News for Monday, August 31st, 2015

• WKRG-TV had various technical problems on their local midday news program ("WKRG News 5 at Noon") today (its broadcast began at 12:02 p.m. instead of its regular start time of 12:00 p.m.; it had no animated sequence of the announcer for their local news programming (Jay Gardner) saying, "Now on WKRG News 5" at the beginning of its broadcast; it had no preview of news reports and weather information before an animated sequence with the announcer saying, "From WKRG News 5, the gulf coast's news leader. The news starts now"; it had microphone problems for its news presenter (the weather reporter for the program (John Nodar) gave her (Devon Walsh) a different microphone seconds after the problem arouse); it had no commercial break after a preview of news reports that would have been broadcast afterwards; it had audio of an unidentified person who did not appear on the program using an expletive synonymous with sexual intercourse; and it had static noise during its final segment).

News for Sunday, August 30th, 2015

• Both WZEW-FM and WNSP-FM had a programming segment about plans for a "blood drive" that occurred in Mobile last July on the broadcast frequencies this morning (the segment was part of a local public affairs program normally broadcast by them on a weekly basis titled "Community Roundtable"). 

• This past Friday's edition of WKRG-TV's local midday news program ("WKRG News 5 at Noon") had video of a reporter for WKRG-TV (Avery Cotton) providing a live report from Gulfport, Mississippi about the previous president of the United States (George Walker Bush) attending a ceremony there to commemorate to tenth anniversary of the day that a tropical cyclone named "Katrina" affected it and other cities around it (the anniversary was this past Saturday, August 29th) whereas WPMI-TV's local midday news program  ("Local 15 News at Noon") had only had video of the ceremony itself along descriptions of it from a news presenter in their broadcast facility in Mobile (the name of the news presenter was Kelly Jones).

• Even though the local midday news program for WKRG-TV was the only TV news program of its kind in southwest Alabama to have had a live report about the ceremony mentioned in the previous paragraph, the one for WPMI-TV was the only one of that kind to have had video of the former president of the United States mentioned in that paragraph speaking live at the ceremony. 

News for Saturday, August 29th, 2015

• WKRG-TV had a report about some of the history of Mobile from between the years 1955 and 2015 on today's edition of their local news program for Saturday mornings ("WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday") in honor of the 60th anniversary of their first regular broadcast day on the Saturday of September 5th this year (as of this writing, the report is not available in any form on the official World Wide Web site for WKRG-TV).

• A reporter for WPMI-TV (Christian Jennings) was in New Orleans, Louisiana, doing reports about the president of the United States (Barack Obama) visiting New Orleans to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the day that a tropical cyclone named "Katrina" affected New Orleans and other cities near the Gulf of Mexico for their local news programming this past Thursday, August 27th, (the anniversary was this Saturday).

News for Friday, August 28th, 2015

• WALA-TV was set to have the second half of today's edition of their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m.") dedicated to a special report about a tropical cyclone that affected parts of their local broadcast area back in the year 2005 named "Katrina". 

• One of the news presenters for WKRG-TV (Rose Ann Haven) had a remote interview with a former news presenter and news reporter of theirs at a TV station in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Jeniffer Mayerle at WCCO-TV) concerning a certain person that she, the former news presenter, and news reporter, had met while reporting on the tropical cyclone mentioned in the first paragraph of this report (Hardy Jackson).

• WKRG-TV had a report in which the prices of certain types of items and services from the year 1955 were compared to recent prices for the same types of items and services on today's edition of their local 9:00 a.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 9") in honor of the 60th anniversary of their station's first regular broadcast day (Monday, September 5th, 1955) this September. (as of this writing, the official World Wide Web site for WKRG-TV only has a written version of the report.)

News for Thursday, August 27th, 2015

• Today's edition of WKRG-TV's local 6:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 6") had a report about their history and the person who had been part of their local news programming the longest (Mel Showers) in honor of the 60th anniversary of their first regular broadcast day being on the Saturday of September 5th this year.   

• This past Wednesday's editions of WKRG-TV's local 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. news programs ("WKRG News 5 at 10") had a report about the special local programming they had last Friday, August 21st, being the "most-watched show of the entire week in the Mobile [Alabama]-Pensacola [Florida] area" that was not as elaborate as the one that was posted onto their official World Wide Web site today.

News for Wednesday, August 26th, 2015 (amended)

• According to the official World Wide Web site for the satellite TV company Dish Network, the programming feeds for the main broadcast channels for WEAR-TV and WFGX-TV were unavailable through their satellite TV system from this past Tuesday, August 25th, until this evening due to disputes over them and other programming feeds with the holding company for WEAR-TV and WFGX-TV (the Sinclair Broadcast Group). 

• The hosts for WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program (Joe Emer and Chasity Byrd of "Studio 10") used the news and discussion segment for today's edition of the program to talk about reports of a news reporter and a camera operator for a TV station in Roanoke, Virginia (WDBJ-TV) getting killed while broadcasting for the station (the host named Joe Emer said they "had" to talk about it since it involved their "industry": television). 

• The news presenter for WPMI-TV's midday news programs (Kelly Jones of "Local 15 News at Noon") had erroneously referred to a candidate for the presidency of the United States as "Republican presidential nominee" on today's edition of the midday news program while presenting a report about a public meeting he was hosting in Pensacola, Florida (southeast of Mobile) at the time this edition of the program was being broadcast (the name of the candidate was John Ellis (Jeb) Bush). 

(amendment note: links to news articles were added to the paragraphs about the hosts for WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program and the news presenter for WPMI-TV's midday news program and a few more details were added to the one about the news presenter (the details included Pensacola's proximity to Mobile and the the reason for John Ellis Bush being in Pensacola on this Wednesday)) 

News for Tuesday, August 25th, 2015

• Video recordings of past editions of local news programs for WALA-TV, WPMI-TV, and WEAR-TV dated for the year 1999 were uploaded onto the Internet video service YouTube on the Friday of last August 14th (you may access each recording by selecting the call letters of the stations in this paragraph).

• One of the news presenters for today's edition of WKRG-TV's local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (Avery Cotton of "WKRG News 5 This Morning") used part of this edition to tell members of its audience that they would be seeing more of a certain person who appeared in a video recording for a report she had just presented (the name of this person was Alison Spann) before welcoming her as the newest reporter for WKRG-TV (the other news presenter for the program (Chad Petri*) also welcomed her before saying this past Monday, August 24th, was her first day in her position at WKRG-TV).

(*Chad Petri was substituting for the other regular news presenter for the program: Bill Riales)

News for Monday, August 24th, 2015

• According to WALA-TV, technical problems prevented them from having a new edition of their local 4:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 4:00 p.m.") today (their main broadcast channel had a nationally-syndicated discussion program titled "The Dr. Phil Show" in place of it while the problems were being resolved).  

• 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") substituted for the weather reporter who usually appeared in their local news programs for Monday through Friday evenings (Alan Sealls) this past Thursday, August 20th.

• According to a notice sent to customers of the cable TV system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile, the system was set to begin having programming from a national cable TV and satellite TV programming service named Jewelry Television available through its Limited Basic level of programming instead of its Digital Starter level of programming by the Thursday of September 10th this year.

News for Sunday, August 23rd, 2015 (amended)

• 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") mistakenly said "Troy, Alabama" instead of "Troy, New York" on today's edition of the program for Sunday mornings in a report about two policemen getting shot by a person suspected of "carjacking" this past Saturday, August 22nd.

• Today's editions of WKRG-TV's local 5:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. news programs ("WKRG News 5 at 5" and ) had previews of a new documentary of theirs set to appear on their main broadcast channel next Monday, August 24th, during a time period in which it usually had network programming from the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (the name of the program was "Hurricane Katrina: 10 Years Later"; the time period in which it was set to appear on the channel was 7:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.). 

• According to the guides to the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV provided by TitanTV and TV Guide, the network program from the Columbia Broadcasting System that would not appear on the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV next Monday due to their plan to have the aforementioned documentary in its place may appear on the channel later the next day during a time period in which it usually had "paid commercial programming" from Monday through Saturday (the name of the network program was "The Odd Couple"; the time period in which it was set to appear on the channel was 12:37 a.m. to 1:07 a.m.). 

• The news presenter mentioned in the first paragraph of this report cited a local TV station in Albany, New York with the same owners as his by only their brand name ("News 10") and the phrase "sister station" in the report mentioned in that paragraph (the proper name of the station is WTEN-TV).

(amendment note: the paragraph about the TV station in Albany, New York was added to this report) 

News for Saturday, August 22nd, 2015

• WKRG-TV had one of the administrators and announcers for WAVH-FM (Sean Sullivan*) comment about a pep rally for a candidate for the presidency of the United States named Donald Trump that occured at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile in their broadcast of it this past Friday, August 21st (Sean Sullivan was near the pep rally at the time of his commentary).

• This past Friday's edition of WKRG-TV's local 10:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 10") and today's edition of their local news program for Saturday mornings ("WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday") had a video recording of the aforementioned candidate for the presidency of the United States complimenting WKRG-TV on their reports about his visit to Mobile that Friday.

(*Sean Sullivan had interviewed Donald Trump for WAVH-FM this past Thursday, August 20th)

News for Friday, August 21st, 2015 (updated)

• According to WKRG-TV, WPMI-TV, and WALA-TV, they were set to have a pep rally for a candidate for the presidency of the United States named Donald Trump expected to occur at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile by 7:00 p.m. today streamed live through their live video streams (note: the call letters of the aforementioned stations were hyperlinked to their respective live video streams).

• According to WKRG-TV, if the aforementioned pep rally were to happen, they would have special programming about it on their main broadcast channel by 6:30 P.M p.m. today (they usually had an episode of a comedic TV program titled "The Andy Griffith Show" on the channel between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m and national network programming from the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. from Monday through Friday in accordance with their regular programming plans for the channel. 

(update note: WKRG-TV's special programming about the pep rally began later than planned between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. (the special programming ended by 8:17 p.m.)).

News for Thursday, August 20th, 2015

• Today's edition of WKRG-TV's local 10:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 10") had a segment about one of its news presenters (Mel Showers) talking about his career at WKRG-TV and some of his relatives at a ceremony for his induction into the hall of fame for the Alabama Broadcasters Association last Saturday, August 15th (his partner for the program (Rose Ann Haven) presented the segment). 

• One of the news presenters for WALA-TV's local 9:00 p.m. news program (Bob Grip of "FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") used part of today's edition of the program to mention that he had met a former president of the United States named James (Jimmy) Carter back in August 1977 while visiting the White House in the District of Columbia with other news gatherers from Alabama after the program had a report about this former president having cancer. 

• WAVH-FM had a live interview with a candidate for the presidency of the United States named Donald Trump on their local midday news and discussion program ("Midday Mobile") today between 12:30 p.m. and 12:47 p.m. (today's edition of WKRG-TV's local midday news program ("WKRG News 5 at Noon") had a report about WAVH-FM's plan to have such an interview nearly 30 minutes before it happened before having reports about it in their local news programming and their official Facebook page). (WALA-TV and WPMI-TV had reports about the interview in their local news programming also).

News for Wednesday, August 19th, 2015

• An article about how a news presenter for WKRG-TV became eligible for being inducted into the hall of fame for the Alabama Broadcasters Association last Saturday, August 15th, was posted onto the official World Wide Web site for the association by this past Tuesday, August 14th (the name of the news presenter was Mel Showers).

• One of the hosts for WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program (Chasity Byrd of "Studio 10") mentioned that was she supposed to have a "health screening" as part of her position at WALA-TV by 11:00 a.m. today while hosting today's edition of the program (she was explaining why she could not eat one of the hot dogs on today's edition of the program).  

News for Tuesday, August 18th, 2015

• WKRG-TV, WALA-TV, and WPMI-TV each had reports about a candidate for the presidency of the United States named Donald Trump being set to hold a pep rally in Mobile this Friday, August 21st.

• WPMI-TV had a interview with an editor for their news department claiming he had been robbed in Mobile's downtown area about two weeks earlier (the claim was part of a report about a robbery occurring in Mobile's downtown area this past Monday, August 17th).

• Today's edition of WKRG-TV's local 9:00 a.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 9") ended around 9:20 a.m. rather than around 9:25 a.m. like most of its past editions (they had a local programming segment about a law firm in their local broadcast area proceed it on their main broadcast channel between 9:20 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. (the name of the segment was "Marketplace 5"; the name of the law firm was Byron A. Lassiter and Associates). 

News for Monday, August 17th, 2015 (amended)

• A reporter for a national cable TV and satellite TV programming service named the FOX News Channel said the brand name of the news operation for WALA-TV ("FOX 10 News") at the end of a report that was WALA-TV's local 9:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") today (the name of the reporter was Joel Waldman; as for why he said it; it was part of his "sign-off" for the report: "In Washington, I'm Joel Waldman, FOX 10 News") .

• The news presenter for WPMI-TV in this past Sunday's edition of their local 5:00 p.m. news program (the name of the news presenter was Andrea Ramey; the name of the program was "Local 15 News at 5 p.m.") had a report about their holding company (the Sinclair Broadcast Group) and a satellite TV company named Dish Network having a deal to keep their current retransmission consent contract in place for a few more days so that customers of the satellite TV company may continue to receive programming from TV stations within the holding company like WPMI-TV, WJTC-TV, WEAR-TV, and WFGX-TV through the satellite TV company while they, the companies, may continue to have negotiations toward a new retransmission consent contract since the current one was set to expire this past Saturday, August 15th. 

(amendment note: the first paragraph was amended to explain why the reporter for the FOX News Channel used the brand name of the news operation for WALA-TV in his report)

Commentary: An inaccurate comment by a weather reporter

I wish 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") had not referred to the movie "Finding Nemo" as a "kid movie" during a segment of the program for Saturday mornings this past Saturday, August 15th (the segment was titled "Around the Web and Around the World"), since it should appeal to any person of any age (she and the news presenter for the program (Chad Petri) were talking about an image for a sequel to "Finding Nemo" titled "Finding Dory"  on the World Wide Web as part of the segment). She should have not been commenting on anything at all since it was not part of her job as a weather presenter and should not be part of her job at all. If it were, it would not be beneficial to her audience or her career. 

News for Saturday, August 15th, 2015 (amended)

• A news presenter for WKRG-TV was inducted into the hall of fame for the Alabama Broadcasters Association today (his name was Mel Showers).  

• A camera operator for WPMI-TV (Guy Vania) appeared in the last segment of this past Thursday's edition of their local midday news program ("Local 15 Today") after the news presenter for the program (Kelly Jones) told him to do so after using the segment to celebrate his birthday that day (August 13th). 

• The programming feed for the official national cable TV and satellite TV programming service of the National Football League (the NFL Network) provided by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile had an alternative program in place of live programming of a live football game between the Falcons of Atlanta, Georgia, and the Titans of Tennessee that was on the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV this past Friday, August 14th. 

(amendment note for Sunday, August 16th, 2015: the words "into" was changed to a link to an article about the induction on the official World Wide Web site for WKRG-TV and the words "hall of fame for the Alabama Broadcasters Association"  were changed to a link to a section of the official site for the association about their hall of fame)

News for Friday, August 14th, 2015

• The main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV had audio of a new edition of a national network TV news program titled "Early Today" while having video of a new edition of a nationally-syndicated entertainment news program titled "Entertainment Tonight" this past Thursday, August 13th, between 3:30 a.m. and 4:00 a. m. 

• This past Thursday's edition of WALA-TV's local 9:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") had video from 1993 of a recent candidate for the presidency of the United States of America named Donald Trump being given a tour of Mobile by the mayor of Mobile at the time named Michael (Mike) Dow along with video of the candidate making comments about a part of Mobile County he had considered for starting a new casino (the news presenter for the program (Bob Grip) said he remembered the tour while presenting the video on the program).

• WALA-TV was set to have live programming from the official cable TV and satellite TV programming service of the National Football League (the NFL Network) about a live professional football game with the Titans of Tennessee and the Falcons of Atlanta expected to occur today between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. take precedence over having two nationally-syndicated game shows ("Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune") and a live network programming feed for the FOX Broadcasting Company appear on their main broadcast channel in accordance with their regular programming plans, set to have the editions of the game shows they would have had on the channel between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. (in the order they were referenced here) if not for their plan to have football programming in their regular time periods appear on the channel later in the night between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., and set to have recordings of the programs set to appear on the feed between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. ("MasterChef' and "Gotham") appear on the channel between 10:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. (they would appear on the channel in the order they were referenced here).

News for Thursday, August 13th, 2015

• WKRG-TV was set to have live regionally-syndicated programming about a live professional football game with the Saints of New Orleans, Louisiana and the Ravens of Baltimore, Maryland take precedence over having a live programming feed for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) on their main broadcast channel between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. today and set to have recordings of the programs set to be on the feed between those times appear on the channel later today between 10:35 p.m. and 11:37 p.m. and early the next day (Friday, August 14th) between 1:07 a.m. and 3:07 a.m. and also have a recording of the program set to be on the feed between 10:35 p.m. and 11:37 p.m. appear on the channel early the next day between 3:07 a.m. and 4:07 a.m.

News for Wednesday, August 12th, 2015

• The main broadcast channel for WALA-TV recently had a promotional advertisement in one of its commercial breaks about a local 10:00 p.m. news program being added to their regular programming plans and that it would be part of the main channel's programming from Monday through Friday on a regular basis beginning with the Monday of August 24th.*

• According to the official World Wide Web site for the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, three of their programming services (ESPN3, ESPN3, and ESPNU) were set to have programming about three certain collegiate football matches expected expected to take place at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile during the next collegiate football season between this September and December; each of which would involve members of the football team for the University of South Alabama in Mobile.

• According to the guides to the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV provided by Zap2it, TitanTV, TV Guide, and the Comcast Corporation today, by the time they have a local 10:00 p.m. news program added to their regular programming plans by the Monday of this August 24th, the syndicated lifestyle program usually appeared on the channel between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. from Tuesday through Saturday in recent times ("The Better Show") would had been removed from their regular programming plans by then and comedic syndicated programs that usually preceded it between 10:02 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. ("Everybody Loves Raymond", "Hot in Cleveland" (two of its episodes were usually broadcast during this time period) "Raising Hope", "Cougar Town", "Friends" (see note about "Hot in Cleveland") and "Seinfeld") in recent times would had been set to begin appearing on the channel 30 minutes later than usual on a regular basis by then (the programming guides had "paid programming" listed for the second half of the the time period that usually had "The Better Show"). 

(*the last time the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV had a local 10:00 p.m. news program from Monday through Friday on a regular basis was in September 2003)

Commentary: An unnecessary remark in a local TV news program

I wish 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. (Avery Cotton of "WKRG News 5 This Morning") had not said, "Good old George W." in reference to the last person to hold the position of president of the United States (George Walker Bush) while talking about his having been part of a jury in a segment of the program last Friday, August 7th. She and other news presenters and news reporters for WKRG-TV and other companies with news departments should not be allowed to present what may or may not their personal feelings about anything in between or within their news presentations or news reports.

News for Monday, August 10th, 2015 (amended)

• According to WKRG-TV, they were set to hold a telethon for the Boy Scouts of America and have special features about them on some of their local news programs this Tuesday, August 11th. 

• Today's edition of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") had a cooking segment in which one of the hosts for the program (Chasity Byrd) used an expletive (it was not censored; even though Chasity Byrd had said the cooking segments for this edition of the program were recorded in advance in one of its live segments) while asking one of the guests for the segment about whether she, the host, was doing good in the segment or not (she said, "(expletive), am I doing good?"). (you may listen to the segment upon selecting this link). 

• According to the guides to the main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV provided by TitanTV, Zap2it, TV Guide, and the Comcast Corporation, WPMI-TV was set to have a live programming feed from WFLA-TV in Tampa, Florida take precedence over a live programming feed from the National Broadcasting Company on the channel this Saturday, August 15th, between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. (WFLA-TV was set to have programming about a football game involving the Buccaneers of Tampa Bay, Florida and the Vikings of Minnesota expected to occur between those times that day) and have a recording of what the company would have on the feed between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. (such as a gymnastics competition expected to occur between those times that day) appear on the channel during the next day (Sunday, August 16th) between 2:03 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. (the channel usually had a syndicated program titled "Storm Stories" at 2:03 a.m., one edition of a network program from NBC titled "1st Look" at 2:33 a.m., and two editions of another network program from NBC titled "Open House NYC" between 3:03 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. before then)*

(*the program set to be on the feed for NBC between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. this Saturday was a new episode of a dramatic TV program titled "Hannibal")

amendment note: details about the cooking segments for this past Monday's edition of WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program being recorded in advance were added to this report.

News for Sunday, August 9th, 2015

• The local public affairs program that usually appeared on the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV on Sunday between 6:00 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. in recent weeks ("Rise and Shine") appeared on the channel earlier this Sunday between 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. due to WALA-TV being set to have local news programming on the channel between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. this Sunday in accordance with their plan for having local news programming on Saturday and Sunday mornings on a regular basis as of this past Saturday (August 8th) and this Sunday.

• The guides to the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV provided by the cable TV system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile and one of the official World Wide Web sites for the holding system of Comcast Cablevision of Mobile (the Comcast Corporation) had the name "FOX 10 News Special" in reference to the local news programming WALA-TV had between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. this Sunday and this past Saturday instead of the names it usually had for such programming from Monday through Friday ("FOX 10 News at 6:00 AM" and "FOX 10 News at 7:00 AM". 

News for Saturday, August 8th, 2015 (amended)

• One of the weather reporters for WKRG-TV (John Nodar) used their local morning news programming this past Friday, August 7th to present an image* of what he said was a tree limb in his backyard (it appeared between part of a fence) after strong winds caused it to land there  (he said it fell onto some power lines before "sort of" landing near his car and that it caused power to be out in his neighborhood for a while). 

• The member of WALA-TV set to be the weather reporter for the local news programming they would have on Saturday and Sunday mornings (between 6:00 and 9:00) from this day forward (Matt Barrentine) was still set to be the weather reporter for the local news programming they would have this Saturday night (he was usually the weather reporter for their local news programming on Saturday nights before then; as for the time period for the local news programming they had this Saturday night, it was from 9:00 to 9:30).

(amendment note: the last paragraph of this report was amended for clarity) 

News for Friday, August 7th, 2015 (amended)

(note about recent report for this weblog: the report for this past Monday, August 3rd ("News for Monday, August 3rd, 2015") was amended)

• An obituary for a former news reporter for WKRG-TV named Cynthia Williams was set to appear in the Mobile Press-Register's newspapers for this Friday (she had died last Saturday, August 1st).

• WPMI-TV recently had some televised and written news reports about a benefit for a resident of their local broadcast area in which she was referenced by only her forename (or first name) whereas WALA-TV had both her forename and surname (or last name) in their own televised and written reports about the benefit.

• Some of the news presenters for WALA-TV's broadcast news operation used some of their local news programming between today and this past Thursday, August 6th, to promote their plan to have local news programming on Saturday and Sunday mornings between the hours of 6:00 and 8:00 on a regular basis beginning with the Saturday and Sunday of this week (August 8th and August 9th respectively). (the members of their news operation set to be the news presenter and weather reporter for such programming were mentioned as part of these promotions (they were identified as Candace Murphy and Matt Barrentine respectively.) 

 (note about this report being amended: the last paragraph of this report was amended for clarity and grammar)

Commentary: Great news for folks who liked the comedic TV program "Mama's Family"

According to a Facebook message attributed to one of the actors for "Mama's Family" (Vicki Lawrence), the national TV programming service named Memorable Entertainment Television (and Me-TV for short) was set to have it in their programming on a regular basis beginning next January. This should be great news for many residents of southwest Alabama since I understood it was very popular his area during the time it was part of WKRG-TV's programming on a regular basis both before and after production of it had concluded and since WKRG-TV has a digital sub-channel for broadcasting programs from Memorable Entertainment Television.

(note about a feature of this weblog: one of the articles in the "Historical Features" section of this weblog has more information about how "Mama's Family" was broadcast in southwest Alabama years ago)

News for Wednesday, August 5th, 2015

• The director for WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") appeared on today's program of the program (his name was Ryan Coleman).*

• According to WSMV-TV in Nashville, Tennessee, a former news reporter for WKRG-TV named Cynthia Williams died last Saturday, August 1st (she had worked for WSMV-TV after WKRG-TV from 1990 until 2013).  

• The digital guides to the main broadcast channel for WFNA-TV from TitanTV, Comcast, and TV Guide were updated with the name of the program that was usually set to appear on the channel between 8:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. from Monday through Friday since the Tuesday of this past July 14th ("Gimme a Break") after having had the name of the program that was usually set to appear on the channel during that time period from Monday through Friday before then ("The Cosby Show").**

(*his appearances were not live)
(**ones of the guides from Comcast incorrectly had "Gimme a Break" listed as a "reality" program from the year 2008; specifically the guide sent to digital cable TV set-top boxes connected to their cable TV system in Mobile County).

News for Tuesday, August 4th, 2015

• One of the hosts for WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") was interviewed for a news report that was part of today's edition of their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m."); the one named Joe Emer to be precise. 

• A news reporter for WKRG-TV (Joseph Blake ("J. B.") Biunno) used his appearances in today's editions of their local 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. news programs ("WKRG News 5 at 5" and "WKRG News 5 at 6") to direct members of the public who may had been listening to his reports for those appearances to visit their official World Wide Web site for more details he said were "too gruesome" for the programs. 

• Between yesterday (Monday, August 3rd) and this morning, the cable TV system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile started providing a digital TV programming guide to standard-definition and high-definitions digital transport adapters connected to it by then after having been without one for them by then (the system usually only provided such a guide to digital cable TV set-top boxes connected to it by then). 

News for Monday, August 3rd, 2015 (amended)

• Earlier today, the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV had a promotional advertisement for a national network TV program set to be part of their companion station's (WFNA-TV) programming plans for this Wednesday, August 5th (the name of the program was "America's Next Top Model").

• The news presenters for today's editions of WKRG-TV and WPMI-TV's local news programs for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (Avery Cotton of "WKRG News 5 This Morning" and Kelly Jones of "Local 15 Today") each got to interview the governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley) on their respective news programs today whereas a news reporter for WALA-TV (Rebekah Hoeger) got to interview him for their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 4:00 p.m.") later in the day.*

 (*the hyperlinks in the paragraph lead to Twitter messages about the interview attributed to the governor)

(amendment notice: the surname for the news reporter for WALA-TV referenced in this report was corrected and hyperlinked to part of the World Wide Web site for WALA-TV with a profile about her and the names of the news presenters for WKRG-TV and WPMI-TV also referenced in the report were also hyperlinked to the sections of the official sites for their respective stations with profiles about them)

News for Sunday, August 2nd, 2015

• The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV had a video about their history during one of its commercial breaks for today (this weblog had an article about the video being uploaded onto the World Wide Web site YouTube before its broadcast today).

• 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. (Avery Cotton 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 between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.

• A local public affairs program for WZEW-FM named "Community Roundtable" was broadcast later than usual in their programming for this Sunday than on previous Sundays during the time period in which they usually had a national public affairs program on Sunday mornings: between 7:30 and 8:00 to be precise (they usually had the local public affairs program before a national one between 7:00 and 7:30 prior to this Sunday).

Commentary: A local weather reporter uses an unusual word popularized by a recent series of movies

I was surprised to hear a weather reporter for WKRG-TV (named Alan Sealls) use a form of the word "sharknado" in a "teaser" (or preview) for one of the weather segments of their local 10:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 10") this past Friday, July 31st, after one of the news presenters for the program (named Rose Ann Haven) presented a "teaser" for a news report about sharks and wondered whether he got the idea to use it from a series of movies based around that word or not (this is what weather reporter said for his "teaser": "And for this first weekend of August, no hurricanes, no tornadoes, no sharknadoes; but I'll give you the forecast coming up"; as for what the news presenter said for her "teaser", this is what she had to say: "Still to come on News 5 at 10 o'clock: another massive gathering of sharks along our beaches in Baldwin County").