wayne Miller of Grace Lutheran Church in Mobile) on their local news program for Sunday mornings ("WKRG News 5 This Morning: Sunday") under the name "Faith Time" today (the conductor of the interview and news presenter for the program (Chad Petri) described his meeting with the pastor as "something a little different" and suggested that it would be a part of a series of "occasional interviews" about religious holidays and observances before conducting the interview).

Sunday, November 29, 2015

News for Saturday, November 28th, 2015

 (note: the previous report for this weblog was corrected)
  • WKRG-TV had a report with a narrative based on rhymes on their local 10:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 10") that was similar to a report they had on their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 5") this past Friday for the 28th day of November that did not have a narrative based on rhymes (the report for the 5:00 p.m. news program was titled "Not Everybody Was Shopping Black Friday").
  • The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV had video of a news presenter and news reporter for their local news operation (Peter Albrecht) promoting an "alert system" for the operation along with some examples of its use by some of his fellow reporters in their local news programming in recent times during some of its commercial breaks in recent times (the system involved the phrases "community alert", "crime alert", and "weather alert day"). 

Friday, November 27, 2015

News for Friday, November 27th, 2015

  • WKRG-TV had a report in which a thief was compared to a fictional character named "the Grinch" on their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 5") today (for example, the report began with video of a scene for a TV program about the character with a song titled "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" (the program about the character was titled "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"). 
  • The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV had a videoed promotional advertisement for a documentary of theirs that was part of their main programming feed on a Monday during the 14th day of last September being set to be part of the feed again next Tuesday for the first day of December between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.* (it was about a new museum in Mobile named the GulfQuest National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico)
(*the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV usually had an episode of a comedic TV program titled "The Andy Griffith Show" during this time period from Monday through Friday in recent times)

Thursday, November 26, 2015

News for Thursday, November 26th, 2015 (amended)

 (amendment note: the second paragraph was re-edited for clarity)
  • The main broadcast channel for WFNA-TV was set to have a theatrical movie originally released in the year 1986 titled "Labyrinth" during the time period in which they usually had a local news program from WKRG-TV (their companion station*) from Monday through Friday ("WKRG News 5 This Morning" between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.) since WKRG-TV was not set to have a new edition of it (during that time period) today (the same movie was also set to appear on the channel this Saturday, November 28th, between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.). 
  • The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV was set to have a network news program for Monday through Friday mornings titled "The CBS Morning News" and live versions of segments for the first hour of today's edition of another network news program for Monday through Friday mornings titled "CBS This Morning" during the time period in which they usually had a new edition of one of their own morning news programs for Monday through Friday mornings ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") today (note #1: "The CBS Morning News" was to be broadcast twice between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. in addition to when they usually had it broadcast from Monday through Friday (between 4:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.) note #2: WKRG-TV usually had segments for the first and second hours of "CBS This Morning" broadcast one hour after they were produced from Monday through Friday).
(*WKRG-TV and WFNA-TV have the same owners and the same broadcast facility)

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

News for Wednesday, November 25th, 2015

  • WKRG-TV was set to have a special program about plans for a football game between the football teams of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama take the place of their local midday news program ("WKRG News 5 at Noon") on their main broadcast channel both this Thursday (November 26th) and Friday (November 27th) and also their local 10:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 10") that same Thursday (it was set to be hosted by their sports reporter (Randy Patrick Setterstrom) along with a former football player for Auburn University (Thomas (Tom) Banks) and a former football player for the University of Alabama (Robert (Bob) Baumhower)).

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

News for Tuesday, November 24th, 2015

  • The main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV had an interview segment for their local midday news program ("Local 15 News at Noon") initially appear as if were being broadcast live before a sign of it having been edited in advance of its broadcast appeared on the program today (the program usually had such a segment appear as if were being broadcast live prior to the one described earlier in this report). 
  • The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV had a report in which the digital sub-channel for their companion station (WFNA-TV) was erroneously referenced by the name of the provider of its regular network programming (Bounce TV) rather than by its number (55-2) on their local 10:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 10") this past Monday, November 23rd (the report was the companion station being set to have special high-school football programming being planned for this Friday (November 27th) and next Thursday (December 3rd) and Friday (December 4th) by a different programming provider (Raycom Media).

News for Monday, November 23rd, 2015

  • The main broadcast channel for WFNA-TV recently had some new promotional advertisements with a different person (Jim Cutler) promoting some of their regular network programs for the channel and their brand name for it (CW55) instead of the person who usually did so before him in recent times (Jay Gardner)*.
  • WKRG-TV had a new animated sequence for reintroducing their local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") today (it had the main announcer for some of their local news programming and local commercial advertisements in recent times (Jay Gardner) saying, "News 5 This Morning continues with Bill Riales and Avery Cotton").* 
 (*WKRG-TV and WFNA-TV have the same owners and the same broadcast facility in Mobile).

Sunday, November 22, 2015

News for Sunday, November 22nd, 2015

  • WBLX-FM had an announcement about how to be a guest of their weekly public affairs program titled "Community Corner" on their broadcast frequency immediately after it had a new edition of the program this morning (they usually did not have such a message on their broadcast frequency immediately after the program before then). 
  • WALA-TV had video of a report from the Cable News Network (CNN) unrelated to another one from the same network take the place of video of the news presenter on their local news program for Saturday and Sunday mornings (Candace Murphy of "FOX 10 News in the Morning") this morning as she appeared to be communicating with a producer for the program about what she said were "technical difficulties" involving those videos before having video of her introducing the other video from the network she appeared to be trying to introduce shortly before the one unrelated to it appeared.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

News for Saturday, November 21st, 2015

  • WPMI-TV recently got some new weather graphics for their main broadcast channel (such as a weather map that would usually appear on its bottom-right corner unlike the one they usually had before this one, a bar graphic for displaying static text of weather warnings and advisories that would usually appear at its bottom, and a scrolling ticker that would occasionally appear below the bar and usually appear smaller than the ticker that was normally used for displaying both news and weather information on the channel before they had this one (note: the channel usually had pings and lower audio for its programming whenever the new ticker appeared on it  this past Wednesday, November 18th, usually immediately after it started appearing). 

Friday, November 20, 2015

News for Friday, November 20th, 2015

  • WKRG-TV had a report in which a person was referenced by only her forename (or first name) after initially being referenced by both her forename and surname (or last name) in their local news programming this past Thursday, November 19th (she was the only person in the report to have any of her personal names mentioned, with the exception of the person who narrated the report).*
  • The digital sub-channel normally used for broadcasting programming from a national TV programming service named Bounce TV in southwest Alabama was used to broadcast special programming from a broadcasting company named Raycom Media about a live football game between the football teams of McGill-Toolen High School in Mobile and Central High School in Phenix City, Alabama between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. today.
 (*a shorter version of the report with the same references was part of their local news programming this morning)

Thursday, November 19, 2015

News for Thursday, November 19th, 2015 (updated)

  • WALA-TV had parts of a speech by the candidate for the presidency of the United States mentioned in the first paragraph of this report broadcast live (both audibly and visually) on their local 4:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 4:00 p.m.") today (the official World Wide Web site for WPMI-TV had parts of the speech that were not broadcast live by WALA-TV). 
  • One of the news presenters for WALA-TV (Bob Grip) said a former student (and football player) for a college he used to attend had "suffered a most unbelievable loss" while presenting a report about the parents of the former student for WALA-TV's local 9:00 p.m. news program this past Wednesday, November 18th (the name of the former student was Douglas Flutie; the name of the college was Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts; the name of the news program was "FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m."). 
(update for Friday, November 20th, 2015: video of the interview mentioned in the first paragraph of this report was added to the official World Wide Web site for WPMI-TV about 22 minutes after this report was originally published) 

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

News for Wednesday, November 18th, 2015

  • One of the news reporters for WALA-TV (Renee Dials) used today's editions of their local 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. news programs ("FOX 10 News at 4:00 p.m." and "FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m.") to tell members of their audiences to contact them by telephone with ideas for possible investigations for their local news operation (she said they had a "phone bank" in their "conference room" for accepting such ideas). 
  • The weather reporter who was usually only part of WPMI-TV's local morning and midday news programming for Monday through Friday in recent times (Kelly Foster of "Local 15 Today" and "Local 15 News at Noon") was assisted by a weather reporter who was usually only part of their local news programming on Saturday and Sunday in recent times (Jake Dunne) while part of their local morning news programming for today and by a weather reporter who was usually only part of their local news programming from Monday through Friday evenings (Chris Dunn) in recent times while part of their midday news programming for today. 

News for Tuesday, November 17th, 2015

  • The main broadcast channel for WEAR-TV had animated graphics for advertising their local news operation and network programs from their main provider of network programming (the American Broadcasting Company (ABC)) when it had one of those programs in its programming feed today (the name of the program was "The Muppets").
  • The main broadcast channel for WALA-TV had a distorted image from an advertisement for a syndicated discussion program that was usually part of its programming from Monday through Friday ("The Dr. Phil Show") for a few seconds when it was supposed to have a (live) local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") that was also usually part of its programming for those days (there was no mention of this or the static audio broadcast along with it on the program itself). 

Monday, November 16, 2015

News for Monday, November 16th, 2015

  • WPMI-TV had video of an interview (conducted by a news presenter of theirs named Kelly Jones) that initially appeared on today's edition of their local morning news program ("Local 15 Today") reappear on their local midday news program ("Local 15 News at Noon") without any indication of it having been part of a different program by then (the interview was about a plan for a party to help a Boys & Girls Club in Mobile this Tuesday, November 17th).  
  • WKRG-TV had video of an interview (conducted by a weather reporter of theirs named John Nodar) with their vice president and general manager of WKRG-TV (Mark Bunting) talking about their having a plan for collecting toys for less fortunate people during Christmastime this calendar year in one of the local news segments that appeared on their main broadcast channel between segments of today's edition of a national network news program titled "CBS This Morning".
  • A paid commercial program (or "infomercial") began appearing on the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV before being interrupted by other programming due to the channel having special news programming from their main provider of network programming (the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)) between during the first 13 minutes of one of their regular time periods for having paid commercial programming on the channel from Monday through Friday (9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.). 

News for Sunday, November 15th, 2015

  • WPMI-TV had a live interview with the member of the Congress of the United States representing parts of their local broadcast area in southwest Alabama (Bradley Byrne) on their local 5:00 p.m. news program today ("Local 15 News at 5:00 p.m.") today (the person who conducted the interview was the news presenter for the program: Andrea Ramey).

Sunday, November 15, 2015

News for Saturday, November 14th, 2015

  • WALA-TV was set to have a new edition of their weekly TV program about high-school football teams in their local broadcast area ("First and 10") begin by the time they usually had a new edition of it begin before this week this past Friday, November 13th (the edition for the Friday of November 6th began about five minutes earlier than the one for this Friday). 
  • The news presenter for WKRG-TV's local news program for Saturday mornings (Chad Petri) mentioned WFNA-TV's plan to have a syndicated home improvement program titled "Today's Homeowner with Danny Lipford" on their main broadcast channel this Sunday, November 15th, between 5:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. in addition to WKRG-TV's plan to have it on their own main broadcast channel between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. this Saturday on the edition of the local news program for this Saturday due to the possibility of WKRG-TV not having it on the channel during that time period if it were to have network programming about collegiate football games between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. today (they usually had a local news program take the place of the home improvement program every time they had collegiate football programming on the channel during that time period on Saturday* since they usually had local news programming on the channel between 6:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Saturday before the current collegiate football season).
(*it happened again this Saturday)

Saturday, November 14, 2015

News for Friday, November 13th, 2015

  • One of the weather reporters for WPMI-TV (Chris Dunn) said they had a "media race" on the ice rink mentioned in the first paragraph of this report with members of a local news organization based in Mobile named Lagniappe while presenting a weather segment for one of the local news programs for their companion station (WJTC-TV) today, specifically the one broadcast between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. ("Local 15 News at 6:30 p.m"). 

Thursday, November 12, 2015

News for Thursday, November 12th, 2015

  • The national TV programming service ESPNU had programming about a live football game at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile between 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. today (it involved the football teams for the University of South Alabama in Mobile and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette). 

News for Wednesday, November 11th, 2015

  • WPMI-TV had an interview with the weather reporter for a national TV news program titled "Today" in their local news programming today (it was about his visit to Mobile today; as for his name, it was Al Roker).   

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

News for Tuesday, November 10th, 2015 (updated)

  • According to WPMI-TV, the weather reporter for a national TV news program titled "Today" (Al Roker) was set to do a weather report for the program from the Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile this Wednesday, November 11th (since WPMI-TV usually had segments of "Today" in their programming one hour after they were produced, they may have the one with the weather reporter in their programming shortly after 9:00 a.m. if he were to do this segment shortly after 8:00 a.m.).
  • One of the weather reporters for WPMI-TV (Kelly Foster) had used two of the weather segments for today's edition of their local midday news program ("Local 15 News at Noon") to wish a couple of married persons within their local broadcast area (Doug Wilson and Jeanette Wilson of Spanish Fort, Alabama (east of Mobile and Mobile Bay)) a "happy anniversary" (she said they had been married for "half a century" whereas one of the graphics for the segment had 54 as the number of years they had been married). 
(update for Wednesday, November 11th, 2015: the weather reporter mentioned in the first paragraph of this report came to Mobile on this date sometime between 8:00 a.m. and 8:45 a.m.)

Monday, November 9, 2015

News for Monday, November 9th, 2015

Sunday, November 8, 2015

News for Sunday, November 8th, 2015

  • WKRG-TV had an abrupt break for commercial advertisements in their local news programming this morning (the news presenter for the programming (Chad Petri) said the break was an accident during the segment of the program that proceeded it).

News for Saturday, November 7th, 2015

  • According to the guides to the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV provided by Zap2it, TV Guide, TitanTV, and Comcast, the channel was set to have two editions of a syndicated game program titled "Family Feud" on Sunday mornings (between 12:35 and 1:35) in addition to Monday through Friday evenings (between 3:00 and 4:00) recently.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

News for Friday, November 6th, 2015

  • WALA-TV was set to have a longer edition of their weekly program about high-school football teams in their local broadcast area for the current high-school football season ("First and 10") this Friday (it was set to begin about five minutes earlier than previous editions (at 10:00 p.m.) and end by 10:30 p.m. like those previous editions). 
  • One of the guests for WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") had mentioned one of the news presenters for WEAR-TV during his visit to the program today (he said, "We have Sue Straughn from your competitor" while promoting plans for a contest that included a role for the news presenter while part of a segment of the program titled "Lasagna al Forno 3"). 
  • The news presenter on WPMI-TV's local midday news program (Kelly Jones of "Local 15 News at Noon") referred to a news reporter and news presenter for two local TV stations in Little Rock, Arkansas (KARK-TV and KLRT-TV) in a possessive way while presenting a report attributed to her (this is the way she was referenced: "Our Victoria Price has the very latest from the scene"). 

Friday, November 6, 2015

News for Thursday, November 5th, 2015

  • The TV programming guides in the cable system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile and the databases of the World Wide Web sites Zap2it and TV Guide still had listings for programming set to appear on one of the digital sub-channels for WKRG-TV in spite of the system having been without the programming feed for the channel since this past Monday, November 2nd.
  • WALA-TV, WKRG-TV, and WPMI-TV each had video of a live news conference about a fire involving a tractor trailer in Saraland, Alabama (north of Mobile in Mobile County) in their local news programming this morning (WPMI-TV had the shortest delay in their broadcast of the news conference (WALA-TV had the longest delay); they were also the only ones to have had the end of the news conference broadcast live).
  • Six  reporters for WKRG-TV (Peter Albrecht, Bill Riales, Devon Walsh, John Nodar, Emily DeVoe, and Joseph Blake (J. B.) Biunno) were each testing six different brands of pizza unbeknownst to them (Red Baron Classic Crust, DiGiorno's Rising Crust, Totino's Party Pizza, Tony's Pepperoni Pizza, Sam's Choice Pepperoni Pizza, and California Pizza Kitchen Crispy Crust)* on their local midday news program ("WKRG News 5 at Noon") before voting** on their favorites by the numbers they were given for them (two reporters had each voted for the brands of Red Baron and Totino's pizza whereas the other reporters had each voted for the brands of California Pizza Kitchen and DiGiorno's pizza respectively).
 (*one of the reporters said the pizzas were to be the six most popular brands at the store from which they were purchased: a Wal-Mart store)

(**the same reporter who said the pizzas were the six most popular brands at the Wal-Mart store had also placed the number for the Sam's Choice brand of pizza below the one for the Tony's pizza brand)

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

News for Wednesday, November 4th, 2015

  • WALA-TV had two news reports with national news reporters (Conor Powell and Jonathan Serrie of the FOX News Channel respectively) using the brand name of their local news operation ("FOX 10 News") to finish them in their programming this past Tuesday, November 3rd
  • WKRG-TV had a report from another TV station within their holding (or parent) company (Media General) on their local news program for Saturday mornings ("WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday") last Saturday, October 31st (the news presenter for the program (Chad Petri) referred to the station (WIAT-TV in Birmingham, Alabama) as their "sister-station" while presenting the report).

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

News for Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015

  • WPMI-TV had a report for a national news program from their holding (or parent) company on their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("Local 15 News at 5 p.m.") last Sunday, November 1st (the name of the program was "Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson"; the name of the the holding company was the Sinclair Broadcast Group). 
  • WALA-TV had a report about a new video game (Yoshi's Woolly World) on their local 9:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") this past Monday, November 2nd (it was part of a regular series of features for the program dedicated to technology ("Daily Dot Com"); it usually did not have reports about specific video games by then). 
  • WKRG-TV had reports and discussions about some members of their local news operation participating in a series of contests with members of other broadcast stations in Mobile at the 61st Greater Gulf State Fair in Mobile in their local news programming today and this past Monday, November 2nd (the series was called the "media Olympics"). 

Monday, November 2, 2015

News for Monday, November 2nd, 2015

  • WALA-TV had local news programming between 12:13 a.m. and 12:44 a.m. today due to their broadcast channel for it (their main broadcast channel) having network programming about a professional baseball game since around 7:00 p.m. yesterday until sometime between 12:00 a.m. and 12:13 a.m. today. 
  • Between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. today, WKRG-TV had programming from a national TV programming service named ION Television (or ION TV for short) take the place of weather programming for one of their digital sub-channels in accordance with this message that occasionally appeared on the channel recently: "Weather information on this digital channel 5.2 will be permanently replaced by ION TV on Monday, Nov 2nd. Please use wkrg.com or the free News 5 weather app for weather, outside of our newscasts".  
  • Between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. today, the cable TV channel in the cable TV system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile that usually had programming from the digital sub-channel for WKRG-TV mentioned in the previous paragraph of this report had this message take the place of the programming: "The programming previously seen on on[*] this channel is no longer being provided by the station" (see previous paragraph about that programming; as for the programming that took the place of it, the cable TV system all ready had it by then)
(*the word "on" really appeared twice in the message)

Sunday, November 1, 2015

News for Sunday, November 1st, 2015

 (note: the report titled "News for Friday, October 30th, 2015" was updated)
  • The main broadcast channel for WALA-TV did not have a local public affairs program that was usually part of its programming on Sunday between 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. this Sunday (the name of the program was "Rise & Shine"); the one that was in its place usually appeared on the channel and the channels of other local TV stations in various other time periods on various calendar days on a weekly basis: Southfit TV).   
  • The main broadcast channel for WALA-TV had a national weekly public affairs program ("FOX News Sunday") during the second half of their regular time period for having local news programming on Saturday and Sunday mornings (the whole time period was from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.) this Sunday due to their plan for the channel to have national professional football programming during their regular time period for having the public affairs program on the channel (8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.).