Mary Nam grinding out sports on Thursday's KOMO 4 PM. Guess Niko and, even Chris Daniels were unavailable.  Hey the Fox station in Houston just closed down it sports dept.  KIRO did it here.  Lavan and Sloss doing sports there off the news desk.  It's a trend, right.   I believe weather may be next down the road.   Just need mornings live...AI for the rest or hubbed from out of market.  

Does anybody approve this content??? How's this for a story from KOMO about a human trafficker shown on a lower third chyron for young people to see?  Hey Mom, what's a pimp? How about trafficker? Sinclair stuff, folks.   

Last roundup at KOMO before Denise Whitaker moves to KNWN Radio 97.7 in Seattle.  Going from TV to radio is an odd landing spot in this media environment but good luck.  Was it contractual or did she just want to escape Sinclair on her terms?      Btw, the radio station dropped a bit in the May book but is still in the top 15, though a full share point behind KIRO FM, and it's lowest number since Feb.  

After several days of protests in downtown Seattle at the Henry Jackson Federal Building, Preston Phillips called it the HOWARD JACKSON federal building   It's only happened there every night.   How bout understanding facts about where you live and not just blindly read whatever's on the prompter.

NPR - KUOW did it again in May, leading the radio pack for the fourth straight month, though down a touch, as was KZOK which finished runner up.  KIRO AM & FM had good PPMs finishing 8th and 9th with the hot Mariners helping beat out the talker by a tenth of a point.  WOLF reigned in the country category.    Meanwhile, public radio and TV face the congressional battle for funding. https://ratings.radio-online.com/content/arb039

  Sheila Oliver, who ran Fox 13 Seattle before the network sent her to its Chicago O&O, is leaving at the end of June.   She had been there for two years, so maybe pushed by a contract issue?   Chicago is basically a two station market, with WLS and WMAQ far outdistancing WBBM and her station,WFLD, both of which have been ratings challenged for years.   Also, don't know if this is at all related to a reorg at her station, like Fox 13 here.   Here's the full story from tvnewscheck. https://tvnewscheck.com/business/article/sheila-oliver-gm-of-wfld-wpwr-chicago-to-retire/

  Here's the story from our friends at FTVLive.  Another job elimination related to the news expasnsion at Fox 13. 

After Mike Everett announced he was leaving King 5 as chief meteorologist, I looked up Leah Pezzetti's information to see if she might have the experience and chops to be new chief after a reader suggested that. Well, I found this incredibly massive bio takeout, and it is lonnnnng.  I don't know Leah, she seems to do a nice job overall but I can't get over this.  Not sure if it was a collabortive effort, an interview or what.  Get ready to scroll and scroll and scroll.  It even has a table of contents.   TMI?? https://glowtechy.com/leah-pezzetti/     (never heard of this site before)

It's the new Washington News Wrap show (June 16 debut) from 6pm on the linear channel.   The live streaming battle has begun with Tegna's announcement today of upgraded streaming.  Washington Sports Wrap is at its new 630 time, streaming the live show.  What's your pleasure?  

Tegna has announced that its stations will be “significantly expanding their already substantial local news programming.”  I t is launching live and on-demand, daily local newscasts from 7 to 9 a.m. in 50 plus markets through streaming, connected TV apps, and its station’s websites.  Will launch this summer and into the fall.  Portland's KGW already on board.  We will see when it hits on KING and KREM in the PNW.  KING pushes its app for breaking news.  There is also a definite possibility that KONG will air the live stream.  This looks like the first move by the big wig Tegna hired away from CBS

Meteorologist Mike Everett is calling it quits at KING 5.  He's chief met there with Rich Marriott the Senior Met.   It will be interesting to see if they replace him with a full time hire, or go back to using freelancer Stephen Kilbreath.    Story at the link. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AosvVLyGp/  

 The Seattle Orcas...  Watching cricket on Fox 13+, desperate for any kind of programming.  Show me the ratings.

He comes from Nebraska and apparently joined in May.   Alex Mcloon is the name, reporting is his game and he worked the 'NO KINGS' protest in Seattle on Saturday.  According to linkedin.com he worked for all three stations in Omaha, NE (a trifecta), as well as a stint before those in Fresno.

Two DJs and a producer will stay up on non-commercial KEXP all through the night until 10 Friday morning to support public media in its current funding isuues.  It all happens at Seattle Center, and for once the cliche is correct: It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Appreciate the tip on this from a faithful reader:   Fox 13 Seattle and Root Sports make a deal to carry Seattle Orcas cricket games.  No sticky wickets, OK?   Let's hope there is an attendance 'spurt' and the Orcas will start a POD cast.   Seriously there is a love affair going on between TV and live sports, no matter what the level.  Root needs something extra for sure.  13 has a bunch of team deals. From the Press Release:  "Cricket fans in the Pacific Northwest—mark your calendars! Major League Cricket is back, and the Seattle Orcas are making sure no one misses a moment. With all ten league-stage matches scheduled on the road, the franchise has rolled out an exciting slate of official Watch Parties across the Seattle metro area, bringing fans together to celebrate the game like never before. Watch Parties will be hosted in South Lake Union and Redmond, depending on where the Orcas are playing. These events will feature big-screen br...

Carly Henderson - co-host of Studio 13: Live - was laid off in the recent KCPQ expansion which we broke.  She posts her goodbye on FB.  She never really clicked on the pay for play lifestyle mid-morning show.   It will be cut to a half hour for awhile and moved to 10 a.m, according to reports, before moving back to 11 on Aug. 4.  And I am told it will remain 30 minutes, not be re-expanded to an hour.   Thank goodness. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16HFRSYM8x

  Emmy Awards are a NATAS money grab with ridiculous entry fees and far too many cateories in hopes of generating additional entrants, including those from parts unknown in the media world.  Not to mention, the more nominees, the more tickets will be bought to the awards dinner, where far too many trophies are handed out.    KING (and more recetly KGW Portland) has always been award hungry as the legacy station in Seattle and the money budgeted to enter and win is huge.  I've seen those budgets when I was under the KING umbrella at NWCN. I have also judged Emmys and there is no question some judges are affected by reputation of the entrants and, generally, the judges watch as little as possible or is required to score the entries.  I stand convicted, but it was what it was and NATAS officials were fine with it.    Often there is also a sense of award by acclamation.   KING does the same binge with Murrows. The 4th floor wall on the old D...

Fox 13 Seattle just announced that the back half of newscasts at 5-8-9-10 will be repeated as of 6/16.    Here's a primer on the magic of news replays: 1) Viewers are highly unlikely to realize that they are even watxhing a repeat show.  Consdier this:  If they watch an A block that's live with fresh news, whatever they watch in the back half of the show looks totally new to them, as well, assuming its the first time they tune in.   People don't usually watch an hour of news, then another hour of news back to back, why would they?  So it works, kinda sleight of hand.  Most newscasts are loaded with repeat video anyway.    Fox 13 knows it can do this,  unusual as it is on broadcast compared to cable, where regional channels used this technique for years to keep the head counts down. 2) Repeated portions can easily be overridden to accomodate big breaking stories and severe weather warnings and coverage.  In other words, it can b...

For example, BRANDED CONTENT, SHORT FORM.  Huh?    And how about SHORT FORM, DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION?   Or MULTIMEDIA FOR A SINGLE SHIFT?  (Nothing for working a double?) Chris Cashman, the host, kept telling the audience "this is important stuff, serious stuff, important work."    Not sure if he was trying to convince the attendees or just him.    I would love to see Steve Raible host next year or even Eric Johnson.   They need a change there.    Anyway, l et's have a category for everything so that everybody can win, OK?     Lots of AI videos/bits done tongue in cheek, but a little nervous-making. A few highlights: Biggest surprise: The Seattle Channel (a city government channel that was nearly defunded).  This will send KING and KGW into tailspins, because they have won this over several recent years.  Refreshing in an ideal world, but a stunner the big boys won't like. ...

Next Friday night  June 14 the team will host a special Aussie night at T-Mobile to troll KJR-FM 93.3's Marc Jones.  Jones criticized M's announcer Ryan Rowland-Smith for his Australian accent on air.  Jones has since apologized but the Mariners are giving a boost to their big, beautiful broadcaster with 'Kangaroo Court Night.'  (tickets are on sale, BTW)

  I hired Ed Muir back in the mid-2000s at the old Northwest Cable News to be a weathercaster/reporter after first meeting him in a training session I did in Albany, NY.   After a long and successful run at cable, he moved on to media work at Boeing.   Unfortunately, he was part of cuts there, but now has found some freelance work for awhile in front of the weather wall at KIRO 7 handling weekend evenings.   He knows his stuff.   Scott Haveson, who also once freelanced for me at NWCN had been recentlyfilling in.

1. Bavisha Patel, promoted to Senior Executive Producer. 2. Brett Doolittle, producer of booking and long-form content, helps produce content for livestreams between newscasts. 3. Austin Lane, producer of station partnerships, new media and daily Fox 13 en Espanol, w/Mireya Garcia  4. Matthew Smith, first ever streaming news anchor at Fox LOCAL live desk,  in 4/5 p.m.plus appearances on the 4 and/or 5 p.m. newscasts. 5. Judy Oehling, promoted to Assignment Desk Manager Effective June 16:   Studio 13 Live cut to 30 minutes.   The KCPQ 4 p.m. newscast will be a fully produced hour, with live A blocks at 5 on KCPQ, at 8 & 9 on KJZO and 10 on KCPQ.   I presume the A blocks fo 8-9-10 will fall to Rose, Hana Kim and Rayford.     The 6p.m.Washington News Wrap is fully fresh live half-hour with lots of state news, I am told. Washington Sports Wrap to 6:30 from 7:30, so away from Jeopardy on KOMO and a counter to 630  newscasts else...

All of the changes we laid out at Fox 13 will cause some major position changes and layoffs.  We hear that one layoff casualty is Carly Henderson (left), co-host of Studio 13 with Mireya Garcia.   Looks like Garcia will go solo but, at the same time, she'll no longer be co-anchoring the 4-430 a.m. newscast, which is going bye-bye.  Expanded morning news will go 5-11 a.m.  Thus, the lifestyle show moves from 10 to 11 weekday mornings.   All effective Monday 6-16.   There will be a quiz on this stuff so take notes.

Award-winning KNKX sent out this out: "It is the gravest threat to public media we’ve faced, KNKX in Seattle told listeners in an email blast this morning. Oregon Public Broadcasting added this: "People living in rural and remote areas would be especially hard hit, since federal funding helps cover the costs of serving people in difficult-to-reach places," it told supporters in a please-help email. KUOW-FM in Seattle posted this pic:

Here is what I am getting from deep inside Fox 13 after a major staff meeting: Staffers were left in shock over these changes that came out of the blue.  A couple of layoffs, positions and schedules also changing for some staff.    Emphasis will be on streaming not linear with 4-5-8-9-10 TV newscasts having a ONLY a fresh A block and the remainder of the newscast repeated across those hours.   In other words the back halves of the shows don't change and I am told that repeat section will be called 'news magaine,' likely populated by longer community interviews and feature stories that hold.   Only the 4 will be a full base show laid down to sub out A block.   Live Desk to be manned most of the day for quick updates.   Broadcast stations don't generally rerun large sections of newscasts in key day parts.  We shall see.  Stay tuned.

Big press release from Fox 13 about newscast expansion, time slot changes and newscast name changes.  You will need to read the details multiple times to get a handle on everything.   Quick shortcut to note that the morning news will go from 5-11 a.m.  (not sure what is happening with their current 430 a.m.) and Studio 13 Live moves to 11 from its current 10 a.m. slot.  That will put it head to head with New Day NW on KING.   Washington Sports Wrap moves earlier weeknights to 6:30.    Lots of new names for already existing newscasts (aka rearranging deck chairs), like Seattle News Tonight and Washington News Wrap. Be warned that this means a more repetition of news stories and new graphics to digest.   I wonder if new talent or reporters will be added?  Read the hyperbole and PR spin for yourself: 4 p.m. & 5 p.m.:   Seattle News Tonight : Local news with depth, context, and the stories that matter to our community. Lon...

Apparently, with Nick Allard away growing a beard, Ranji Sinah has been subbing on KIRO 7 morning weather, but Nick is returning. https://www.facebook.com/share/171ammwMYc/

The event happened a couple weeks ago to spike sales and interest in second year of Kraken Hockey Network specifically on KING & KONG.   Here's a look behind the curtain: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/king5mediagroup_king5-thehometeam-k5krakenupfront-ugcPost-7328881878684389376-siei?utm_source=social_share_send&utm_medium=android_app&rcm=ACoAAFWTKaUBTwc4NGLVz4TARZHYT8qQaNhaM2E&utm_campaign=copy_link

Looks like an Investigative Reporting nomination from KIRO got disqualified because it was apparently been re-edited and shortened by the promotion department and was not entered as the original package.  The story was about carjacking.   Had to be entered as aired.      Was it an inadvertent mistake or a planned play?   Not sure.    Natas NW DQ'd it. The story was listed in the original nominations list, but missing in the final list here -- sorry for small print, zoom out: Here's the disqualified and missing entry here: KIRO 7 Investigates: Staying Safe During a Carjacking • KIRO • Alicia Collins,  producer

Well, well, well. That bastion of journalism and exploitative advocate for his 'Heroes' franchise, is now doing accident ads for Seattle's Davis Law Group.   Apparently not enough saved up during his TV career.  Zoom out to see the Davis bug lower left.

The CBS affiliation in Atlanta is moving from Gray Media's WANF-TV to CBS owned WUPA-TV effective later this summer. WUPA will launch 'CBS News Atlanta' as a streaming service, with no apparent mention of a broadcast news presence.  KIRO7 is a CBS affiliate here owned by Cox-Apollo.  KSTW is CBS-owned on Channel 11.    WANF has been a horrific station for years under multiple managements, so CBS was glad to jettison.  In Seattle KIRO has been slicing and dicing the budget, eliminating the sports dept., dumping news on weekend mornings, having news reporters do weather fill-in and cutting top talent like Jesse Jones.  It's not what it used to be.   Maybe CBS has had enough here. If the switch happened, would 11 bulk up a news identity as a time when ratings and viewership are down?  Would seem unlikely but there is all NEW news leadership at CBS.    Or what if CBS bought KIRO and created a duopoly with KSTW to compete with KING/KONG,...

John Forslund, JT Brown, Eddie Olzyck and Alison Lukan are rated #2 among the 32 TV hockey announce teams, according to a reader poll at  https://awfulannouncing.com/     No mention of Ian Furness.  You can see the full list at the link.    Some reader comments included: ""The NHL’s newest expansion team received one of the highest grades here. The Kraken began play in the 2021-22 season, so they weren’t included in either of our prior rankings. This team has an interesting mix of broadcasters, including the well-established Forslund (who called games for the Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes from 1991-2020 and has worked nationally for ESPN, NBC, TNT, and Prime Video) and Olczyk (national work for NBC and TNT, plus long local runs with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks before joining the Kraken as a substitute analyst ahead of the 2022-23 season), but also newer voices like Fitzhugh (usually the team’s radio announcer) and Brown. Also, we d...