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]

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

Stations in major markets across the East Coast chose to preempt, or partially preempt, network morning shows Monday to remain in extended local coverage of Hurricane Sandy.

In New York City, where the subways and buses have been shut down since Sunday night, the local stations all began live storm coverage at 4amET. NBC O&O WNBC went to “Today” at 7 a.m. and returned to local programming at 7:30 a.m. WCBS aired only the first hour of “CBS This Morning,” and WABC aired “Good Morning America” in its entirety.

• Related, TVNewser: 50 Million in Sandy’s Path, a ‘Worst Case Scenario’ Monster Storm 
• Related, FishbowlNY: WCBS Brings in ‘A’ Team for Hurricane Sandy Coverage

In Philadelphia, KYW joined “CBS This Morning” a few minutes after 7 a.m. and continued its local newscast on CW affiliate WPSG. WCAU aired the first half hour of “Today” and returned to local coverage at 7:30 a.m., and WPVI aired “Good Morning America.” Read more

Whit Johnson, who has been a CBS News correspondent based in D.C. since 2009, is set to join KNBC as an anchor and reporter.

Johnson will co-anchor the NBC O&O’s new hour-long noon newscast alongside Lucy Noland, in addition to reporting throughout the week for the station’s 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts.  His first day is scheduled for September 10th.

“Whit is a dynamic journalist with outstanding storytelling abilities,” said Todd Mokhtari, KNBC’s vice president of news.  “As we expand our noon newscast, Whit’s contribution to our team will further position us to more effectively cover our expansive market and provide in-depth coverage that matters to our community.” Read more

Weijia Jiang will join New York City CBS O&O WCBS in June, the Baltimore Sun‘s David Zurawik reports.

Jiang has been a general assignment reporter at Baltimore CBS O&O WJZ since 2008. Her last day at the station will be May 31.

She will be replaced at WJZ by Rochelle Ritchie, who makes the move to Baltimore from WPTV in West Palm Beach. Ritchie, a multimedia journalist, will begin at WJZ on June 11, according to the Sun.

Baltimore Fox-affiliate WBFF plans to add a 5 p.m. newscast to its schedule in April, entering the station into local news competition with WBAL, WJZ, and WMAR at that time slot.

The Baltimore Sun reports that WBFF’s new 5 o’clock newscast will be anchored by Jeff Barnd and Jennifer Gilbert, who currently anchor the station’s 5:30 p.m newscast.

“I’m going to change the lineup and run ‘Judge Judy’ from 4 to 5, and run the news from 5 to 5:30, and then, 5:30 to 6,” general manager Bill Fanshawe told the Sun.

A failure of the main production switcher at CBS owned-and-operated WJZ in Baltimore last night forced the station to partially re-air “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” in place of the 11 p.m. newscast.

The station re-aired the national news program, which airs nightly on WJZ at 7 p.m., for the first seven minutes of the 11 p.m. hour Tuesday. “The station’s main production switcher experienced a critical failure late Tuesday evening,” WJZ spokesperson K.C. Robertson told The Baltimore Sun in an email. “The equipment failure prevented the news broadcast from starting on time.”

The problem was repaired shortly before 11:08 p.m., at which point anchors Vic Carter and Denise Koch took over for an abbreviated version of their regular newscast.