After 36 years at WPVI, Rob Jennings will retire from the Philadelphia ABC O&O in July.

“Rob has played a huge role in the success of Action News and 6abc for decades,” WPVI president and general manager Bernie Prazenica said in a statement. “I can’t thank him enough for all that he has done. His talent and professionalism are unsurpassed in broadcast journalism. We will miss him as a colleague and a friend and wish him everything good in retirement.”

Jennings joined the station in 1977. He is the station’s weekend evening anchor.

“I can’t emphasize enough how grateful I am to have been able to do what I love to do  tell stories  for 36 years, with the greatest television station,” Jennings said. “My wife and I have been planning to retire for some time now. And now is the time to start our new adventure together.”

This week, ABC will become the first major broadcaster unveil an app that allows users in New York and Philadelphia to live-stream local programming. Content from WABC and WPVI will be available first, with plans to introduce it in other markets later this year, The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter reports:

ABC, a unit of the Walt Disney Company, said the live stream would be available in the other six cities where it owns stations sometime this summer. It is also in talks with the companies that own ABC’s more than 200 affiliates to make the “live” button work in their markets.

ABC finished the first of its affiliate deals, with Hearst Television, on Sunday afternoon; it said the live streams would work in Hearst’s 13 markets, including Boston and Pittsburgh, in the coming months.

The app is also a way for ABC to get ahead of Aereo, the streaming television service that allows subscribers to watch over-the-air programming on Internet-connected devices. Anne Sweeney, the president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, told The New York Times that plans for ABC’s app were in place before Aereo was launched.

The Wilmington bureau for WPVI, the ABC O&O in Philadelphia, has a new home. After 26 years in the same place, the bureau’s new facility means “upgrades to help us better gather and deliver news,” WPVI anchor Jim Gardner said Tuesday (video above).

Stations who streamed their live coverage of Hurricane Sandy on their websites and mobile apps are reporting record traffic according to Broadcasting & Cable.

The ABC O&O, WPVI in Philadelphia, hit a single day record of 13.1 million page views across mobile and desktop on Monday October 29^th and had over 9 million page views on Sunday, October 28^th.  Meanwhile, The ABC owned WABC station in New York City also hit a record 7 million page views on mobile and desktop on October 29, when it had 2 million unique visitors.

B&C also said stations who streamed coverage also drove downloads of their mobile apps.  As of this writing, Cablevision’s News12 (#2), Philadelphia ABC O&O WPVI (#5), Boston’s ABC affiliate WCVB (#7), WFSB the CBS affiliate for Hartford-New Haven, CT (#8) and New York’s ABC O&O WABC (#10) occupied 5 of the top ten free news apps available on iTunes.  CNN holds the top spot.

The anchors at Philadelphia’s ABC O&O WPVI got caught in a tempest of their own making last night.  During their Hurricane Sandy coverage, meteorologist Cecily Tynan could be heard clearly saying the word ‘moron’ or ‘more on’ after tossing to fellow meteorologist Adam Joseph.  Joseph had forgotten to turn on his mic pack at the time.

In the video, Tynan can be heard struggling with the segue to her toss to Joseph saying, “…on more on what to go from here on, let’s head over to Adam Joseph.”  You can hear Tynan grunt in agreement to what Joseph is saying, then you can hear her say the word ‘moron’ or ‘more on’ before Joseph turns on his mic and continues his report.

A quick acting Philadelphia Inquirer captured a screen grab of Tynan’s facebook page where she explained she said ‘more on’ in response to a floor director’s suggestion she put on more make up.  You view the screen grab after the jump.

However, about a half-hour later, anchor Jim Gardner took the opportunity to explain the situation away on air (you can watch the video after the jump) by telling viewers Tynan was offering Joseph the use of her mic, “What Cecily was saying was, ‘Do you want mine on?’”  In regards to using the word moron to describe her colleague, Gardner added, “We don’t do that here.  We are a family.  We love each other.”  He then turned to someone off camera (presumably Joseph) and said, “You’re acting like a moron.”

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

Cablevision customers get to watch their favorite Disney programming without interruption.  The two companies reached a deal covering approximately 70 services including retransmission consent for WABC in New York and WPVI in Philadelphia.

“This significant agreement ensures that our customers will continue to have access to dozens of ABC, Disney and ESPN networks for years to come and, for the first time, they will be able to enjoy Disney and ESPN programming outside the home,” said James L. Dolan, Cablevision’s president and CEO.

The deal includes the suite of ESPN, Disney and ABC channels as well as more than ten HD networks.  Cablevision viewers will also have the ability to watch Disney programming on their computers, gaming consoles and mobile devices.

Another interesting feature is ABC On Demand, a fast forward disabled on-demand service allowing viewers to watch the shows they want without letting them skip the commercials.

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After more than a year of planning and promoting, Katie Couric‘s syndicated talk show, “Katie,” debuts this afternoon.

“Katie” will air at 3 p.m. in all but two of the top 10 markets. The exceptions are Dallas and Washington, DC,  where ABC affiliates WFAA and WJLA will run “Katie” in the 4 p.m. timeslot, which was vacated by daytime fixture Oprah Winfrey last June.

• Related, TVNewser: Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper Facing Serious Challenges in Crowded Syndie Marketplace
  

The eight ABC O&Os — WABC in New York, KABC in Los Angeles, WLS in Chicago, WPVI in Philadelphia, KGO in San Francisco, KTRK in Houston, WTVD in Raleigh-Durham and KFSN in Fresno — are sticking with a commitment to local newscasts, some of which launched in the wake of Winfrey’s departure, in the 4 p.m. time slot.

A burglar who targeted gas stations in the Upper Merion Township area of Pennsylvania turned himself in at WPVI yesterday.

The Philadelphia ABC O&O ran surveillance video of the man, Anthony Thomas, burglarizing a gas station on Monday. Yesterday, Thomas arrived at the WPVI studios and identified himself as the man in the footage. Read more

Philadelphia’s WPVI will soon begin producing the 10pm newscast for Tribune owned WPHL 17. WPHL, the MyNetworkTV affiliate, is currently in an agreement with NBC-owned station WCAU to produce their 10 pm news.

Adam Joseph, meteorologist for the ABC O&O, first posted about the move on his Facebook page. “BIG NEWS!!!!! Action News will begin a 10pm newscast on PHL17 September 15th,” wrote Joseph.  “Your 4pm team will anchor the 10pm newscast along with yours truly giving the forecast.”

WPVI President and General Manager, Bernie Prazenica, in a press release said, “We are thrilled to bring Action News to the prime time audience and we’re delighted to be on a respected station like PHL17.”

Joseph, along with anchors Brian Taff and Shirleen Allicot and sportscaster Ducis Rodgers will  debut Action News at 10 on PHL17 on September 15.