The fifth day of jury deliberations in the racketeering and conspiracy trial of Boston gangster James Whitey Bulger brought a guilty verdict on 33 counts which included 11 murders. Bulger was one of America’s most wanted fugitives after disappearing in 1995 until being caught in California in 2011.

Boston station’s responded quickly to the news a verdict had been reached.

FOX owned WFXT interrupted the “Ricki Lake” show at 1:33 p.m. with the news from a tweet sent by the Massachusetts US attorney’s office that said, “There is a verdict in the James Bulger case.”

ABC affiliate WCVB broke into afternoon food show “The Chew” at 1:34 p.m. with Susan Wornick.  “Good afternoon,” said Wornick. “Susan Wornick in Newscenter 5 with the news we have been waiting for now for five days, actually for more than a month. There is a verdict in the trial of James Whitey Bulger.”

Boston NBC affiliate WHDH broke into soap opera “Days of Our Lives” at 1:35 with b-roll of Bulger being escorted to the courthouse by helicopter which was voiced over by Kayna Whitworth. Whitworth then tossed to Ryan Schulteis live at the courthouse.

WBZ, Boston’s CBS owned station, broke in at 1:38 p.m. with anchors Jack Williams and Lisa Hughes who tossed to Sera Congi live at the courthouse.

 NECN cut into regular news reports anchored by Steve Aveson and Mike Nikitas at 1:38 with John Moroney outside the courtroom and Alysha Palumbo inside the courtroom.

Susan Wornick, a veteran anchor and reporter at WCVB, has announced plans to retire from the Boston ABC affiliate next year.

Wornick joined the station in 1981 and has anchored the noon newscast since 1989. In a statement announcing her retirement, WCVB said she has “several media projects in development and plans to pursue other ventures that utilize her breadth of knowledge and experience.”

“I’ve had a remarkable career in broadcasting but there is still a lot I want to do and accomplish,” Wornick said. “I have worked with some of the finest people in the history of television …  I am truly one of very few people who can say that they got up every day to go to work and loved their job, but I’ve decided that it’s time to reinvent myself.”

Wornick will officially sign off from WCVB in March 2014. She announced her retirement on Monday’s noon newscast (watch the video here).

“She’s a leader in our newsroom and our community — Susan Wornick is simply a treasure,” WCVB news director Andrew Vrees said in a statement. “It’s difficult to imagine her not being in our newsroom. Fortunately, Susan is part of the NewsCenter 5 DNA and will always be part of our family. I will miss her counsel, knowledge, skill and friendship.”

WCVB, the Hearst owned Boston ABC affiliate, has joined the ranks of broadcasters suing online television startup Aereo.

In a complaint filed yesterday in the US District Court, District of Massachusetts, Hearst and WCVB claim, “Aereo has no right,under any license or statute, to retransmit WCVB’s copyrighted programming.”

The complaint spells out that Aereo intercepts WCVB’s signal “through the use of commercial antenna farms” and re sells the signal to subscribers. “Aereo’s service undermines the purposes served by the Copyright Act by exposing copyright owners such as WCVB to free-riders such as Aereo.”

Aereo is currently being sued by a group of 17 broadcasters including ABC, CBS, NBC Universal, Disney and Warner Brothers. Aereo has announced plans to expand to Atlanta and Boston among other cities.

[Bloomberg Businessweek]

Morning traffic reporter Dorothy Krysiuk said goodbye to Boston ABC affiliate WCVB on Tuesday.

On her last day, Krysiuk was given a surprise farewell message from the Boston MBTA and the Massachusetts DOT, “Attention Channel 5 viewers. Dorothy is departing,” said a voice in what sounded like a mass transit station announcement. “Mass DOT and the MBTA would like to thank her for giving viewers and our customers an inside look at our operations during her time at Channel 5.  Good luck at your next stop.”

Krysiuk was employed by Westwood One, which produces the traffic report for WCVB. She started her career at Philadelphia’s NBC owned station WCAU. She also worked at Philadelphia’s FOX owned station WTXF before coming to WCVB.

The station set up a photo gallery of her last newscast. Click here to view.

Eric Fisher is joining WBZ in Boston as chief meteorologist. He will officially join the CBS O&O August 19.

Fisher returns to Boston from Atlanta, where he has been a meteorologist at The Weather Channel since 2010. He has also worked as a meteorologist for WFXT in Boston and WGGB in Springfield, Mass.

“Eric is a native New Englander who’s very familiar with our area’s dynamic weather, and he has a track record for spot-on forecasting,” WBZ news director John Verrilli said in a statement. “He also has a great deal of experience reporting live, in extreme weather, and his skills will serve the community well when he reports on breaking weather from the WBZ Mobile AccuWeather Lab.”

Fisher will handle the weather forecasts on the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts on WBZ and the 10 p.m. newscast on sister station WSBK. Todd Gutner, who is currently the evening meteorologist, will shift to mornings, replacing Melissa Mack, who left WBZ earlier this year. Barry Burbank, who has been filling in on the morning newscast since Mack’s departure, will be the weekend morning meteorologist and Joe Joyce will be the weekend evening meteorologist.

For most of the day, Boston stations have been in continuing coverage of the of arrest of NFL player Aaron Hernandez, who has been charged with murder of a 27-year-old semipro football player was found close to Hernandez’s home. The New England Patriots tight end was dropped by the team shortly after he was arrested at his home around 8:45 a.m.

On WCVB, Bianca de la Garza and Susan Wornick anchored coverage. The ABC affiliate had investigative reporter Kathy Curran reporting from the newsroom, Pam Cross reporting from the Attleborough courthouse and John Atwater at the North Attleborough police station.

On WHDH, Kayna Whitworth and Tim Caputo anchored coverage. Sportscaster Rhett Lewis reported for the NBC affiliate from Gillette Stadium, the home of the New England Patriots. Byron Barnett reported from the courthouse, with Alexandra Field at the police station and Victoria Warren at Hernandez’s house.

CBS O&O WBZ had Kate Merrill and David Wade anchoring in the morning and Paula Ebben and Jonathan Elias anchoring in the afternoon. Bill Shields reported from the courthouse and Michelle Roberts reported from Gillette Stadium.

Shannon Mulaire and Gene Lavanchy anchored on Fox O&O WFXT in the morning, and Maria Stephanos and Mark Ockerbloom took over in the afternoon. Crystal Haynes reported from the North Attlebourough police station and Sharman Sacchetti was live from the courthouse.

Antoinette Antonio has been named weekend co-anchor at WCVB, the ABC affiliate in Boston. She will anchor alongside Jim Lokay and meteorologist Danielle Vollmar beginning June 22.

“She brings the perfect combination of skill, energy and enthusiasm to Channel 5,”  WCVB news director Andrew Vrees said in a statement.

Antonio comes from KOB, the NBC affiliate in Albuquerque, where she was the morning and noon anchor.

WGN sports anchor Pat Tomasulo ventured into enemy territory Monday, reporting from Boston ahead of game three of the Stanley Cup finals between the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks. Like any good guest, Tomasulo did not arrive empty-handed. As a result, Tomasulo made some new friends … and some new enemies. (Video after the jump.)

For those keeping score, Boston leads the best of seven series 2-1. [h/t CBS Sports] Read more

Evening co-anchor Reid Lamberty is out at WHDH, the NBC affiliate in Boston, NewsBlues reports.

Lamberty joined WHDH from WSVN in Miami (both stations are owned by Sunbeam Television) in 2011. He has also worked as an anchor at WNYW and WCBS in New York and WFXT in Boston.

Lamberty’s bio has been stripped from the WHDH website. Adam Williams has been anchoring the evening newscasts alongside Amanda Grace since June 6.

WHDH general manager Chris Wayland and news director Linda Miele did not respond to TVSpy’s requests for comment.

Ratings for Boston stations were through the roof Friday night as all stations had wall-to-wall coverage of the manhunt for Boston marathon bombing suspect in Watertown. During the 8pm hour, when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken into custody, 68% of Boston households were watching the four local network affiliates as well as local cable outlet NECN. Hearst-owned WCVB drew the most viewership.

From 7-9p.m., the Boston stations drew a combined 1.764 million viewers in a city that has 2.36 million TV households.

An additional 11% of Boston households were tuned in to coverage on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC from 7-9pm. TVNewser has the breakdown of the cable news ratings in Boston by network.

Here’s the ratings breakdown by station:

7:00-9:00 pm:

• WCVB (ABC): 10.4 rating / 23 share with 609,000 total viewers (10.5 / 22 with 259,000 A25-54)
• WBZ (CBS): 7.3 / 16 with 427,000 total viewers (7.1 / 15 with 175,000 A25-54)
• WHDH (NBC): 6.7 / 15 with 392,000 total viewers (9.1 / 19 with 226,000 A25-54)
• WFXT (Fox): 5.0 / 11 with 292,000 total viewers (6.9 / 15 with 171,000 A25-54)
• NECN: 0.8 / 2 with 44,000 total viewers (0.7 / 2 with 18,000 A25-54)

8:00-9:00 pm:

• WCVB: 11.0 / 23 with 645,000 total viewers (11.7 / 23 with 289,000 A25-54)
• WBZ: 7.6 / 16 with 447,000 total viewers (7.6 / 15 with 187,000 A25-54)
• WHDH: 7.1 / 15 with 417,000 total viewers (9.8 / 19 with 243,000 A25-54)
• WFXT: 5.9 / 12 with 345,000 total viewers (8.4 / 16 with 207,00o A25-54)
• NECN: 0.8 / 2 with 46,000 total viewers (0.7 / 1 with 17,000 A25-54)

 >More: For reference, an alert TVSpy commenter points out that 2012 Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants was watched by 56.7% of Boston households.