Let the hunkering begin!

With a blizzard warning blanketing New York, area stations are treating the impending storm with necessary seriousness.

This afternoon, ahead of the snow, WCBS started its wall-to-wall coverage. Anchors Maurice DuBois and Kristine Johnson led the team into action at 3 p.m., with reporters stationed throughout the tri-state area. Joining Lonnie Quinn in the “Weather Center” was John Elliott, who was seen shoveling the icy, snowy mix on the roof. A WCBS spokesperson tells FishbowlNY that the same group will be in place starting tomorrow at 6 a.m.

WABC also got a 3 p.m  start with Bill Ritter and Lori Stokes at the desk. Weekend meteorologist Jeff Smith assisted Lee Goldberg.

WNYW did not offer extended coverage until its 5 p.m. newscast. Channel 5 did give viewers hourly updates with Nick Gregory. Sister station WWOR also broke in for top-of-the-hour reports with Audrey Puente. Channel 9, like most stations, ran a live press conference by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie at 3:45. Harry Martin briefly did a recap.  WNYW skipped the governor’s news conference to stay with The People’s Court.

WNBC ended the Christie remarks from Trenton by sequeing into the start of its “Severe Weather Coverage” at 4 with Tom Llamas and Shiba Russell.

NY1 and NY1 Noticias were in non-stop mode for the blizzard. On Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m., NY1 will present a special half hour with the latest storm information.

Hurricane Sandy is churning in the Atlantic, and approaching New York. Preparations for the serious storm have caused the area TV stations to cover the impending destruction.

Most of the city stations took Mayor Bloomberg’s briefings live and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie‘s comments. WCBS/Channel 2 left wall-to-wall mode at 1 p.m. to join the New York Jets game. However, sister station WLNY TV 10/55, anchored by Cindy Hsu, broke into the Munsters Marathon for the latest Christie press conference.

Channel 2, though, was first to bring in the main team. At halftime of the Jets game, viewers got another sense of the severity as Maurice DuBois and Kristine Johnson assumed the coverage with Lonnie Quinn tracking the potentially deadly storm.

“I’ll be with you all night, guys,” Quinn said.

Read more

It’s been non-existent since television first had a picture in the 1940s. New York City has never had a one-hour 11 p.m. newscast. But, that all changed at the start of 2011 when WABC/Channel 7 expanded its late weekend newscast.

Anchors Sandra Bookman and Joe Torres, meteorologist Jeff Smith, and sports anchor Laura Behnke now give viewers a comprehensive 60 minutes until midnight.

“We thought that another half-hour of news would be better received by the viewers than the repeat, syndicated programming that we have been running there,” Dave Davis, WABC president and general manager, tells FishbowlNY.

It’s rare to consider a newscast counter-programming, but with options like Saturday Night Live on WNBC and recent episodes of Alcatraz and New Girl on WNYW/Channel 5, WABC is providing another choice for the proven commodities.

Davis says the change has already been evident, as numbers indicate more people sticking with WABC’s news during the weekend than prior to the expansion.

Read more

WABC-TV/Channel 7 has turned the corner from the ugly situation involving Heidi Jones.

The station has hired Amy Freeze, yes Freeze, as their new weekend morning meteorologist.

Freeze, 36, had been the former chief meteorologist at the Fox affiliate in Chicago. 

TimeOutChicago.com reports that Freeze was bounced out of her job unceremoniously on February 20 after four years, as her contract wasn’t renewed. 

Now in New York, though, WABC news director Kenny Plotnik tells FishbowlNY that Freeze will be an asset to the station. 

“She brings a wealth of knowledge that will mix in very well with our three people, in terms of understanding the weather, explaining it to our audience, and strong forecasting.”

Read more

As the blizzard began to barrel down on New York yesterday with varying intensity, stations gave viewers information on the storm ending their Christmas holiday with varying results.

The best of the bunch was WABC, which provided top-of-the-hour updates until 3 p.m. with meteorologist Bill Evans. After that WABC, which had no sports commitments, went full throttle with complete c0verage. The seriousness of the impending storm was shown when Bill Ritter was brought in to co-anchor coverage. Ritter was joined by weekend anchor Sandra Bookman. For the next four hours, Ritter and Bookman took viewers on a tour of the snow with reporters stationed throughout the region. The meteorologists’ hands were all on deck as well, with Lee Goldberg and Jeff Smith as part of the special broadcast.

Part of WABC’s coverage was to take Mayor Bloomberg’s press conference live. Another feather in their cap—they would be the only station to carry it in its entirety. Ritter and Bookman, along with seven live reporters and Goldberg and Smith returned for an expanded 11 p.m. newscast.

Read more