News for Wednesday, March 30th, 2016

• WKRG-TV had a report in which various persons in Mobile's down-town area were asked about whether they could recognize the face of the lieutenant governor of Alabama (Kay Ivey) from the faces of the main actors for a comedic TV program named "The Golden Girls" from a group of photographs of them or not and asked about the nicknames they would apply to the governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley) on their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 5") today. 

• The news presenters for today's editions of WKRG-TV's local 5:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m. news programs (Peter Albrecht for the 5:00 p.m. news program; Mel Showers for the 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. news programs ("WKRG News 5 at 6" and "WKRG News 5 at 10")) used part of their respective programs to deliver a message about the retransmission consent contract between them (and their companion station WFNA-TV) and a satellite TV company named Dish Network expiring this Thursday (the thirty-first day of this March) and the possibility that they may not have a new retransmission consent contract by then.

News for Tuesday, March 29th, 2016

• WJTC-TV had a new promotional video for a syndicated TV program in their regular programming plan for Monday through Friday that had not been produced since the year 1997 in one of the commercial breaks for their main programming feed this past Monday on the twenty-eighth day of this March (the name of the program was "Coach").

• One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WPMI-TV (Darwin Singleton) made this comment about a professional football player from Mobile (Nick Fairley) on today's edition of their local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. ("Local 15 Today") after a report about the player becoming a member of a professional football team based in the city of New Orleans in the state of Louisiana was presented on the program: "Another reason to watch the Saints in Mobile." 

• One of the animated openings for today's edition of WKRG-TV's local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") had audio of one of the news presenters and news reporters for their local news operation (Devon Walsh) making an announcement about the program and its news presenters (they usually had audio of the main announcer for their local news programming and local commercial advertisements in recent times (Jay Gardner) for announcements such as this one; as for what was being said in that particular announcement, it was, "You're watching 'News 5 This Morning' with Bill Riales and Jessica Taloney.").  

News for Monday, March 28th, 2016

• Earlier this March, a new digital sub-channel (radio frequency channel 25-3/virtual channel 55-3) was added to the broadcast operation for WFNA-TV for broadcasting programming from a national TV programming service named the Justice Network.

• One of the news presenters and news reporters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV (Ashley Knight) said they had a "terror alert" as part of a report about explosion in the country of Pakistan on their local 10:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 10") this past Sunday on the twenty-seventh day of this March. 

• The programming feed for the aforementioned digital sub-channel for WFNA-TV was added to the cable TV system for Comcast Cablevision of Mobile between this past Sunday and today (the cable TV channel used to provide the feed through the system used to have a message about the programming feed that used to be on the channel until last November). 

Commentary: A true or false expression of disappointment in news broadcasting

Earlier this calendar week, I had noticed one of the news reporters for one of the local TV news programs in southwest Alabama appearing to express disappointment over the idea that some news reports concerning recent accusations against the governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley) were not getting much attention by national news organizations in spite of their details being what he said were "juicy". This made me wonder whether he was really expressing his own feelings about the reports or just pretending to do so as part of his job. Whether he was really doing so or not, I still thought it was very unprofessional and unjournalistic (note: I had decided not to mention the name of the reporter and the news program since my commentary about them may apply to other reporters and TV news programs. It may also apply to reporters and news programs in other mediums, too).

News for Saturday, March 26th, 2016

• Both WKRG-TV and WALA-TV had at least one promotional video proclaim the idea their local news operations were committed to their local broadcast areas in their  programming on a regular basis recently.*

• A notice concerning the retransmission consent contract between the owners of both WKRG-TV and WFNA-TV (Media General) and a satellite TV company named Dish Network was posted onto the official World Wide Web site for WKRG-TV by this Saturday.   

• WALA-TV had some reports about participants of a local radio program for WAVH-FM commenting about some recent accusations against the governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley) on one of their local news programs and their official World Wide Web site this past Thursday on the twenty-fourth day of this March (the radio program was not identified by its proper name in the reports). 

(*WALA-TV had several videos claiming such commitment in their programming on a regular basis before WKRG-TV had at least one in their programming in the past year; they even had members of their news department make such claims in their news programming and a slogan based around the claim itself during the past year (this was their slogan: "Committed to you").

News for Friday, March 25th, 2016

• According to the official Facebook page for WPMI-TV, video of the control room for their local news programs was streamed live onto the page during their broadcast of today's edition of their midday news program ("Local 15 News at Noon"). 

• According to a World Wide Web site named Zap2it, the main broadcast channels for both WALA-TV and WFNA-TV were set to have a movie named "Desperado" on their respective programming feeds this Sunday (the twenty-seventh day of this March).*

• This morning, the Alabama Public Television station in southwest Alabama (WEIQ-TV) had the programming feed for a national TV programming service named World on one of its digital sub-channels during a time period in which it was set usually set to have programs from a separate national TV programming service named Create TV  (6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.) on a daily basis since last October before returning to having such programs by the middle of the day. 

(*both of them did not have the same owners) 

News for Thursday, March 24th, 2016

• Between 3:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. this past Wednesday (the twenty-third day of this month of March), WKRG-TV, WALA-TV, and WPMI-TV had special programming about a live news conference concerning some public accusations against the governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley) take precedence over the nationally-syndicated programs that usually appeared on their main broadcast channels during that time period from Monday through Friday in recent times ("The Big Bang Theory" for WKRG-TV, "The Dr. Phil Show" for WALA-TV, and "The Wendy Williams Show" for WPMI-TV).

• WPMI-TV had at least three news reports about how one of the local radio announcers for WAVH-FM (Sean Sullivan) and some of the callers for some of their local radio programming felt about the aforementioned accusations against about the governor of Alabama in their local news programming between this past Wednesday and this Thursday (two of the reports were recorded in advance of their respective broadcasts this past Wednesday and today whereas one of them broadcast live as part of their local midday news program ("Local 15 News at Noon") today (the announcer appeared to be busy working on one of their local radio programs in the report while its reporter (Christian Jennings) spoke).

News for Wednesday, March 23rd, 2016

• One of the weather reporters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV (John Nodar) had used part of today's edition of their local 9:00 a.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 9") to say that a senator from the state of Washington was "eating her words" about residents of Alabama not being able to build anything since a video of a airplane that was built in Mobile recently was released to members of the public recently (the video was part of the segment of the program in which he made the comment ("Around the Web and Around the World").

• WKRG-TV had some special news programming from their main provider of network programming (the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)) take precedence over their local 9:00 a.m. news program for a few minutes in their programming this past Tuesday (the twenty-second day of this month of March) just as the weather reporter for the program (John Nodar) was beginning to present one of its weather segments (he said this just before his segment was interrupted by an introduction to the special news programming by the person who usually presented for the program he was on (Devon Walsh): "I think we are going to be interrupted now. The president of the United States...").

• The main broadcast channels for WEAR-TV, WKRG-TV, and WPMI-TV did not have the second halves of the special editions of the national network news programs that were usually only part of their programmings between 5:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. from Monday through Friday between 6:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. this past Tuesday (they had new editions of the local news programs that usually appeared in that time period from Monday through Friday by then).*

(*the main providers of network programmings for WEAR-TV and WPMI-TV were the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) respectively) 

News for Tuesday, March 22nd, 2016

• WKRG-TV, WPMI-TV, and WEAR-TV each had special news programming from their main provider of network programming before breaking away for local news programming in accordance with their regular programming plans this morning (5:00 a.m.). 

• The Alabama Public Television station in southwest Alabama (WEIQ-TV) started having programming from a national TV programming service named World on one of its digital sub-channels before the time period it usually had such programming in recent times this past Monday (the twenty-first day of this March).*

• Last Friday (the eighteenth day of this March), the local news operation for WALA-TV had a news report with a "sign off" based on its subject matter instead of the format that was normally used for their "sign offs" in recent times in their local news programming that day (they were usually in this format: "In [location], [name of reporter], FOX 10 News"; whereas this report ended this way: "I'm Michael Brannon and I'm matched with FOX 10 News in Mobile").

(*6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. was the time period in which it usually had such programming).

News for Monday, March 21st, 2016

(note: the previous report for this weblog ("News for Sunday, March 20th, 2016") was amended with additional information) 

• WALA-TV had live reports about a new airplane built in Mobile take precedence over their local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") for nearly 20 minutes (or from about 9:20 a.m. until about 9:40 a.m.) today (the airplane was the first of its kind to be built in Mobile). 

• Promotional videos for two of the awards bestowed upon WKRG-TV by the Alabama Broadcasters Association this past Saturday (the nineteenth day of this March) began appearing on local news programs for WKRG-TV on a regular basis this past Sunday (the twentieth day of this March).*

• The weather reporter for WALA-TV's local news program for Monday through Friday mornings (Michael White of "FOX 10 News in the Morning") had switched to wearing a striped shirt with long sleeves and no jacket for the last weather segment he had presented for today's edition of the program instead of the plain white dress shirt and jacket he had worn for  its other weather segments before hosting today's edition of their local entertainment and lifestyle program with one of its regular hosts (Joe Emer).  

 (*they usually appeared immediately before some of the commercial breaks for the programs; as for the awards they promoted, they were for the "TV Station of the Year" and "Best Website" awards from the association).

News for Sunday, March 20th, 2016 (amended)

• WKRG-TV, WALA-TV, and WPMI-TV were honored at an awards ceremony hosted by the Alabama Broadcasters Association this past Saturday on the nineteenth day of this March (each of them had a report about the ceremony and their awards in some of their local news programming that day).  

• Video recordings of this past Thursday and Friday's (the seventeenth and eighteenth days of this March) editions of WKRG-TV's local 10:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 10") and were uploaded onto their official YouTube channel (advertisements for the commercial breaks of their programming were included with the recordings between segments of the editions).*

• WALA-TV had their own reports about their main provider of network programming's (the FOX Broadcasting Company) plan to have a special TV program titled "The Passion" for them and other TV stations in their local news programming both today and this past Friday and Saturday (the reports for today were live from where the program was expected to be produced).  

(*the editions were broadcast later than WKRG-TV's regular time period for having new editions of it in their programming from Monday through Friday (between 10:00 p.m. and 10:33 p.m) due to some sports programming (from their main provider of network programming: the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)) they had on their main broadcast channel in that time period)

News for Saturday, March 19th, 2016

• WKRG-TV had videos* of past Azalea Trail Runs in a report about plans for another run that was part of their local news programming both this past Friday evening (on the the eighteenth day of this March) and this Saturday morning. (*according to the report, the videos included the runs for the years 1982 and 1984)  

• The main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV had special programming* about an exhibition of boats (the Wharf Boat & Yacht Show) near the city of Orange Beach in southwest Alabama during the second half of the time period in which they usually had a local midday news program in its programming from Monday through Friday ("Local 15 News at Noon" between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m.) this past Friday. (*the aspect ratio of the video for the special programming was 4 to 3 whereas the one for the local news program was 16 to 9)

• The news presenter for this past Friday's edition of the local 9:00 a.m. news program for WKRG-TV (Devon Walsh of "WKRG News 5 at 9") had used one of its news segments to present a message about two serialized TV programs (or "soap operas") that were usually part of their main broadcast channel's programming from Monday through Friday ("The Young and the Restless" and "The Bold and the Beautiful"*) not being part of their programming plans for this past Friday due to some special programming plans by the provider of those programs (the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)) for the time periods in which they usually had those programs available to them from Monday through Friday and that she and other members of WKRG-TV had heard from folks who missed those programs every time they had special programming in place of them such as the kind they had this past Friday (broadcasts of live collegiate basketball games) and that they, the folks who missed the programs, would not be missing anything new from them since their provider's plans to provide new episodes of them were on hold for that Friday. (*"The Bold and the Beautiful" was not mentioned by name in the message)

News for Friday, March 18th, 2016

• WKRG-TV had a cake wishing one of the regular news presenters for their local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. a happy spring on today's edition of the program (the name of the news presenter was Bill Riales; the name of the program was "WKRG News 5 This Morning").

• A video about how some recent video recordings for the local news operation at WPMI-TV were prepared for some of their recent local news programming was uploaded onto the professional Facebook page for one of the news presenters for the operation (Kelly Jones was the name of that news presenter) this past Wednesday (the sixteenth day of this March). 

• A national cable TV and satellite TV programming service named the NBC Sports Network had a program about a professional automobile race that occurred in the Irvington area of Mobile County in southwest Alabama (southwest of Mobile) last Sunday (the thirteenth day of this March) this past Thursday (the seventeenth day of this March) between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (the name of the race was the NASCAR K&N Mobile 150).  

News for Thursday, March 17th, 2016

• WPMI-TV had a report about a legend popularized by their news department and the one for WKRG-TV back in the year 2006 in observance of this day being celebrated as "Saint Patrick's Day" in various parts of the world and the fact that the legend was connected to the Saint Patrick's Day of the year 2006 in their local news programming today.

• WPMI-TV has had a report from a charitable video service named Chideo on Thursday editions of their local midday news program ("Local 15 News at Noon") on a weekly basis over the past year (according to the official World Wide Web site for the service, the holding company (or "parent company") for WPMI-TV had a partnership with them).  

• As of this writing, one of the official programming guides for the programming feed of Alabama Public Television that was usually set to have programs from a national TV programming service named Create TV from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. before having programs from a a national TV programming service named World from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. in recent times has listings for programs from the service named World for the hours between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. for the days after the end of this March (the feed usually only had programs from World on a daily basis until the first day of last October).

News for Wednesday, March 16th, 2016

• An earlier report for this weblog was amended to reflect the fact that sometime between this past January and this March the broadcast frequency for WXQW-AM was set to have the same programming feed as the one for the broadcast frequency for WGOK-AM not only every Sunday but every Saturday too.

• A news reporter for the local news operation at WPMI-TV said the person she was about to interview in a live report for their local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. ("Local 15 Today") this past Tuesday (the fifteenth day of this March) was a former producer of theirs representing the chamber of commerce in the city of Fairhope in southwest Alabama in the report (the name of the reporter was Katie Herrera; the name of the person she had interviewed was Denise Curtis) 

• The weather reporter for the local news programming WALA-TV had between 9:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. this past Monday (the fourteenth day of this March) said folks did "not even have to [correctly] spell" the name "Child Advocacy Center" on a World Wide Web site named Google and that it would "figure" out their spellings in case they were incorrect while using one of the weather segments for the program to promote plans for an event to help an organization in Mobile with that name this Saturday on the nineteenth day of this month (WALA-TV was one of the sponsors of those plans; as for the name of the reporter, it was Jason Smith).

News for Tuesday, March 15th, 2016

• A compilation of video recordings of a former news presenter and news reporter for the local news operation at WKRG-TV named Susan Fonger (she was named "Susan Semmes" in the videos) dated 1983 was uploaded onto the World Wide Web site YouTube last Saturday (the twelfth day of this March).   

• According to a live news report for WKRG-TV about a festival sponsored by them (the "Festival of Flowers" in Mobile) that was part of their local 9:00 a.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 9") this past Monday (the fourteenth day of this March), the festival had packages of seeds named after the brand name for their local news operation and their main programming feed ("News 5") with a phrase celebrating their history of broadcasting ("planted in our community for over 60 years"). 

• The most recent birthday for a designer of graphics for WPMI-TV who used to be a radio announcer and a telephone receptionist (or "call screener") for a local radio program for WNTM-AM ("The Uncle Henry Show") was acknowledged as part of a regular feature of WPMI-TV's local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. ("Local 15 Today") this past Monday in which recent birthdays such as hers were acknowledged by either one or both of the regular news presenters for the program (Leeanna Matteson was the name of the designer; as for her most recent birthday, it was last Saturday). 

News for Monday, March 14th, 2016

• The local news programming WKRG-TV had on their main broadcast channel this past Sunday (the thirteenth day of March) between 10:00 p.m. and 10:35 p.m. included a news report with video of a news reporter of theirs who usually did not appear or speak in their local news programming since joining them this past February (her name was Cassie Fambro).* 

• By the time today's editions of the local news programs WKRG-TV and WALA-TV usually had in their programming at 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. from Monday through Friday resumed at those times, the one for WPMI-TV had all ready resumed about an minute earlier before each of those times (the names for the programs they had were "WKRG News 5 This Morning", "FOX 10 News in the Morning", and "Local 15 Today" respectively). 

• WPMI-TV had video of one of the news presenters for their local news operation conducting an interview with a candidate for the presidency of the United States named Marco Rubio in their local news programming today (according to some administrative messages on the official Facebook page for WPMI-TV, the interview was conducted this morning and streamed live through their live video feed before being uploaded onto their official World Wide Web site and televised in fragments in their local news programming today). 

News for Sunday, March 13th, 2016

• WKRG-TV recently started having news reports named "5 Things You Need to Know" presented in the first segment of one of their local news programs for Monday through Friday mornings on a regular basis rather than its last segment; specifically the program they had during the morning hours of 5:00 and 6:00 from Monday through Friday in recent times ("WKRG News 5 This Morning" was the name of that program).*

• The first and second halves of this past Saturday's edition of WALA-TV's local news program for Saturday and Sunday mornings ("FOX 10 News in the Morning" was the name of the program) on the twelfth day of this March began with animated graphics normally used for "breaking news" in their local news programming in recent times instead of the animated graphics that were normally used at the beginnings of new editions of programs like this one in recent times. 

• According to a statement by the weather reporter in one of the weather segments the local news programming WALA-TV had this past Saturday morning, the weather reporter for WALA-TV who usually only appeared in their local news programming from Monday through Friday evenings in recent times had "the flu" (also known as influenza) in the past calendar week before his appearance in the weather segments for the local news programming they had this past Saturday evening (Jason Smith was the name of that reporter said to have "the flu"; Matt Barrentine was the name of the reporter who said it). 

 (*they usually only had these reports near the end of the program before the end of the previous calendar week)  

News for Saturday, March 12th, 2016

• According to some messages on the official Facebook page for Alabama Public Radio and the one for their radio station in southwest Alabama (WHIL-FM) dated for this past Friday (the eleventh day of this March), some severe weather caused the broadcast signal for the station to be off the air temporarily that day.

• Two weather reporters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV (Thomas Geboy and Melissa Constanzer) appeared to be using a live video stream for their official Facebook page to respond to messages posted by visitors of the page and talk about their selves and weather conditions in their local broadcast area this past Friday.* 

• WPMI-TV had video of an animated duck walking with an umbrella and drops of water splashing from beneath his or her feet that was normally used in some of the local news programming for WALA-TV and WKRG-TV in recent times in some of the weather segments for their own local news programming this past Friday (at least one of the weather reporters for WPMI-TV (Kelly Foster) referred to the duck by the same name used by some of the weather reporters for WKRG-TV and WALA-TV as they were presenting their weather reports with it: the "puddle ducky"). 

(*the videos recordings for the official Facebook pages for WALA-TV and WPMI-TV mentioned here recently may had been streamed live, too, based on the labels beneath them on their respective pages)

News for Friday, March 11th, 2016

• A video recording of the set of the local TV news programs for WALA-TV from the time of the local news programming they had on their main broadcast channel between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. this past Tuesday (the eighth day of this March) from a camera not used in the production of the programming was uploaded onto their official Facebook page that day.

• According to a message attributed to one of the weather reporters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV that was posted onto the professional Facebook page for that reporter this past Wednesday (the ninth day of this March) , they had recently gotten a new weather reporter for their operation named Thomas Geboy (the name of the reporter to whom the message was attributed was Alan Sealls).  

• According to a message attributed to one of the news reporters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV that was posted onto the professional Facebook page for that reporter and a message attributed to one of the hosts for one of the local radio programs for WAVH-FM that was posted onto the professional Twitter page for that host this past Wednesday, the reporter had visited the program talk about the subject of some news reports that she and the rest of WKRG-TV had in their local news programming earlier this calendar week (the name of the reporter was Emily DeVoe; the name of the host was Sean Sullivan; as for the name of the program, it was "Midday Mobile"). 

News for Thursday, March 10th, 2016

• WALA-TV had promotions about a special TV program of theirs named "The FOX 10 Surprise Squad Special" being part of their programming plans for next Tuesday (the fifteenth day of this March) in their programming this past Wednesday (the ninth day of this March). One of them came in the form of an announcement in the local news programming they had between 9:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. that day whereas at least one other promotion came in the form of a promotional video that appeared on their main broadcast channel during at least one of its commercial breaks for that day (according to the guides to the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV from Zap2it and TitanTV the special program was set to appear on it between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and the network program that would have appeared on it during that time period if not for the special program was set on it later the next day (or next Wednesday: the sixteenth day of this March) between 1:30 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. (the channel was usually set to have an episode of a comedic TV program named "Everybody Loves Raymond" in that time period from Tuesday through Friday in recent times; as for the name of the network program that may be broadcast in place of it in that time period next Wednesday, it was "New Girl")).

News for Wednesday, March 9th, 2016

• An administrator for the official Facebook page for WABF-AM recently posted a message there about a plan to transfer ownership of WABF-AM from their current owners (the Gulf Coast Broadcasting Company) to the owners of WERM-AM (the message was dated for the first day of this March; as for the name of the owners of WERM-AM, it was the Eternity Media Group).* 

• According to a message on the official Facebook page for WKRG-TV attributed to an administrator for it, some of the text for the national news reports displayed in the ticker normally used in their local morning and midday news programming in recent times was generated by the Associated Press (the message was posted in response to a message attributed to a visitor of the page concerning an error in spelling in one of the reports for the ticker; as for when the message was dated, it was dated for this Wednesday). 

• A video recording of a news presenter for WPMI-TV (Kelly Jones) and two guests of theirs (Matt McCoy and Greg Hill of WRGV-FM) interacting on the set of their local news programs before, during, and after their appearances in a programming segment of theirs for one of those programs ("Local 15 News at Noon") was uploaded onto their official Facebook page a few hours before the segment was broadcast as part of the program this past Monday (the seventh day of this March).**

(*news related to the plan was posted on this weblog earlier this year; back in February to be precise)

(**a video recording of the segment the way it appeared on the news program was uploaded onto the official World Wide Web site for WPMI-TV after its broadcast). 

News for Tuesday, March 8th, 2016

• WPMI-TV had what appeared to be a video recording of one of their news reporters redoing part of a news report she did for one of the local news programs they did for their companion station ("Local 15 News at 6:30 [p.m.]" for WJTC-TV) this past Monday, (the seventh day of this March) (the reporter appeared to be responding to the way the video was introduced as if she were having a live conversation with the person who introduced it before stopping herself to redo the response (she said, "All right, three, two, one" immediately after stopping and redoing it).* 

• One of the news presenters for the local news program WPMI-TV had on their main broadcast channel between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. today ("Local 15 Today") said she wanted to tell her audience that a national TV programming service named the Tennis Channel was one of the "newest additions" to their holding (or "parent") company (the Sinclair Broadcast Group) after presenting a report attributed to the service on today's edition of the program (this is what she said, "And we want to tell you this: Tennis Channel is one of our newest additions to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. We love having them and of course as they continue to bring you news like that we'll continue to track it just for you"). 

• There was no mention of WPMI-TV continuing to have programming segments dedicated to questions and advise about the legal system in the United States on Monday editions of their local midday news program ("Local 15 News at Noon") after the end of the most recent football season for the National Football League in their promotional videos about having such segments during the season due to some folks being unable to watch and/or hear their program dedicated entirely to questions and advise about the system ("Local 15 LawCall" was the name of the program) after their broadcasts of network programming about live football games officiated by the league on Sunday nights during the season (the games were usually broadcast under the name "Sunday Night Football").

(*the report was similar to one they had on one of the local news programs they had on their own broadcast channel earlier this past Monday (the earlier one had a graphic with the word "live" unlike the one they had later))

Commentary: Local news reports about anniversary with odd number and weather reports with clothing suggestions

• I wish some of the weather reporters for some of the local TV stations in southwest Alabama would not occasionally use their jobs suggest what viewers and/or listeners of their respective stations' broadcasts should wear; especially since one of them did so more often than usual between this past Saturday and this past Sunday (the fifth and sixth days of this March respectively). Perhaps he was forced to do so by someone in a higher position at his station and he would have lost his own position had he not done so.

• I heard some news reports from WALA-TV and WPMI-TV about today being the 51st anniversary of the day a certain group of protesters in the city of Selma in the central part of Alabama was attacked by police and thought they were very unusual since they and other broadcasters usually had reports like those in which the numbers for the anniversaries acknowledged by them were even numbers; especially since they had more reports about the 50th anniversary of the attack in Selma than the ones they had for the 51st anniversary.

News for Saturday, March 5th, 2016

• The digital sub-channel for WFNA-TV had live syndicated programming from Raycom Media about a series of championship basketball games officiated by the Alabama High School Athletic Association today and this past Friday (the fourth day of this March).*

• WKRG-TV had reports about one of their news reporters being part of a charitable event in which she and other folks were set to rappel from a building in Mobile with a height of 20 stories this past Friday in their local news programming that Friday (some of the reports were made by the reporter herself: Jacqueline Quynh).

• According to WKRG-TV, technical problems prevented video of the news presenter and weather reporter for the last segment of this past Friday's edition of their local 9:00 a.m. news program from appearing in its final segment for much of its broadcast along with video of one of the subjects they had discussed as part of the segment (Devon Walsh was the name of the news presenter; John Nodar was the name of the weather reporter; the name of the program was "WKRG News 5 at 9").**

(*the channel usually had programming from a national TV programming service named Bounce TV by then)

(**they were able to have video for the other subject discussed as part of the segment along with video of the news presenter and weather reporter signing off near the very end of the segment) 

News for Friday, March 4th, 2016

• The main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV had a programming segment of theirs that was usually part of its programming between segments of their local midday news program ("WKRG News 5 at Noon") between segments of their local local 5:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 5") this past Wednesday (the second day of this March).*

• WKRG-TV had a report with video of a local radio program for WAVH-FM in their local news programming between this past Thursday (the third day of this March) and this morning (the name of the radio program was "Midday Mobile"; as for what the report was about, it was about a member of the council for the city of Mobile named John Williams discussing recent problems between the mayor of Mobile and other members of the council**).

• WPMI-TV had a report about a former sports reporter for WKRG-TV named James Scott Hunter on their local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. today (the name of the program was "Local 15 Today"; as for what the report was about, it was about how anterior cruciate ligaments (also known as ACLs for brevity) were treated over the past hundred years such as the ones for the sports reporter during the time he was a professional football player).

(*the programming segment had two members of a law firm based in Mobile named Cunningham Bounds talked about their business with a former news presenter for WKRG-TV named Drexel Gilbert; the name of the segment was "Legal Update").

(**you may access audio recordings of the edition of the radio program featured in the report through this hyperlink; specifically the part with the member of the council that report was about)

News for Thursday, March 3rd, 2016

• According to the official Facebook page for a business based in Mobile named Sign Pro, some members of the business had made some murals for the interior of the broadcast facility for WKRG-TV in Mobile earlier this year.  

• One of the digital sub-channels for the Alabama Public Television station licensed to serve Mobile (WEIQ-TV) did not have the first 30 minutes of a program nearly 90 minutes in length from the live programming feed for a national TV programming service named World between 5:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. this past Wednesday (the second day of this March) due to its time for having programs for a national TV programming service named Create TV for the day not expiring until 6:00 p.m. (the name of the program was "Afropop: the Ultimate Cultural Exchange"). 

News for Wednesday, March 2nd, 2016

• WFGX-TV had technical problems in having a live video feed of a special program from another TV station within their holding company (WJLA-TV in the District of Columbia) about the presidential primary elections held in various parts of the United States (including the state of Alabama) appear on their main broadcast channel this past Tuesday (the first day of this March): they involved the channel having a live programming feed for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and no programming at all (just blackness) instead of the special program at various points between 8:00 p.m. and 8:05 p.m. before having a graphic with a message about the technical problems along with audio of the special program before finally having the special program alone by 8:06 p.m. (the video for the special program appeared as if it had been stretched horizontally unlike the way it appeared on the main broadcast station for WJTC-TV (another member of the same holding company in the TV market for Mobile). *

(*the name of the holding company was the Sinclair Broadcast Group)

News for Tuesday, March 1st, 2016

• WALA-TV had a report with a former news reporter of theirs named in their local news programming this past Monday (the 29th day of this past February). Her name was Derica Williams and she was narrating it for her current station in the city of Milwaukee in the state of Wisconsin (WITI-TV).*

• The first edition of a new TV program for a national cable TV and satellite TV programming service named Investigation Discovery had segments about a case of murder that occurred in southwest Alabama in the year 1981 this past Monday (*the name of the program was "Hate in America: The Klan on Trial").

• According to WPMI-TV, the digital sub-channel for their companion station (WJTC-TV) was set to have special programming from another TV station within their holding company (WJLA-TV in the District of Columbia) about presidential primary elections that were expected to occur in various parts of the United States (including the state of Alabama) today (the channel usually had programming from a national TV programming service named Grit). 

(*the news presenter for WALA-TV who presented the report (Bob Grip) had acknowledged her having been part of their local news operation in the past later in the programming)