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.:: Tennessee station tops in U.S. at 6 p.m., eclipsed at 5 p.m. /Sweeps//
A longtime leader is
staying comfortably on top, but there are a few signs of market flux,
according to a report on the latest
Nielsen ratings from Knoxville, Tenn. WBIR/Ch. 10 apparently did so
 well in the
ratings at 6 p.m., that it has what may be the highest
local news rating in the country. The NBC affiliate reportedly logged a
16.8 during the November ratings period. Nevertheless, there are some
small signs of change in the market. For one, ABC affiliate WATE/Ch. 6
won the 5 p.m. half-hour with a 9.7 to Ch. 10's 9.2. But, Ch. 10's
"Live at Five" won when the full hour is counted and Ch. 6's news had
the benefit of a strong "Oprah" lead-in. Meanwhile, at 11 p.m., the
race for second place was won by WVLT/Ch. 8, which had a 5.8 to Ch. 6's
5.5. Ch. 10 had an 11.5 and also won the morning and noon newscasts. --
1/25/05 .:: National Bites: Day-old Spanish news comes to small market /More
from ECTVN// The media
effort to reach the Spanish-speaking community is taking an interesting
twist in
 tiny Medford, Ore. A
newscast director for KOBI/Ch. 5 will
reportedly translate stories from the also-ran NBC outlet's evening
newscasts so they can air the next morning on the area's only
Spanish-language radio station. The effort, which was set to begin this
week,
follows a failed simulcast translation by the stations a decade ago.
...Coverage of President Bush's second inauguration in Washington on
Thursday came at a changing
time for the networks, the AP notes, with Brian Williams leading
coverage for the first time on NBC and Dan Rather's inaugural farewell
at CBS. ...Meanwhile, the anchor-go-round
is in full swivel-door mode in Madison, Wisc. Principally, the
turnover is at dominant WISC/Ch. 3, which is seeing the
departure of veteran anchor John
Karcher along with co-anchor Carleen Wild. Both are moving to jobs
outside the
business. Reporter/anchor Karin Harschey is also leaving and former
WMTV/Ch. 15 anchor Pam
Tauscher has been hired to replace Wild starting
this week. ...One part of a  hyphenated market in
Illinois is set to
get some
more focus from local TV news. Beginning in April, UPN affiliate
WCFN/Ch. 49 will reportedly air a 9 p.m. newscast focusing on the
Springfield area in place of "Dr. Phil." The broadcast, produced by
co-owned WCIA/Ch. 3 in Champaign, will go up against NBC-to-be-ABC
affiliate WICS/Ch. 20 in covering day-to-day news from the Illinois
capital city. ...Some high school students in Michigan are getting to
air their work on a teen
news program set up by Grand Rapids Fox affiliate WXMI/Ch. 17. The
station is turning over a half-hour of programming on Saturdays at 6
a.m. to the kids to broadcast work produced at school. --
1/25/05 .:: Big Apple Bites: Three reporters picked up, two get the boot /New York// Former WNBC/Ch. 4 reporter Karen Hepp didn't have to wait long for a new job, and she's not the only one taking the air again in New York. After leaving the NBC flagship following a strange one-year tenure, Hepp was quickly hired by Fox's WNYW/Ch. 5 recently to anchor the weekend news. Hepp, formerly of WCAU/Ch. 10, talked to the Philadelphia Inquirer about  her Ch. 4 exit,
reportedly saying the decision
for her
to leave was mutual. About the "wife beater" T-shirt reference that
got her
bounced from anchoring, Hepp said: "It was my misperception, thinking
New York was MTV and hip. WNBC is very conservative." At Ch. 5, Hepp
replaces Julie Banderas, who had been at the station since 2002 and was
surrounded by even
more controversy
- getting flack after changing her
on-air surname from Bidwell, which she went by in Harrisonburg, Va., to
Banderas in
what many thought was an effort to seem more Hispanic. Though
she claimed managers
were in on the change, reports of risque
photos of Banderas
inside a Ch. 5 live truck also cropped up. ...Meanwhile, another former
Ch. 4 reporter has a new job with WCBS/Ch. 2. Ti-Hua Chang, dropped by
Ch. 4 in July after an 11-year run, previously worked briefly at Ch. 2
and has been hired as a general
assignment and investigative reporter. ...And, a familiar face has returned
to Ch. 5 after a few years away. Penny Crone, who spent more than a
decade at the station before defecting to Ch. 2 where she was later
dropped, has signed
on as morning reporter. "I made a big mistake by leaving Fox," she
told the papers. Crone fills the shift left vacant by 9-year "Good
Day" veteran Ernabel Demillo, who has left
the station under unclear circumstances. ...Ch. 2 has hired recent
part-timer Tamsen Fadal,  with KYW/Ch. 3 in
Philadelphia for the past
few years, as a reporter. The Daily
News also reports Perri Peltz has been freelancing for Ch. 4. Linda
Schmidt has penned
a new deal with Ch. 5  after rumors she was
on the outs there. The
big changes at the station come under the reign of recent news director
arrival Scott Matthews. ...WABC/Ch. 7 recently unveiled an understated
new set featuring the city skyline, marking the first change in the
newscast's backdrop in the better part of a decade. ...On Long Island,
WLNY/Ch. 55 anchor Richard
Rose steps in for Rick Belyea as news director for the 11 p.m.
newscast. ...Ch. 4 lead anchors Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons are marking
25 years as an anchor team this month. The station recently had
some on-air reminiscing for the long-running 11 p.m. news pair. --
1/25/05 .:: KTLA hires former Miss USA as part of overhaul /West
Coast Update// This might
be her first news job in Hollywood, but Lu
Parker is no stranger to the
 spotlight. Parker,
who won the Miss
USA pageant in 1994 before embarking on a career in local TV news, was
set to begin as KTLA/Ch. 5's weekend anchor on Saturday as part of a
news retooling at the historic WB affiliate. She also has an outside
chance to move right to the early morning news, which anchor Sharon Tay
could vacate since she has an
MSNBC hosting gig in the works, according to the blog TVNewser.
Parker, 36, most recently hosted a morning program in San Antonio for
just over a year. At Ch. 5, she replaces Marta Waller, in her early
50's, at the anchor desk. The last time Waller lost her anchoring
duties, she sued the station. [ Full
story>>> ] --
1/3/05.:: College TV newscast out of funding, may shut down /First
& In Depth//
Continuing funding issues will likely close a college news operation in
Indiana by this summer,
 according to a report
on the broadcast's
website. "NewsLink Indiana," which began at Ball
State University just over a year ago, has apparently run through
almost all of its money
from one grant but has not found another source of funding. Four
program staffers, including
former Indianapolis WRTV/Ch. 6 reporter Chris Bavender, were reportedly
notified Dec. 29 that their contracts will not be renewed when they
expire
in June. But that wasn't the first sign of problems for "NewsLink,"
which has been somewhat troubled since its inception. [ Full
story>>> ] -- 1/3/05.:: Maine station rebrands to match new ownership  /ECTVN Exclusive//
The purchase
of WMTW/Ch. 8 by Hearst-Argyle Television was announced nearly a year
ago and completed months ago, but now the ABC affiliate in Portland,
Maine, is finally looking the part. Updated graphics seen on the station's website
match
the latest look being rolled out around the country to members of the
station group. Yet they also differ from the branding of neighboring
Hearst-Argyle flagship WCVB/Ch. 5 in Boston, on an updated version of a
previous company look, and WMUR/Ch. 9 in Manchester, N.H., which got an
alternate blue graphics package after it was bought in 2001. Following
Ch. 8's sale, the market bottom feeder has made some key staffing
 moves, including
replacing Russ Murley with Tom Chisholm as chief
meteorologist, hiring former WGME/Ch. 13 meterologist Matt Zidle, and
moving anchors Tory Ryden and Jeff Peterson from split-shift anchoring
in the morning and evening to the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. But it
remains to be seen if the changes will have any effect on Ch. 8's
distant third place status in the local market. (Ominous beginning? Ch.
8's new standard website misspells the names of Chisholm and sports
director Norm Karkos - a.k.a. "anchor Norm Korkos.") -- 1/3/05.:: Dallas libel case dismissed as Tampa station faces new suit /Legal
Watch// A judge this
week threw
out a lawsuit concerning a WFAA/Ch. 8 investigation into patient
deaths at a hospital in Fort Worth, Tex., according to the Dallas
Morning News. Lydia
Grotti, a former d
 octor at the
hospital, argued libel after Ch. 8 aired
reports three years ago alleging she euthanized patients. Grotti, whose
medical license was later revoked, was convicted in August of
criminally negligent homicide in the death of a patient under her care.
She was acquitted of more serious charges and has appealed the
conviction. "Today's ruling is a victory for free speech and the public
interest. The WFAA investigative team performed a vital public service
by reporting on these serious allegations...all to the benefit of the
community  WFAA serves," said
lawyer Russ Coleman of the Belo
Corporation, which owns Ch. 8 and the Morning News, in a Dec. 29
statement to
the News. Meanwhile, in unrelated incident in Tampa, Fla., a law
firm filed suit against
WFLA/Ch. 8 on Dec. 28, according to the co-owned Tampa Tribune.
The suit, which also targets reporter Jeff Patterson and anchor Stacie
Schaible, says Ch. 8 cost the firm a client and portrayed its role
improperly in a report on a dispute over an illegal billboard. -- 1/3/05.:: After one year at the top, Hepp dropped from WNBC  /First & In
Depth// WNBC/Ch. 4 is giving reporter Karen Hepp the boot after
only a year at the station, according
to the Daily News. The paper reports Ch. 4 isn't renewing Hepp's
contract, ending her short but seemingly tumultuous ride in the
nation's top TV market, at least for now. Hepp, 34, came to Ch. 4 with
a grade-A NBC pedigree - reporter and fill-in anchor at network-owned
WCAU/Ch. 10 in Philadelphia for six years, plus two years at peacock
shop WVIT/Ch. 30 in Hartford, Conn. Despite not having anchored
full-time for a while, Hepp was hired at Ch. 4 as weekend morning
co-anchor and reporter. She also served as a fill-in anchor on other
shows, including the high-profile 11 p.m. newscast. But higher-ups
apparently tired of her casual style, reportedly pulling
her from the anchor desk this summer because she called a
sleeveless T-shirt a "wife beater" on the air. She continued as a
reporter for the rest of the year. No word yet on Hepp's next
destination, although she could head to another station in town or back
to Philly, where she grew up and even had online admirers
during her time at Ch. 10. Hepp, who also worked in Binghamton and
Rochester after graduating from NYU, was hired by Ch. 4 in Dec. 2003
and got engaged the next month. --
12/31/04.:: Stations tune up newscasts for the new year /Image
Watch// In the wake of
the November ratings and on the doorstep of the
 new year, some local
stations are taking the chance to revamp their newscasts for 2005. New
York's WABC/Ch. 7 is said to be working on a new set in its main studio
for January, and is currently broadcasting from a scaled-down version
of its regular set. Across the country, Tribune-owned KTLA/Ch. 5 in Los
Angeles has dropped its channel number in a new logo which is part of a
station-wide image facelift. In the talent department, Jancey Sheats is
set
to take over as anchor on Little Rock KARK/Ch. 4's three evening
newscasts on Jan. 31, replacing Denise Whitaker, who left Dec. 1 for
the morning job at KOMO in Seattle. Sheats makes a big jump from 5 p.m.
anchor at KBMT in Beaumont, Tex., and has also worked in Sherman, Tex.,
and off-air in Austin. In an online note, WNYT/Ch. 13  recently redid its website to match
its shiny updated on-air branding.  WGN/Ch. 9 in Chicago
is also working
on a set update. And from out west, Phoenix's KPNX/Ch. 12, which in
2004 has seen declining ratings and the departure of anchor mainstay
Kent Dana, is making moves to shore up its team. Weekend sports anchor
Tom Zenner has replaced sports director Mark Curtis, who replaced Dana,
and weekend anchor Tram Mai is set to replace onetime Dana co-anchor
Jineane Ford on the morning news next month. Ford, who will retain a
Ch. 12 daytime program, appears to be taking the fall for the station's
poor third-place showing at 6 a.m. in November. -- 12/30/04.:: WPIX's fireplace log burns competition in ratings /New York// Video of burning wood in a fireplace propelled WPIX/Ch. 11 to the to  p of the New
York ratings race on Christmas morning, according
to Variety Magazine. Ch. 11 reportedly garnered an average of
approximately 275,000 viewers during its four-hour "Yule
Log" telecast, enough to best WNBC/Ch. 4 for first place by about
20,000 viewers from 8 a.m. to noon. The commercial-free broadcast,
which started in the 1960's and was revived in 2001 after a decade-long
absence, gives many New York apartment residents without a fireplace a
TV substitute. Sponsors were mentioned only at the beginning and end of
the show. This year, KCAL/Ch. 9 in Los Angeles aired
a similar broadcast and won in key demographic ratings. --
12/30/04
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