News for Tuesday, July 7th, 2015

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

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

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

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

News for Monday, July 6th, 2015

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

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

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

News for Sunday, July 5th, 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is a list of those phrases:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

News for Wednesday, July 1st, 2015

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

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

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

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

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