News for Friday, October 31st, 2014

• The news presenters and weather reporter for WPMI-TV's local morning news program (Darwin Singleton, Kelly Jones, and Deitra Tate of "Local 15 Today" respectively) wore costumes for the final segment of today's edition of the program in observance of Halloween.

• One of the news presenters for the morning news program (Darwin Singleton) appeared in a different costume for today's edition of WPMI-TV's local midday news program ("Local 15 News at Noon") as part of its segment for reviewing recent theatrical movies. 

• The hosts for WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program (Joe Emer and Chasity Byrd of "Studio 10") appeared in costumes throughout today's edition of the program; even one of their colleagues from WALA-TV's group of news reporters (Candace Murphy) appeared in costume on this edition of the program.

• Colton Bradford of WKSJ-FM (94.9) also appeared in a costume on today's edition of WPMI-TV's local midday news program as part of its segment for reviewing recent theatrical movies.

News for Thursday, October 30th, 2014

• Today's edition of WPMI-TV's local morning news program ("Local 15 Today") and yesterday's edition of their local 10:00 p.m. news program ("Local 15 News at 10 p.m.") were used to broadcast announcements about their plan to hold a public discussion about racial relations in Mobile at William Pickett Davidson High School in Mobile on Tuesday, November 11th.

• Colton Bradford of WKSJ-FM (94.9) used his appearance on today's edition of WPMI-TV's local morning news program (as part of a segment about public activities expected to take place over the course of this weekend in the broadcast area of WPMI-TV) to promote his plan to make a public announcement about both his self and WKSJ-FM through WKSJ-FM's programming after the news program between 7:45 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. 

• According to the official Facebook page for WKSJ-FM, the announcement Colton Bradford had planned on making was about his plan to host a nightly radio program for WKSJ-FM with Matt McCoy of WRGV-FM (107.3), one of WKSJ-FM's companion stations.

News for Wednesday, October 29th, 2014

• According to WALA-TV, they would have new editions of the syndicated TV game shows "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune" broadcast between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. this Thursday, October 30th, in that very order due to their plan to have special live network programming broadcast during their regular time periods for broadcasting new editions of those shows from Monday through Friday (6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. for "Jeopardy!" and 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. for "Wheel of Fortune"). 

• The electronic TV programming guides for the cable TV system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile did not reflect WALA-TV's plan for having local news programming broadcast shortly after broadcasting special live network programming this past Tuesday, October 28th, since it had a listing an episode of the comedic TV program "Everybody Loves Raymond" after a listing for the special network programming instead of one for local news programming.

News for Tuesday, October 28th, 2014

• The 60th Greater Gulf State Fair in Mobile had groups of local broadcasters and other professional communicators compete against each other in a series of competitions dubbed the "Media Olympics" this past Monday, October 27th (Alabama Live and the official Facebook pages for WMXC-FM (99.9) have images of some of the participants of the "Media Olympics").

• The sports segments for this past Monday's editions of WALA-TV's local 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. news programs ("FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m." and "FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") had reports about Joe Emer of their local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") catching a football during a professional football game at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana last Sunday, October 26th.

• Joe Emer explained the aforementioned incident at the Superdome and the reason for his being there while hosting today's edition of the local entertainment and lifestyle program (you may access video of him explaining the incident along with video of the incident itself through the official World Wide Web site for WALA-TV). 

News for Monday, October 27th, 2014

• WKRG-TV, WPMI-TV, and WALA-TV each had their own interview with a candidate for the position of governor of Alabama named Parker Griffith in their local news programming today (you may access video recordings of WKRG-TV and WPMI-TV's interviews through their official World Wide Web sites). 

• WPMI-TV had a report by Mike Raita of WBMA-TV in Birmingham, Alabama, in their local news programming this past Sunday, October 26th, specifically as part of a sports segment for their 5:00 p.m news program ("Local 15 News at 5:00 p.m.") since it was about a recent football game involving the football team from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama and it was available to them through their corporate connection to WBMA-TV (both stations are part of the Sinclair Broadcast Group).

News for Sunday, October 26th, 2014

• Candace Murphy of WALA-TV's news department was the news presenter for their local news programming this past Saturday, October 25th, instead of her colleague Renee Dials, the news reporter who usually presented news for their Saturday news programming over the past ten years.

• Other news reporters for WALA-TV took turns assuming the position of news presenter for their Saturday news programming since the last time Renee Dials held it besides Candace Murphy such as Kati Weis back on the Saturday of October 18th and Rudy Harper back on the Saturday of October 11th.

• James Gordon of WPMI-TV's news department began assuming the position of news presenter for their Saturday news programming* on a weekly basis back on the Saturday of October 18th due to his former colleague Derrick Rose's departure from the position and WPMI-TV in general by then (the last time Derrick Rose fulfilled the duties of the position was back on the Saturday of October 11th).

*The position is currently open to any person willing to hold it on a permanent basis.

News for Saturday, October 25th, 2014

• The national cable TV and satellite TV programming service Spike TV was set to broadcast a new edition of the documentive TV program "COPS" with video of members of the Prichard Police Department in Prichard, Alabama (northwest of Mobile) today between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and again between 10:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. 

• According to the programming guides for WALA-TV from Zap2it, TV Guide, and TitanTV, WALA-TV was set to broadcast the weekly network news program "FOX News Sunday" one hour earlier than usual this Sunday, October 26th, due to their plan to broadcast special live network programming scheduled for their regular time period for broadcasting the news program.

News for Friday, October 24th, 2014

• WALA-TV was honored at the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce's 17th "Minority Business Awards Luncheon" this past Thursday, October 23rd. 

• The award used to honor WALA-TV was accepted by their vice president and general manager named Gary Yoder.

• The host of the luncheon was also one of the news presenters for WALA-TV's local news programming: Lenise Ligon.

• WKRG-TV, WALA-TV, and WPMI-TV recently had reports about a new TV program being produced at Alma Bryant High School in Mobile this calendar week involving the school's football team and a former professional football player named Jerry Rice.

• The cable TV and satellite TV programming service ESPNU was set to have live programming about a live collegiate football game (with the football teams of the University of South Alabama in Mobile and Troy University in Troy, Alabama) expected to take place at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile this Friday, October 24th (the programming was set to begin at 6:30 p.m (Central time)).

News for Thursday, October 23rd, 2014

• Michael Baisden of the former syndicated radio program titled "The Michael Baisden Show" appeared on WALA-TV's local 5:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m.") this past Wednesday, October 22nd, to talk about the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce's plans for holding a "Minority Business Day" event today. 

News for Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014

• Correction notice from the author: This past Tuesday's (October 21st) report about WALA-TV and the syndicated TV game show "Wheel of Fortune" was corrected upon my realizing the FOX Broadcasting Company had no special live network programming planned for this Thursday, October 23rd, during WALA-TV's regular time period for broadcasting new editions of "Wheel of Fortune" from Monday through Friday (6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.) and that WALA-TV would not have the edition of "Wheel of Fortune" to be provided this Thursday broadcast later the next day between 3:30 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. (according to Comcast and TitanTV's guides to WALA-TV's programming) since they would be able to have it broadcast during their regular time period for broadcasting its new editions that day.  

• According to the official World Wide Web site for Alabama Public Radio, they no longer have any plans for broadcasting programming from the Jazz Satellite Network through one of their HD Radio programming feeds (feed #3), specifically the one normally used for broadcasting programming from the BBC World Service (the last time the channel was set to have programming from the network was back on the Tuesday of September 30th during the current calendar year, according to the site).

• Today's broadcast of Mississippi Public Broadcasting's radio program dedicated to technology news and advice ("Everyday Tech") did not have any telephone calls from members of its audience today due to the telephone number for them to join the program being reserved for Mississippi Public Broadcasting's pledge drive today (note: parts of southwest Alabama are within the broadcast area of the station relaying Mississippi Public Broadcasting's radio programming to the radio market for Biloxi, Mississippi at 90.3 megacycles: WMAH-FM.)

News for Tuesday, October 21st, 2014

• According to today's edition of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") and the Internet Movie Database, Michael Brannon of WALA-TV's sports department was set to appear in a new movie being produced in Mobile titled "Bus 657" in the role of a character described by the database as an "anchorman" (he played a news reporter in another movie produced in Mobile over the past year titled "Rage") 

• Joe Emer of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program used today's edition of the program to mention Michael Brannon's role in "Bus 657" and his previous role movie role (Joe Emer's hosting partner for the program named Chasity Byrd appeared surprised upon his mentioning of Michael Brannon's role in "Bus 657" before asking why Michael Brannon did not help her meet a certain actor for "Bus 657" named Robert De Niro)

• According to TV Guide and Zap2it's electronic guides to WALA-TV's programming, WALA-TV would have new editions of the syndicated game show "Wheel of Fortune" broadcast between 3:30 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. this Wednesday, October 22nd, Thursday, October 23rd, and Saturday, October 24th, instead of their regular time period for broadcasting new editions of it from Monday through Friday (6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.) due to their plan to have broadcasts of special network programming from the FOX Broadcasting Company during that time period for this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.

News for Monday, October 20th, 2014

• Chasity Byrd of WALA-TV's news and weather departments helped host today's edition of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") with its regular host Joe Emer since they had yet to have a permanent replacement for its former regular host Cherish Lombard.

• According to WALA-TV, the main broadcast channel for their companion station WFNA-TV (radio frequency channel 25-1/virtual channel 55-1) would be used to broadcast a live debate between the governor of Florida (Rick Scott) and one of the folks competing for his position (Charlie Crist) expected to take place in Jacksonville, Florida this Tuesday, October 21st, between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m

• WFNA-TV's broadcast of the debate would be taking precedence over two new editions of "OK! TV" and "TMZ", the syndicated entertainment news programs they usually had  between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. from Monday through Friday as part of their main broadcast channel's programming.

• TitanTV and Zap2it's programming guides for WFNA-TV had the incorrect title for the movie WFNA-TV had on their main broadcast channel between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. this past Sunday, October 19th, while TV Guide and Comcast's programming guides for WFNA-TV had the correct title of the movie that was on the channel in that time period that day (the incorrect title was "Armed and Dangerous" while the correct title was "Armed and Deadly").

Commentary: Live video players for local TV stations

• I wish the folks in charge of the live video streams for WPMI-TV and WEAR-TV would have Livestream video players replace the JW video players currently in place to play those streams so that folks accessing the streams could replay video they had just watched and/or heard and even play video streamed earlier such as local news programming for WPMI-TV and WEAR-TV. I'm sure the folks in charge of the streams could do it just like the folks who implemented the Livestream players for WKRG-TV and WALA-TV's live video streams.

News for Saturday, October 18th, 2014

• WALA-TV's former employee named Cherish Lombard was celebrated on this past Friday's edition of their local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") since it was her final day as one of its regular hosts and her final day as an employee of WALA-TV due to her new positions at WKRN-TV in Nashville, Tennessee (TV presenter and reporter). 

• The celebration for Cherish Lombard included static and moving images of her from past editions of the entertainment and lifestyle program, a visit by some of her relatives (including her mother, a cousin, and two children of the cousin), appearances by members of the staff of the program who usually did not appear on the program, cake, and gifts. 

• WPMI-TV had a report in which a former commissioner for Mobile County and councilor for the city of Mobile named Stephen (Steve) Nodine was quoted as having used the phrase "prime access" (also known as "prime time access") to describe the time period in which he was expected to hold a news conference this past Monday, October 13th (it was expected to take place at 5:00 p. m.) before his plan to do so was delayed, even though the time period for the news conference was outside of the time period commonly referenced as "prime access" for broadcasters in the Central time zone (6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.). There was no mention of the time period being outside of "prime access" in the report (it was broadcast this past Monday).

News for Friday, October 17th, 2014

• Peter Albrecht of WKRG-TV's news department congratulated the vice president and general manager of all of WKRG-TV (Mark Bunting) during their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 5:00 p.m.") this past Thursday, October 16th, while presenting a report about him being honored by the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Alabama recently.

• WKRG-TV had a report from the Alabama News Network broadcast without any attribution or spoken references to the network in today's edition of their local morning news program ("WKRG News 5 This Morning"). For example, the report was broadcast without the part in which its reporter (Sarah Cantey) said "Alabama News Network" while signing off. The only reference to the network in the report was the microphone flag its reporter was holding.

• WALA-TV's plan for rebroadcasting the episode of the dramatic network TV program "Gotham" that was interrupted by some of their special weather programming this past Monday, October 13th, was promoted as if it were made as a result of those interruptions and that it would be taking precedence over broadcasting another network program from the FOX Broadcasting Company in spite of the fact that they would have had the episode in their programming again tonight anyway since it was part of their network programming schedule for tonight before those interruptions. 

News for Thursday, October 16th, 2014

• WKRG-TV had Bradley Byrne of the House of Representatives of the United States on the set for their local news broadcasts today for an interview that was broadcast live as part of today's edition of their local morning news program ("WKRG News 5 This Morning"). 

• Joe Emer of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") mentioned a former employee of WALA-TV named Adam Ghassemi on this past Wednesday's (October 15th) edition of the program while explaining how he and his colleague Cherish Lombard knew his wife Crystal, the manager of public relations for the Dollar General Corporation, since she had appeared in a recorded segment of the edition showing certain Halloween items at her "local Dollar General" store.

• Both Mobile and Montgomery, Alabama were mentioned in one of the editions of the original "Blockbusters" game show broadcast by the Game Show Network (GSN) today (they had two editions of it in their programming today) due to two of its "M" questions being about them. The one about Mobile was about it being the "M" that was known as "the second largest city in Alabama" and "the city of six flags" by the time it was asked (in the year 1981). As for the one about Montgomery, it was about it being the "M" that was the original capital of the former Confederate States of America. 

News for Wednesday, October 15th, 2014

• According to a Facebook page message attributed to Cherish Lombard of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10"), her whole immediate family would be relocating to Nashville, Tennessee after she helps host the program one more time this Friday, October 17th; this includes her husband Glenn Johnson of WABD-FM (97.5) and their cat and dog.

• WALA-TV and WPMI-TV had special local programming about a person in Mobile suspected of having symptoms of Ebola take precedence over regular programming for their main broadcast channels this past Tuesday, October 14th (radio frequency channel 9-1/virtual channel 10-1 for WALA-TV; radio frequency channel/virtual channel 15-1 for WPMI-TV).

• WALA-TV's initially had a special report about the person take precedence over broadcasting this Tuesday's edition of the syndicated game show "Wheel of Fortune" between 6:30 p. and 7:00 p.m. before broadcasting continuous programming about the person from 7:04 p.m. until 7:57 p.m. instead of network programming from the FOX Broadcasting Company, including two recent episodes of the animated TV programs "The Simpsons" and "Bob's Burgers",

• WPMI-TV's special news programming about the person took precedence over broadcasting the first half of a new edition of "The Voice", the singing competition program the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) had provided between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., before using their companion station WJTC-TV to broadcast more special news programming about the person instead of an episode of the comedic TV program "The Jeffersons".

News for Tuesday, October 14th, 2014

• WALA-TV's local 9:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") ended about eight minutes later than usual this past Monday, October 13th (it usually ended by 10:01 p.m. from Monday through Friday), due to news about thunderstorms in their local broadcast area.

• Both WALA-TV and WPMI-TV had video recordings of a news conference in which the word "pissed" was censored by an electronic sound effect ("bleep") as part of their local news programming between this past Monday and today (you may access an uncensored video recording of the part of the news conference with the word being used through this link to the World Wide Web site Alabama Live).

• Deitra Tate of WPMI-TV's weather department jokingly said the censored word from the news conference was the word "pleasant" while on today's edition of WPMI-TV's local morning news program ("Local 15 Today") shortly after Kelly Jones of WPMI-TV's news department referred to it as "the 'P' word" after their video recording of the news conference was broadcast as part of the program.   

News for Monday, October 13th, 2014

• Renee Dials of WALA-TV's news department was able to return to her position of weekend news presenter for WALA-TV's local news programming during the second half of this past weekend (Sunday, October 12th) after being unable to do so during the first half (Saturday, October 11th). 

• WFGX-TV had no plans for broadcasting the special program one of their providers of network programing was set to provide to them today between 2:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. 

• The name of the special program they had no plans of broadcasting is "Witch's Night Out" and the name of the programming service that would provide it is ThisTV. 

News for Sunday, October 12th, 2014

• Rudy Harper of WALA-TV's news department was the news presenter for WALA-TV's local news programming this past Saturday, October 11th, instead of Renee Dials, the person who usually presented news for WALA-TV's local news programming on Saturday before then.

• WALA-TV's local news programming for this Saturday was later than their regular time period for local news programming on Saturday (9:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.) due to to their broadcast of live baseball programming from the FOX Broadcasting Company during that time period. This explains why the news programming for this past Saturday began at 10:43 p.m. and ended at 11:12 p.m.

• This weekend's edition of Country Music Television's (CMT) weekly music video and music news program titled "CMT Hot 20 Countdown" was set to have video of the 20th BayFest music festival that took place in Mobile from the Friday of October 3rd until the Sunday of October 5th (it was set to be broadcast both yesterday and today over the course of three hours between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.)

News for Saturday, October 11th, 2014

• According to a Facebook message from an administrator for the official Facebook page for WAVH-FM (106.5), their audio feed for the Auburn IMG Sports Network was adjusted in advance of their plan to broadcast live programming about a live football game between the football teams of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama and Mississippi State University in Mississippi State, Mississippi, expected to be on the feed today so that listeners of their radio programming could watch live video of the game on local television and hear their broadcast of it simultaneously without the audio of their broadcast being delayed.

News for Friday, October 10th, 2014

• WNSP-FM (105.5) had a telephonic interview with Melissa Joan Hart of the comedic TV programs "Melissa & Joey", "Sabrina", and "Clarissa Explains it All" on their local midday sports program ("Afternoon Sports Drive") this past Wednesday, October 8th. 

• According to a Facebook message attributed to Cherish Lombard of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10"), she would make her final broadcast for WALA-TV next Friday, October 17th, in accordance with her plan to leave her hosting position on the program in order to become a presenter and a reporter for WKRN-TV in Nashville, Tennessee. 

• An advertisement for someone to replace Cherish Lombard after she leaves her hosting position was posted onto the official World Wide Web site for the Alabama Broadcasters Association this past Thursday, October 9th.

News for Thursday, October 9th, 2014

• WALA-TV had a report about the making of a certain edition of the syndicated discussion program "The Real"* in this past Wednesday's (October 8th) edition of their local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10"). 

• WALA-TV recently had the syndicated lifestyle program "The Better Show" added to their regular programming plans for Tuesday through Saturday for the hour between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. (this is the only time of day in which the program would usually be broadcast in the Mobile, Alabama-Pensacola, Florida TV market.

• This past Monday's edition of WALA-TV's local 9:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") had Michael Brannon of WALA-TV's sports department pronounce the calendar date September 11th, 2001 "nine-eleven two thousand one" while presenting a report about the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida having no "post-game" news conference for the first time in "more than 20 years" that Monday due to their plan to make their collegiate football team available to reporters that day being cancelled due to news of a police investigation involving one of the players on the team. The reason for his doing so was his statement about the university still having a "post-game" news conference on that date in spite of the series of tragedies that occurred on that date in New York, New York, Arlington, Virginia, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

*WALA-TV usually had "The Real" broadcast after the entertainment and lifestyle program from Monday through Friday between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

News for Wednesday, October 8th, 2014

• Cherish Lombard of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") used today's edition of it to announce her plan to leave her hosting position on the program before relocating to Nashville, Tennessee, to begin working for WKRN-TV, one of the local TV stations located there, as a presenter and a reporter for their local TV programming. 

• According to a report for last Thursday's (October 2nd) edition of WPMI-TV's local 10:00 p.m. news program ("Local 15 News at 10 p.m."), some producers for the national TV program "COPS" were set to feature Mobile in a new edition of it being planned for the national cable TV and satellite TV programming service Spike to broadcast either this December or next January.

• The report about "COPS" included video of some members of the production crew for "COPS" recording some arrests at an apartment complex in Mobile last Thursday that may be used in the aforementioned edition being planned for Spike to broadcast either this December or next January.