News for Tuesday, October 6th, 2015

• The sports reporter for WKRG-TV (Randy Patrick Setterstrom) did a report about a nephew of his (Steven Setterstrom Jr.) being one of the winners of a recent golf tournament for their local news programming today (note: the reporter did not mention his connection to this particular winner of the tournament).

News for Monday, October 5th, 2015

• Some of the (blue) graphics that usually appeared on the home page of the official World Wide Web site for WALA-TV in recent times were replaced with pink versions of them in honor of this October having been declared National Breast Cancer Awareness Month by the president of the United States (Barack Obama).

• 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 substituting for the weather reporter for their local morning and midday news programs for Monday through Friday (John Nodar of "WKRG News 5 This Morning", "WKRG News 5 at 9", and "WKRG News 5 at Noon") today.

• The video feed used to provide about twelve hours of daily programming from the national TV programming services known as Create TV through one of the digital sub-channels of the Alabama Public Television licensed to serve Mobile (WEIQ-TV) since last Thursday, October 1st, differed from the feed used to provide about 24 hours of programming from the same service through its other sub-channel before then by not having promotional advertisements for Alabama Public Television or a network/station identification segment with an announcer saying, "You're watching APT Create" interrupt certain promotional advertisements like the other one.

News for Sunday, October 4th, 2015

• The British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) had audio recordings of a person identified as a native of Mobile named Rudy Andrews in their radio programming recently, specifically their international radio programming (they were on a program titled "Over to You"; as for what for what they were about, they were about news broadcasters in general). 

• WALA-TV had a live news report (from the state of Oregon) by a member of the Cable News Network (Paul Vercammen) in their local news programming this past Friday, October 2nd (it was part of their local 5:00 p.m. news program ("FOX 10 News at 5:00 p.m.") that day; as for what it was about, it was about a series of shootings that occurred in Roseburg, Oregon this past Thursday, October 1st).  

• The news presenter for WKRG-TV's local news programs for Saturday and Sunday mornings (Chad Petri of "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Saturday" and "WKRG News 5 This Morning: Sunday") used part of this week's edition of the program for Saturday mornings to talk about how folks could "catch up" with the host of a nationally-syndicated TV program based in Mobile (Danny Lipford of "Today's Homeowner with Danny Lipford") if it were to be pre-empted by collegiate football programming expected for be part of their programming plan that day (he said folks could visit the official World Wide Web site for the program to "catch up" with the host) after introducing a programming segment involving the host (it was the first edition of a new series of programming segments for the local news programs).

News for Saturday, October 3rd, 2015

• On Thursday, October 1st, the official World Wide Web site for WPMI-TV had a message about their companion station (WJTC-TV) being "off the air" in order for improvements to be made to their antenna system. 

• The mayor of Mobile (William Sandys (Sandy) Stimpson) and the chief of police in Mobile (James Barber) appeared in live segments for WPMI-TV's local morning news program ("Local 15 Today") this past Friday, October 2nd (link to segment with the mayor; link to segment with the chief)*.

• Two separate animated sequences were used to introduce segments dedicated to parts of the World Wide Web and the Internet in general on WKRG-TV's local news program for the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") this past Friday, October 2nd; one of which usually only appeared on their local 9:00 a.m. news program ("WKRG News 5 at 9"**). 

(*video recordings of the mayor and the chief from cameras that were not used to broadcast their appearances on the program were uploaded onto the official Facebook page for WPMI-TV (link to video recording of the mayor; link to video recordings of the chief))
(**the sequence that usually appeared on this program had no announcer or music whereas the other one usually did)

Commentary: Alabama Public Television's new programming plan for digital sub-channels

I wish the folks in charge of Alabama Public Television would reconsider having each of their TV stations broadcast programming from the the national TV programming service known simply as Create TV on both of its sub-channels from 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on a daily basis and have them return to broadcasting the programming feed for the service known as World on one of their sub-channels all of time (I liked being able to see their programming feed between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., especially when it had programs I had missed between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.). I understood the reasons for the change, but it's not really fair to children of any level of maturity and the ones whom some adults may not consider mature enough for certain types of programs may still be able to access such programs through other means between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. or even through Alabama Public Television outside that time period through either their main broadcast channels or their sub-channels for broadcasting World's programming feed.

News for Thursday, October 1st, 2015

• WKRG-TV had announcements about a new retransmission consent deal involving them, their companion station (WFNA-TV), and the satellite TV company DirecTV in their local news programming today (the announcements were delivered by one of the news presenters for their local news programming).  

• WEAR-TV, WPMI-TV, and other TV stations in the Sinclair Broadcast Group were set to begin having a new weekly national TV news program made just for them, their official World Wide Web sites, and other sites within their company this Sunday, October 4th (the program was set to be called "Full Measure with Sheryl Attkisson")*

• According to the official World Wide Web site for Alabama Public Television, the TV stations in their network (including WEIQ-TV in southwest Alabama) were set to have programming from the national TV programming service Create TV on both of their digital sub-channels from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on a daily basis from this day forward. 

(*the main broadcast channel for WEAR-TV would usually have it on Sunday between 9:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. whereas the one for WPMI-TV would usually have it later on Sunday between 10:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.)

News for Wednesday, September 30th, 2015

• The mayor of Mobile (William Sandys (Sandy) Stimpson) was a guest on WALA-TV's local entertainment and lifestyle program ("Studio 10") today. 

• WALA-TV had a report about a plan for a new TV program about a group of bounty hunters from southwest Alabama in their local news programming this past Monday, September 28th.

• WKRG-TV had announcements about their retransmission consent contract with the satellite TV company DirecTV in their local news programming today (the announcements were delivered by some of the news presenters for their local news operation).