Kareem Johnson | A Reporter's Notes

ABC Fall 2010 Schedule

MONDAY:
8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars”
10:00 p.m. “Castle”

TUESDAY:
8:00 p.m. “No Ordinary Family”
9:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”
10:00 p.m. “Detroit 1-8-7”

WEDNESDAY:
8:00 p.m. “The Middle”
8:30 p.m. “Better Together”
9:00 p.m. “Modern Family”
9:30 p.m. “Cougar Town”
10:00 p.m. “The Whole Truth”

THURSDAY:
8:00 p.m. “My Generation”
9:00 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”
10:00 p.m. “Private Practice”

FRIDAY:
8:00 p.m. “Secret Millionaire”
9:00 p.m. “Body of Proof”
10:00 p.m. “20/20”

SATURDAY:
8:00 p.m. “Saturday Night College Football”

SUNDAY:
7:00 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8:00 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9:00 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”
10:00 p.m. “Brothers & Sisters”
V will return midseason.

November 2009 Sweep Ratings for the sweep days from October 29 to November 25, 2009. Commentary follows the prime time numbers.

Daytime:

Evening/Late after the Bump:

Read the rest of this entry »

Chicago — Roger Rose, who replaced Ron Rolland as voice-over announcer at ABC O&O WLS-TV (“ABC7″) can now be heard on newscasts. Here’s an example:

WLS_TV_Roger_Rose_10pm.wav – WLS-TV Inc.

Chicago — Jeff Blanzy, sports anchor at ABC O&O WLS-TV will depart when his contract ends. Blanzy had a teary-eyed sign off on Sunday, reports Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune. ABC7 had been considering reducing its sports department from 4 members to 3 since last year. WLS will continue to have Mark Giangreco, Jim Rose and Ryan Chiaverini.

Blanzy, 48, joined WLS from ABC-owned WTVG-TV in Toledo, Ohio. Before that, he worked at WLIO-TV, the NBC affiliate in Lima, Ohio.

My Take:

Judging from comments under the story, it would appear to be a questionable move by Emily Barr, GM of WLS. What do you think?

New York — Via TVSpy: Frazier Moore of Entertainment Daily reports the Big Three Newscasts logged new lows in ratings last week. A major problem for ABC and CBS was that Katie Couric and Charles Gibson were off for the week. Over at NBC, Brian Williams was at the desk, and led the way with a three day average of 7.8 million viewers, even with a preemption on Thursday and Friday, due to coverage of the U.S. Open.

The CBS Evening News registered a new low, dipping below 5 million viewers, for the first time, with 4.9 viewers. ABC’s World News was off, dropping from a half-million viewers from last week, with 6.4 million.

Chicago — The Disney Owned-and-Operated ABC station WLS (“ABC7″) released Ron Rolland on Friday, reports Lewis Lazare of the Chicago Sun-Times. Rolland, who was the voice of WLS and WBBM in Chicago spent 19 years with the ABC O&O as a staff announcer. 

Emily Barr, station GM and vice president of programming and creative services director Tom Hebel announced that Rolland would be replaced with Roger Rose, who’s based in L.A. 

My Take:

WLS is on the top of the heap in the ratings; the station is running on all cylinders. Why make changes?  There’s an old saying that may people may be familiar with: If it’s isn’t broke…

Particularly puzzling is this statement:

“This is another way we continue to tweak our product,” a WLS spokeswoman said. 

I don’t live in the market, but does the product need tweaking? The sweeps numbers prove that tweaking isn’t necessary, unless “tweaking” means the station budget. The station V.O. is an important aspect of a station’s imaging. Changes should not be done lightly. Roberta Solomon is the third “voice” of KSDK in 10 years. Chuck Conners (who’s based in St. Louis)  was the voice of KSDK for over 15 years, followed by Charlie Van Dyke (who lent his voice to KTVI in the 1980s) for three years, and now Roberta Solomon. No doubt the audience has noticed the frequent changes.

The late Chris Clausen was heard on KTVI for over 15 years up until his death last year, where he still provided his voice for promos, as a secondary voice to Scott Chapin.  

Just for information’s sake, here’s the current voice line up in St. Louis:

KTVI: Scott Chapin (News & Promos)

KMOV: Richard Malmos (News & Promos)

KSDK: Roberta Solomon (News)

KPLR: Jeff Laurence (Promos)

KDNL: ? (Promos)

Chicago — WLS-TV (“ABC7″), the Disney owned-and-operated ABC station in Chicago continues its dominance in local news ratings, reports Lewis Lazare of the Chicago Sun-Times. Last may, WLS trailed in one news time slot, to Tribune’s WGN in the morning news. This year is a different story, with WLS leading WGN with 2.3 rating to WGN’s 2.

The story repeats itself throughout the broadcast day, with WLS convincingly winning against the other stations it competes with.  With these strong numbers, the station has thus far avoided some of the  cuts that have been seen at WBBM and other stations around the country.  For example, here in St. Louis, KSDK leads by slim margin in most news time slots, but it has come at price, with the loss of a prominent anchor, and several reporter changes.

That puts Emily Barr, WLS’s General Manager, Lazare reports, in an enviable position. With such strong ratings, the station can charge a premium for it ad time. While station revenue is down from last year, WLS’s ad revenue leaves the possibility of layoffs remote.  

However, Barr is remaining frugal, cutting costs without laying people off. 

“I don’t think laying off people would necessarily help us now.”

-Emily Barr, WLS-TV GM

With the news video sharing agreement going into effect between WBBM (“CBS2″), WMAQ (“NBC5″), WGN (“WGN9″) and WFLD (“FOX Chicago”), there’s a potential for WLS to get even higher ratings. 

My Take:

WLS represents a type of operation that just isn’t present in St. Louis. KSDK ran away with the ratings for a while, changed talent, and slipped behind KMOV. KMOV led for a bit, started changing things, and fell behind KSDK.  The relatively constant KTVI is gaining on both, and has not made major changes to it’s lineup. 

Our ABC affiliate, KDNL is the polar opposite of WLS, with some of the lowest ratings of an ABC affiliate, and with no news, it’s not a competitor to the other stations in the market.

From ABC’s Upfronts:

ABC 2009-2010 Fall Schedule

MONDAY:

8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars” (two-hours)
10:00 p.m. “Castle”

TUESDAY:

8:00 p.m. “Shark Tank”
9:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”
10:00 p.m. “The Forgotten”

Read the rest of this entry »

Jeff Skversky, who was a sports reporter at KMOV and was fired last year due to budget cuts a KMOV, has resurfaced at ABC O&O WPVI,  in Philadelphia. I’m glad to see a talented move up in the business. Skversky, a native of the Philadelphia area, came to KMOV from WSTM, in Syracuse, NY.

From the St. Louis Business Journal:

KMOV parent to cut 150 jobs

 

Television broadcasting company Belo Corp., parent of KMOV-TVChannel 4 in St. Louis, said Wednesday the company will be cutting 150 positions companywide, suspending the company’s 401(k) matching contributions for all employees and reducing the salaries of employees who are part of the management compensation programs by 5 percent.

Dallas-based Belo (NYSE: BLC) said these actions would take effect in mid-April.

Allan Cohen, general manager of KMOV, declined to discuss the number of lay-offs that will occur in St. Louis, saying it was a personnel matter.

The cost-cutting measures will cut Belo’s cash operating expenses about 10 percent in 2009, said Dunia Shive, the company’s president and chief executive officer.

 

Belo has 20 TV stations nationwide.

Meanwhile in Louisville:

Read the rest of this entry »