Monday, February 29, 2016

News for Monday, February 29th, 2016

  • WALA-TV had a report about various members of the public in Mobile expressing their opinions about some of the candidates for the presidency of the United States in their local news programming this past Sunday (the 28th day of this February).  
  • WKRG-TV had a report in which a local radio program for WNTM-AM ("The Uncle Henry Show") was referenced in an audible way without any audible reference to WNTM-AM in their local news programming last Thursday (the 25th day of this February). 
  • WALA-TV had a digital "countdown clock" appear in their local news programming on a frequent basis both today and this past Sunday (through the process of superimposition) with of the number of hours, minutes, and seconds that had remained until the time a presidential primary election for Alabama was expected to begin this Tuesday (7:00 a.m. on the the first day of this March).* 
(*the clock appeared with the words "POLLS OPEN" during news reports for the programming")

Commentary: Concernened about local TV news program becoming more tolerent to nonsense

I became very concerned about the local news program for the ante meridiem* (a.m.) hours of 5:00 and 6:00 at WKRG-TV ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") becoming more tolerant to moments of nonsense after seeing this video on the Facebook page for one of its news presenters. It also made me wish the program were more serious and professional while still being enjoyable to watch and hear (the same should go for all of the local TV news programs for the ante meridiem hours in southwest Alabama, along with the one WEAR-TV in northwest Florida would usually have in their programming between the ante meridiem hours of 4:00 and 7:00 from Monday through Friday. If all of them were more serious and professional, they would benefit greatly in the  average number of viewers and/or listeners, advertisers, and advertising revenue they may have in the future). 

(*Latin words for "before noon")

Sunday, February 28, 2016

News for Saturday, February 27th, 2016

  • WKRG-TV began having promotional videos for a candidate for the presidency of the United States named Ted Cruz in their programming on a regular basis by this past Friday (the 26th day of this February.*
 (*their programming had promotional videos for some of the other candidates for the presidency on a regular basis by then) 

(**the audible message was delivered by the main announcer for WKRG-TV's local TV programming (Jay Garder) and sped up as the visual message was displayed in their broadcasts)

Saturday, February 27, 2016

News for Friday, February 26th, 2016

  • A former weather reporter for WALA-TV named John Oldshue was acknowledged in their local news programming this past Thursday (the 25th day of this February) for having provided some of the video they had in their programming that day and for having worked for them broadcast operation years ago.
  • WALA-TV began having a promotional video for a candidate for the presidency of the United States named Donald Trump in their programming on a regular basis by today (their programming had promotional videos for some of the other candidates for the presidency on a regular basis before today: their names were Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio). 

Friday, February 26, 2016

News for Thursday, February 25th, 2016

  • WKRG-TV had a report in which a person (named Jim Johnson) was said to be a pilot for them in their local news programming this past Wednesday (the 24th day of February). 
  • WALA-TV began having promotional videos for a candidate for the presidency of the United States named Marco Rubio in their programming on a regular basis by this past Wednesday (their programming had promotional videos for another candidate on a regular basis by then: Hillary Clinton). 
  • One of the producers for the official World Wide Web site for WPMI-TV (her name was Taren Reed) had conducted interviews (such as this one) for their local midday news program ("Local 15 News at Noon") while the person who usually conducted interviews for it (in addition to presenting news reports for it) was absent on this day (her name was Kelly Jones).

Thursday, February 25, 2016

News for Wednesday, February 24th, 2016

  • WKRG-TV and WPMI-TV had reports about their broadcast operations receiving telephone calls from a person suggesting that they have him in their programming killing his self (the reports were in their local news programming on this day).
  • The Alabama Public Radio station licensed to serve Mobile (WHIL-FM) recently began having a station identification segment in which its call letters and the city were announced along with the call letters and cities of license for other Alabama Public Radio stations (the station identification segments it usually had in its programming before this one only had its call letters and city of license).*
  • The news presenter for today's edition of WKRG-TV's local midday news program (Devon Walsh of "WKRG News 5 This Morning") told its audience they could watch the most recent episodes of three TV programs from their main provider of network programming ("NCIS", "NCIS: New Orleans", and "Limitless" from the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)) through either the official World Wide Web site for their broadcast operation or through a video-on-demand service for a cable TV or satellite TV provider in case they had missed those episodes on account of some special weather programming taking precedence over their plan to have those episodes in their programming this past Tuesday (the 23rd day of February). 
(*the new station identification segment was usually interrupted by programming from the BBC World Service while the call letters for the station licensed to serve Tuscaloosa (WUAL-FM) were being announced after the ones for the station in Mobile). 

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

News for Tuesday, February 23rd, 2016

  • A group of digital text (usually about a person described as being two years of age) and a ticker with its own texts (usually about a tornado advisory) appeared one of the digital sub-channels for WKRG-TV on a frequent basis on this day: usually just before it had had audio about a tornado advisory for a part of the local broadcast area for WKRG-TV took precedence over the audio for the its regular programming feed (from a national TV programming service named Memorable Entertainment Television (Me-TV)).

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

News for Monday, February 22nd, 2016

  • WALA-TV had a computerized window with a map of their local broadcast area and other areas of the southeastern United States with colors indicating parts of those areas predicted to have severe weather on the next day (this Tuesday) based on levels of risk and a live video feed of Mobile's down-town area appear throughout various parts of the local news programming they had between 9:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on this day (the window usually appeared near the bottom-right corner of the programming when it had a news segment).

Monday, February 22, 2016

News for Sunday, February 21st, 2016 (amended)

  • Between this past January and this February, the broadcast frequency for WXQW-AM was set to have the same programming feed as the one for the broadcast frequency for WGOK-AM every Saturday and Sunday (their simulcasts usually involved programs that WGOK-AM would have had on their own frequency in accordance with their regular programming format (primarily gospel music programs)). 
*WXQW-AM and WGOK-AM are members of the same company: Cumulus Media.

(amendment note: the article was amended to reflect the fact that the broadcast frequencies for the stations were set to have the same programming feed every Saturday too)

Sunday, February 21, 2016

News for Saturday, February 20th, 2016

  • WKRG-TV had interviews with various movie actors attending a convention dedicated to followers of various forms of entertainment in a news report about it for their local news programming this past Friday (the name of the convention was "Pensacon"; the day of the month for this past Friday was the 19th day of February). 
  • The regular news presenter for WKRG-TV's local news program for Saturday mornings referred to one of the candidates for the presidency of the United States by only his last name in the opening (or "preview") of its broadcast today (the name of the candidate was Donald Trump; the name of the program was "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday"). 
  • Promotional videos for one of the current candidates for the presidency of the United States began appearing on the main broadcast channels for WPMI-TV, WALA-TV, and WKRG-TV on a regular basis by this past Friday (WKRG-TV had a report about the videos being broadcast in southwest Alabama for the very first time that day in their local news programming that day; as for the name of the candidate, her name was Hillary Clinton).

Saturday, February 20, 2016

News for Friday, February 19th, 2016

  • According to WALA-TV, one of their news presenters (Bob Grip) had used a quiz show for students of high schools in Mobile invite one of those students to be his partner for a prom (WALA-TV had video of how the news presenter helped the student in their local TV programming today).
  • Some recent editions of WALA-TV's local 10:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 10:00 p.m.") had announcements about it returning "in 60 seconds" before breaking away for advertisements in between their broadcasts (the announcements were usually delivered by one of the regular news presenters for the program (Bob Grip and Lenise Ligon) (the weather reporter for the program (Jason Smith) used to do similar announcements for the program on a regular basis in the past year, except they were usually about weather reports coming "in 60 seconds" rather than news reports).

Thursday, February 18, 2016

News for Thursday, February 18th, 2016

  • WPMI-TV had a news report attributed to WEAR-TV at the beginning of their local 10:00 p.m. news program ("Local 15 News at 10 p.m.") this past Monday (the 15th day of this February).*
  • Videos of news reports for WEAR-TV and WJTC-TV dating back to the year 1985 about a change in ownership of a radio station in Pensacola, Florida named WBSR-AM were uploaded onto the World Wide Web site YouTube. 
(*WPMI-TV and WEAR-TV were members of the same company, the Sinclair Broadcast Group)

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

News for Wednesday, February 17th, 2016

  • According to a message on the official Facebook page for WKRG-TV attributed to one of its moderators, they had some technical problems in their programming this past Tuesday (the 16th day of February) between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. (the page had various messages attributed to some of its visitors about their programming being "off the air" during that time period).
  • According to Alabama Public Television, their network of TV stations (including WEIQ-TV in southwest Alabama) may begin providing programming from a national TV programming service named World between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on a regular basis again on either the first day of this April or shortly after that day if the installation of some new hardware and software for providing the programming were to be complete by then.
  • WALA-TV and WKRG-TV each had a group of visitors to the respective broadcast facilities in Mobile in their programming today (both groups appeared behind desks normally used by news presenters in their local news programming; as for the programs that had the groups, the one for WALA-TV was a local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") whereas the one for WKRG-TV was a local midday news program ("WKRG News 5 at Noon").*
(*according to WALA-TV, their group of visitors represented Gulf Shores Middle School in the city of Gulf Shores in southwest Alabama (they were in charge of making yearbooks and newspapers for the school); according to WKRG-TV, their group represented Foley High School and the Junior Ambassadors program for the South Baldwin Chamber Foundation in the city of Foley in the Baldwin County area of southwest Alabama)

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

News for Tuesday, February 16th, 2016

  • The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV did not have a live TV program from their main provider of network programming (the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)) titled "Grammy Red Carpet Live" this past Monday (the 15th day of this February); it had the same programs it usually had during the time of the program before then: a local 6:00 p.m. news program and an episode of a comedic TV program named "The Andy Griffith Show"
  • The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV had a programming segment in which two members of a law firm based in Mobile named Cunningham Bounds talked about their business with a former news presenter for WKRG-TV named Drexel Gilbert between the last and next-to-last segments of a local news program for WKRG-TV between 12:00 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. today (the name of the news program was "WKRG News 5 at Noon"; the name of the segment was "Legal Update"). 
  • According to Alabama Public Television, their network of TV stations (including WEIQ-TV in southwest Alabama) may have programming from a national TV programming service named World between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on a regular basis again after this March out of concern for members of their engineering department who thought that starting the new system to be used for the network to provide programming from the service between those times on a regular basis again during that month would be very risky due to their plan to have a fundraiser (or "pledge drive") that month.  

Monday, February 15, 2016

News for Monday, February 15th, 2016

  • Some of the news presenters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV had referred to a candidate for the presidency of the United States (John Ellis Bush) by only his nickname (Jeb) and to one of the brothers of the candidate (George Walker Bush) by only the first letter of his middle name after having originally referred to the candidate by both his nickname and last name and to the brother by both his first name and last name with his middle initial in between while presenting reports about them in their broadcasts for WKRG-TV today. 
(*the removal of the program was one of several changes to WFNA-TV's regular programming plans for Monday through Friday by this Monday; most of which involved some of their syndicated programs, such as the programs set to replace the news program from WKRG-TV ("OK! TV" and "TMZ Live", both of which would have nearly 30 minutes of paid commercial programming in between their broadcasts from Monday through Friday, according to the guide from Zap2it mentioned in the previous paragraph)

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Commentary: Different styles of delivering opinions on local TV news programs

I had noticed that some of the news presenters for some of the local news programs at WKRG-TV had been using a more professional and unnatural style of injecting blatant opinions into their programs in recent times unlike some of the news presenters for some of the local news programs at WALA-TV and WKRG-TV since their own ways of injecting opinions into their local news programs usually sounded more more conversational and natural. Personally I wish they would all stop having opinions expressed on their news programs; because they are not really necessary or helpful toward their selves, their audiences, or their stations.

News for Saturday, February 13th, 2016

  • WKRG-TV recently began having the word "live" appear in videos from their "HD sky camera[s]" in their local news programming. (they usually did not the the word in such video since they began having video from those cameras in their programming).
  • The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV recently had a promotional video with a member of a law firm based in Mobile saying both he and the person standing beside him, the sheriff of Mobile County (Sam Cochran), wanted to encourage viewers of the video to watch a series of news reports for WKRG-TV's local news programming named "Scam Busters"

Saturday, February 13, 2016

News for Friday, February 12th, 2016

  • A video attributed to WEAR-TV appeared in a local news program for WPMI-TV's companion station ("Local 15 News at 6:30 [p.m.]" for WJTC-TV) today (all three of these stations were owned by the same company, the Sinclair Broadcast Group).  
  • The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV recently had an animated promotional video for a business based in Mobile (All in One Virtual Assistance) in which the mouths of its characters were not always in sync with their voices (according to the business, they had the advertisement created through a World Wide Web site named Fiveer).
  • The broadcast frequency for the Alabama Public Radio station in southwest Alabama (WHIL-FM) had a station identification segment for the one in westcentral Alabama (WUAL-FM) instead of its own station identification segment in its programming on a regular basis recently, specifically between the start of this month and the beginning of this week. 

Thursday, February 11, 2016

News for Thursday, February 11th, 2016

  • The broadcast frequency for WZEW-FM had two consecutive promotional segments for the news departments of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and WALA-TV immediately after having two consecutive news segments from those departments today.
  • The main broadcast channels for WALA-TV and WPMI-TV had part of a local news program for the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV that was part of a promotional video for a candidate for the House of Representatives of the United States from the state of Alabama named Dean Young during some of the breaks for their own local news programs today.
  • Between 1:37 a.m. and 2:37 a.m. today, the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV had a recent edition of a national network program that was usually part of its programming between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. from Monday through Friday that was part not part of its programming during that time period this past Tuesday (the ninth day of this February) due to some programming it had about some of the Carnival celebrations that occurred in southwest Alabama that day (coincidentally the edition of the program pre-empted that day had a Carnival theme; as for the name of the program itself, it was "Let's Make a Deal").

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

News for Wednesday, February 10th, 2016

  • The programming feed for the Alabama Public Radio station in southwest Alabama (WHIL-FM) had two interruptions in its broadcast of a live speech by the governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley) last Tuesday (the second day of this February). 
  • The original broadcast facility for WALA-TV usually appeared behind the hosts for the special program they had about some of the Carnival celebrations that occurred in the area around it (Mobile's down-town area) and other parts of southwest Alabama this past Tuesday (the ninth day of this February).* 
(*one of the hosts for the special program acknowledged the building and its connection to him and to the operation of WALA-TV at the beginning of its broadcast (the names of the hosts were Bob Grip and Lenise Ligon; as for the one who did the acknowledgement, it was the one named Bob Grip)).

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

News for Monday, February 8th, 2016

  • WKRG-TV had some reports about how a member of their local news operation (a news report named Peter Albrecht) was able to witness a championship football game ("The Super Bowl") in person this past Sunday (the seventh day of this February) along with his personal feelings about his witnessing of it.
  • The members of the local news department WKRG-TV who usually presented news and weather reports for their local news programming from Monday through Friday evenings in recent times for the evening news programming they had this past Sunday (the names of the news presenters were Mel Showers and Rose Ann Haven; the name of the weather presenter was Alan Sealls). 
(*the stream for WKRG-TV may have such programming between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.; the one for WALA-TV may have it between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.; the one for WPMI-TV may also have it between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. in addition to having it between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. and between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.)

Monday, February 8, 2016

News for Sunday, February 7th, 2016 (amended)

  • Two radio announcers for WKSJ-FM (Matt McCoy* and Colton Bradford) presented special programming about live Carnival celebrations in Mobile's down-town area for the main broadcast channel of WJTC-TV this past Saturday (the sixth day of this February) between 6:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. 
(*amendment note: Matt McCoy was also a radio announcer for WRGV-FM)

Sunday, February 7, 2016

News for Saturday, February 6th, 2016

  • WKRG-TV had a report with a member of their news department (Peter Albrecht) in the city of San Francisco in the state of California talking about plans for a championship football game expected to occur in another city in California named Santa Clara this Sunday (the seventh day of this February) in their local news programming today, specifically their local 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. news programs ("WKRG News 5 at 6" and "WKRG News 5 at 10").
  • According to the official World Wide Web site for the Federal Communications Commission (the FCC), the owners of WABF-AM and the owners of WERM-AM (the radio station formerly known as WABB-AM) had a deal toward which the owners for WERM-AM would become the new owners of WABF-AM (an "asset purchase agreement") and a deal toward which they, the owners of WERM-AM, would provide programming for WABF-AM (a "time brokerage" deal) before becoming theit new owners (the site has more details about the deals, including documents concerning the assets of WABF-AM (they were listed as "APA" documents), how the owners of WERM-AM would provide programming for WABF-AM (they were listed as "TBA" documents), and documents concerning how money would be handled in the deal toward taking ownership of WABF-AM) documents (they were listed as "escrow agreement" documents).

Saturday, February 6, 2016

News for Friday, February 5th, 2016

  • According to Zap2it and TitanTV, the main broadcast channel for WFGX-TV was set to have programming about a live Carnival parade expected to occur in the city of Pensacola (southeast of Mobile) in the state of Florida this Saturday (the sixth day of this February) between 1:50 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.
  • WALA-TV, WKRG-TV, WEAR-TV, and WPMI-TV each had special programming about a live news conference concerning a couple of suspected criminals located in the city of Milton in the state of Florida within their respective local broadcast areas today (the special programming for WALA-TV took precedence over a local entertainment and lifestyle program of theirs named "Studio 10" for a few minutes; the one for WKRG-TV took precedence over a paid commercial program (or "infomercial") and part of a new edition of a national TV program named "The Price is Right"; the one for WEAR-TV took precedence over a nationally-syndicated variety program named "The Rachael Ray Show" and part of a national network discussion program titled "The View"; the one for WPMI-TV took precedence over a national network news program named "Today")*
(*not all of the stations had the whole news conference when it happened between 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.).

Friday, February 5, 2016

News for Thursday, February 4th, 2016

  • A person named Asha Staples had recently joined WALA-TV to report information about automobile traffic in their local broadcast area for their local news programming on a regular basis (according to today's edition of their local morning news program for Monday through Friday, today's edition of it was the first one to have her).
  •  One of the news presenters for the local news operation for WKRG-TV (Devon Walsh) had used part of one of their regular local morning news programs for Monday through Friday ("WKRG News 5 at 9")  to say that someone elsewhere at WKRG-TV was set to attend a championship football game ("The Super Bowl") that may occur this Sunday (the seventh day of this February) because a friend of his gave him a ticket (neither he, nor the other person was identified by the news presenter on the program).

Thursday, February 4, 2016

News for Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016

  • The final segment for today's edition of WKRG-TV's local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") was pre-empted by a series of advertisements for their main broadcast channel's programming today.
  • The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV appeared to have had a promotional video for a certain TV program unrelated to WKRG-TV ("The Big Bang Theory") being moved to different time periods as part of a programming plan for Monday through Friday (3:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.) (note: according to what appeared to have had been a certain guide to this kind of channel on the World Wide Web, the plan was set to take effect on the Monday of the eighth day of this February and that the TV program currently set to appear on the channel in the periods of time mentioned earlier in this paragraph from Monday through Friday (specifically another TV program unrelated to WKRG-TV named "Family Feud") would be set to appear in some current time periods for the program mentioned earlier in this paragraph (4:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.) by then).

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

News for Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016

  • The main broadcast channel for WJTC-TV was set to have special programming about a Carnival parade that was expected to occur in Mobile's downtown area between 6:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. today until plans for holding the parade today were cancelled (the channel had local news programming and collegiate basketball programming in place of it)  
  • The live video stream for WKRG-TV had video of a live programming feed for one of their digital sub-channels instead of the one for their main broadcast channel when it had their local news programming for the hours 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. today (the programming feed for the digital sub-channel was from a national TV programming service named Memorable Entertainment Television (it was also named Me-TV)).

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

News for Monday, February 1st, 2016

  • The name "Reese's" was usually pronounced two different ways ("Ree-ses" and "Ree-sees") by various broadcasters in southwest Alabama over the past month in their reports and conversations about plans for Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile to hold a football game under that name (it was called the 67th Reese's Senior Bowl as part of those plans) last Saturday (the 30th day of this past January).
  • One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV (Devon Walsh) had a remark about one of their weather reporters (John Nodar) in a report about a storm with frozen precipitation predicted to affect the state of Iowa today since some caucusing for some candidates for the position of president of the United States were expected to occur there today (she said this, "And now the storm is not expected to make a big impact until after the caucus results are in, but forecasts, like polls, can sometimes be wrong, unless they are John Nodar's of course". 

Monday, February 1, 2016

News for Sunday, January 31st, 2016

  • Some of the news presenters for WKRG-TV and WPMI-TV's local news programs gave reports about their respective broadcast operations having plans for special programming about Carnival parades expected to occur in southwest Alabama on the last day of the Carnival season for the current calendar year on their respective news programs over the past month (the last day would be on the ninth day of this February, or the Tuesday after the next).* 
(*according to TitanTV and Zap2it, the one for WKRG-TV would have it on their main broadcast channel between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. and the one for WPMI-TV would have it on theirs between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. (they would also have it on the one for their companion station (WJTC-TV) between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. and again between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.)