Sportscasters have occasionally been seen handling news anchoring. In the last several years, you could see former WNBC sports anchor Len Berman taking part in the news portion of Live at Five. His former colleague Otis Livingston spent weekend mornings as a stopgap anchor with Cindy Hsu on WCBS.

Now, the latest on-air sports personality has made the leap to the news side. WNBC’s Scott Stanford anchored News 4 New York at 7 on WNBC’s digital channel Cozi TV (formerly New York Nonstop).

Hard to recall a sportscaster anchoring on his own. Stanford, though, broke that barrier. He was in charge of the one-hour broadcast Friday night. He’ll get another shot this Friday.

For those expecting the high-octane Stanford to crash and burn in the new role, they were sadly disappointed. The worry is that a sports guy will just “have fun” with news. But this was clearly no hobby. Stanford was as serious about it as the stories he reported.

Despite not having a TV news background, Stanford was able to transfer his broadcasting skills with little issue. Stanford has been all about sports, first as a former afternoon radio standout on WCBS 880 via Shadow Traffic. He moved to TV at Channel 9/Channel 5 before heading to Channel 4, picking up four New York Emmy Awards along the way.

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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.

Haven’t seen enough of Scott and Todd? If yes, you’ll like this post. The longtime WPLJ morning duo of Scott Shannon and Todd Pettengill will be back for another season of Dish Nation, seen here on My9/WWOR. The nightly 30-minute entertainment/gossip show has been picked for 2013-14 by Fox for its O&Os. It also is being picked up by other syndicators throughout the country.

Scott and Todd are part of the rotating air personalities featured on Dish Nation.

Rickey Smiley based in Atlanta and Kidd Kraddick, out of Dallas, round out the show.

2009 swearing in for President Obama (with First Lady Michelle).

While the historic magnitude of 2009 is not present this time, everyone still likes a good inauguration. As is dictated by the Constitution, President Obama will take the Oath of Office on January 20th to officially start his second term. But since it falls on Sunday, the White House will hold the traditional pomp and circumstance Monday. Coverage will be found on many New York stations.

1010 WINS will use the resources of its network personnel, while also having a reporter available from D.C.’s All-News WNEW-FM.

We’re putting the final touches on the Barmash Awards, spotlighting the best TV news personalities in New York. Once again you can take part with our Reader’s Choice poll question.

This year’s Barmash Awards Reader’s Choice poll asks: Who is the best nighttime anchor team?

You can see after the jump, there are five choices, with an option to “write-in” others not listed.

The poll closes Friday, December 21 at noon.

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Viewers would rather get their news from local anchors in New York than the cable news networks, a report by trade association TVB indicates.

The report says New York’s early and late evening newscasts combined to outdraw the five highest-rated cable networks by 18 percent.

The data is conclusive in highlighting the enormous audience reach and composition balance advantages local broadcast TV news provides advertisers compared [to] national cable primetime news networks,” TVB president Steve Lanzano told Broadcasting & Cable.

The report, which examined Nielsen figures of nightly programming on CNN, Fox News Channel, CNBC, MSNBC, and HLN, says those networks contribute to only three to eight percent of the total evening news audience.

We mark time as another year has elapsed since the 9/11 attacks. The 11th anniversary features the now-traditional, if not emotional, “reading of the names” of victim’s families at the World Trade Center. This is only the second time since 2001 that September 11 falls on a Tuesday.

If last year’s 10th anniversary was more solemn, today’s remembrance is more subdued. No public officials are participating. But, the TV stations are resuming coverage.

On Cable, NY1 and Verizon Fios 1 are going wall-to-wall. The other local channels provided the same feed–Channel 2/WCBS, Channel 4/WNBC, Channel 5/WNYW, Channel 7/WABC, Channel 9/WWOR, TV10 55/WLNY, and Channel 11/WPIX.

FishbowlNY is reposting links to our special 9/11 series that was published last year.

America got its first look at Tim Tebow in action for the Jets Sunday night. Curiosity also got the best of New Yorkers, making the NBC game, with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth at the mic, number one. The matchup with Carolina drew an estimated 839,000 WNBC viewers with a 4.3 rating, according to Nielsen.

The Giants also performed well in the ratings, tuning up for the regular season. It was another case of  the national exposure, as the G-Men hosted the Bears on CBS. The sixth-rated show of the week had 526,000 fans and a 2.7 rating.

America’s Got Talent pulled in huge numbers again, placing second and third. The competition averaged approximately 670,000 viewers and a 3.5 rating.

The season finale of HBO’s vampire series, True Blood, was fourth (602,000/3.1), while CBS’ 60 Minutes grabbed fifth place (587,000/3.0).

More from the Top 10 after the jump

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Obama and Biden accept the Democratic nomination in 2008

The battle between Mitt Romney and President Obama moves to the convention floor next week for the nominating process, and TV and radio stations are ready for extra coverage of the key moments.

The Republicans lead off in Tampa, with Romney awaiting his party’s endorsement next week.

WABC/Channel 7 is sending anchor Bill Ritter to the GOP convention, along with political reporter Dave Evans.  Reports begin Sunday night at 11.

One week later, the Democrats convene in Charlotte, with morning anchor Lori Stokes joining Evans on scene.

As for WCBS/Channel 2, veteran political reporter Marcia Kramer is the station’s lone representative at the conventions.

A spokesperson tells FishbowlNY that Kramer will cover the national news in addition to the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut state delegations.

WNBC/Channel 4 will also not have an anchor presence. Only reporter Melissa Russo is covering both events live.

A WNYW/WWOR spokesperson did not respond to our request prior to the deadline.

WPIX/Channel 11 is not sending any on-air talent to either convention. The station says without any mystery surrounding the nominees, WPIX will likely just cover it as a news story.

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The Jets and Giants exhibition tilt was still must see TV. The Saturday night matchup on WCBS/Channel 2 grabbed the top spot for the week, according to Nielsen. An estimated 853,000 fans tuned to WCBS with a 4.4 rating.

Back to baseball, as the Yankees made five Top 30 appearances. The highest ranking was the ESPN Sunday nighter against the Red Sox (559,000/2.9) at number four.

It was a big week for 60 Minutes. The stalwart CBS newsmagazine had a second-place finish (609,000/3.1).

The Olympics exited the stage, but that means America’s Got Talent is back on NBC’s prime time schedule. The first season with Howard Stern as a judge landed in third and fifth for the week. It averaged 563,000 WNBC/Channel 4 viewers with a 2.9 rating.

More from the Top 10 after the jump

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