Today, we lost a well-known journalist who want people to know what’s happening in politics, Tim Russert, host of NBC’s Meet the Press; has died at the age 58. Russert suffered a massive heart attack while preparing his show at the NBC News Bureau in Washington D.C. Russert had just came back early from his family’s vacation to Italy so he can do this Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press.

The New York Times report that at 3:39pm, former NBC Nightly News Anchor Tom Brokaw announced to NBC News viewers that his colleague has died.

“Our beloved colleague,” a grave Mr. Brokaw called him, one of the premier journalists of our time. He said this was one of the most important years in his life, with his deep engagement in the network’s political coverage, and that he “worked to the point of exhaustion.” Mr. Brokaw said Mr. Russert was a true child of Buffalo and always stayed in touch with his blue collar roots and “the ethos of that community.”

He said Mr. Russert had just moved his father, who is in his late 80s, from one facility to another in Buffalo. He said he loved his family, his Catholic faith, his country, politics, the Buffalo Bills, the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals.

“This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice,” Mr. Brokaw said.

Russert, the longest running moderator for Meet the Press, has been with the show since 1991. Since then, he has formed of what is today known as Sunday morning government affairs program

As his death happens days before Fathers Day, he had written two books about his father and became a best-seller. In 1995, the National Father’s Day Committee named him “Father of the Year,” and Parents magazine honored him as “Dream Dad” in 1998, and in 2001 the National Fatherhood Initiative also recognized him as Father of the Year.

NBC News has planned to air a tribute to Russert on “Dateline NBC” on Friday at 10 p.m. ET.

At 10:27pm Monday evening during a live teaser for the 11PM news on WNBC NY Channel 4, news anchor Sue Simmons slipped “a word that many people find offensive.” This happend on the same day as an old video of Bill O’Reilly, from the O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, turned up on the Internet showing O’Reilly angry during a recording of the “Inside Edition.”

As an observer of WNBC News 4 New York for the past many years, I noticed something different about the teaser that was aired. After my observation of watching the clip online several times, it seems like it is not Simmon’s fault; it feels and looks like they were unaware that they are live. One hint during the teaser, Chuck Scarborough, the co-anchor of Simmons for the past 28 years, was not looking at the camera; something that Scarborough will never do during a live teaser. If in that case, the director in the studio did not tell Simmons and Scarborough that they are live; the audio and video was perfectly done just like the other live teasers at 10:30pm. But it is what Simmons said that outraged the audience. My prediction is that there was a similar situation just like in the O’Reilly video posted on Monday that might have been going on in Studio 6B; an argument between the anchor and the director. On the 11 o’clock newscast, she apologized to the audience.
It is expected that Simmons will not be on the air tomorrow during the 5 o’clock and 11 o’clock newscast if the situation is not resolved.

In my views, Simmons seems like she won’t be fired; Simmons and Scarborough is the anchor team that represents New York news. Simmons joined WNBC back in 1980 with Scarborough.

Because videos and links contains strong language, links were not posted. Left image: snapshot of the May 12 live teaser, Right image: Sue Simmons in February 2007.

WNBC announced on Thursday that New York City has opened the first public bathroom that can self-clean itself. At a fair price of 25 cents, you have 15 minutes “to do anything inside.” After the fifteen minutes, the doors will open automatically. After leaving, the bathroom will self-clean itself for 60 seconds before its next use. The first toilet is located in Madison Square Park in Manhattan, another 19 is on the way throughout the city.

Rob Morrison was on the 7PM and 11PM news slots this evening on WNBC, filling in for Chuck Scarborough. Since 2004, Morrison has been on Today in New York from 5-7am and newsbreaks from 7 to 12, which I rarely have time to sit down and watch the morning news. It was great to see him again for the evening, as he was the anchor on the weekend evening editons of Newschannel 4 before he landed into the morning shift. Since his arrival, he was able to keep the morning newscast at the #1 slot.

In 2005 after Jim Rosenfield’s departure at Live at Five, I was voting for Rob to take over the anchor job before Perri Peltz announced her return to the station in May 2005.

WNBC, has yet again, changed its news schedule for the fourth time since last year. Since adding the 7PM newscast, the 5 o’clock slot have been a mess since. After getting rid of News 4 You in October, WNBC had a segment at 5:30 after a showing of television-magazine Extra at 5 anchored by Sue Simmons and Michael Gargiulo. Now its flipped, the news is on 5 then Extra is on at 5:30, with the news coming up again at 6. I’ve heard that the schedule changes was a rumor the week before Christmas but I decided to wait to confirm the rumor before publishing this post.
An email from a WNBC fan that was sent to us by the schedule changes wrote “Maybe they’ll cut their idiocy and bring it back to sanity – like the way it was!!!”

I agree with the comment that I recieved. I understand that the budget of the newscast is up to 2 hours of production during the evening slots, like most other television stations. NBC O&O station WTVJ in Miami, which also has the news at 7, removed the 5 o’clock hour of news completely; there is only a 6PM, Nightly News, then the half hour 7 o’clock news. This was my evidence in September that the 7PM newscast was forced by the network.
I believe that the previous schedule was alright to fit the 7PM news (starting at 5:30), it was just non-stop news for 2 hours, including Brian Williams at 6:30. But now there is a block of no news, its going to cause distraction.

But overall, I think the 7 O’clock news is at its best of a 2.5 rating in October. But if the schedule is going to keep on changing, then the NBC network should force WNBC to stop the 7PM newscasts.

The so-called “number one station in New York,” which WABC-TV calls themselves, has discovered something so amazing, that you probably didn’t know about. It’s a thing called “the internet.”
On their Five O’Clock newscast, there was a report about their “new” website. Of course, WNBC, WCBS, and WNYW changed their website within the past two years and they never had a report about their website, some of the reporters did mention about it on the days of the change. And this was not a typical one minute and half report, the report lasted for nearly 4 minutes. This report was worst than the report WNBC did with their “Navigation 4″ navigation system, which is powered by MapTuit, on the station’s website. In the report WNBC sent out Lynda Baquero driving the streets of using the system. Of course, months later, most of the New York stations also use the MapTuit system on their website.

WABC-TV’s Jeff Rossen, who anchors the morning news for the station, was the reporter for the report. In the beginning of the report, which was done live, Rossen was running around the newsroom, as well as the cameraman, telling viewers of how everyone in the newsroom can submit an article or news report on the new version of the station’s website. “Here is where all of the stories from the area and the country… and here is where our website team is. There is the weather center, … then the meteorologists runs over here to ” The way how he was reported the live report, it sounded like the station felt well accomplished over something that should have been done over 13 years ago.

It then gets worse, the report tape rolls. For nearly two minutes, the tape close-ups of the site’s homepage with dramatic background music. “We’ve heard your Feedback, and now you’ve got it.” Since WABC finally got most of the local news coverage in widescreen/HD since December 2006, the videos are finally in widescreen.

And to clarify to everyone, the new site design was ABC O&O wide. This means that every ABC O&O station got the same look and feel, just a different look of the logo. For example, you can see KABC’s site here and WABC’s site here.
Why WABC-TV didn’t make a promo like the 1998 promo version of  WNBC’s Doppler 4000, which lasted for 3 minutes out of this report instead of considering it as “news.” The report is close enough of making it a promo out of it.

As you can tell, I have a website, WRAJ Internet Radio, and when our current look changed back in November 2003, I didn’t make a big deal, about our site but we didn’t know that the site would of become a popular internet radio station website. We did play promos about the new site, but we didn’t make it sound dynamic like WABC-TV did.
I felt like WABC-TV was some station out in the middle of Kansas who discovered the internet.
And finally, if I had to ask WABC-TV question, myh question will be “Are you going to be changing the terrible graphics within the next decade?”

If you have been watching WNBC lately, you might notice something different with the opening cards in the beginning of each newsbreak. Just like the the Today Show newsbreaks used in the past, the anchors are no longer announced. One reason is that now the WNBC news music performed by Edd Kalehoff in 2003 is now on NBC O&O station in San Francisco KNTV NBC 11. KNTV plays their opening just like how most O&Os that WNBC is now doing by not announcing the anchors.
But the music is not only the same as a WNBC look and feel. For the past three years, KNTV has been using the previous graphics package used on WNBC that was launched in 2003. Its the only station left out of 5 O&Os and affiliates that used the graphics. Stations included WPMI, WTVJ, and WVTM.

There have been rumors that KNTV will be using the similar HD graphics as WNBC when the station moves its newscasts in high-definition. The last time I watched KNTV in April while I was on a trip in San Francisco, I’ve witnessed the WNBC HD graphics on the lower thirds during a special investigation piece of an 11 O’Clock newscast.

WNBC is finally realizing that News 4 You might not be good for you after all. The soft news program on WNBC is getting pulled off the air after running for 7 months. As a WNBC fan, News 4 You had to be one of the worst news programs for the station that I’ve seen. Replacing the show will be, you know who, Sue Simmons with co-anchor Michael Gargiulo. However, the news at 5 on the hour will still not be on. Not only the newscast should be at 5 again, but the whole daytime schedule should be revamped at 4; Access Hollywood will be now on at 4:30 with another airing at 7:30. Two telecasts of the same show in a three hour range is a bad idea.

And sadly, my one and only favorite consumer reporter has been let go from WNBC last week. He was let go in round 2 of job cuts at NBC.

We all know B.A.R.T.! No, not Bart Simpson, the Bay Area Rapid Transit of San Francisco. Now we have a new transit nickname, S.L.U.T., which stands for South Lake Union trolley. “People can call it whatever they want as long as they ride it,” said Mayor Greg Nickels of Seattle. The new trolley system cost nearly $50 million that connects from South Lake to downtown Seattle. According to interviewers on NBC affiliate KING-TV, they said that the nickname came from crew and workers of the trolley system.

And at a local coffee shop located near the trolley are selling T-Shirts saying to “Ride the S.L.U.T.” which have been going by the thousands. Only if I can get one for my good friend Jenn, I know that she’ll find it hilarious!

You can read an article from MSNBC and a video from KING here.

We’re 4 New York is back on TV! The 1993 marketing campaign for WNBC NBC 4 New York is back in High-Definition! I can’t tell if there is a full version from the 30 second promo that appears at the end of a newscast. The 1993 promo was about 3 minutes and half long with 4 short versions. I guess the slogan NBC 4 HD is getting boring, but WNBC is the only station in New York that has real HD news, unlike WCBS and WABC.