News for Friday, July 31st, 2015

• A recent camera operator for WPMI-TV presented sports reports for their local midday news program both today and this past Thursday, July 30th (the name of this recent camera operator was Stephen Smith; the name of the program was "Local 15 News at Noon").    

• The news presenter for WKRG-TV's local news programs for Saturday and Sunday (Chad Petri of "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday" and "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Sunday") substituted for a news presenter for one of their local news programs for Monday through Friday mornings today; specifically the news presenter named Bill Riales and specifically the program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. ("WKRG News 5 This Morning"). 

• WKRG-TV had a news report that began with its reporter (Joseph Blake (J. B.) Biunno) saying his team of news gatherers was the only one to have witnessed the arrest of a person chased by police in Eight Mile, Alabama (northwest of Mobile) this past Thursday, July 30th, and that the person had requested speaking to him and his team (the reporter also said the person had a "message" for them) shortly after they came to the scene of his arrest (the reporter got the chance to interview the person in addition to hearing his "message").

News for Thursday, July 30th, 2015

 (note: the previous report for this weblog ("News for Wednesday, July 30th, 2015") was amended)

• According to the official World Wide Web site for WKRG-TV, their holding company (Media General) had a deal in which a cable TV company (Mediacom Communications) was granted a new permit to have programming from their companion station (WFNA-TV) retransmitted on a regular basis again after having been unable to do so since their last deal to have the programming retransmitted expired on the Tuesday of this past July 14th.

• The news presenter for this Wednesday's edition of WPMI-TV's local 6:30 p.m. news program* (Greg Peterson of "Local 15 News at 6:30") used its last segment to say he wanted to express his own opinion about a news report he had just presented for the segment while responding to the weather reporter for this edition of the program (Derek Beasley) saying he was expressing his own opinion about the report in response to the news presenter saying he had expected him to do another weather report for the program immediately after his presentation of the report.

• One of the news presenters for WKRG-TV's local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (Bill Riales of "WKRG News 5 This Morning") used a regular feature of the program in which he and its other news presenter (Avery Cotton) would usually talk about the World Wide Web and technology in general to explain a recent Facebook message attributed to him about his having a role in a movie made in Mobile recently since the other news presenter referred to the image that accompanied it and said she had found it on his professional Facebook page while doing some "Facebook searching" (he said he "ended up" in this role "last week" after a "weird sequence of events" and had described the role as being that of a court martial judge with "one small line" of dialogue).  

(*the program was broadcast locally by WPMI-TV's companion station: WJTC-TV)

News for Wednesday, July 29th, 2015 (amended)

• The cable TV system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile recently started providing programming from WALA-TV's digital sub-channel on a regular basis by today (the channel usually has programming from a national TV programming service named Cozi TV)*. 

• An advertisement for a position in reporting and presenting information about sports for WPMI-TV's local news operation dated July 28th, 2015 (this past Tuesday), was posted onto one of the official World Wide Web sites for their holding (or parent) company (the Sinclair Broadcast Group) since the last person to hold the position (Paxton Boyd) had left it by then.  

(*amendment note: the programming was accessible through one of the cable TV channels in the system: channel 186 to be precise)

News for Tuesday, July 28th, 2015

• Today's edition of WPMI-TV's local midday news program ("Local 15 News at Noon") had audio and video of a live meeting of the councilors for the city of Mobile (they and other local TV stations usually did not have such a meeting appear live on one of their respective broadcast channels by then).

• One of the hosts for today's edition of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") used part of today's edition of the program to say he had attended a "taping" of a national TV game show titled "The Price is Right" about 15 years ago (the name of this host was Michael White*) since both he and the other host for the program (Joe Emer) were talking about plans for a local version of this game show at the Saenger Theater in Mobile on the program by then. 

• One of the regular news presenters for Sunday editions of WALA-TV's local 9:00 p.m. news program (Michael Brannon of "FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") was one of the news presenters for the first half of their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m.") today and this past Monday, July 27th, whereas the person who used to present news for both halves of the program with the other news presenter for the first half of this edition on a regular basis by this month was the only news presenter for its second halves for today and this past Monday (Bob Grip was the name of the only news presenter for those second halves; Lenise Ligon was the name of the person with whom he usually presented news for both halves of the program by this month).

(*he was substituting for the person who usually hosted the program with Joe Emer by then: Chasity Byrd)

Commentary: A cable TV problem not yet fixed

I wish someone would fix the high-definition programming feed for the National Geographic Channel sent to digital transport adapters connected to the cable TV system for Comcast Cablevision of Mobile (the feed would usually pixelate or break up every few seconds; it's been happening on a regular basis for months) and also make the high-definition feed for the programming service known as FYI accessible to the adapters (if one were to access the feed through the adapters now, he or she would only get an error message; it's been that way for several months).

News for Sunday, July 26th, 2015

• A video recording about some of WKRG-TV's history was uploaded onto the World Wide Web site YouTube this past Thursday, July 23rd. 

• This past Saturday's edition of WALA-TV's local 9:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") on July 25th was presented one of their newest news reporters for the first time: Lee Peck (note: the program was broadcast from 9:26 p.m. until 9:55 p.m. due to a network program of theirs ending after the time its broadcast would have began if not for that network program (9:00 p.m.)). 

• One of the news presenters for one of WKRG-TV's local news programs for Monday through Friday, specifically the one for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (Bill Riales of "WKRG News 5 This Morning"), substituted for the news presenter for their local news program for Sunday mornings (Chad Petri of "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Sunday") during its broadcast for this Sunday morning between 6:00 and 8:00 (he said Chad Petri was "on assignment" while presenting the program this morning).

News for Saturday, July 25th, 2015

• News reporters for WALA-TV and WKRG-TV were in Lafayette, Louisiana doing live news reports about a shooting spree that occurred at a movie theater there this past Thursday, July 23rd (the report for WALA-TV was for this past Friday's edition of their local 9:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") on July 24th; the report for WKRG-TV was for today's edition of their local 6:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 6")).

• One of the hosts for WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program (Chasity Byrd of "Studio 10") used its broadcast for this past Friday, July 24th, to talk about a former news presenter of theirs notifying her about a child that she, the former news presenter, had raised being chosen to be part of a soccer team set to visit England to play soccer against other soccer teams over the course of two weeks* (the name of the former news presenter was April Douglas; the name of the child she raised was Noah Miller).  

• Today's edition of WKRG-TV's local news program for Saturday mornings ("WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday") had a segment dedicated to a TV program originally broadcast on Saturday mornings by TV stations affiliated with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) through their connections with the company (last Saturday's edition of the program had a similar segment dedicated to another TV program originally broadcast on Saturday mornings; as for the program to which this Saturday's segment was dedicated, it was the first TV program to be titled "Land of the Lost").  

(*WALA-TV had a report about this on their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m.) afterwards this past Friday).

News for Friday, July 24th, 2015

• The son of the one of the hosts for WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") appeared with him on the program this past Thursday, July 23rd (the name of the host was Joe Emer; the name of his son was Eli Emer).  

• The aforementioned local entertainment and lifestyle program had video of a live ceremony for two new sporting goods store in Mobile this past Thursday between 9:45 a.m. and 9:50 a.m. (the names of the stores were Dick's Sporting Goods and Field & Stream).

• The weather reporter for WKRG-TV's local morning and midday news programs for Monday through Friday (John Nodar of "WKRG News 5 This Morning", "WKRG News 5 at 9:00", and "WKRG News 5 at Noon") had his pet (a dog named Buddy) appear on today's edition of the midday news program during one of its weather segments and during its closing segment. 

(note: the previous report for this weblog ("News for Thursday, July 23rd, 2015") was amended)

News for Thursday, July 23rd, 2015 (amended)

• The news presenters for WALA-TV's local 5:00 p.m. news program (Bob Grip and Lenise Ligon) recently started presenting half of its broadcasts apart from each other on a regular basis (Bob Grip usually took Lenise Ligon's place by the middle of those broadcasts). They used to present both halves of its broadcasts together on a regular basis before then. 

• According to a promotional advertisement for WALA-TV that appeared on their main broadcast channel today, they were set to begin having local news programming on Saturday and Sunday mornings on a regular basis this August, specifically the Saturday of August 8th (the advertisement had the time period for when they would have such programming on Saturday and Sunday mornings: 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.). 

(amendment note: the paragraph about WALA-TV being set to have local news programming on Saturday and Sunday mornings was amended to improve its structure and to add the sentence about the time period in which WALA-TV would have such programming on Saturday and Sunday mornings)

News for Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015

• A member of the Congress of the United States from southwest Alabama was interviewed on the set 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")* and on the set of a local news and discussion program for WNTM-AM ("The Uncle Henry Show") during their broadcasts this past Monday, July 20th (the name of this member of the Congress was Bradley Byrne).

(*this program usually did not guests making live appearances by then)

Commentary: No name for person referenced in news presentation

I was disappointed in the news presenter for WPMI-TV's local midday news program (Kelly Jones of "Local 15 News at Noon") not mentioning the forename and surname for the most president of Nintendo Company Limited on last Monday's edition of the program on July 13th while presenting news about his death (his forename was Satoru; his surname was Iwata). If the reason for this was fear of her mispronouncing the names, she or another member of WPMI-TV could have done some research into how the names were usually pronounced by others folks and how this recent president would have pronounced them if he were still alive.

News for Tuesday, July 21st, 2015

• A restaurant based in Mobile named the Brick Pit was set to be featured in a new edition of a national TV program for the Cooking Channel that was set to be broadcast for the first time today: "Man Fire Food" (you may learn more about the edition and when it may be broadcast again through this link).

• The main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV recently had an advertisement for a syndicated discussion program set to be part of its regular programming plan for Monday through Friday this September: "The Wendy Williams Show"* (the host of the program appeared in the advertisement saying, "How you doing, gulf coast? Have you heard, I'm moving. Starting September 14th, Check me out weekday afternoons at 3 o'clock right here on Local 15. Love you for watching"). 

(*it is currently part of WFNA-TV's regular programming plans for Monday through Friday, specifically the one for their main broadcast channel)

News for Monday, July 20th, 2015

• An advertisement for a position in reporting both news and weather for WPMI-TV on Saturdays and Sundays on a regular basis dated July 15th, 2015 (last Wednesday) was posted onto one of the official World Wide Web sites for the holding company (or parent company) for WPMI-TV (the Sinclair Broadcast Group).

• One of the hosts for WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") used the last segment of its edition for today to promote an effort to help the mother of a former news reporter of theirs get a new set of lungs due to her own lungs being incapable of producing enough oxygen for her to live and the illness preventing them from doing so (the name of the host was Joe Emer; the name of the reporter was Qwesi McCray).

• The digital guides to the main broadcast channel for WFNA-TV within their broadcast signal and the World Wide Web sites Zap2it, TitanTV, and TV Guide still had the name of a syndicated program that used to be part of their regular programming plan for Monday through Friday prior to last Tuesday, July 14th, in spite of it being replaced by another syndicated program by then (the name of the program that was replaced was "The Cosby Show"; the name of the program that took its place was "Gimme a Break!").

News for Sunday, July 19th, 2015

• The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV recently had an advertisement with the voice of the main announcer for their local news programs (Jay Gardner) promoting a national TV programming service's (Memorable Entertainment Television (Me-TV)) plan to have five episodes of a comedic TV program titled "Gilligan Island" and parts of an interview with one of its actors (Dawn Wells) on their programming feed for one of WKRG-TV's digital sub-channels between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. today.

• The TV programming guide in the sports sections of the newspapers published by the Mobile Press-Register for this Sunday erroneously had a reference to the national TV programming service MyNetworkTV ("MyNet") in its listing for the type of sports programming WFGX-TV would have on their main broadcast channel between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. today (a baseball game between two professional baseball teams named the Tri-City Valley Cats and the Aberdeen IronBirds) rather than one for the actual programming service that would provide this sports programming to WFGX-TV (the American Sports Network).

• This past Thursday's edition of WALA-TV's local 9:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") on July 16th ended a few minutes later than it would have ended if it were in accordance with their regular programming plans (it ended at 10:06 p.m. rather than by 10:02 p.m.) due to news of a person suspected of shooting another person in her face in and attempting to rob her being arrested by members of the police department in Mobile (they had video of a news conference about the arrest and the person who was arrested being taken away from the headquarters for the police department in Mobile to the metropolitan jail in Mobile).

News for Saturday, July 18th, 2015

• WKRG-TV had a promotional advertisement in which the surname of their newest weather reporter (Melissa Constanzer) was misspelled appear on their main broadcast channel on a regular basis this July (it was misspelled "Constanzar").  

• Today's edition of WKRG-TV's local news program for Saturday mornings ("WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday") had a segment dedicated to an animated cartoon series originally broadcast on Saturday mornings by TV stations affiliated with the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) through their connections with the company (the name of the series was "Thundarr the Barbarian").

• The sports reporter for WKRG-TV (Randy Patrick Setterstrom) identified a nephew of his (Steven Setterstrom Jr.) in a video recording of a professional golf tournament (the Barbasol Championship in Opelika, Alabama) while presenting a report about it on this past Friday's edition of their local 6:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 6:00") on July 17th (he said the nephew was a caddy for a player in the tournament named Robby Shelton).

News for Friday, July 17th 2015

• A recent graduate of the University of Georgia named Alexa Knowles became a news reporter for WALA-TV earlier this July.

• WKRG-TV recently had a news report with video of a local radio announcer for WAVH-FM (Sean Sullivan) talking about a plan proposed by members of a tribe to solve problems in the budget for the government of Alabama (the report had no mention of the name of the announcer or the radio program he was hosting in the video). 

• WPMI-TV had video of a cannon being used in real time to start the 82nd Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo at the the beginning of their local news programming for today (at 5:00 a.m.) while WKRG-TV only had video of the cannon as it appeared in real time immediately after it was fired at the beginning of their local news programming for today and WALA-TV only had video of the cannon being used again in real time at the start of another segment of their local news programming for today after having started about 30 minutes earlier (at 4:30 a.m.). 

News for Thursday, July 16th, 2015 (corrected)

• Images of some of the graphics implemented into the broadcast news operation for WEAR-TV this past Tuesday, July 14th, were posted onto the World Wide Web site Florida News Center this past Wednesday, July 15th. 

• A video recording of a past edition of a local news program for WKRG-TV ("News Center 5") dated December 3rd, 1986 (a Wednesday), was uploaded onto the Internet video service YouTube last Saturday, July 11th. 

• WPMI-TV had part of a special news program from their main provider of network programming (the National Broadcasting Company (NBC)) take precedence over their local midday news program ("Local 15 News at Noon") this past Wednesday (the special program was about a live news conference by the president of the United States: Barack Obama).  

• This past Wednesday's edition of WALA-TV's local 9:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") had a report about one of the news presenters for the program (Bob Grip) touring an apartment complex in Mobile with the mayor of Mobile (William Sandys (Sandy) Stimpson) and the chief of the police department in Mobile (James Barber) earlier that day (the beginning of the report had the news presenter saying the mayor and the chief invited him onto the tour).  

(correction note: the surname of the chief of the police department in Mobile was spelled "Barbour" by mistake)

News for Wednesday, July 15th, 2015 (amended)

• New musical compositions and graphics for WEAR-TV's broadcast news operation were implemented this past Tuesday, July 14th (the ones they usually had in their local TV news programming before then were displaced by the new ones).

• One of the new graphics implemented into the broadcast news operation for WEAR-TV this past Tuesday was a logo that usually did not appear in any of their TV programming by then, even though it was all ready on their official World Wide Web site by then, along with their official Facebook page and Twitter page (the logo that was part of the previous set of graphics for their local TV news programs still appeared in their broadcasts on a regular basis by then). 

• According to the official Twitter page for Mediacom Communications, some negotiators for Mediacom Communications and the holding company for WFNA-TV (Media General) were unable to make a new retransmission consent deal for WFNA-TV's programming by the time their previous retransmission consent deal for their programming expired this past Tuesday (it would have allowed Mediacom Communications to continue having programming from WFNA-TV retransmitted through some of their cable TV systems after the previous deal expired). 

(amendment note: the word "graphics" in the top paragraph of this report was hyperlinked to images of the new graphics for WEAR-TV's news operation on the World Wide Web site Florida News Center)

News for Tuesday, July 14th, 2015

• Between 8:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. today, the main broadcast channel for WFNA-TV had an episode of a comedic TV program titled "Gimme a Break!" instead of an episode of the comedic program it usually had during this time period from Monday through Friday before this calendar week (the name of that program was "The Cosby Show"). 

• WKRG-TV, WPMI-TV, and WEAR-TV each had special network news programming about a live speech by the United States (Barack Obama) take precedence over their local news program they had on their main broadcast channel between 6:00 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. today (WALA-TV had video of the president speaking live as part of their own local news program for that time period).

News for Monday, July 13th, 2015 (corrected)

(correction note: the word "northwest" was used by mistake in an earlier version of this report before it was corrected with the word "northeast")  

• According to WKRG-TV and WPMI-TV, they were set to have special live reports from Monroeville, Alabama (northeast of Mobile) on their local Monday through Friday news programs for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. ("WKRG News 5 This Morning" and "Local 15 Today" respectively) this Tuesday, July 14th, about a novel set to be released that day that was authored by a resident and native of Monroeville (the name of the novel was "Go Set a Watchman"; the name of its author was Nelle Harper Lee).

News for Sunday, July 12th, 2015

• The news presenter for WKRG-TV's local news programs for Saturday and Sunday mornings (Chad Petri of "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday" and "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Sunday") used part of today's edition of the program for Sunday mornings to encourage members of its audience to use the official Facebook page for WKRG-TV to publicize images of folks sweating or "feeling hot" outside (or "people being hot", as he put initially before explaining that he meant images of people sweating or images with "evidence of people hot outside") while promoting the page with the weather reporter for both this program and the one for Saturday mornings (Melissa Constanzer) after she encouraged members of its audience to use the page to add to its collection of images of an aerial exhibition that occurred in their local broadcast area this past Saturday, July 11th (she said some members of what she called "the weather team" loved finding the ones that were all ready in its collection). 

News for Saturday, July 11th, 2015

• According to a message attributed to a news presenter and news reporter for WKRG-TV (Devon Walsh) that was posted onto her professional Facebook page this past Friday, July 10th, their local 9:00 a.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 9:00") had its own studio audience that day: a group of persons from a summer camp based in Mobile.*

• A video recording of a regular feature of WKRG-TV's local news programming in recent times in which some of the presenters for such programming usually showed and discussed various subjects pertaining to the World Wide Web was uploaded onto their official World Wide Web site shortly after its broadcast today (the name of the segment was "Around the Web and Around the World").

(*note from the author: in case you did not see and/or previous report for this weblog ("News for Friday, July 10th, 2015") and/or the edition of the aforementioned news program, I wish to inform you that it was shorter than most of its past editions and the reason for it having been so lies the aforementioned report) 

News for Friday, July 10th, 2015

• According to some messages from the official Twitter account for WXXV-TV in Gulfport, Mississippi, a former brand name for WFNA-TV in Mobile, Alabama* was adopted for the programming on one of the digital sub-channels for WXXV-TV (the brand name was "The Gulf Coast CW"**). 

• According to WPMI-TV, they were one of the sponsors of a fishing tournament near Orange Beach, Alabama (the Blue Marlin Grand Championship of the Gulf Fishing Tournament) that was part of their local news programming today and this past Thursday, July 9th (some of the news presenters in the programming acknowledged their having sponsored it). 

• The fishing tournament mentioned in the previous paragraph of this report was part of some special programming plans for WPMI-TV mentioned in an earlier report for this weblog (the report was titled "News for Monday, July 6th, 2015"). 

• WKRG-TV had a special network news programming from their main provider of network programming (the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)) take precedence over having a new edition of their local 9:00 a.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 9") on their main broadcast channel in accordance with its regular programming plan for Monday through Friday during the first 10 minutes of the time period in which it usually had a new edition of it (it was usually from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. with breaks for commercial advertisements) before finally having one for the rest of that time period (with breaks for commercial advertisements), even though the special news program was still in progress by then. 

(*even though WFNA-TV is located in Mobile, their license with the Federal Communications Commission has Gulf Shores, Alabama as their city of license)
(**both WXXV-TV and WFNA-TV are network stations for the CW Television Network, a national TV programming service)

News for Thursday, July 9th, 2015

• According to WKRG-TV, they had a plan for having one of the syndicated TV programs in their companion station's regular programming plans for Monday through Friday replaced by next Monday, July 13th (the name of the station was WFNA-TV; the name of the program was "The Cosby Show"). 

• According to WPMI-TV, they were set to have special programming about a fishing tournament expected to occur near Orange Beach, Alabama (the tournament would be called the Blue Marlin Grand Championship of the Gulf Fishing Tournament) during time periods in which they usually had local news programming this Saturday, July 11th (they would have it between 5:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and between 10:15 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.). They would still have local news programming during those time periods, but only during their first halves (between 5:00 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. and between 10:00 p.m. and 10:15 p.m.).  

News for Tuesday, July 7th, 2015

 (correction notice: the first paragraph of the report titled "News for Saturday, July 4th, 2015" was amended with the correct day of the week for the 15th of this August: Saturday)

• WFNA-TV was not broadcasting between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. today.

• A message concerning a retransmission consent contract for Mediacom Communications to provide programming from WFNA-TV through their cable TV systems in the broadcast area for WFNA-TV (Mobile County and Baldwin County, Alabama had some of those systems) was posted onto the official World Wide Web site for their companion station (WKRG-TV) last Thursday, July 2nd (you may learn more about retransmission consent from the perspective of Mediacom Communications through a site titled "Mediacom on Your Side")

• According to an administrator for the official Facebook page for WKRG-TV, some members of the staff at WKRG-TV had a video recording of theirs broadcast by the cable TV and satellite TV programming service CNN International this past Sunday, July 5th (the video had folks inside a tavern in Mobile celebrating the outcome of a championship soccer match officiated by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) that day (the match was part of a series of soccer matches called the "FIFA Women's World Cup")).

News for Monday, July 6th, 2015

(update: according to the official Facebook page for Mississippi Public Broadcasting and the programming schedule for their main radio programming service on their official World Wide Web site, two of the three radio programs mentioned in a recent promotional advertisement of theirs about a new regular programming plan for the service to follow on Saturdays that was mentioned in a recent report for this weblog were actually set to be part of their regular programming plan for Sundays beginning this past Sunday, July 5th (the names of those two programs were "The TED Radio Hour" and "BackStory"), and that only one of them ("RadioLab") was set to be part of their programming plan for Saturdays beginning this past Saturday, July 4th.) 

• According to the guides to the main broadcast channel for WFNA-TV provided by Zap2it and TitanTV, a new nationally-syndicated discussion program titled "The Boris & Nicole Show" was set to be part of the channel's programming on a regular basis from Monday through Friday between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. beginning with its first edition this Monday (the channel usually another nationally-syndicated TV program between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. from Monday through Friday before this Monday: "Bridezillas". It was still part of its regular programming plan for Monday through Friday in spite of the new program, though: between 11:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m.)

• According to the guides to the main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV provided by Zap2it and TitanTV, the channel was set to have special local programming this Saturday, July 11th, fishing tournament expected to occur near Orange Beach, Alabama during a time period in which it usually had network programming from the National Broadcasting Company (7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.) in accordance with WPMI-TV's regular programming plans and set to have recordings of the network programs set to be on the company's live network feed for the Central and Eastern time zone during that time period later that day and early the next day (according to the guides, the program set to be on the feed between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. this Saturday ("Running Wild with Bear Grylls") would appear later that day between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. whereas the program set to be on the feed between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. ("Dateline NBC") would appear early the next day (Sunday, July 12th) between 12:03 a.m. and 2:03 a.m. (the channel usually had paid commercial programming during this time period on Sunday before today with the exception of the time period between 1:03 a.m. and 1:33 a.m., when it usually had a syndicated interview program titled "The Tim McCarver Show").

News for Sunday, July 5th, 2015

• According to the guides to the main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV from TitanTV and Zap2it and a promotional advertisement that appeared on the channel this past Friday, July 3rd, and this past Thursday, July 2nd, WPMI-TV was set to have special programming on the channel next Thursday, July 9th (between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.), about a music festival expected to occur in Orange Beach, Alabama that day (the festival would be called "the Sunset Festival").

• The presenter of the special news programming WPMI-TV had on their main broadcast channel this past Thursday, July 2nd, presented news unrelated to the main subject of the programming after summarizing and commenting on it (the name of the presenter was Kelly Jones; the unrelated subject she presented was about a naval yard in the District of Columbia  being locked down whereas the main subject was about a news conference about a settlement between the state of Alabama and a petroleum company named British Petroleum. 

• The weather reporter for WKRG-TV's local news programs for Saturday and Sunday mornings (Melissa Constanzer of "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday" and "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Sunday") was interviewed on their local news program for Monday through Friday mornings ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") this past Friday, July 3rd (the interviews were conducted by the news presenter (Avery Cotton) and weather reporter (John Nodar) for the program that day; as for what those interviews were those about; they were about the life and career of the person they were interviewing).

News for Saturday, July 4th, 2015 (amended again)

 (amendment notes: the first paragraph of the last report for this weblog ("News for Friday, July 3rd, 2015") was re-edited for clarity and a correction involving an apostrophe; as for this report, its own first paragraph was amended with the correct day of the week for the 15th of this August)

• According to a message an administrator for the official Facebook page for WKRG-TV posted onto the page this past Friday, July 3rd, one of the news presenters for their local 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. news programs for Monday through Friday ("WKRG News 5 at 5" and "WKRG News 5 at 10") was set to be inducted into the hall of fame for the Alabama Broadcasters Association on the 15th of this August (a Saturday): the one named Mel Showers. 

• This past Friday's edition of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") had a segment about a new TV program that was made in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama earlier this calendar year titled "Flip Trip" and about the first edition of it being set for broadcast by a national TV programming service named Home and Garden Television this Sunday, July 5th. (the programming service was also named HGTV for brevity or conciseness)

• The news presenter for WKRG-TV's local news programs for Saturday and Sunday mornings used a greeting not normally used in any of their local news programs at the beginning of this week's edition of the program for Saturday mornings (the name of the news presenter was Chad Petri; the names of the programs for Saturday and Sunday mornings were "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday" and "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Sunday"; as for how he greeted his audience for the program in this week's edition of the program for Saturday mornings, he said this: "Good morning, welcome to 'News 5 This Morning'. I'm Chad Petri and let me just acknowledge something: it's five in the morning, on a Saturday on the 4th of July; if you are watching us at this hour on this day, God bless you, we really appreciate it."). 

News for Friday, July 3rd, 2015 (amended)

(amendment note: the first paragraph of this report was re-edited for clarity and a correction involving an apostrophe)

• On Thursday, July 2nd, WKRG-TV, WPMI-TV, and WALA-TV each had special programming about a live news conference with the governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley) announcing a settlement in a lawsuit that involved the state of Alabama and a petroleum company named British Petroleum take precedence over regular programming on their main broadcast channels (WPMI-TV's broadcast of the news conference took precedence over a national morning news program titled "Today"; WKRG-TV's broadcast of it took precedence over another national morning news program titled "CBS This Morning"; WALA-TV's broadcast of it was incorporated into their own morning news program: "FOX 10 News in the Morning"). 

• According to the editions of the local morning news programs WKRG-TV and WPMI-TV had on the main broadcast channels this past Thursday, July 2nd ("WKRG News 5 This Morning" and "Local 15 Today" were the names of their respective programs), the reason for their having the news conference mentioned in the first paragraph of this report broadcast live was due to their being told that the governor of Alabama was set to hold a news conference with a "major announcement" at a specific time that day (8:00 a.m.).  

• Neither WKRG-TV, WALA-TV, or WPMI-TV had the entire news conference mentioned in the first and second paragraphs of this report broadcast in its entirety as it happened.

• The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV had an animated sequence normally used for concluding special local news programming of theirs interrupt the special programming they had about the live news conference mentioned in the first paragraph of this report before having regular programming again whereas their live video stream would return to the special programming seconds after having a graphic it usually had between breaks for live and recorded local news programs (it had one of their logos and the words "We'll Be Right Back") interrupt it at the same time as the interruption by the animated sequence (near the end of the special programming, the presenter of it (Bill Riales) said they would be returning to the national morning news program titled 'CBS This Morning', even though they had all ready returned to having it on their main broadcast channel and the special programming was only available on the stream). 

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

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

Here is a list of those phrases:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

News for Wednesday, July 1st, 2015

• According to a promotional advertisement broadcast by the radio division of Mississippi Public Broadcasting* today, their main programming service ("Think Radio") was set to have a new regular programming plan for Saturdays take effect this Saturday, July 4th, that includes three different programs that were not part of its previous programming plan for Saturdays (the names of the programs were "The TED Radio Hour", "RadioLab", and "BackStory").**

• Part of this past Tuesday's edition of WPMI-TV's local midday news program ("Local 15 News at Noon") on June 30th appeared on both their main broadcast channel and their digital sub-channel when it had a special weather segment about tornado warnings issued for parts of their local broadcast area (the digital sub-channel was normally used for broadcasting programming from the national TV programming service WeatherNation and local weather segments from WPMI-TV by then).

• WKRG-TV had a special weather segment take precedence over their plan for having a feature segment under the name "Take 5" on their local midday news program ("WKRG News 5 at Noon") this past Tuesday, June 30th (the name "Take 5" was normally used for cooking segments in their local news programming by then), during the time period in which the program usually had such a segment due to tornado warnings for parts of their local broadcast area (the weather reporter for the program (John Nodar) mentioned this while presenting the report).

(*parts of southwest Alabama are within the broadcast area of one of the radio stations broadcasting radio programming from Mississippi Public Broadcasting over the air: WMAH-FM near Biloxi, Mississippi to be precise)

(**update for Tuesday, July 7th, 2015: according to the official Facebook page for Mississippi Public Broadcasting and the programming schedule for their main radio programming service on their official World Wide Web site, only "RadioLab" was part of the service's new regular programming plan for Saturdays and "The TED Radio Hour" and "BackStory" were actually part of a new regular programming plan for Sundays that was set to take effect Sunday, July 5th, 2015. The programming plan for Sundays it had before then usually did not have any one of those programs)