News for Saturday, February 14th, 2015

• According to WJTC-TV and WPMI-TV, the news presenter and news reporter for WPMI-TV who was one of the hosts for WJTC-TV's recent broadcasts of live Carnival parades in Mobile's downtown area was set to take a break from hosting such a broadcast expected to occur today between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m (the name of the host set to take a break was Darwin Singleton) while a radio announcer for WRGV-FM (107.3) and WKSJ-FM (94.9) takes his place alongside the other host, another radio announcer for WKSJ-FM (the name of the host set to take the place of Darwin Singleton was Matt McCoy; as for the name of the other host, it was Colton Bradford). 

Commentary: A frivolous word in a local TV news presentation

• I was surprised to hear one of the regular news presenters for WKRG-TV's local 10:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 10") for Monday through Friday use the word "googled" as a synonym for having used the Internet search engine from the company Google while presenting a report about crimes involving the World Wide Web site Craigslist on this past Wednesday's (February 11th) edition of the program. I would have not used it that way I were him since I believe the name Google should not be used as a verb for using the company's search engine or any other company's Internet search engine.

News for Wednesday, February 11th, 2015

• One of the regular news presenters for WKRG-TV's local morning news program ("WKRG News 5 This Morning"*) took the place of one of the regular news presenters for their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 5") today (the name of the news presenter for the morning news program was Devon Walsh*; the name of the news presenter for the 5:00 p.m. news program was Rose Ann Haven).

• WALA-TV had an interview with one of the contestants for the current series of editions of the network TV program "American Idol" on their local 4:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 4:00 p.m.") and a report about her on their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m.") today since she was a resident of their local broadcast area (she was identified as being a resident of Foley, Alabama named Glennellen Anderson, even though she was identified as being from Gulf Shores, Alabama in an earlier report about her).

• Today's edition of WPMI-TV's local morning news program ("Local 15 Today") had one of its regular news presenters (named Darwin Singleton) telling a colleague of his (named Stephen Quinn) a series of numbers to use for him in a lottery game based in Florida called "Powerball" since the colleague had just finished doing a live report about it outside of a service station in Florida while he, the news presenter, was at the news desk for the program in Mobile.  He did not mention all of the numbers he wanted the colleague to use in the game, though, since the colleague was given that number in advance (the number he was given in advance was for the "Powerball" portion of the game; the other numbers were for the "white ball" portion of it).

(*she was replaced for today's edition of the morning news program by the regular news presenter for WKRG-TV's local weekend news programming (her name was Avery Cotton)).

News for Tuesday, February 10th, 2015

• Video recordings of WJTC-TV's last three broadcasts of Carnival parades taking place in Mobile's downtown Mobile were uploaded onto the official World Wide Web site for their companion station WPMI-TV (WJTC-TV had a total of four broadcasts of such parades thus far).

• WALA-TV recently had the title sequences for their local news programs changed to have the slogan "committed to you" appear in the form of animated graphics and to have new audio recordings of the main announcer for their local news programming (Greg O'Neill) introducing them with the slogan (for example: "Committed to you, FOX 10 News at 9:00").   

• The general manager of WJTC-TV and WPMI-TV (Robert (Bobby) Totsch) appeared in WJTC-TV's broadcast of the parade that took place in Mobile's downtown area on this Tuesday to announce their plan to broadcast a nighttime parade expected to take place in the area this Saturday, February 14th (between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.), since they were originally set to only have "weeknight parades" (or parades taking place between Monday and Friday) broadcast live during Mobile's Carnival season for the current calendar year.

News for Monday, February 9th, 2015

• This past Sunday's (February 8th) edition of WALA-TV's local 9:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 9:00 p.m.") had a report in which the phrase "African-American History Month" was used in place of "Black History Month" in reference to a national annual observance for celebrating the histories of various folks with dark complexions and African ancestors that was originally called "Black History Month".

• Several advertisements for new positions at WKRG-TV and WFNA-TV were posted onto the official World Wide Web site for the Alabama Broadcasters Association recently (including positions in reporting and gathering news with digital equipment, producing local news programs, directing local news programming on weekend mornings, operating video cameras, managing promotions and marketing efforts, and reporting weather for local news programming on weekend mornings).

• Today's edition of WKRG-TV's local 6:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 6") had video of today's edition of WAVH-FM's (106.5) local midday news and discussion program ("Midday Mobile") for a report about how some folks (including some of the callers for the program and its host named Sean Sullivan) publicly reacted to news about probate court judges in Alabama being allowed to marry folks of the same gender from this day forward and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of Alabama issuing an order against their being allowed to do so.

Commentary: A popular and beloved movie gets broadcast locally

• I liked WJTC-TV's plan to broadcast the theatrical movie titled "The Princess Bride" this past Sunday, February 8th (between 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.), and next Saturday, February 14th (between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.) since I had noticed since the 25th anniversary of its release in the year 1987 that it had become very popular and beloved among many folks since then (I saw the whole movie for the first time a few years after seeing those reports and had positive feelings about it), based on the reports I had seen about it on television and the World Wide Web in observance of the anniversary, and since I had never seen it broadcast by a local TV station before this past Sunday (the broadcast would have been better had WJTC-TV broadcast it in high definition in addition to having it displayed in its correct aspect ratio, or picture format). 

Commentary: An amusing ending to a local newscast

• I found the ending to this past Saturday's (February 7th) edition of WKRG-TV's local 6:00 p.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 6:00 p.m.") very interesting and amusing with its news presenter referring to it by a former brand name for WALA-TV's local news programming ("News 10") and stumbling over it with the main virtual channel number for WALA-TV's programming (Channel 10) while thanking members of the program's audience for watching it (the edition ended abruptly after she said "Channel 10"). I don't know whether the news presenter was doing so on purpose or not, but I still found her doing so both interesting and amusing.