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.

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.

There was a false alarm today when the fire alarms at Five Towns College went off. According to my friend, a student set off the alarm. At the time I was leaving my post at WFTU, leaving hosts Dan and Justin on the air. As I was preparing to leave the campus, I put on the station. Then when I was pulling out the fire alarms were going off. So I ran inside and told them to put the station on auto pilot and leave the station until a clear signal is given. Shortly after, maintenance put the alarm till silent to investigate.

What was funny was that students were still walking in and around in the school while the fire alarms were going off. My sister, waiting in the car, was laughing how everyone is acting ‘normal’ and what Justin and Dan was saying on the radio. Justin and Dan went on the air again a few minutes after the evacuation.

Of course this moment made me remember the time when the fire alarms went off on WNBC last year on the 11 O’clock news with Sue and Chuck. Here is a clip.

In December 2005, there was another false alarm I was involved in which took place here at WRAJ Internet Radio offices at 3 in the morning. Many police officers and firefighters were here as carbon monoxide detectors were going off. In result, the batteries on the central panel for the detectors failed and was replaced the following weekend.

So what will be the next false alarm and how will it be?

As a ‘plot’ of a deadly shooting at a high school effected us so close to home and throughout the nation, we’ve decided to share the views of what some students and alumni told us at WRAJ in the last 24 hours. In this blog post, we have not shared names. Please note: This blog entry does not exploit the views and opinions of WRAJ Internet Radio, its parent company, Jenthony Enterprises, Inc; including its subsidiaries, affiliates, licensees, successors, and agents.
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Well my prom picture is up on WNBC’s website and could be seen on WNBC in the upcoming week. Tell you the truth, I didn’t enjoy my prom. I wished I could of have had more fun!

You can see the prom picture at the link below (it’s a slide show, so you are going to need to browse!):
http://www.wnbc.com/slideshow/news/13383386/detail.html

Of course you can see my high school pictures in my site’s photo gallery by clicking here. Who is going to look at the pictures anyway?

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.

New image everyone is loving. Its a new picture on my Myspace ( I hate that site) and Facebook and many people just love it. The picture of me was taken a few years ago at Rockefeller Center after spending a day over there (The picture is in HD but it is not displayed lol) next to a WNBC news van. Since I haven’t used the picture at all, I decided to add the Tower graphics on WNBC to act like I am actually on TV lol. Recently I walked by the same news van during the IBS conference in March and the truck had Christmas lights on it, unfortunately I don’t have a picture of it lol.