More weather, more Mehalshick
WYOU isn't the only station switching up its newscasts. WBRE is also making some changes to its finished product, albeit not as drastic as Dialing for News. For example:
"Field meteorologists," forecasters stationed throughout the market, ready to give a more-thorough five-day planner. Josh Hodell will stay in Wilkes-Barre, with Dave Skutnik in Scranton, and newcomers Brian Fitzgerald in East Stroudsburg, and Jeffrey Jumper hanging out in Williamsport.
More Andy Mehalshick. The station plans to have him do more reporting, which he did until he was promoted to replace Keith Martin, who left for a job as the state's homeland security boss. Viewers will see more of Mehalshick out in the field. As WBRE news director Ron Krisulevicz puts it, "A la Anderson Cooper on CNN."
The idea of "field meteorologists" is a bit quirky. It's a great thing to have, when a severe storm or tornado tears through the area, because you have instant coverage at the affected places. But what about the so-so weather days? "It's sunny here in Wilkes-Barre! Dave?" "Josh, it's also sunny here in Scranton! Brian?" "Well Dave, it too is sunny in East Stroudsburg. How's it looking out there Jeffrey?" "Guys, you won't believe it, but it's sunny in Williamsport!"
I'll give a mixed review to Andy Mehalshick's semi-return to reporting (since he'll keep his anchor seat), if only for the comparison to Anderson Cooper. This may surprise you, but network anchors are more about personality and inserting themselves into the story. Just look at Katie Couric's first week on the CBS Evening News. I don't care who is bringing me the news...I just want to know what's happening, and why I should care. I don't doubt that Mehalshick can do that, but WBRE, please don't promote him as an empty news personality whose presence injects any story with automatic newsworthiness.
The idea of "field meteorologists" is a bit quirky. It's a great thing to have, when a severe storm or tornado tears through the area, because you have instant coverage at the affected places. But what about the so-so weather days? "It's sunny here in Wilkes-Barre! Dave?" "Josh, it's also sunny here in Scranton! Brian?" "Well Dave, it too is sunny in East Stroudsburg. How's it looking out there Jeffrey?" "Guys, you won't believe it, but it's sunny in Williamsport!"
I'll give a mixed review to Andy Mehalshick's semi-return to reporting (since he'll keep his anchor seat), if only for the comparison to Anderson Cooper. This may surprise you, but network anchors are more about personality and inserting themselves into the story. Just look at Katie Couric's first week on the CBS Evening News. I don't care who is bringing me the news...I just want to know what's happening, and why I should care. I don't doubt that Mehalshick can do that, but WBRE, please don't promote him as an empty news personality whose presence injects any story with automatic newsworthiness.
posted by Howard Beale at 7:44 PM
65 Comments:
Psst. Lyndall. LYNDALL! Over HERE! The camera’s over HERE! Psst.
[Jesus, Sandy, what’s she staring at? There’s no camera over there!]
Andy "The I Team" Mehalshick can be expected to do at least one story of the following ilk in the I Team's break-out week: An "exclusive" up-close encounter with an alleged Internet predator, followed by an "exclusive" interview with the police officer who made it all possible.
As for the weather guys, we can expect to see the following stunt reporting video upon the arrival of winter's first snowfall: One (or all) of the field "meteorologists" standing beneath a mercury vapor streetlight as the snow swirls about and he talks into a mic while wearing a very important looking logo-emblazoned Gortex jacket.
It’s nothing short of a revolution in broadcasting. Imagine, a meteorologist actually outside the studio, out where the weather is, showing us first-hand what conditions are. A first for the industry.
What? Really? WNEP? In the backyard? You’re kidding. For how long?
Oh. I see.
Never mind.
This is going to be great for those days when it’s 64 and sunny in Scranton and 23 and snowy in Wilkes-Barre.
your link is the 8/26 CV article on the dialing for news debut...
They fired Sweeney for Round-Robin Weather? Jeffrey in Williamsport? Oh boy.
The numbers are going to have to start paying for those weather guys pretty soon but I wonder if that's going to happen.
I think this is good news, honestly. We can't say Nexstar just gave up anymore, I believe that they are trying. Give it time, who knows.
your link is the 8/26 CV article on the dialing for news debut...
What can I say, I'm slow. :)
I didn’t get an accurate headcount for all the new meteorologists on staff at WBRE, so maybe an insider can help. My sense, though, is that 28 now has more people doing the weather than reporting the news.
Like WYOU, WBRE seems to be de-emphasizing news in its “newscasts.”
i read the "to catch a predator" deal on the WBRE website, if that isn't entrapment i don't know what is...give me less andy and more amy and maybe i'll watch...as for lyndall, i'm all for throwing a grenade in her wardrobe closet and starting over....i'm honestly openly wondering if this "i-team" deal is a worse idea than the dialing for news deal...ahh to be employed in moosic right now...and finally i wonder if jeff jumper and jumpin jeff are brothers or something...film at 11!
So Andy’s out investigating, and Josh has climbed up onto the roof. That leaves Lyndall Stiff all by herself for most of the show. The charisma meter doesn’t quite peg into the red zone, does it?
“Where have you gone, Candice Grossklaus, our station turns its lonely eyes to you?”
Oo-oo-oo.
I'm willing to give the new weather approach some time, but I'm already suspicious of the new I-Team.
Seen the promo running for a story we'll see this week? It promises the I-Team will "ask questions" about a mystery. Asking questions doesn't make it an investigative piece. Getting answers would. Will 28 deliver, or will this be a story like the old I-Team when little was uncovered and nothing changed because of the investigations?
I think the field meteorologists are a wonderful touch - it gives the high school students in Stroudsburg and Williamsport a chance to get on the air. The kids did a great job tonight! I want them at my next cookout.
I never trusted weather people who don't have enough sense to come in out of the rain.
So me anna buncha da guys wuz loafin’ aroun’ the corner of Main & Centre—ya know, in Shen-doh—ya know, shufflin’ and spittin’ and jokin’ the way ya do, jus’ hangin’ out. And Vinny sez, he sez “Jeezus, I’d give a million bucks to know what da wedder is in Stroudsburg right now.” And Ernie sez, “Not me, dude. No effen way. I wanna know what da wedder is in Williamsport.”
Ya know, it was a condom—I mean, cannondru—I mean a problem, ya know? And that’s when I sez, “Ya jagovs, deres a place where da botha youse can get watcha want! Dat dere WBRE widdat All Points AccuWedder has metrolol—I mean, metore—I mean guys who do wether hangin’ out all over da friggin’ place.”
And Ernie sez, “You can’t tell me God don’t answer no prayers.”
Da hole five-six of us just nodded. Fugginaye.
Interesting idea and should work great when it weather is the big story.
Could have done without Andy in front of the dumpster for an hour teasing a 6 pm story. But I do have to say, 28 has a cute producer....
...as for lyndall, i'm all for throwing a grenade in her wardrobe closet and starting over...
10:18 PM
I don't know. I kind of like her Jackie Kennedy riding-in-the-motordcade pink suit.
Did you guys hear Andy on the 6 last night? WTF? He tried to say "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain" but it came out more like "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing"
My wife heard it and said WTF, is he from Hazen or someplace
I dunno. This deal with the "dialing for news" and the "I-Team" sounds to me like all hat, no cattle. Where is the news? What am I tuning into?
Also, in order for ol' Andy to be even mentioned in the same breath as Anderson Cooper as his news director states, I would like to see him stop speaking "Haztin" and start speaking a language we all understand.
“Where have you gone, Candice Grossklaus, our station turns its lonely eyes to you?”
Oo-oo-oo.
10:39 PM
Vince Sweeney too, oo-oo-oo.
It's not about the news. It's about the show bidness.
Remember, you don't see any fat, but news savvy, people on the news sets of local TV outlets.
The I Team is more about ratings than it is about true investigatory journalism.
In the end, Andy and the Team will likely give us another Internet predator or two and that'll be about it.
Big deal.
I'm not impressed with the revamped I Team. It's all Mehalshick. Did anyone see the segment at 6.
Andy: "I was there...."
So what. I was there too. There was no new reporting or information regarding the two missing women and a possible connection to the person of interest.
Andy: "I was there..."
Just tell me the damn news already instead of "I was there." Stop feeding your own ego.
Andy: "But I was there..."
On a positive note, it was really nice to see Dia Wallace—an adult—back on at least a couple of WBRE’s weekend newscasts. Is she back to stay?
Without her, with all the kids, the weekend news looked like someone’s senior class project.
It will be interesting to see how the field meteorologists scattered throughout the viewing area will fare when one our traditional Lines of Powerful Thunderstorms sweep through the area. I can see each field meteorologists picked off, one by one, by lightning and high winds and torrential rain as the storms cut a swath of destruction across the state. "And now let's go to Jim in Williamsport. Jim? Jimmy...OH MY GOD!!! WE LOST JIMMY!!!...Well, let's go to Susan in Tunkhannock, where the storm front is just arriving..."
I would like to see Howard do another breakdown of what was covered across all three stations at 11 again and compare and contrast.
28's I-Team report on the missing women from the Wilkes-Barre area shows it's the same old I-team. Nothing new here, but we'll call it an investigation.
Interesting that Mehalshick and his photographer had no problem walking through a vacant home. Didn't hear anything about getting permission.
If the I-Team wanted to "break new ground", it should have really broken ground by bringing in a cadaver dog and digging up the basement of the home. That would answer a family's suspicion that a body is buried. After you've broken the law by going inside, might as well get something out of it.
But Andy was there and it's okay to go into a vacant home without permission and report nothing new. What new news did he report. Absolutely nothing.
"I was there..."
d.b.echo...lol. That is so funny!! In fact last night the street light went out just when one of the wx guys was on. Imagine all the cost of equipment and man hours this is going to take.
I saw that report, too. Maybe it was the acoustics of the basement, but when Andy tried to say "i scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream" it sounded like "She sells seashells down by the sea shore."
I mean, WTF, he from Hazen or something?
yes, Andy will drop himself into the midst of every story, and recycle hackneyed old topics, but the piling on coming from the board is just as tired
Well I don't know if it has anything to do with the I-Team or not, but WBRE has kicked 16's ass the past couple days. 16 led Wednesday night at 5 with the same story Andy led Tuesday night at 5. The only thing new on 16 that 'BRE didn't have Tues. was a poorly shot and fed press conference from Michigan.
And I saw nothing on 16 tonight about the death of Kirkowski - probably the most important witness in Hugo round 2. That was broken by the I-Team's Amy Bradley - who should be getting way more face time than any of the others if you ask me. At least she's something to look at.
I do agree that Andy's missing girl story was total garbage however. It didn't belong on the air - period.
Looks like WBRE took WNEP behind the woodshed again tonight. 28 broke the story on the Kerkowski death and 16 played catch up once again. Lets see WBRE beat 16 to the punch at last week's fire in Stroudsburg and schooled them this week on the Michigan murder arrest.
16 should count their blessing that the people in this market don't like change.
There was a time when no one at WNEP even watched WBRE: why bother?
Four or five years ago that changed. Andy (then still only a part-time anchor) was turned loose to do just about anything he pleased, and he started kicking some butt.
The only people who noticed were at 16. The joke around WBRE became to put a stopwatch on WNEP, to see how many minutes after Andy's Noon live shot Kyle Shmoyer (sp?) would be dispatched to play catch-up. WBRE was the news leader without ever being close to becoming the ratings leader.
One thing working in WBRE's favor right now is that they're covering only five or six stories a day. Easier to focus when versions of the same piece appear at 5, 5:30, 6 & 11.
Still, it's nice top have Andy back where he can do the most good, on the street.
Too bad the "All Points AccuWeather" is such a transparently phony gimmick, and not even pulled off well.
I give credit to BRE for breaking some stories. Sadly for this market, being first doesn't really matter when the newscast itself is almost unwatchable. The recent changes have just made the look of WBRE News even more amateur.
As for the latest scoops, I didn't see Wednesday's 5, but 16 did have Kirkowski at 6 and there was a lot of new information about that Michigan murder and the lady arrested here.
Good news: 28 breaks stories.
Bad news: it looks as if coverage is limited to Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties, Stroudsburg and Williamsport.
Al Zobel's "No Fly" rule seems to be back in effect.
Wednesday night at 11:00 WBRE's I-Team blew the lid off the driving-with-a-suspended-license crime wave that's been sweeping Hazleton. Andy breathlessly reported the arrest of a wrong-way driver. Too badc the guy wasn't an illegal immigrant!
That's also the first time I've heard the new I-Team theme music: sort of "James Bond" meets "Mission Impossible" by way of "The Matrix."
Now that I think about it, the music was far more dramatic than the pointless, lame story.
If 28 is going to pass off cop ride-alongs as investigative reporting, maybe they can change to the theme music from "Taxi Driver."
Here's last night's Four Points Accuweather forecast: "Dark...followed by really dark...with gradual light towards morning."
Did you really pay some company in State College to figure it out for you? Or did the four of you put your heads together and agree?
As for WBRE beating up on WNEP, I offer the following...
I just heard on the radio that the Yankees farm team will be playing here next year, so I go to 16's website and BAM! there it is - "Breaking News...just announced that the NYY farm team will be here next year" with a link and a few paragraphs. I go to WBRE's site - nothing. I go to WYOU's site - nothing (not that I expected anything since they don't have a full time sports department anymore.)
I'm at work now and do not have access to a TV, so I don't know if there are scrolls or a break in whatever AM shows are on now alerting viewers of this.
So to say that WBRE is beating up 16 and all of 16 should be worried all because of one story is jumping the gun. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then. I betcha if I check back after the noon newscasts there will still be nothing. But who's to say.
Bad news... Andy hasn't broken anything yet. That's not to say it won't happen, but let's at least wait and see if he really forces a catch-up move. The information on that decades'-old cold case from an inside-newsroom tip.
Another reporter who should get a lot more credit broke the other stories you've seen.
Another thing I've noticed... 16 has assigned two, little-known newbies to the largest counties in the DMA. What the hell's with that? Anybody know why such a strategy was pulled?
I think it's great that Andy Mehalshick is part of the I team. He starts each one of his reports with the word "I." It's all about him... I mean.. "I."
Andy was live from the stadium at 6 and tried to say "Dizzy Dean and Daffy Dean used a duplicate dazzling display to defeat Detroit in a daytime doubleheader" but it didn't come out quite right.
I was like WTF, wine'cha go back to Hazen.
The 28 I Team is off to an okay start. Amy has really begun to shine. She leaves Mehalshick in the dust. Let's see if it can keep it up. My guess is "I don't think so."
So there was Andy, standing in front of a building in Monroe County on Wednesday eve's show. Andy then breathlessly told his viewers that he was indeed standing in front of a building.
Pure rocket scientist.
I've met Josh Hodell. If I remember correctly, he's about 5'7" or 5'8" and has a nice tan.
Why, when Lyndall turns to him in the big-screen, is he 5'2" and light blue?
From time to time there are posts here to the effect that WBRE and WYOU can't be "real" TV stations because their web pages aren't as good as WNEP's.
Am I the only one here who recognizes ALL these posts as the work of WNEP's Mark Sowers, justifying his job?
I don't doubt that 16 gets 700,000,000 web hits a month. But my guess is it's the same 700 "Talkback" fans writing "We love you WNEP" a million times each.
To 12:37pm (or Howard):
What newbies at 16? Aren't Jon Meyer and Julie Sidoni still covering the two counties? If other reporters joined them on the beats, that should be a positive. I always thought it was stupid to have two full-time reporters working in Central Pa while the most populated beats got part-time reporters because of their anchor duties.
Maybe Andy can be the fifth weatherman.
"Hey, Andy, it's sunny here in downtown Wilkes-BArre were I'm high atop the WBRE studio and have a great view of the Boscovs parking garage. Is it sunny where you are, Andy, because you're there. It's sunny here high above the WBRE studio next to the Boscov parking garage."
Andy: "Yes, it's sunny here where I'm there, just outside the home of Steve Martin where I'm about to trespass and hope I don't get caught. We now tune to Jimmy. Oh no, we lost Jimmy in Williamsport.
Oh, we seem to have some technical difficulty at the moment but I want to remind all our viewers, all 10 of you that I was there.
Ok, Jimmy's back in Williamsport but from the monitor I'm looking at, it doesn't seem to appear Jimmy is caapble of reporting about the sunny weather in Williamsport. Jimm have gotten struck by another lightening strike. We now go back to the studio to Lyndall. Wait, oh no, we lost Lyndall.
I have a question for Perry Sook: What's next?
If the past is a predictor, Perry has already writen off the new WYOU and WBRE efforts and is ready to move on.
Normally the GM would take the fall--but you've already knocked off John Dittmeier. So maybe my question should be: Who's next?
8:27 pm:
That was broken by the I-Team's Amy Bradley - who should be getting way more face time than any of the others if you ask me. At least she's something to look at.
...Yeah, something ORANGE! She's always orange. But so was Andy Mhlskk in Nesckpk. Maybe it's the I-team's theme color?
"Normally the GM would take the fall--but you've already knocked off John Dittmeier. So maybe my question should be: Who's next?"
Uhhhhh, let's see; if Nexstar was a relatively normal TV outfit, Itty Bitty Krispy and national ND Moron Manson would be gone the minute the November book's prelims get e-mailed, because they are going to be rock-bottom. But, if Zobel could survive for three years, anyone can.
As a really chancey aside, WYOU might take a slight leap strictly due to the curiousity factor. That, of course, will have evaporated by February. Oh, Hodell is maybe 5'5", tops.
What a pleasure it was to watch (Dr.) Jon Nese on PCN last night. Now there's a real professional, one who doesn't care about facial makeup but the actual content of his show. It's a steep, downward trek to the wonders of the I Team.
Shut up 8:01am...Who said anything about "writing off" the 2 stations when they've just made major upgrades ?
Get educated before you air out your dirty laundry.
When is Jeff Jumper graduating from high school? SAD!!!
"Bad news... Andy hasn't broken anything yet. "
Thats not true. He broke a lav mic once,
Can't you come up with something a little more original and, perhaps, educated? I hear drunk college students doing that and hope they someday grow up and learn how to use better words.
11:35 AM
That's true Rev. Carten, but then, my anger and frustration would have been compromised in the translation. Sometimes, you just have to write it as you would speak it. For as offensive as some of the video is, my words should be taken as mere child's play.
my anger and frustration would have been compromised in the translation.
Why the anger, the frustration? Let me venture a guess - you're trained as a photog and can't get hired by anyone here. Therefore, everyone shouldering a camera in Scr/W-B sucks.
7:01 --
I understand what you mean and how it feels. It's difficult to find the right nice words at times like that. I had a rough-hewn uncle who threw around worse stuff than you, but he had a way with it and made it sound like poetry. The people here don't. It just sounds like a lot of people tossing foul language.
btw: I'm among peers; "Tom" is fine with me. If you want to stand up in the middle of Mass and shout that I'm an a-h, then "Reverend" would be the more proper term.
The perception is that Mehalshick has been demoted. Has he? Maybe yes, maybe no - time will tell; if you see someone else sitting next to Stout, he's been demoted. Regardless of whether he has or has not, most people out there(as opposed to us in here) think he has, and most of them have gotten that strong impression from the promos alone, they're not watching.
8:03 PM wrote: Why the anger, the frustration? Let me venture a guess - you're trained as a photog and can't get hired by anyone here. Therefore, everyone shouldering a camera in Scr/W-B sucks.
Yeah, that's wrong! And if everyone here, as you write, is shouldering a camera, it's all the more reason for my anger: they should get out that tripod.
I never knew we lived on such a fault line in NEPA until I watched 16 locator video. I'll never understand how some photogs could care how their product appears.
Was Mehalshick demoted?
No... the rest of the on-air news staff was, except for Lyndall.
It's now the Andy and Andy show, all the time. WBRE is sweeping through block after block in Hazleton, garnering the numbers, while the rest of WBRE viewers in NEPA say no way and deliver the sonic-boom of a click over to 16.
...as you write, is shouldering a camera, it's all the more reason for my anger: they should get out that tripod.
The BEST video that has ever been shot anywhere has come off of someone's shoulder or hip, and if you put the textbook down and could find a job, you'd understand. You know what they taught you in school? You know what you mortgaged your soul for to get that BA or whatever? Flush it, forget it, get out in the real world where real people do real things. Tripods are marvelous, many times they are an absolute necessity, especially if you have a pony and do birthdays and bar mitzvahs. If you're doing a doc, great, use a tripod. For my money, give me an artist instead of a technician any day of the week.
P.S. If anyone out there is wanting to be a photog, do yourself an enormous favor; screw college, don't waste your time, except for maybe a two-year deal. You could learn all you need to know about still and video photography by apprenticing yourself to someone good for 90 days, tops. In fact, and the hell with it, you could probably learn all you need to know by yourself. Say, anyone want to open a videogrpahers school?
WBRE has been heavily Hazleton-weighted for twenty years. Mehalshick is a huge part of that, but not the only part. It all gets down to piss-poor mid-level management, no one EVER looks at geographical balance. WNEP does, and they dominate, and will forever do the same, right or wrong.
A tractor accident in Montour County? WBRE'll ignore it. WNEP will VO it, and everyone in Montour County notices. Net result - WNEP will continue to own Montour County, and every single county in this corner of NE PA.
Ask 73 people in, oh, Jermyn, Carbondale, where Hazleton is. If 5 of them can tell you, I'll suck your sneakers. Then, go ahead and reverse my offer, the same will hold true. Do you think a soul in Freeland knows where Olyphant is? Andy-Boy's main concern is, and always has been, looking good in his hometown. That's not a bad thing, but it has driven much of what his crappy station has covered for far too long...
Hey 9:43PM... I am employed, most likely making more money than you, and I say that only from attempting to swallow your dull-witted perspective on education.
Yeah, you might not need a four or even a two-year degree to be able to shoot stellar b-roll, BUT, it helps to have a degree in mnay of the experiences photogs face... how about that council meeting sans-reporter. An intelligent PHOTOJOURNALIST can make all the difference, especially one who understands procedures. You infer that photographers need only know how to shoot. Where the hell are you from? I assume your comfortable with whatever mediocre position you hold.
Why don't you have a look at what the NPPA would have to say about your intelligent thoughts.
"Hey 9:43PM... I am employed, most likely making more money than you...
2:00 PM"
Way to go! You certainly showed HIM! When in doubt, beat 'em over the head with your paycheck.
If you work for 28, don't forget to add in your white-balance bonus: or do they actually DEMAND blue video?
Post a Comment
<< Home