Results tagged “eyewitnessnews”

Back in the day, being able to say, "Hey it's that Eyewitness News van!" after a run-in with the news vehicle was enough fodder to get through cocktail parties for the month to follow. Nowadays that sort of excitement is reserved for spotting the Google Street View vehicle, currently at the tail end of a month where it is traversing the five boroughs in order to update the nerd's eye view of New York on Google Maps. Street View is so popular that it's even spawned a website dedicated to capturing and sharing some of the more unusual images caught by the Google vehicle. While some of those pictures include being able to detect New Yorkers at specific spots around town, a concern for the local ACLU, Google spokeswoman Elaine Filadelfo told the Times, "The spirit of Google Maps is not to tie in a specific person to a specific place." We passed along a Street View sighting by Nylon last month; the Times mentions the car's appearance on Jeremiah's Vanishing New York. While Google keeps many details of the car on the DL, the driver did tell one New Yorker that his next stop was Dubai.

There was a celebration at Tavern on the Green yesterday to celebrate the beginning of WABC-TV's Eyewitness News format. The NY Times described how Al Primo, the man (and news director) behind Eyewitness News, changed local newscasts forever in 1968: "He put reporters on the air, including women and members of minorities. He gave them beats, had them chat with one another in what became known as 'happy talk.' Each broadcast began with reporters hurrying onto the set, the very epitome of live-action newscasters, and Mr. Primo used music from the movie 'Cool Hand Luke' during the introductions."

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.

Two firefighters were pulled from beneath collapsed rubble last night, as a building undergoing demolition burned in Jamaica, Queens. The two men were partially pinned by debris when the landing between the second and third floors of the building on 95th Ave. and Sutphin Blvd. collapsed. Both were taken to a hospital along with a third firefighter, but all three were in stable condition and none suffered life-threatening injuries.

A bus full of students from Hunter College High School was pursued by a hammer-wielding road rager yesterday afternoon in Queens. It's unclear what made the driver so irate, but bus driver Jose Bautista noticed a man driving crazily in his rear view mirror and pulled over to the left. That is when the angry driver got out of his car and kicked in one of the panes of glass on the school bus's front door, then began hammering the vehicle.

Has WABC Changed for the Worse? We are starting to think that Bill Beutel, Roger Grimsby, or Tom Snyder would not recognize their former station if they came back to life. Sure the station is dominant in the ratings but has the quality of the news product gone down?

Back to the Newsroom Again

Tom Snyder died today, at age 71, after losing a long battle with leukemia. There are many videos with footage of his long career, because just about everyone wanted to talk to him (especially on "The Tomorrow Show" which aired after Johnny Carson in the '70s and '80s).

There must be something about the morning shift at WABC. After just four days on the job as the permanent replacement for Steve Bartelstein, Ken Rosato, overslept and was late for the 5 a.m. edition of Eyewitness News. We think it is pretty safe to assume that he just overslept, since he probably hasn’t adjusted his body clock fully to the new hours, and that he wasn’t spending the night out clubbing like his predecessor. We wonder if he brought bagels to smooth things over.

The five men who identified themselves as police before bursting into a Cypress Hills, Brooklyn home demanding to know "Where are the drugs?" were actually just thieves. WABC's Eyewitness News is reporting that the five men were dressed in police-type clothing, with one actually wearing a bulletproof vest and wielding a gun. They tied up two female residents and pistol whipped a man as they ransacked the home. An infant lying in a crib was not disturbed by the intruders.

Joel Siegel, perhaps best known as Good Morning America's film critic (a program he was on weekly since 1981), died yesterday in New York at the age of 63. Siegel had been battling colon cancer, though many didn't even know he was sick as he stayed positive until the end and kept working until just two weeks ago.

7 Back on Set

If you were watching WABC 7 last night, you noticed that it suddenly went black - and stayed that way until around 1AM. The studio needed to be evacuated after a smoky fire started near the set of Live with Regis & Kelly at its Columbus Avenue and 66th Street location. According to the NY Times, a "light bulb had set a curtain on fire." Here's what WABC 7 said during their segment about the fire:

The fire broke out on Channel 7's main studio before the 11:00 p.m. Newscast, an electrical malfunction set fire to a large stage.

Continue reading "WABC 7 Goes Black During Studio Fire"

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a body was found at Schenk and Livonia Aves. in Brooklyn that was initially reported as body parts, a shooting on Prospect Ave. in the Bronx, and there was a police car multi-vehicle accident on the Henry Hudson Parkway near 79th St.
• A daycare cries child abuse as the artists who share their space are attempting to throw the tots out on the street.
• The head of neuropsychiatry at NYU Medical Center testified that Peter Braunstein was plotting to cap his life of crime by killing Vogue Editor Anna Wintour.
• A former domestic violence counselor was found strangled to death in her own home in Brooklyn.
• The Yankees cursed pitching staff suffers another setback as Darrell Rasner broke his finger in today's game against the Mets.
• New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is investigating real estate practices that may have involved brokers pressuring appraisers to inflate values.
• Jason Giambi finally admits to taking steroids prior to the BALCO scandal and apologizes for it. Deafening silence is heard from other accused players.
• Eyewitness News anchor Liz Cho gave birth to a little girl this week.

WABC has finally had enough of Steve Bartelstein after on-air spats with his co-anchors, a sexual harassment lawsuit, gossip about him clubbing, arriving late to work and sleeping through a news update last Thursday morning. As unexpected as the firing was, since he is co-anchor of the #1 rated morning and noon newscasts, the station seemed to expect problems since it is reported that in his contract signed last June that there would be consequences for bad behavior.

A look at some noteworthy televison shows this week:

Wednesday night on WNBC’s 11 p.m. newscast, Michael Gargiulo in a live report about a police shooting in the Bronx appeared to give viewers the finger. In actuality he was holding a photo, however the way he was holding it made it appear that he was giving the one finger salute. Such are the perils of live television.

Wednesday night, recently installed barriers helped avert a disaster at Teterboro Airport. WABC 7 Eyewitness News reports that a ten ton jet missed a turn while taxiing after landing and "was headed toward the airport fence and busy Route 46." Luckily, it hit an "arrestor bed," which is a "system of collapsible concrete barriers that can stop a plane" yet not damage it. Brilliant! But what's extra lucky: The arrestors were only installed a few days ago.

If you were wondering what caused a bunch of Queens junior high students to stampede during the school day (terror threat? sulfur-smelling science wing? bad selection at the cafeteria?) and cause a bunch of injuries, worry no more. WABC 7 explains it all:

The Department of Education tells Eyewitness News the students had just left the cafeteria at JHS 190 in Forest Hills when someone behind them yelled "PUSH!" That sent another group of students surging forward on the staircase. Some of the students lost their balance, fell to the ground and were trampled.

We love investigative reports from the local news, and this one from Eyewtiness News was particularly disturbing. Did you know that the Center for Science in Public Interest is trying to get the word out about how caloriffic Starbucks drinks are? As in, that Venti Banana Coconut Frapuccino with whipped cream is over 700 calories! Now, the layman would say, "Hmm, it has bananas... it has coconut... it has sugar... it has whipped cream... it's probably not great for my diet," but is the layman going to resist that mix of caffeine, ice, and the aforementioned items? And we doubt that layman is going to the Starbucks Nutritional Information page to find out how many calories are in the various drinks. Now Gothamist totally understands why we're not losing our winter hibernation weight.

Today, there are more obituaries about and tributes to former WABC anchor Bill Beutel, who died yesterday. The NY Times' obituary calls him the "dapper and unruffled anchor"; it also states that he died of a progressive neuological disorder. am New York notes that it was Beutel and Eyewitness News co-anchor Roger Grimsby's "mix of 'happy talk' and hard-charging reporting -- would influence television stations across the nation" and recalls what current WABC anchor Bill Ritter said when he took over the anchor slot in 2004, "How do you replace a legend? You don't, you succeed him." He was considered a "father figure" to many reporters, and among the things we didnt realize, Beutel's last named was "pronounced Bill Boydel" but a news director made him change it to "Beutel."

This morning, at the ungodly hour of 9 A.M. Ferrnando Ferrer and Mike Bloomberg got together for the first official debate in the mayoral election. Asking the questions for this debate were Dave Evans, political reporter for Eyewitness News, Errol Lewis from the Daily News, and Denise Oyea (O'yea?) from Univision. In a post-fake-haloween daze we zoned in and out of the debates this morning, and this is what we can remember:

Following in the footsteps of it's parent company, Channel 7 Eyewitness News launched three video podcasts last week which are now available to you for free through iTunes. Current content runs about three minutes in length and features such news worthy content as What's Bugging You - The Pregnant Belly Rub!, Neighborhood Eats, Ice Cream, and Joe Torre announces his reuturn to the Yankees. Thankfully it seems that they are just using segments from the nights shows, instead of entire news casts. When we tried to download the latest episode of Lost, it took over 20 hours for it to show up in their music store. If they follow the same time line, last nights news is history (although news about ice cream is always timely, in our book).

- You know how you weren't worried about the home invasion robberies that seem to happen way too often in Long Island? Well, there might be a Brooklyn crew behind them

The MTA and riders will be entering another new era of subway service as token booth clerks start to move outside to help customers and new unmanned token booth kiosks are unveiled. NYC Transit President Lawrence Reuter said that since most riders use unlimited ride cards, token booth clerks have been selling less cards - and now they'll be able to help commuters who swipe swipe swipe to no avail. The booths are a new addition to the MTA's plans to eliminate token booths; originally, the MTA wanted to save money by getting rid of the booths, but when a man died at a station where there was no clerk on duty, they rethought things and won't end up saving money, chalking it up to providing better customer service.

Gothamist on how New Yorkers are unfazed by iPod thefts.

Worried about the outraged and marauding Daily News readers' demands, the Daily News has announced they are offering a special $1 million pot (thinks many prizes totaling the ONE MILLION DOLLARS) after mistakenly publishing the wrong winning numbers to a Scratch'N'Match promotion. This, however, does not sit well with the many people who thought they each won $100,000 and had started to buy themselves gifts and who ended up storming the Daily News' offices, practically Frankenstein torch and pitchfork style. The big lesson: Don't spend money until you've got some in the bank. The Daily News, for their part, is blaming contest fulfillment company D.L. Blair, but people are angry at both parties: One person told CBS 2, "I'm gonna get a lawyer. Is Perry Mason still alive." And it seems that Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is looking into the matter, possibly to make sure he can get the angry Daily News reader vote in 2006. Gothamist thinks the NY Post has the best quote from angry, angry newspaper contest players about this solution: "They can take this and shove it."

F Line Bagels, the new Smith Street bagel shop (see the nice exterior shot from Curbed) that has raised the ire of the MTA for using various subway memorabilia in the store, say they will propose a settlement to end the issues. The MTA issued a cease-and-desist to the shop, claiming that the shop used its trademarked items improperly and is infringing on the MTA's intellectual property. Okay, Gothamist gets that, but is making stupid decisions and running an agency into the ground also the MTA's intellectual property, 'cause we were just wondering. Anyway, now the brothers who own the joint will apply for a license and hope to pay a nominal fee for using the subway swag. Their lawyer also could not avoid a pun, saying, "We will sit with [the MTA], break bread and hopefully come up with a deal."