Winding Down the Old Year

Wow. Here it is December 27th and I’m asking, “Just where has the year gone!” I had a couple of minutes and thought I would stroll down memory lane.WREG did NOT become WHBQ West after all. Two out of three frontline anchors is close but no cigar there. Still, it apparently helped with the formula [...]

Will We Soon Have 24-Hours of Today!

As we wind down the year known as 2006, you have to hand it to the folks at NBC. When they get something that works, they don’t try to fix it. They just expand it. This is unlike CBS which had a good thing going with Bob Schieffer on the CBS evening news. [...]

So, Just What is the Status of the Sale of the NYTimes Broadcast Group?

I get questions on a regular basis now from folks wanting to know if I’ve heard anything more about the pending sale of the NYTimes. Oh I’ve heard rumors like everyone else but nothing more concrete than that. I’ve heard and read on various internet sites that Allbritton has been nosing around some [...]

How Many Anchors Does It Take to Screw in a Lightbulb? and Today Marks an Anniversary

So, how many news anchors does it take to screw in a lightbulb? That was a question posed to me a number of years ago and if you work around a newsroom you’ll get a variety of answers from everyone including producers, reporters, videographers, assignment desk folks and the managers. The answer: Just [...]

Do Male Anchors Help Out More Than Female Anchors, and Another Possible Buyer Could Be Breaking Up That Old Broadcast Group of Mine.

An interesting post by a former TV news producer raises a question. That comment suggested that when it comes to getting help on a newscast (writing scripts) male anchors tended to be more cooperative than females anchors. It’s an interesting observation and I’d be curious as to what producers have to say about [...]

The Ego Has Landed (Page Counting Anchors)

I had a conversation this week with a news producer at one of the television stations in Memphis and that producer shared with me the latest headaches of dealing with the egos of some anchors. According to the story shared with me, an anchor was just livid that the other person anchoring on the [...]

We’re Running This Story Because We have Great Video and the Memphis Manatee is Truly History

So, I’m grabbing my second cup of coffee and glance up at the TV which is tuned to MSNBC and I see Andrea Mitchell talking about “Breaking News” as they take a live satellite feed from Knoxville. The story: the airplane used by the traffic reporter in Knoxville can’t get the landing gear down [...]

Let’s See, Fewer Commercials, More Time for News, Longer News Reports, My God, What a Concept!

The success of the NBC Nightly News with its experiment of fewer commercials is getting the attention of advertisers and viewers alike. It probably has more than a few consultants salivating at the prospect of presenting a new “news model” to those clients who can’t figure things out for themselves. That means a [...]

It’s So Cold in Memphis………………

It’s so cold in Memphis…How cold is it? It is so cold in Memphis, in Midtown a flasher came up to me and described himself!!!. (Rimshot) Goodnight folks, try the veal, it’s the chef’s favorite!Seriously, it was a cold winter like this in 1989 and I was filling in on the morning show (my [...]

Could We See the Return of Single Sponsored Newscasts

I’ve seen an article on this and just managed to scan it quickly so some information is still lacking but could we one day see a return of a news broadcast with a single sponsor. The article I saw talked about the old news programs with a single sponsor such as Camel or Timex. [...]