Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Early Addition
Many people in the tri-state area have been asking the same question: “What the hell is going on at Channel 2?” The one easy answer is that it is the work of the station’s general manager Peter Dunn.
Dunn came to WCBS in November of 2005 from CBS owned sister station KYW in Philadelphia. There, he turned the station’s newscast into a tabloid newscast heavy on infotainment, complete with former Access Hollywood host Larry Mendte as the co-anchor of the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. Many of the features that you see on WCBS today, such as anchors reporting from the field or standing next to plasma screens in the studio were pioneered at KYW.
The changes implemented by Dunn in Philadelphia brought ratings success moving KYW from third to second in the ratings, behind the 1970’s themed “Action News” on the ABC owned station. It was hoped that Dunn would bring the same sort of success to WCBS, which has been a perennial also ran - finishing third or lower in the ratings.
After a few months with Dunn on the job, news director Dianne Doctor, who is best known for abruptly firing legendary sportscaster Warner Wolf in 2004, left the station in April of 2006. To replace Doctor, Dunn brought in David Friend from CNBC to oversee the station’s news operations starting at the end of June. Friend had excellent tabloid television credentials, being the co-creator and executive producer of the entertainment news show Extra.
Even the station's graphics - which were left virtually untouched for three years under Dunn's predecessors - went through many changes. A full overhaul in April was quickly followed by another one in the summer, in which virtually every graphical element was changed. Dunn had done this before at KYW, where during his tenure the station went through at least six graphics changes in two years. By all accounts he had a heavy involvement in the graphical presentation at the Philadelphia station, so we can make a safe bet the same thing happened at CBS 2.
By the time Friend took the helm, the entire CBS 2 News This Morning team was dismantled being replaced with Maurice DuBois and Kate Sullivan from a station in Arkansas. This was the first of many shakeups, including the removal of Cindy Hsu from the noon newscast in favor or Roz Abrams and Mary Calvi, who also anchored the 5 p.m. newscast.
As the summer progressed, younger talent appeared, such as sportscaster Sam Ryan. This youth trend continued into the fall with the addition of Kristine Johnson who was hired to anchor the noon and 5 p.m. newscasts with sportscaster Chris Wragge, best known as the “tapehead” that replaced Warner Wolf.
This led to the previous anchors getting reshuffled with Mary Calvi was shunted off to weekend evenings and Roz Abrams left in a sort of limbo with no position listed on her website bio.
To sum up, WCBS is trying to gain ratings by constantly tweaking their newscast and getting rid of or shuffling off popular veteran anchors in favor of younger faces. Given all the tweaks and changes haven’t worked for ten years, they may as well just try to get the rights to Seinfeld reruns, since those have often gotten higher ratings than WCBS’ 11 p.m. newscasts. You aren’t going to get viewers if you keep changing and generating negative buzz about your station.
TV Notes:
Big changes at WNBC?
Wednesday, Gawker reported the rumor that “Dr. Max Gomez, Joe Avellar and Jane Hanson all got the boot from WNBC today.” Gomez didn’t appear on Wednesday’s Live At Five, instead Sue Simmons and Peri Peltz handled the medical stories and there was a taped piece from KNBC medical reporter Dr. Bruce Hensel. So it looks like the NBC-Universal budget cuts may have finally have hit WNBC.
Bartelstein Back
WABC’s troubled morning anchorman Steve Bartelstein returned to the station Monday after being “indefinitely” suspended for arriving 20 minutes after the start of November 8th’s 5 a.m. newscast.
Rockette for a day
One of the best sweeps stunts from the network morning shows aired Monday morning. NBC’s Today show sent Meredith Vieira across the street to become a Rockette for a day in the
Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
Scrub up!
Scrubs returns to NBC’s lineup Thursday, November 30th at 9:00 sharing the hour with 30 Rock. The bad news is it goes up against the powerhouse CBS show CSI and ABC’s popular Grey's Anatomy.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
"Many people"
really? who. Is that like when newscasters start of a story with "some people are saying" ... really? Some people?
It's funny to see this here today, since I was just last night watching the old WCBS Newsbreakers promo on YouTube (I think you guys had a posting on it a few months back). It's amazing the team that was in place then (Jim Jensen, Chris Borgen, Arnold Diaz, Vic Miles, and a young Meredith Viera). All the more amazing when you look at what they're putting out now.
I've watched KYW when at my in-laws and, like a lot of local news in other cities, it's nothing but dreck from beginning to end. Like CBS2, KYW used to be a great local news station. Now it's just flashy, amateurish graphics and inane banter delivered by a bunch of recent college grad nerds (not even the cool kids). Sad.
It used to be how I couldn't wait to get home to see a good local news broadcast, and now here in NY they are starting to look like everyone else's. Sad.
that's a shame, oh well, we'll always have our chuck and sue. and, I wouldn't shed a tear for dana if they can her, she's phil collin's girlfriend.
i love action news' look. i think wabc's newscast look is kind of similar to that. at least it was about a year ago.
If the management at WCBS would stop tweaking their anchors every few months then maybe people would feel that connection that people have to Chuck & Sue or even Bill Ritter & Liz Cho.
Not to mention, that these other anchor teams (Chuck & Sue / Bill & Liz) exude competence that no one at WCBS except for Jim Rosenfield has.
I grew up in an area of Jersey where we got both the New York and Philly local stations (which might seem like overkill during prime time when you're getting each network twice, but is wonderful during football season), and we'd rotate between watching Philly and NYC local news. You may mock the "70's themed" Action News, but, having lived outside of the Philly market for almost six years, I can still hear that theme song in my head (in fact, it's going to be stuck there now for the rest of the night).
Some of you are forgeting WPIX used the same "Action News" theme for their version of "Action News" until the early 80s. I have some fuzzy childhood memories of them using Barry White's Love's Theme too.
As for WABC's look - the graphics they use today are very close to the ones they used ten years ago.
As for the WNBC cuts, they are offiical.
There was article in today's Daily News.
The only reason why I watch channel 2 is because of the consistent and loyal Dana Tyler. When she goes I go.
I thought I was the only one who remembered Barry White's love's theme as the closing music to WPIX.
Those were great times. Can't remember off hand if Pat Harper was the anchor then.
Oh, channel nine is the worst, with russ salzburg.
I disagree. I think the changes made at KYW were all impressive. The station looks better than any other in Philadelphia. As for Mendte, he was only at Access for a short time. He anchored at WABC and in Chicago and won tons of awards. He is very good. They also hire Alycia Lane who yes is young and pretty but also very good. AND they upgraded their weather which is huge in Philadelphia. KYW WAS a perennial bottom dweller....now they are competitive thanks to Dunn. The newscast at WCBS will improve...no question. Ratings are another thing....we'll see.
I fear this is the slippery slope that will lead to the "Foxification" of Edward R. Murrow's CBS.
Actually Mendte was the first male co-host of Access Hollywood and was a stand-up comedian. He is no Chuck Scarborough.
move closer to the world, take a little bit of time, move closer to the world my friend and you'll see...
bah dada dada da dadada da da da da! da! deedeedeedee!
why does this sound like a paid advertisement???
Funny, I've always viewed channel [2]as a senior citizens channel . Guess there trying to get some new blood by making the changes .