Results tagged “WNBC”

WNBC has gotten rid of Chopper 4, its news helicopter, as well as its helicopter reporter Dan Rice. The Daily News reports, "Ch. 4, the first station in the market to have a dedicated helicopter for its coverage, is now sharing footage, a chopper and staff with Ch. 5. It's part of a cost-cutting move by both stations in a market where every station has been battered by declining advertising revenues." The sharing scheme will save each station $500,000 annually and the News says channels 2 (WCBS) and 11 (WPIX) may share a chopper as well. Rice said he found out about being fired back in March, after winning an Emmy for his coverage of last year's Upper East Side crane collapse; he Tweeted yesterday, "Today is Chopper 4's last day. Thanks to all of the viewers who have tuned in over the last 10 years. I will miss you the most!" The helicopter was the subject of a Saturday Night Live skit in 1997 and here's a 1998 ad; in 2004, the chopper crashed onto a Brooklyn rooftop.

Len Berman didn't exactly use his farewell from the WNBC 4 sports desk as an opportunity to have his Howard Beale moment, but he did get in a couple of jabs at all of the cutbacks around the station that led them to let him go after almost twenty-five years covering local sports there. When presented with a cake, Berman quipped, "Is this in the budget?" Apparently personalizing it was not.

Tonight will be the final broadcasts at WNBC 4 for longtime sportscaster Len Berman. Berman will be on the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts tonight and tells the Daily News, "I know they have a video and surprises planned at 6 p.m." Will one of those surprises be a goodbye kiss from Sue Simmons? His heart is likely racing to find out. As for what happens next, Berman tells the News, "I am happy to report there will be a next time." His signature segment of wacky highlights, "Spanning the World," will remain at its second home on . There hasn't been any word on further pink slips at WNBC, which has seen quite a few recently. As for his departure, Berman says he has "definitely mixed emotions." Here's to hoping that nobody got hurt.

The news has set in that longtime WNBC sports anchor Len Berman is leaving/being let go from the station, and it seems that Berman himself is a little conflicted. Though upbeat—he told Newsday's Neil Best, "This was something we have been talking about for a long time, and I think it benefits both of us... I feel I have other talents besides just reading sports news. And my wife [Jill] is jumping up and down."—Berman did say to the Daily News' Richard Huff, "I've done the same thing for so long I've gotten up and gone to work at 30 Rock for so long. I'm not going to have to wear a suit and tie. It's really a bit of angst." Berman's (rumored $1 million/year) contract ran into 2010 and he and WNBC had apparently been negotiating a settlement for months. Best put the news into perspective, "The man had a heck of a run. I'm so old, though, that to me he still seems like the new guy who just replaced Marv Albert on the Ch. 4 news."

Veteran WNBC sportscaster Len Berman will make April his last month at Channel 4. NY Post says he was eliminated "as the station continues to cut high-priced talent" while the Daily News offers WNBC's spin: Apparently news director Vickie Burns sent an e-mail saying Berman had an "interest in pursuing different opportunities within the local sports arena. To that end, we have mutually agreed that the time is right for Len to take advantage of those opportunities." (The News also points out that he's "the latest casualty in a depressed economy that has claimed the jobs of several market veterans, and specifically made sportscasters walking targets.") Berman, who joined WNBC in 1985, issued a statement, "I've had a great run here at WNBC and will miss the talented people I've worked with over the years both on and off the air. I'm looking forward to the various media projects I'll be involved with." Sad. Does this give legs to the rumor that Chuck Scarborough will get the axe?

Could ongoing cuts to NBC News Channel 4 go so deep as to bring an end to the city's most beloved anchor team? Gawker reports: "A 'pervasive rumor' is making the rounds at NBC News that the network is putting Chuck Scarborough out to pasture." While a spokesman for WNBC denies it, sources tell the site that the network is looking to buyout big salaries it's carrying—Scarborough's is reportedly $3 million a year. NBC News has been trimming its budget for some time now—longtime reporter Asa Aarons was let go in 2007 and just recently a handful of anchors got the axe. If something this dramatic were to happen, a source says, "NBC is essentially getting out of the local news business." The only thing we can imagine worse is the reaction such a move could provoke out of the majestic enigma that is Sue Simmons.

The police arrested an ex-con with a history of stabbing-while-biking in the weekend stabbing of a Queens woman walking in Long Island City. Police say Eli Granger stabbed a woman in the chest while riding on his bike. A tip to Crimestoppers led the police to Granger's home at a Greenpoint "flophouse."

Fans of Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons won’t have to stay up to 11 p.m. to see the long time anchor team together. WNBC will also have the team anchoring back at 6 p.m. starting next week. Simmons will also be moving back into her seemingly traditional 5 p.m. slot anchoring with David Ushery who will be displaced from the 6 p.m. newscast. Scarborough will still be the front man for New York Nightly News at 7 p.m. Lynda Baquero and Michael Gargiulo will be out of the anchor chairs, but will remain with the station.

WNBC anchor Sue Simmons's unexpected cursing during a Monday night promo continues to be watercooler gossip. The veteran news anchor appeared on yesterday's broadcasts, surprising some industry insiders who thought she might be suspended.

Beloved WNBC anchor Sue Simmons was doing a promo during the 10 p.m. hour for the 11 p.m. news broadcast, when she went from describing a story about food prices going up and the weight of food products going down to saying "What the fuck are you doing?!" (See video above.) When the 11 p.m. broadcast rolled around, there was no mention of the mishap until after the lead stories were out of the way and then Simmons faced the camera:

"We need to acknowledge an unfortunate mistake that i made in one of the teases we bring to you before this program. While we were live, just after 10 o'clock, I said a word that many people find offensive. I'm truly sorry it was a mistake on my part and I sincerely apologize."

Big changes are ahead for WNBC, Channel 4. The NY Times reports NBC wants to transform the local station into a "content center" and "will start a 24-hour local news channel along the lines of cable’s New York One."

This past Sunday the New York Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences had its local Emmy awards presentation and there were some surprises among the winners in the local news categories along with the amount stations took home compared to last year.

WNBC’s newscast rebranding (back to "News 4 New York") was not the only change this week for the station. Vickie Burn, from NBC's DC affiliate WRC, is the new Vice President of News & Content aka news director, replacing Dan Forman. (The rebranding was just coincidental, according to the station.)

Don’t adjust your television sets, because since Monday WNBC has been using "News 4 New York" in on-air mentions and on-screen graphics, switching gears from "Newschannel 4" (and "Newschannel 4 HD").

WNBC’s Sue Simmons is known as a big Mets fan, so it's no surprise she was tapped to host a look back at Shea Stadium in its final year. So expect Sue being Sue along with some amazing Mets moments, concerts and some Jets (and we aren’t just talking about those coming into LaGuardia). The Amazin' Shea (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., WNBC 4) also will feature some interviews with some of the Mets greats. It is half the length of the station’s hour long look at Yankee Stadium from last week, but if that is any indication of the quality this will be another home run.

WNET is launching a new weekly local arts series called SundayArts this Sunday (12 noon). The debut episode’s main focus is the New York City Opera from its current production of Madama Butterfly to its incoming director. There will also be some arts news and highlights of current shows and events as part of the show which is structured around a rebroadcast of the Great Performances presentation of Madama Butterfly.

Television coverage of Governor Spitzer's scandal has been relentless. From extra newscasts from most of the stations and WNET/ Thirteen's special Monday night report (the only one that seemed to gauge statewide reaction) to leading all the local newscasts, but the networks, local stations throughout the country and even the BBC World News.

Some Capitol Hill offices received letters claiming responsibility for this morning's bombing in Times Square. WNBC reports that the letters, which arrived today, included a photo of the Army recruiting center "before it was bombed and...the words 'We did it.'"

The NYPD released surveillance footage of this morning's explosion near the Army recruiting center in Times Square. The footage shows a bicyclist approaching the building and an explosion taking place after he leaves.

Around 3:45 a.m., a device exploded outside the military recruiting center in Times Square. No one was injured, but a glass entryway was shattered.

A building collapse at 124th Street and Park Avenue has prompted the MTA to shut down all train service in and out of Grand Central Terminal. Metro-North's Dan Brucker told WCBS 880, "We don't know how long the closure will last. We have been told by the police not to have any trains run through the 125th Street station."

A two-alarm fire was ignited on the Van Wyck Expressway when a tanker crashed near North Conduit Avenue - and JFK Airport - around noon. The driver could not escape and died in the blaze.

And the winner is. . .Despite having ancient looking graphics that can be seen from across the street, a set that looks like it is from a station in Iowa, and a love of sprinkling kicker stories throughout the newscast, WABC’s Eyewitness News and the station overall is yet again at the top of the ratings among the big three for February.

The police are looking for a man suspected of stabbing two Key Food employees, one of whom died at a hospital two hours after the afternoon attack. Other employees at the East Village store say James Gonzalez, a part-time maintenance worker, stabbed ex-girlfriend Tina Negron with a 10-inch knife, because he was upset over their breakup.

Two female Key Food employees at the Avenue A and East 4th Street store were attacked by a knife-wielding man. The police originally said one of the woman died, but it turns out that one is "clinging to life" while the other is in critical condition.

If only all crimes were this easy to solve. Last Friday, a woman robbed a North Fork Bank at 71st Street and New Utrecht Avenue in Dyker Heights. Now the police say she returned to the scene of the crime and returned the money yesterday.

Earlier this morning, around 1:30AM, police were chasing a stolen car in Brooklyn, at 93rd Street and 4th Avenue, but the 1997 Nissan slipped away, heading onto the Belt Parkway. The cops later found it on the Parkway at 65th Street, after it had crashed into a car carrying four people, killing one.