Adam May, anchor and reporter for Baltimore’s WJZ, is leaving the CBS owned station at the end of May to work for Al Jazeera America.

“It was a tough decision, especially saying goodbye to our viewers who have been so loyal over the last few years,” May told the Sun. “I now consider many of them friends, and I hope when they still see me walking around Baltimore, they’ll come up and say hi.”

May has worked for WJZ for ten years.  Before working at WJZ, May worked at WHAS in Louisville, KY, and WAAY in Huntsville, AL. He started his career at KBJR in Duluth, MN.

[The Baltimore Sun]

Comedian David Alan Grier was in Baltimore to promote his latest film, “Peeples.” He showed up on WBFF in a segment the FOX Baltimore morning show calls “Funny Fridays.”

After stopping the interview to tell them his name was misspelled, Grier said, “This is the raggediest TV studio I’ve ever been in in my life.”

“The sequester hit you hard,” he told the anchors after insulting the camera crew.  He then said, “I call this Criticism Fridays.” Watch the video by clicking here.  The station’s website does not allow embedding.

Dustin Wadsworth is joining Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC as assistant news director, according to the station’s Director’s Cut blog.

Wadsworth comes to Cleveland from WMAR, the ABC affiliate in Baltimore. Wadsworth has worked at WMAR for 12 years in a variety of roles, including executive news producer and most recently director of new media.

“We were determined to find a leader in digital news, someone who can help guide our overall editorial direction while making our social media, mobile and online channels top priorities, ” news director Brennan Donnellan said in a statement.

After seven years at WJZ, meteorologist Bernadette Woods is leaving the Baltimore CBS O&O, the Baltimore Sun‘s David Zurawik reports.

Woods will officially sign off from WJZ next month for a job at a Princeton-based non-profit focused on climate change.

“There’s so much misinformation out there, that this company started in an effort to try and get good information to the public,” she told Zurawik. “They are trying to connect climate with extreme weather, because that’s a lot of what’s happening. That’s really exciting for me, because I do love the science.”

Woods began her career at AccuWeather. Before joining WJZ, she worked at stations in Fayetteville, Ark. and Lexington, Ky.

Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik reflects on local stations’ coverage of the Baltimore Ravens’ Super Bowl victory parade. Zurawik saw the good — CBS O&O WJZ and NBC affiliate WBAL “dominated coverage,” he writes — and the bad:

But it made my blood boil to see reporters using fans as props. Telling fans to give a cheer or start singing and whooping when the cameras are pointed at them is both stupid and insensitive, and there was plenty of it.

And having your reporters wear purple scarves or stand on corners and act like crowd cheerleaders, which is what I saw too much of from WMAR during the parade, isn’t enough. Really.

The other thing that annoyed me, and it has been building for weeks, involves veteran reporters acting like they are buddies with the players, referring to Terrell Suggs, for example, as T-Sizzle and calling out to him on the parade route.

Zurawik noted WJZ’s Adam May and WBAL’s Deborah Weiner particularly stood out, writing, “There are reporters, and then there are reporters. Weiner and May were REPORTERS Tuesday.”

The Baltimore Ravens’ win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII earned an average rating/share of 48.1/71, the highest-rated Super Bowl in the metered markets in history.

Ratings were up +1% in the metered markets from last year’s New York Giants vs. New England Patriots Super Bowl. The rating/share peaked at 52.9/75 from 10:30-10:45pmET.

Baltimore was the top-rated market: CBS O&O WJZ posted a rating/share of 59.6/83. New Orleans, the Super Bowl’s host city, came in second, with CBS affiliate WWL at 57.1/77. Notably, CBS-owned KPIX in San Francisco did not make the top 10.

• Related, TVNewser: Super Bowl Ratings: CBS Coverage Down From Last Two Years

See the full list of the top 10 rated in the metered markets after the jump. Read more

WJZ, the Baltimore CBS owned station, expects to be a winner regardless of who takes home the Vince Lombardi Trophy this year, the Baltimore Business Journal is reporting.

Jay Newman, WJZ’s president and general manager, told the Business Journal the station has already sold out its commercial inventory for Super Bowl XLVII. He declined to divulge how much money the station got for the spots.

Nationally, Super Bowl commercials go for as much as $4 million. CBS chairman and chief executive officer, Les Moonves, revealed in November WCBS, the New York owned CBS station, sold a thirty second Super Bowl spot for $1 million. Read more

Marianne Banister, a longtime anchor at WBAL in Baltimore, is joining rival WBFF, according to The Baltimore Sun‘s David Zurawik.

Bannister spent 16 years at NBC affiliate WBAL. The station declined to renew her contract in 2011. At Fox affiliate WBFF, Banister will anchor the weekend morning newscast slated to launch on January 19.

Zurawik also reports WBFF has hired Tony Pagnotti, a former meteorologist for ABC affiliate WMAR.

“We recognize outstanding talent and wanted both Marianne and Tony on our staff,” WBFF news director Mike Tomko told The Sun. “Their professionalism and long history in the market made for a perfect match here at Fox45.

Baltimore’s FOX affiliate, WBFF, plans to launch a weekend morning newscast beginning January 20, according to the Baltimore Sun.

WBFF General manager Bill Fanshawe told the Sun, “”We haven’t named any talent yet.  We will start the interviewing process shortly.”

The news will air from 6 to 8 a.m. Saturdays and fits itself around the FOX News broadcast Sundays with a 7 to 9 a.m. and 10 to 11 a.m. show.

In April, the station added a 5 p.m. newscast to its lineup.

Husband-and-wife meteorologists Jonathan Myers and Dawn Brown are leaving New Orleans for Baltimore.

Myers will join WBFF, the Fox-affiliate in Baltimore, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. In New Orleans, Myers works at CBS-affiliated WWL and and Brown works at Fox-affiliate WVUE. The couple had their first child last month, and Brown will stay at home with him, at least temporarily.

“We love New Orleans. It was probably the most difficult decision we have ever made,” Myers told the Times-Picayune. “We love the people here. We love the support we’ve had. We love the city, and we may be back someday.”