Saturday, April 30, 2016

Commentary: Interesting choices in theatrical movies for main broadcast channels of local TV stations this Saturday

I found their choices ("Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" for WFNA-TV; "The Replacements" for WJTC-TV) very interesting since both of them had a person named Keanu Reeves playing one of their primary characters and since many movie theaters were set to have a new movie named "Keanu" this Saturday (incidentally the new movie has his voice in a cameo role). I also found their choices in having their broadcasts of the movies begin at the same time this Saturday (11:00 a.m.) very interesting (the broadcasts were set to end at different times, though: 1:00 p.m. for "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" and 1:30 p.m. for "The Replacements").

News for Friday, April 29th, 2016

Friday, April 29, 2016

News for Thursday, April 28th, 2016

  • Some members of the local news operation for WALA-TV (including a news presenter and a weather reporter used some of their local news programming for this Thursday to express astonishment over a new camera for their broadcast operation located at a restaurant named Dauphin's on the top floor of an office building in Mobile named the RSA-Trustmark Bank building (the building had 34 stories in total). 
  • The director of a local entertainment and lifestyle program for WALA-TV (Ryan Coleman of "Studio 10") appeared in some of its segments for this Thursday (one of the hosts for the program (Michael White) used one of its segments for this Thursday to say the ones with the director were "pre-taped" in advance of their broadcasts (he seemed to admit that hearing the director speak through one of the segments and through an ear piece ("the real Ryan") at the same time was "weird" a few seconds after one of those segments was broadcast). 
(*WPMI-TV and WJTC-TV were companion stations)

Thursday, April 28, 2016

News for Wednesday, April 27th, 2016

  • WALA-TV and WKRG-TV had news reports with audible beeps obscuring the same person in their local news programming this past Monday on the twenty-fifth day of this April (the report for WALA-TV was part of their local 9:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 10:00 p.m."); the one for WKRG-TV was part of their local 10:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 10")). 

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

News for Tuesday, April 26th, 2016

  • According to the Facebook page at the address below this paragraph, a new local TV program for WKRG-TV named "The Point" was set to be added to their regular programming plans on the thirteenth day of May this calendar year (a Friday).
        https://www.facebook.com/ThePointMobile/
  • One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WALA-TV (Bob Grip) said a few words in French on the special TV program mentioned in the previous paragraph of this report in case some folks in the nation of France familiar with those words were watching and/or listening to the program through a live video stream (for WALA-TV) on the World Wide Web.

News for Monday, April 25th, 2016

  • WALA-TV and WPMI-TV had special programming about a ceremony for an airplane constructed in Mobile take precedence over their regular programming plans for their main broadcast channels this morning (the special programming for WALA-TV lasted from 9:55 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. whereas the special programming for WPMI-TV lasted from around 10:00 a.m. until shortly before 10:51 a.m. with breaks for promotional advertisements in between; afterwards they had the last few segments of today's edition of a network TV program named "Today" on their main broadcast channel until shortly before 11:00 a.m.) 
  • According to Alabama Public Radio, some of the promotional announcements and station identification announcements normally used to program their network station in southwest Alabama (WHIL-FM) before this past February were made by a member of their broadcast operation who died last October (Brian Poellnitz was his name) and the ones that took their places between that February and this April were made by a member who had joined their operation the month after that other member of theirs died (Brittany Young was the name of the member who had joined them). 

Sunday, April 24, 2016

News for Sunday, April 24th, 2016

  • One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WALA-TV (Michael Brannon) used part of their local 9:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") for this past Saturday to say he was dressed the same way that a member of the royal family of Great Britain named George while being visited by the president of the United States (Barack Obama) this past Friday on the twenty-second day of this April after presenting a report about the visit on the program (he also thanked his "mom" for his being dressed that way after presenting the report).
  • One of the news presenters for the local news operation for WKRG-TV who usually presented news for one of their local news programs for Monday through Friday mornings, specifically the one for the hours of 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning (Bill Riales of "WKRG News 5 This Morning"), was the news presenter for their local news program for Sunday mornings ("WKRG News 5 This Morning: Sunday") this Sunday (he said the person who usually presented news for the program (Chad Petri) was "off" this Sunday after introducing his self on the program).  

Saturday, April 23, 2016

News for Saturday, April 23rd, 2016

  • WPMI-TV had an interview with a secretary of theirs (Kathryn Moore) about her memories of a concert by a famous singer and musician named Prince Rogers Nelson in a report about him for their local news programming this past Thursday on the twenty-first day of this April (the singer and musician had died earlier that day).
  • According to the Facebook page for WALA-TV, it had a live video feed of a news presenter and a weather reporter for their local news operation (Bob Grip and Jason Smith respectively) talking about some of the functionalities of the operation this past Friday on the twenty-second day of this April (you may access a recording of the video through this link). 
(*the guides had "Escape From New York" listed for this Sunday, the twenty-fourth day of this April, between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.)** 

(**update for Monday, April 25th, 2016: it was broadcast in accordance with the guides that day) 

News for Friday, April 22nd, 2016

  • WKRG-TV had interviews with two radio announcers from their local broadcast area in their local news programming this past Thursday on the twenty-first day of this April about a famous singer and musician from outside the area who died earlier that day named Prince Rogers Nelson (the names of the announcers were Matt McCoy of WRGV-FM in Mobile and Rhett Flowers of an Internet radio station for the University of South Alabama named "The Prowl"). 

Friday, April 22, 2016

News for Thursday, April 21st, 2016

  • Some of the news presenters for the local news operation at WPMI-TV were using some of their local news programming for this past Wednesday on the twentieth day of this April to promote a plan by a TV station with the same owners as theirs (WJLA-TV in the District of Columbia) to have a special program named "Your Voice, Your Future: Freedom of Speech" that Wednesday (between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.) and a plan for the program to be streamed through their own station's official World Wide Web site.*
  • One of the news presenters for the local news operation for WKRG-TV (Devon Walsh) used the last few segments of their local midday news program ("WKRG News 5 at Noon") to tell its audience (between 12:20 p.m. and 12:24 p.m.) that their main provider of network programming (the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)) would have more information regarding reports of a famous musician named Prince Rogers Nelson being found dead earlier this Thursday in a few minutes (the provider had special programming about this discovery between 12:56 p.m. and 1:00 p.m.). 
(*both WPMI-TV and WJLA-TV were members of the same company due to their ownership: the Sinclair Broadcast Group

Thursday, April 21, 2016

News for Wednesday, April 20th, 2016

  • The hosts of a radio program for Mississippi Public Broadcasting named "Everyday Tech" (Cherita Brent and Ashley Jefcoat) appeared on a live video stream for the official Facebook page of Mississippi Public Broadcasting while hosting the program this Wednesday (the video for the stream was recorded). 

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

News for Tuesday, April 19th, 2016

  • One of the news reporters and news presenters for the local news operation at WALA-TV  (Michael Brannon) had substituted for one of the regular hosts for a local entertainment and lifestyle program of theirs (Joe Emer of "Studio 10") for a very first time today.
  • The last segment of the local news program WPMI-TV had on their main programming feed between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. this Tuesday ("Local 15 News at Noon") was interrupted by a promotional video (or commercial advertisements) two times a few minutes before the end of its broadcast between 12:55 p.m. and 1:00 p.m.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

News for Monday, April 18th, 2016

  • WKRG-TV usually had a graphic of a past opening sequence for a news program from their main provider of network programming (the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)) named "60 Minutes" in their previews for new editions of it on Sunday editions of their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 5") in the past year.  
  • WALA-TV had an animated sequence normally used for "breaking news" in their local news programming in recent times at the beginning of their local news program for Saturday nights this past Saturday on the sixteenth day of this April instead of the animated sequence normally used at the beginning of new editions of it in recent times.

Monday, April 18, 2016

News for Sunday, April 17th, 2016

  • One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV said the name of a person found dead near a naval air station in the city of Pensacola in the state of Florida was not released for their local news programming this morning whereas one of the news presenters for the local news operation at WALA-TV had proclaimed the name of that person while presenting one of their own reports about the person being found dead for their own local news programming this morning. 
(*the one named "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" was broadcast in a format that made it appear cropped and stretched left to right on the main broadcast channel for WFNA-TV and the high-definition cable TV channel for the feed in the cable TV system for Comcast Cablevision of Mobile between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. whereas it only appeared cropped on the standard-definition cable TV channel for the feed in the same cable TV system).

Sunday, April 17, 2016

News for Saturday, April 16th, 2016

  • WKRG-TV had video of one of their news reporters (Emily DeVoe) asking various people about whether they could identify the rate of income tax for Alabama from a poster she was holding or not in some of their local news programming for this Saturday and this past Friday (the fifteenth day of this April). 
  • WKRG-TV had a new promotional video celebrating "a quarter of a century" (25 years) for a flea market in Mobile named Flea Market Mobile on their main broadcast channel today (both they and other local TV stations have had promotional videos celebrating the first 25 years of the market on their main broadcast channels since its 25th anniversary in the calendar year 2013).

Saturday, April 16, 2016

News for Friday, April 15th, 2016

 (note: the report titled "News for Monday, April 11th, 2016" was corrected due to a typographical error involving the call letters WXQW)
  • WALA-TV had a member of their local news operation who usually only did reports about traffic and road conditions for their local news operation during her tenure with them narrate a report that was not related to either subject in their local news programming this past Wednesday on the thirteenth day of this April (the name of this member was Asha Staples).
  • One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WALA-TV (Bob Grip) had compared a news report of theirs to a movie named "Catch Me If You Can" while presenting the report in their local news programming this past Wednesday (he did not specify the movie under that name in spite of there being more than one movie under that name). 
  • One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WPMI-TV (Darwin Singleton) had used some of their local news programming for this calendar week to promote a special syndicated TV program set to be part of their programming plans for this April (specifically their programming plans for this Sunday on the seventeenth day of this month) and the programming plans of other TV stations within their holding (or "parent") company (the Sinclair Broadcast Group) for the same month (the news presenter promoted it as if it were their own program; as for its name, it was "The Rise of Terror: What You Need to Know").

Thursday, April 14, 2016

News for Thursday, April 14th, 2016

  • WKRG-TV had a member of their local news operation who usually only presented weather information for local news programs of theirs on Saturday and Sunday evenings since joining the operation this past March present weather information for some of the local news programs they had this Thursday evening and the evening of this past Wednesday on the thirteenth day of this April (the name of this member was Thomas Geboy).  
  • WALA-TV started having breaks for commercial and/or promotional advertisements in their main programming feed between the final segments of new editions of their local news program for Monday through Friday mornings ("FOX 10 News in the Morning") and the first segments of new editions of a local TV program of theirs dedicated to entertainment and lifestyles ("Studio 10") on a regular basis during the previous calendar week (they usually had the entertainment and lifestyle program appear immediately after the local news program on the channel by then).
  • WALA-TV had an interview with a person said to be a fan of their broadcast operation on their local entertainment and lifestyle program today (the person was said to be part of a visit to their broadcast facility with family who were said to be fans of the theirs also; as for the interview, she was asked about her name ("Kylie"), her age ("five"), the members of their local news operation she had watched on their main broadcast channel (a news presenter of theirs named Sarah Wall and the hosts for the entertainment and lifestyle program (Joe Emer and Chasity Byrd)), and what she thought of their broadcast facility (she said she loved it); she was even allowed to say she had been watching local news broadcasts of theirs since she was a baby without having been asked about how long she had been watching such broadcasts).

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

News for Wednesday, April 13th, 2016

  • On Tuesday, the twelfth day of this April, one of the local evening news programs for WALA-TV had a report about members of other communications companies such as theirs ("members of the media") participating in an eating contest in Mobile earlier that day (a member of a local radio station named WAVH-FM was said to be the winner of the contest; Sean Sullivan was the name of that member). 
  • The standard-definition version of the main programming feed for WFNA-TV in the cable TV system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile had some of its regular programs for Monday through Friday appear in each other's aspect ratio (or picture format) today (this included at least one program that usually did not appear in its proper aspect ratio (4 to 3) as part of it overall programming since the previous calendar year ("The Jeffersons" in 2015).
  • According to the official Facebook page for WKRG-TV, the news presenters for this past Monday's edition of their local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (Bill Riales and Jessica Taloney of "WKRG News 5 This Morning") on the eleventh day of this April had used a live video feed for the page to appear on it while appearing on the program, during parts of it broadcast without them, or during breaks in its broadcast that day for the second time in a row since its previous edition this past Friday on the eighth day of this April. 

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Commentary: An interesting conversation...and a good example of why news and commentary should not be combined in news broadcasting

The presenters for WKRG-TV's local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (Jessica Taloney and Bill Riales of "WKRG News 5 This Morning") had this conversation about a recent visit to Mobile by the governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley) on the program this past Monday on the eleventh day of this April:

Jessica Taloney: So here's a thing: the idea that you can lay down ground rules for journalists and tell journalists what they can and cannot ask is absurd as the governor of the state, especially when you've got the pink elephant in the room.

Bill Riales: Yeah, he knows this and he, he--he knows, I guess he that as a politician it's worth a try, but we're not going to play that because there are too many questions. Now a lot of people I can imagine a lot of people think, 'Well, you're just badgering the man here being disrespectful'. The fact is he's an elected official and there are a lot of questions that have not yet been answered.

Jessica Taloney: ...and not just about the alleged affair with his top advisor, but about the state resources used to facilitate that affair. That's one of the accusations. 

Bill Riales: One other...

Jessica Taloney: The other accusation is whether he obstructed--got in the way of the grand jury investigation in the speaker of the house. Now those are major accusations against a sitting governor and we wouldn't be doing are jobs if we didn't

Bill Riales: So we will continue to ask those questions and hopefully open the door for Governor Bentley to answer them at an appropriate time. If not for the scandal, though, Governor Bentley would probably be pushing for prison reform. Protestors in Atmore (a city in Alabama) say they support changing prisons, too, just not what the governor is offering.  

Monday, April 11, 2016

News for Monday, April 11th, 2016

  • Last Sunday, the tenth day of this April, the broadcast frequency for WDLT-FM had an earlier edition of a local radio program dedicated to public affairs named "In Touch Gulf Coast" between 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. whereas a more recent edition of it was on the broadcast frequency for one of their companion stations (WBLX-FM)* between 6:00 a.m. and 6:30 a.m.  
  • The main broadcast channel for WALA-TV had local news programming in a time period that was not in accordance with their regular programming plans for Monday through Sunday this past Sunday (between 12:00 a.m. and 1:00 a.m.) due to some network programming it had on the previous day (the Saturday on the ninth day of this April) ending later than expected (it was about a professional automobile race that began later than expected).
(*WDLT-FM and the companion stations (the others were WABD-FM, WXQW-AM, and WGOK-AM) were members of the same company (Cumulus Media); they also had the same broadcast facility in Mobile)

Sunday, April 10, 2016

News for Sunday, April 10th, 2016

  • One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV (Devon Walsh) said blocking visitors of the official Facebook page for the governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley) from viewing comments on the page was "pretty lame" and that it "defeated the purpose of social medium" after one of their news reporters (Joseph Blake (J. B.) Biunno) did live reports about it in their local news programming this past Wednesday on the sixth day of this April (the first comment was made on their local midday news program ("WKRG News 5 at Noon") whereas the second one was made on their local 5:00 pm. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 5").

Saturday, April 9, 2016

News for Saturday, April 9th, 2016

  • On Friday, the eighth day of this April, some members of the local news operations for WKRG-TV and WALA-TV did some reports about how the governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley) avoided answering questions they had about some public accusations against him and a proposal by the legislature for Alabama to impeach him for those accusations during his visit to Mobile that day whereas a member of the local news operation for WPMI-TV did a report about them and the questions (their respective names and stations were not mentioned in the report).

Friday, April 8, 2016

News for Friday, April 8th, 2016

  • This past Thursday's edition of WPMI-TV's local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. ("Local 15 Today") on the seventh day of this April had a report about a member of the board of commissioners for the Mobile County Public School System who usually hosted a local radio program for WGOK-AM dedicated to public affairs named "Pass it On" and a local TV program for WALA-TV also dedicated to public affairs named "Rise and Shine" being set to host a public meeting about an idea he was said to have proposed about having part of the system he represented as a member of the board be a separate school system (his name was Robert Battles). 

News for Thursday, April 7th, 2016

  • One of the directors and producers for the local news operation at WPMI-TV (Allison Kelley) was in the final segment of their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("Local 15 News at 5 p.m.") talking about her planning to leave her positions with them (she was on the set of the program with its news presenters and weather reporter). 
  • One of the local radios announcers for WAVH-FM (Sean Sullivan) was on WKRG-TV's local 5:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 5") analyzing what some members of the public (including "callers" for some of WAVH-FM's local radio programming) thought about an official proposal to impeach the governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley).  

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

News for Wednesday, April 6th, 2016

  • WALA-TV and WPMI-TV had special programming about a live news conference concerning the governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley) and its legislature take precedence over regular programming for their main broadcast channels this past Tuesday between 12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. (the special programming for WALA-TV took precedence over a syndicated courtroom program named "Judge Mathis" whereas the special programming for WPMI-TV was part of their local midday news program). 
  • The live video stream for WALA-TV was out of sync with segments of recent editions of their local news programs and their local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") this past Monday (the fourth day of April) and Tuesday (this explains why segments of the local news programming they had on those days were cut off from the stream a few seconds before they ended and the advertisements that preceded those segments in their programming were appearing on the stream during their last few seconds). 

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Commentary: Constant acknowledgements (or bragging) in local news programming

I wish WKRG-TV would not have programming segments about the announcements about the awards that were bestowed upon them and certain members of their local news operation by the Alabama Broadcasters Association ever so often (they usually had these announcements just before certain breaks in their local news programming). Some folks might feel they had been bragging about their selves and feel they are taking too much pride in their honors; they might lose respect for them and any chance of watching or hearing their local news program in the future. 

Commentary: A reminder of a past logo

I was reminded of a former logo for WALA-TV when I saw one of the current logos for WPMI-TV in a new promotional graphic for one of WPMI-TV's syndicated TV programs in their programming today (it appeared very similar to the current logos for their main provider of network programming: the National Broadcasting Company (NBC)). I thought it was very interesting and unusual.

News for Monday, April 4th, 2016

  • The son of one of the news presenters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV was part of a regular feature of their local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (the "Pet of the Week" segment of "WKRG News 5 This Morning") this Monday (the name of the news presenter was Devon Walsh; as for the name of her son, she said it was Sam during the segment).
  • The main broadcast channel for WALA-TV had a commercial break between the last segment of today's edition of their local news program for Monday through Friday mornings ("FOX 10 News in the Morning") and the first segment of this Monday's edition of their local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") (the hosts for the program (Joe Emer and Chasity Byrd) had acknowledged this change at the beginning of the segment).   
  • WEIQ-TV (the Alabama Public Television station for southwest Alabama) started having the live programming feed for a national TV programming service named World on one of its digital sub-channels between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (in addition to between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.) on a regular basis for the first time since the last day of last September on the first day of this April (last Friday). By then, it usually only had programming for the service between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. before having programs from a separate national TV programming service named Create TV between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (either via a live programming feed for the service or a delayed version of it).  This usually meant of the station's sub-channels had programs from the same programming service during the same time period since the first day of last October since one of those channels usually had either one or two programs for the service every hour by then (usually via its live programming feed).

Monday, April 4, 2016

News for Sunday, April 3rd, 2016

  • WBLX-FM had audio of an announcer for their radio programming refer to a local radio program dedicated to public affairs ("In Touch Gulf Coast") by its previous name ("Community Corner") in their introduction to it in their radio programming this Sunday.
  • WALA-TV had a report about certain acts by past governors of Alabama that were considered   "controversial" and about the amount of national exposure given to recent acts by the current governor that were also considered "controversial" on their local news program for Sunday evenings ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") this Sunday.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

News for Saturday, April 2nd, 2016

  • WKRG-TV had a video recording of one the news presenters for their local news operation (Peter Albrecht) playing basketball with a member of a professional basketball team named the Harlem Globetrotters (Meadowlark Lemon) from the year 1992 in the local news programming they had this Saturday and this past Friday (the first day of this April).
  • The news presenter for this past Friday's edition of WKRG-TV's local 10:00 p.m. news program (Mel Showers on "WKRG News 5 at 10") and the one for today's edition of the local news program for Saturday mornings (Chad Petri on "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday") had used the word "disgusting" in their introductions to a report about vandalism at condominiums in the city of Gulf Shores in southwest Alabama. 

Friday, April 1, 2016

News for Friday, April 1st, 2016

  • WALA-TV started having three screens for certain parts of their local news programming on a regular basis this past March (they often had that many screens for weather reports in such programming). 

Commentary: Surprised by a TV news presenter's comments about a movie

One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV (Bill Riales) had used part of a regular feature of their local 9:00 a.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 9") that usually had certain subjects connected to the World Wide Web ("Around the Web and Around the World") to express what may or may not have been his personal feelings about a new theatrical movie named "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" this past Monday on the twenty-eighth day of this (past*) March (he said it had "one set up or another for sequels" and that it was "just too darn long" before saying the actors who played two of its characters (Lex Luthor and Wonder Woman) were the "two best things about it". He even referred to one of those actors (the one who played Wonder Woman) as "pretty hot" without explaining what he meant by that phrase).

(*this article was originally meant to be published on the last day of this past March (this past Thursday))