News for Thursday, September 29th, 2016

• According to the official Facebook page for WABF-AM, there were some plans to have their programming broadcast over the Internet and through a FM radio frequency in addition to their AM radio frequency in the future.

• WALA-TV had a report about the director of their news operation (Scott Flannigan) sending a letter to leaders of the city of Mobile in southwest Alabama about a video recording of an incident involving members of the police department for Mobile and pepper spray used against a group of students in the mid-town area of Mobile back on the Friday of the second day of this September in their local news programming this past Wednesday on the twenty-eighth day of this September.  

• One of the hosts of a radio program for Mississippi Public Broadcasting (Cherita Brent of "Everyday Tech") used the edition of the program for this past Wednesday to say it was the last one for its other host (Ashley Jefcoat) due to a plan for the other host to relocate from the state of Mississippi to the state of Colorado in the future (note: you may listen to some of the previous editions of the program with the host named Ashley Jefcoat through a certain World Wide Web site related to this Mississippi Public Broadcasting).* 

(*certain parts of southwest Alabama were within the broadcast area of one of the radio stations in the radio network for this Mississippi Public Broadcasting (WMAH-FM in southeast Mississippi to be precise))

News for Wednesday, September 28th, 2016

• A mandatory test of the national Emergency Alert System caused some cable TV receivers  connected to the cable TV system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile to freeze with the words, "The video signal has been interrupted".

• Part of a news report for the local news operation at WKRG-TV was used on a national TV and radio news program named "Democracy Now!" this Wednesday (one of the news presenters on the program (Amy Goodman) falsely said it was an interview for "the local FOX affiliate in Alabama", even though WKRG-TV was actually an affiliate of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and Alabama had more than one station affiliated with the FOX Broadcasting Company (including WALA-TV in the city of Mobile) by then.*

• The news presenters on the local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. (Bill Riales and Jessica Taloney on "WKRG News 5 This Morning") and one of the hosts on the local entertainment and lifestyle program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. this Wednesday (Joe Emer on "Studio 10") had each made fun of another member of their broadcast operation (Joseph Blake (J. B.) Biunno of WKRG-TV; Devan Coffaro of WALA-TV) for appearing in some video for a national TV program about a live baseball game this past Tuesday on the twenty-seventh day of this September while presenting a report about an incident that occurred near that member (a message about the incident attributed to the member named Devan Coffaro was posted onto her professional Facebook page for WALA-TV).

(*you may access the edition of the program with the report on the official World Wide Web site for the program upon selecting this link (you may access the part of the program with the report much quicker by setting the video player on the site to 20:00))

News for Tuesday, September 27th, 2016

• The live video stream for WALA-TV had video of the studio for their local news programs being prepared for holding a debate between two candidates for the position of mayor of the city of Prichard in southwest Alabama (the names of the candidates were Jimmie Gardner and Troy Ephraim) for one of those programs this Tuesday (the one named "FOX 10 News at 4:00 p.m." had it).*

• Some video recordings of commercial and/or promotional advertisements that appeared on the analog broadcast channels for WEAR-TV and WKRG-TV several calendar years ago were uploaded onto the official World Wide Web site for an Internet video service named YouTube earlier this calendar year (the recordings of the advertisements that appeared on the channel for WEAR-TV were dated for the years 1988 and 1989; the recordings of the advertisements that appeared on the channel for WKRG-TV were dated for the years 1986 and 1989 (three in total for 1989)). 

• A portion of a special TV program for WEAR-TV originally broadcast in the year 1996 (under the name "Legends of The Moors") was uploaded onto their official World Wide Web site this past Monday on the twenty-sixth day of this September in memory of a famous professional golfer who died last Sunday on the twenty-fifth day of this September (the portion featured appearances by him and some members of the news department for WEAR-TV during the time it was produced and during recent times (their names were Arnold Palmer, Dan Shugart, and Bob Solarski respectively). 

(*some live audio from the studio as it was being prepared for the debate was streamed until it was replaced by some audio recordings for some of the local TV programs for WALA-TV)

News for Monday, September 26th, 2016

• The main broadcast channel for WFNA-TV had segments of a local radio program for WNTM-AM ("The Uncle Henry Show") in accordance with a plan for the channel to have segments of the program on a daily basis from Monday through Friday (between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.) beginning with its broadcast for this Monday (you may access video recordings of the segments that appeared on the channel this Monday through the videos section of the official Facebook page for WNTM-AM).   

• According to a notice sent to customers of Comcast Cablevision of Mobile this September, there was a plan to move the programming feed for the Tennis Channel in the cable TV system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile from their Sports Entertainment service to their Digital Preferred service by the Tuesday of the twenty-second day of this November and a plan to move the programming feeds from Viceland and FYI from their Digital Starter service to their Digital Preferred service by the Thursday of the seventeenth day of this November. 

• The local news programs that appeared on the main broadcast channels for WKRG-TV and WPMI-TV between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. this Monday ("WKRG News 5 This Morning" and "Local 15 Today") simultaneously had segments about dogs available for adoption from organizations specialized in sheltering them in the county of Mobile in southwest Alabama (the Mobile Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Mobile SPCA) for the dog featured in the segment for WKRG-TV; the Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) for the dog featured in the segment for WPMI-TV).

News for Sunday, September 25th, 2016

• Earlier this calendar week, the guides to the main broadcast channel for WFNA-TV from Zap2it and TitanTV, TV Guide, and Comcast did not have listings for a local radio program from the local broadcast area of WFNA-TV set to appear on the channel on a daily basis from Monday through Friday by the Monday of the twenty-sixth day of this September ("The Uncle Henry Show" for WNTM-AM). As for whether they did as of this writing, only the ones from TV Guide and Comcast did.

• Some of the news presenters for the local news operation at WALA-TV had used some of their local news programming for this calendar week to say their local news operation was set to host a debate between two candidates for the position of mayor of the city of Prichard in southwest Alabama (the names of the candidates were Troy Ephraim and Jimmie Gardner) on one of their local news programs for Monday through Friday ("FOX 10 News at 4:00 p.m.") next Tuesday on the twenty-eighth day of this September (beginning at 4:30 p.m.).  

• The first segment of the local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV this morning ("FOX 10 News in the Morning" between 6:00 and 8:00) began with a silent version of an animated sequence normally used for "breaking news" on their local news programs in recent times before the news that resulted in its broadcast (a person setting fire to a tree at Auburn University in the city of Auburn in southeast Alabama) was presented (the person who presented it (Rebekah Hoeger) did so immediately after presenting this comment about it: "Breaking this morning, the Toomer's Corner oaks at Auburn just can't take a break").

News for Saturday, September 24th, 2016

 (note: the first paragraph of the report titled "News for Friday, September 23rd, 2016" was corrected)

• A commentary about news broadcasting and news publishing attributed to a former production manager for WKRG-TV (Charles (Charlie) Andrew Baumhauer III) was published by a news agency based in the city of Mobile in southwest Alabama named Lagniappe this past Wednesday on the twenty-first day of this September.*

• A news article for this weblog about a certain cable TV channel becoming available to digital transport adapters connected to the cable TV system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile by the end of this past August published earlier this September was amended to reflect the fact that its programming was only authorized for certain types of digital transport adapters connected to the system.  

• According to a news release attributed to the holding (or "parent") company of WABD-FM (Cumulus Media), some changes to their plan for local news programming for Monday through Friday were set to take effect next Monday on the twenty-sixth day of this September due to their plan to have a new syndicated radio program in their programming on a regular basis during a time period when they usually had a local radio program of their own from Monday through Friday mornings in recent times (the name of the syndicated one was "Zazza Mornings with Cheree"; the name of the local one was "John [Marty] in the Morning"). 

(*according to a Facebook page attributed to the former production manager, his tenure at WKRG-TV lasted from the year 1977 until the year 1996)

News for Friday, September 23rd, 2016 (corrected)

 (correction note: the suffix for the radio station mentioned in the first paragraph of this report was corrected)

• WALA-TV had an interview with two members of a radio station for the University of South Alabama in the city of Mobile in southwest Alabama (WJGR-LP/"The Prowl") on a local TV program of theirs dedicated to entertainment and lifestyles ("Studio 10") this Friday (the names of the members were Heather Stanley (an advisor for the station), and Caitlyn Penter (an announcer for the station)).

• One of the news presenters on the local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV this morning (Darwin Singleton on "Local 15 Today") said they were working toward having a "live look" into a high school in their local broadcast area (Leroy High School in the city of Leroy in southwest Alabama) on the program this Friday and the reason for their not having it on the program by then was due to cellular technology being sparse in the area where the school was located after it had a report about the school recorded earlier and before it had two other reports about it that were recorded earlier, including one in which its narrator (Katie Herrera) had apologized for what she said were "technical difficulties" (she did not explain what she meant by "technical difficulties"). 

News for Thursday, September 22nd, 2016

• One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WALA-TV (Bob Grip) said a news report for a TV station located outside of southwest Alabama (WFXT-TV in the city of Boston in the state of Massachusetts) had a kind of story that will "break your heart and make you angry all at the same time" (it was about a person "overdosing" on a drug and her child standing by her afterwards) on two of their own local news programs this Thursday (this is how he used that phrase on the one named "FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m.": "This is the story that will--that will break your heart and get you angry all at the same time"; this is how he used it on the one named "FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.": "This still will come as the [kind of] story that will break your heart and make you angry all at the same time").

• One of the news presenters and news reporters for the local news operation at WALA-TV (Renee Dials) appeared to be telling members of the audience for one of their local news programs for this past Wednesday on the twenty-first day of this September ("FOX 10 News at 10:00 p.m.") that they"should be able to see police video when an important event happens" while comparing an incident that occurred in the city of Mobile in southwest Alabama involving a member of the department of police for Mobile using "pepper spray" against a group of students of McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile earlier this September to a more recent incident that occurred in the city of Tulsa in the state of Oklahoma that involved a person suspected of having a weapon getting shot to death by a member of the department of police for Tulsa (she said requests for video of the incident were sent to leaders of Mobile earlier this calendar week after a request for such video was forwarded to the legal department for the department of police in Mobile before saying, "We will continue to fight for your right to see videos from police paid for by your tax dollar").

News for Wednesday, September 21st, 2016

• One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WALA-TV (Bob Grip) had referred to the 85th birthday of a former archbishop for the archdiocese of Mobile (Oscar Lipscomb) as his "85th anniversary" (as in, "the 85th anniversary of Oscar Lipscomb") while presenting a report about a celebration of both his 85th birthday (this Wednesday) and the 60th anniversary of the day he was ordained a priest (the anniversary was on the Friday of the fifteenth day of this past July) in their local news programming this past Tuesday on the twentieth day of this September (between 9:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.).  

• One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WALA-TV (Lenise Ligon) said she had "reached out to some" of her "reporter friends" about a protest in the city of Charlotte in the state of North Carolina before describing some Twitter messages about the protest attributed to whom she said were reporters with whom she had worked while in Charlotte while part of their local news programming this past Tuesday (between 9:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.).

• Videos about the local news program that usually appeared on the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV from Monday through Friday mornings in recent times ("FOX 10 News in the Morning") were uploaded onto a Facebook page for one of its news presenters (Sarah Wall) and the main Facebook page for WALA-TV on a regular basis since last Thursday on the fifteenth day of September.  

News for Tuesday, September 20th, 2016

• According to some past TV programming guides published by the Mobile Press-Register between the years 1982 and 1988, the earliest editions of a national TV game program that usually appeared on the programming feeds for a national cable TV and satellite TV programming service named the Game Show Network (GSN) under the name "The $25,000 Pyramid" on a daily basis since the Monday of the twentieth day of this past June were not part of the programming plans for the TV station in southwest Alabama affiliated with their original distributor (WKRG-TV was the name of the station; the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) was the name of the distributor).*

• A local TV program for WALA-TV dedicated to entertainment and lifestyles ("Studio 10") had one of its hosts (Michael White) tell its other host (Chasity Byrd) that her nephew (she called him "Swayden" on the program) was on their local news program for Monday through Friday mornings ("FOX 10 News in the Morning") this Tuesday and that her niece was going to be on the program in a way similar to the way the nephew appeared on the program (both of them were in weather segments named "Bus Stop Forecasts") "until something happened in the video" with the niece that prevented her from appearing on the program (the host named Michael White also commented about the segment with the nephew being "butchered" by a graphic with incorrect weather information that was gradually removed during its broadcast (video of the nephew on the news program was shown on the entertainment and lifestyle program)).

(*according to the same programming guides, WJTC-TV had later editions of the program in their programming plans by the year 1986 (they were not affiliated with a national TV network like the one for CBS by then), along with editions of other network game programs from CBS that were not set to appear on the broadcast channel for WKRG-TV such as their versions of "Family Feud" and "Card Sharks")

News for Monday, September 19th, 2016

• Some video of a member of the local news operation at WALA-TV (Michael White) doing what he said was a weather report for WZEW-FM and WNSP-FM before walking toward the studio normally used for local TV programs at WALA-TV was uploaded onto his professional Facebook page and the main Facebook page for WALA-TV this Monday. *

• The local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. this Monday ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") had what to be appeared to be live video of a member of the Cable News Network (Karin Caifa) located in the city of New York in the state of New York interacting with the news presenters for the program (Bob Grip and Lenise Ligon) located on the set of the program in the city of Mobile in southwest Alabama.** 

• Two of the hosts for a local TV program for WALA-TV dedicated to entertainment and lifestyles (Michael White and Chasity Byrd of "Studio 10") were using a box with pictures related to various national TV programs for main provider of network TV programming (the FOX Broadcasting Company) to promote two of those programs ("Gotham" and "Lucifer") on the aforementioned local TV program this Monday (the one named Michael White said the box was provided to them by "the network" and said it was a kind of box sent "to all of the affiliates"). 

(*WZEW-FM and WNSP-FM were members of the same company (Dot Com Plus in Mobile)
(**the news presenter named Bob Grip appeared to have had problems interacting interacting with the news reporter before ending their sessions prematurely (the reporter was asking if he could repeat his question just as he was "signing off" for her (the news presenter named Lenise Ligon told him she had thought she had heard the reporter that time (he said, "Right" in response)).

News for Sunday, September 18th, 2016

• The official Facebook page for WAVH-FM had a message dated for this past Friday on the sixteenth day of this September about a list of survey questions concerning their broadcast operation for listeners of their radio programming to answer.

• The main broadcast channel for WALA-TV had a local news program a few hours later than usual this past Saturday night on the seventeenth day of this September (it was broadcast between 11:45 that night and 12:15 this morning) after having special national network programming (from the FOX Broadcasting Company) when it usually had a local news program on Saturday in recent times (9:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.). 

• The news reporter for the local news operation at WPMI-TV who usually presented news for their local news programs for Sunday evenings ("Local 15 News at 5 p.m." and "Local 15 News at 10 p.m.") and hosted a local TV program of theirs dedicated to legal advice ("Local 15 LawCall") on Sunday evenings (and occasionally on Saturday evenings due to their main broadcast channel being set to have special network programming during its regular broadcast time for Sunday evening) in recent times (Andrea Ramey) was one of the news presenters for their local news program for Monday through Friday mornings ("Local 15 Today" was the name of the program; Darwin Singleton was the name of the other news presenter) and the one for the first half of 12:00 p.m. ("Local 15 News at Noon") since this past Monday on the twelfth day of this September due to a former member of the operation who usually presented news on the programs in recent times (Kelly Jones) leaving their broadcast operation on the Friday of the second day of this September. 

News for Saturday, September 17th, 2016

• The sports reporter for the local news operation at WKRG-TV (Randy Patrick Setterstrom) had used some of their local news programming for this past Friday on the sixteenth day of this September (specifically the local news programming they had on their main broadcast channel between 6:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. that day (under the "WKRG News 5 at 6 [p.m.]")) to say they had "late word" of a plan for the main broadcast channel of WJTC-TV to have special programming about a football game involving the football team for the University of South Alabama in the city of Mobile in southwest Alabama expected for this Saturday being cancelled (there was still a plan to have such a game streamed live through an Internet video service named ESPN3 by then, though). 

• The main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV had a type of programming segment for promoting certain businesses in their local broadcast area ("Coastal Business Spotlight") that was usually part of its programming between 12:55 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. on days other than Saturday and Sunday in recent times between 12:20 p.m. and 12:25 p.m. this past Thursday on the fifteenth day of this September between segments of the local news program that was part of its programming between 12:00 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. that day (the local news program was usually part of its programming between 12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. in addition to between 12:00 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. on days other than Saturday and Sunday in recent times until this calendar week; as for its name, it was usually called "Local 15 News at Noon"))

News for Friday, September 16th, 2016 (amended)

• A former news reporter for the local news operation at WALA-TV became a news reporter for the local news operation at WPMI-TV during the first half of this September (he was a news reporter for the local news operation of a TV station in the city of West Palm Beach in the state of Florida by then (WPEC-TV was the name of that station); as for his name, it was Cory Pippin).*   

• The local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV this past Thursday on the night of the fifteenth day of this September ("Local 15 News at 10 p.m.") had a report about a plan to have radio programming for an Internet radio station at the University of South Alabama in the city of Mobile in southwest Alabama named "The Prowl" (their legal name was WJGR-LP) broadcast from a terrestrial transmitter for the first time this Friday.**

• The former broadcast facility for WALA-TV and a former radio station named WALA-AM located in the "down-town" area of the city of Mobile was part of a special segment of a local TV program dedicated to entertainment and lifestyles that appeared on the main broadcast channels for WPMI-TV and WJTC-TV ("Gulf Coast Today") this past Thursday (neither WALA-TV nor WALA-AM was mentioned by name in the segment; as for what the segment was mainly about, it was about a house that used to be located where their broadcast facility was located (it was called "the Bestor House")).* 

(*WPMI-TV, WJTC-TV, and WPEC-TV were members of the same holding (or "parent") company: the Sinclair Broadcast Group)

(**the presenter of the report (Kym Thurman) said the terrestrial broadcasts would start at "ten [o'clock]" without any reference to the time of day for when they were expected such as a.m. (for this morning) or p.m. (for this evening) (according to the official World Wide Web site for the university and their official Facebook page, the transmitter had started broadcasting their programming sometime between 10:00 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. today)

(amendment note: the way the time given by the news presenter mentioned in the paragraph above this one was clarified)

Commentary: A mistreated calendar date and some unnecessary reminders

• The news presenter on the local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. this Thursday (Andrea Ramey on "Local 15 Today") had used the term "nine-eleven" in reference to when a mosque in the city of Fort Pierce in the state of Florida was reportedly set ablaze illegally earlier this September (last Sunday on the eleventh day of this September to be precise) while presenting a report about police arresting and charging a person for having done so. I wish she had not used that term in reference to that day; I understood that its date in numeral form may be pronounced "nine-eleven" if it were formed with  a symbol between the numbers "9" and "11" (like "9/11" and "9-11"), but to me it sounded ridiculous, unhelpful, vague, and reminiscent of its common use as a synonym for a series of events that involved the attacks at the World Trade Center in the city of New York in the state of New York and the Pentagon in the city of Arlington in the state of Virginia that occurred on the same date back in the year 2001. This is a good example of why I never liked the idea of referring to the events only by that date or by the term "nine-eleven" itself. That date should be treated like a normal date, just like every other calendar date.

• I wish news broadcasters would not use their news programs to reminisce about certain news events from past years every year around their anniversaries or during their anniversaries such as the arrivals of certain tropical cyclones in parts of their local broadcast areas or the series of events I had mentioned in the previous paragraph of this commentary, unless they were needed to support reports about recent events. Personally I saw no reason to reminisce about those events in recent times. They do not need to keep reminding their audiences about those events every year. They may remind their own selves about the events if they wish, they just don't need to do so in public.

(note: typing the previous paragraphs reminded me of a commentary I had posted here about one year ago about how some broadcasters had treated the eleventh day of September since the series of events I had referenced in those paragraphs  You may be interested in accessing that commentary since it's still very relevant.)

News for Wednesday, September 14th, 2016

 (reminder: all times mentioned on this weblog reflect the Central time zone)

• One of the news presenters on the local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. this Wednesday (Andrea Ramey on "Local 15 Today") talked about a plan for their local news operation to hold a public meeting involving law makers, law enforcers, and one of the mayors from their local broadcast area while their companion station (WJTC-TV) broadcasts it live next Monday on the nineteenth day of this September (between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.).

• The main broadcast channel for WEAR-TV did not have a special TV program about a new nationally-syndicated TV variety program ("Harry") during a time period when it usually had a syndicated entertainment news program named "Extra" from Monday through Friday in recent times (between 11:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.) this past Monday on the twelfth day of this September in spite of it being listed for that time period by the guides to the channel from Zap2it, TitanTV, and TV Guide by then (the new program was set to appear on the channel later that day between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m). 
   
• The local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WFNA-TV this past Tuesday on the thirteenth day of this September ("CW55 News at 9 [p.m.]") and the local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV later this Wednesday between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") had reports about a former professional actor for a national TV program named "Sesame Street" visiting an elementary school in their respective local broadcast areas this past Tuesday (the name of the former professional actor for the program was Sonia Manzano).*

(*WFNA-TV and WKRG-TV had the same news operation since they were members of the same holding (or "parent") company (Media General))

News for Tuesday, September 13th, 2016

• A former news presenter and sports reporter for the local news operation at WPMI-TV (Pat Greenwood of the University of South Alabama in the city of Mobile in southwest Alabama) was one of the guests for a local TV program of theirs dedicated to entertainment and lifestyles ("Gulf Coast Today") this Tuesday.  

• Some ("live") video of two of the news presenters for the local news operation at WALA-TV (Bob Grip and Renee Dials (she was also a news reporter for the operation)) talking about their personal memories of a tropical cyclone that affected southwest Alabama in the year 1979 (named "Frederic") was uploaded onto the official Facebook page for the news operation this past Monday on the twelfth day of this September (the 37th anniversary of the day the cyclone came to southwest Alabama).*  

• The sports reporter for the local news operation at WKRG-TV (Randy Patrick Setterstrom) made reference to WJTC-TV  on two of their own local news programs (he said "Channel 44" on the one named "WKRG News 5 at 6 [p.m.]" and "UTV44" on the one named  "WKRG News 5 at 10 [p.m.]") this Tuesday while talking about how residents in their local broadcast area could access local broadcasts about a football game involving the football team for the University of South Alabama expected to occur this Saturday on the seventeenth day of this September (through the main broadcast channel for WJTC-TV).  

 (*the one named Bob Grip was a news presenter for WKRG-TV whereas the one named Renee Dials was a news reporter for WALA-TV at the time of the cyclone).

News for Monday, September 12th, 2016

• The main broadcast channels for WPMI-TV and WJTC-TV had the first edition of a new local TV program dedicated to entertainment and lifestyles ("Gulf Coast Today") this Monday. 

• A video about a plan to have a local radio program ("The Uncle Henry Show" for WNTM-AM) televised on a regular basis (through the main broadcast channel for WFNA-TV between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.) was uploaded onto the official Facebook page for the program this past Sunday on the eleventh day of this September.* 

• Two video recordings of some local news programs for WPMI-TV ("weekday" versions of "Local 15 News at 6 p.m." and "Local 15 News at 10 p.m.") with audio tracks described as director tracks dated for this past February were uploaded onto a YouTube channel attributed to the director of the programs (Ethan Hadley) this past April.  

(*the broadcast frequency for WNTM-AM was usually set to have the program within a period of four hours from Monday through Friday in recent times (between 5:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. to be precise))

News for Sunday, September 11th, 2016

• The aspect ratio (or picture format) for the programming on one of the digital sub-channels of the Alabama Public Television station in southwest Alabama (WEIQ-TV) was horizontally distorted at certain points this Sunday (the channel usually consisted of programs from a national TV programming service named Create TV).

News for Saturday, September 10th, 2016

• This past Friday on the ninth day of this September, the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV had a promotional video for positions in their sales department. 

• A copy of the front cover of a TV programming guide published by the Mobile Press-Register with an image of one of the news presenters for the local news operation at WALA-TV dated for the year 1998 was posted onto a professional Facebook page attributed to him under a message attributed to him (the name of the news presenter was Bob Grip). 

• Earlier this Saturday, the main broadcast channel WKRG-TV had their own promotional video about some special network programming (from a national TV programming service named Memorable Entertainment Television (it was also named Me-TV for shortness or brevity)) planned for one of their digital sub-channels this Saturday (the video had an announcer for WKRG-TV (Jeff Davis) saying, "Tonight on Me-TV Gulf Coast" along with the channel for the special programming ("channel 5.3"); as for the special programming itself, it was set to consist of two "pilot" episodes for a dramatic TV program named "Star Trek").

Commentary: Different styles of grouping, an unusual coastline classification, and a possible transition at a local TV station

• I had noticed some local news broadcasters using different ways of referring to a group of folks they said were killed in the city of Citronelle in southwest Alabama this past August in their broadcasts since then (such as five adults and an unborn child, six people including an unborn child, and five people including a pregnant woman).  

• One of the weather reporters for the local news operation at WALA-TV (Jason Smith) had referred to a part of the state of Florida that was expected to be in the path of a tropical cyclone named "Hermine" last Thursday on the first day of this September as "Florida's forgotten coast" while talking about the cyclone itself in their local news programming that day (between 8:57 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.) To me that phrase might be considered very offensive and presumptuous by folks with connections to that area (it also made me wonder whether he was told to use that phrase by someone in charge of WALA-TV or not).

• I have a feeling that WKRG-TV may be transitioning to having a certain professional announcer with past connections to the city of Mobile in southwest Alabama (Jeff Davis) be their main announcer for their local news operation and broadcast operation in general, since his voice was used in several recent promotional videos for their main broadcast channel, including promotional videos for businesses in their local broadcast area, some of their syndicated programs (including a comedic program named "The Big Bang Theory" and a game program named "Family Feud"), and certain parts of their local news programs (they were about recent awards bestowed upon their broadcast operation).*

(*by the time of this writing, the local news programs still had announcements by a professional announcer named Jay Gardner for other parts of their broadcasts (they were normally used for introducing certain segments of their broadcasts like weather segments and sports segments)

News for Thursday, September 8th, 2016

• A special message attributed to a former host for a series of news and promotional videos for the main broadcast channels of WJTC-TV and WPMI-TV was posted onto the official Facebook page for WPMI-TV this Thursday (the name of the former host was Cortney Hicks; the name of the videos was "UMinutes").

• One of the news reporters for the local news operation at WPMI-TV had assumed the role of news presenter for their local news program for Monday through Friday mornings ("Local 15 Today") and the one for the midday hours of Monday through Friday ("Local 15 News at Noon") after a former member of the operation left the role last Friday on the second day of this September (the name of the news reporter was Jasmine Williams; the name of the former news presenter for the programs was Kelly Jones).  

• The last segment of the most recent edition of the local news program that usually appeared on the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV from around 5:00 p.m. until a few seconds before 6:00 p.m. from Monday through Friday in recent times ("FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m.") appeared on the channel for about a minute after 6:00 p.m. this Thursday* after its previous segment ended by the time its last segments usually ended due to some news classified as "breaking news" (a verdict in a case of murder in their local broadcast area) in its broadcast. 

(*this caused the edition of the syndicated game program that usually appeared on the channel between 6:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. from Monday through Friday in recent times ("Jeopardy!") to begin appearing later while it was all ready in progress)

News for Wednesday, September 7th, 2016

• The main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV had a promotional video for a national cable TV and satellite TV programming service owned by their holding company (or "parent company") during a break in its presentation of a local news program of theirs between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. (the name of the programming service was the Tennis Channel; the name of the local news program was "Local 15 Today"; the name of the holding company was the Sinclair Broadcast Group).

• The local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") had reports about traffic conditions in their local broadcast area from a person who used to provide such reports for its broadcasts on a regular basis in recent times before the one who usually did so in more recent times succeeded him (the name of the person who provided the traffic reports for the program this Wednesday was Derek Long (he referred to his self by the nickname "Kane" in the reports); the name of the person he succeeded him was Kenny Fowler).*

• One of news presenters on the local news program mentioned in the first paragraph of this report (Darwin Singleton) said he wanted to make one of the scores of a recent football game involving the football teams for the University of South Alabama in the city of Mobile in southwest Alabama and Mississippi State University in the city of Starkville in northeast Mississippi "even bigger" after he appeared to had said a false score by mistake while presenting a report involving the actual scores for the game (this is what he said: "I wanted to make the score even bigger, but 21 to 20 is just fine"; as for when the game occurred, it occurred last Saturday on the third day of this September). 

 (*the regular news presenters for the program (Bill Riales and Jessica Taloney) and one of its graphics referred to the reporter named Derek Kane as if he were the one named Kenny Fowler (they had identified him as "Kenny") (the one named Bill Riales later referred to him as "Kane" in one of the local news segments that appeared on their main broadcast during one of the breaks in its presentation of a national network news program from their provider of network programming ("CBS This Morning" from the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)) this Wednesday)).

News for Tuesday, September 6th, 2016

• Some messages (dated for last Friday, the second day of this September) about WFNA-TV possibly having a local radio program ("The Uncle Henry Show" for WNTM-AM) appear live on the main broadcast channel for WFNA-TV ("the CW 55"*) on the Monday of the twenty-sixth day of this September were posted onto the official Facebook and Twitter pages for the program before this Tuesday. 

• One of the news presenters and news reporters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV (Chad Petri) talked about some video he said he was unable to fit into a report he did for some of the local news programming they had on their main broadcast channel last Saturday on the third day of this September while presenting their local news program for Sunday mornings ("WKRG News 5 This Morning: Sunday") last Sunday on the fourth day of this September.

• Earlier this Tuesday, one of the news presenters on the local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. (Jessica Taloney on "WKRG News 5 This Morning") had incorrectly said the president of the Philippine Islands (Rodrigo Duterte) had called the president of the United States (Barack Obama) a "dirty word" while talking about a report they had about the president of the islands calling the one for the states an "S-O-B" at a news conference (the other news presenter for the program (Bill Riales) made this comment about the calling while presenting the report about it on the program: "a what? Really?"), even though other news organizations had reports about the president of the islands having actually used a Filipino phrase meaning either "son of a whore" or "son of a bitch" in reference to the president of the states at the news conference ("putang ina" was the phrase).  

(*"the CW 55" was a brand name for the programming feed for the channel ("the CW55" and "CW55" were the other brand names))

News for Monday, September 5th, 2016

• One of the producers for the broadcast operation at WPMI-TV (Cayla Brewer) was part of a report about collegiate football on at least one of their local news programs last Friday on the second day of this September.

• Earlier this Monday, one of the local news programs for WPMI-TV ("Local 15 Today") still had an opening sequence with video of a former news presenter of theirs named Kelly Jones in spite of her leaving her positions in their broadcast operation last Friday. 

• The news presenter on the local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV this past Sunday on the fourth day of this September (Chad Petri on "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Sunday") said a recent case of murder in the city of Mobile in southwest Alabama "will" be seen on a national TV program named "The First 48" immediately after presenting a report about a person suspected of the murder being arrested earlier that day.  

• One of the weather reporters for the local news operation at WALA-TV (Michael White) said one of the local news programs that appeared on their main broadcast channel last Thursday on the first day of this September ("FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m.) had the "debut" of a group of monitors (nine in total) for displaying compound images on the set of the program and others like it (along with a local sports program of theirs named "First and 10") while hosting a local program of theirs dedicated to entertainment and lifestyles ("Studio 10") last Friday.

News for Sunday, September 4th, 2016

• Earlier this calendar week, the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV had some announcements (from news presenters on some of their local news programs and the main announcer for their programming (Greg O'Neill) in a promotional video for its breaks for such videos) it being set to have a special program titled "Louisiana Rising: A Benefit Concert for Flood Relief" next Monday on the fifth day of this September during a time period when it usually had network programming from its main provider of network programming (the FOX Broadcasting Company) from Monday through Friday in recent times (between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m) (according to the official World Wide Web site for the special program, the main broadcast channels for WJTC-TV and WFGX-TV were set to have this special program too)

• According to the guide to the main broadcast channel for WALA-TV from a World Wide Web site named Zap2it, the channel set to have the network program set to come from their main provider of network programming during that time period in which it was set to have the special program mentioned in the previous paragraph later in the night between 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. (the name of the network program set to come was that of a competitive program named "So You Think You Can Dance") and have the (comedic) syndicated programs that were usually set to be part of its programming during that time period from Tuesday through Saturday in recent times (two episodes of "Hot in Cleveland", "Raising Hope", and "Cougar Town" respectively) even later in the night between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. instead of encore presentations of syndicated programs that were part of its regular programming plan for Monday through Friday during earlier time periods in recent times (a courtroom program "The People's Court" and "The Dr. Phil Show" respectively) (according to the guide to the main broadcast channel for WFGX-TV from the same site, it was set to have programs set to come from a national TV programming service named MyNetworkTV during the time period for the aforementioned special program later in the night between 9:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. and have each of the syndicated programs that were usually part of its regular programming plan for Monday through Friday between 9:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. in recent times afterwards in their usual order (including an entertainment news program named "Extra", two discussion programs named "The Jerry Springer Show" and "The Maury Povich Show", and a documentive program named "Cheaters").  

News for Saturday, September 3rd, 2016

• A video about the local news operation for WKRG-TV in general was uploaded onto a YouTube channel normally used for uploading promotional videos for WKRG-TV in recent times by this past Thursday on the first day of this September (note: the "Nexstar" referenced in the name of the video and the video itself was the name of a company set to take ownership of the holding company (or "parent company") for WKRG-TV (Media General)).

• According to WALA-TV and WKRG-TV, one of the weather reporters for their respective news operations (Matt Barrentine and Thomas Geboy) was outside their local broadcast area broadcasting reports about a tropical cyclone named "Hermine" from part of the area where the cyclone was predicted to be between this past Thursday on the first day of this September and this Friday on the second day of this September (the one for WALA-TV appeared be broadcasting from the city of Saint Marks in the state of Florida in their local news programming for this past Thursday whereas the one for WKRG-TV appeared to be broadcasting from the city of Port Saint Joe in the same state in their own local news programming this past Friday).

• WPMI-TV had a report about the tropical cyclone mentioned in the previous paragraph attributed to a member of the local news operation at WEAR-TV (Hannah MacKenzie) on at least one of their local news programs for this past Thursday (the news presenter for that program (Kym Thurman of "Local 15 News at 5 p.m.") had referred to WEAR-TV as their "Sinclair sister station" while presenting it (she was alluding to the fact that her station and WEAR-TV were related to each other due to their being members of the same holding company (the Sinclair Broadcast Group)).*

(*the reporter for WEAR-TV appeared to be outside of her own station's local broadcast area in the report; in one of the cities predicted to be affected by the cyclone (the one named Apalachicola in the state of Florida)

News for Friday, September 2nd, 2016

(note: the paragraph about one of the cable TV channels in the cable TV system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile in the previous report for this weblog ("News for Thursday, September 1st, 2016") was amended with additional information) 

• One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WPMI-TV (Kelly Jones) made an announcement about this Friday being her last day as a member of the operation while part of the last segment of the local news program that appeared on their main broadcast channel between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. ("Local 15 Today").*  

• The captions for the local news program that appeared on the live video stream for WKRG-TV by the end of this past Thursday on the first day of this September ("WKRG News 5 at 10 [p.m.]") had identified certain persons on the program not identified by the program itself (for example, the persons commenting in a report it had about security at Mobile Government Plaza in the city of Mobile in southwest Alabama).  

• One of the news presenters for the local news operation at WKRG-TV (Rose Ann Haven) had attributed a news report to a news reporter and news presenter for the local news operation of a TV station in the city of Biloxi in the state of Mississippi unrelated to theirs (Hugh Keeton of WLOX-TV) without mentioning the name of the station in their local news programming this past Wednesday on the thirty-first day of this past August (specifically the local news program that appeared on their main broadcast channel by the end of that day ("WKRG News 5 at 10 [p.m.]")).  

(*the last image of her on the program was the back of her head while other folks surrounded her on the set of the program; even though the live video stream for the program had images of her facing one of the cameras for the program saying, "Thank you, Mobile, I appreciate it" afterwards). 

News for Thursday, September 1st, 2016 (amended)

• The cable TV channel for a national cable TV and satellite TV programming service named "ASPiRE" in the cable TV system operated by Comcast Cablevision of Mobile became available to digital transport adapters connected to the system by this past Wednesday (certain adapters connected to the system may have had this message about the channel instead of its programming: "(173 - ASPRE) channel is not authorized. To view this channel, please call Comcast at 1-800-COMCAST (1-800-266-2278) and choose technical help. Status code 580".).

• The main broadcast channel for WPMI-TV had a promotional video for their broadcast operation with an anonymous comment claiming their broadcast operation ("15") "puts every [other] station to shame" during a break in its local news programming this past Wednesday on the thirty-first day of this past August. 

•  WALA-TV had a report about a drawing attributed to a news reporter for their local news operation (Lee Peck) in their local news programming this past Wednesday (specifically on their local news program for the hour of 4:00 p.m. that day: "FOX 10 News at 4:00 p.m.").