Josh McElveen moves from NECN to WMUR

Josh McElveen who has been a reporter/Sunday evening anchor/fill-in anchor at NECN since 2006 is leaving NECN for WMUR (NECN's half sister station) to become 5PM co-anchor (the slot has been open for a few months). Josh was a reporter at WWL the CBS affiliate in New Orleans and covered hurricane Katrina before NECN. I wasn't a huge fan of his anchoring but I wish him the best luck at WMUR.











Editors Note: Now I know NECN & WMUR aren't my normal stations (NECN headquartered right outside Boston, and WMUR technically being a Boston station), but I found this notable. Full Disclosure I do watch NECN a few days a week.

WVIT NBC 30 Goes off the Market

WVIT that has been on the market has been taken off. They could not find a suitable price and the credit crunch was also hindering the sale.




Here's the story from DCRTV:

NBC Takes WVIT Off Market - 9/26 - Sources tell FTVLive that NBC has taken Hartsord's WVIT-TV off the market for now. A combination of not being able to get their price and the credit crunch put the sale of that station on hold. NBC didn't need another fire sale after the WTVJ/Miami deal. Meantime the source says, construction of WVIT's digital facility is progressing nicely.....

Source: http://dcrtv.com/boston.html

WJAR's Fire Drill beats Competitors

WJAR which has been number 1 for a long time continues to be the leader in Providence, despite WPRI and more recently WLNE catching up. But I digress. Last Wednesday if you were watching NBC 10 News Sunrise you may have seen or heard something odd, and most people did. 10 which has had its Sunrise newscast soloed by Frank Coletta for a long time. Had a fire drill go off and the show was put off the air for 15 minutes.

Here's a video of Frank explaining it:




Here's the text: "We might be back in just a moment -- there's some kind of alarm going off in the building -- or we might not. If we're not back, we'll put something else on the air to keep you updated on the news. Stay tuned [chuckle]. This should be interesting."

Here's the more shocking part, they weren't able to switch over to MSNBC like they planned so viewers were left with a blank screen. Despite all that they still beat the competition combined! Guess the viewers were very faithful. WJAR got a 5.1 during it, 6 & 12 could only get a combined 4.7.

Here's the link: http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/notfornothing/archive/2008/09/19/ch-10-s-non-broadcast-beats-competitors.aspx

I have a lot of opinion on Providence TV and you'll be seeing it soon here on the blog. As frank said "stay tuned"!

A NE Sarah Palin Look-Like?

Cindy Michaels who co-anchors the 6, 10 and 11PM shows at WVII in Bangor has changed her look drastically. This is how she used to look:














Now she looks like this:













She claims that she has put her hair up a lot and she may have but I think its a ploy to get more people to watch. As you may know WVII has been in last place in Bangor for years. The station has newscasts only on weekdays at 6, 10, and 11. The 10 & 11 are taped earlier in the night. Sports are live. Though I may have only been to Bangor once I still got an opinion and I'll express it eventually

But you have to admit she looks a bit like Sarah, and this is interesting. If you want more here's the link: http://www.bangornews.com/detail/51115.html.

Please comment if you want.

News Updates (From all over NE)

This is a post that keeps you up to date with stations all over NE.

WLNE: The station that has added some newscasts under their new ownership has added a half hour to its weekend morning newscast at 8AM on RINC extending its newscast to an hour from 8:30-9AM to 8-9AM. There is no word if any newscast will be added to ABC 6 on weekend mornings, but updates with Erica Ricci are given during GMA with Erica Ricci along with meteorologist Matt Lagor. The station has also announced the 3rd ever after 7AM news in RI on weekdays on RINC. It will be done by Good Morning Providence & ABC 6 News at Noon co-anchors Doreen Scanlon and Tom Langford, and meteorologist Steve Cascione. It will be launching September 29. This is actually the 3rd ever morning news in RI after 7AM WNAC had WPRI produced one a while back, that was short lived with Pamela Watts & Steve Cascione.

WPRI: Has had many changes. Steve Aveson's contract wasn't renewed in early September. So the station made these changes last Tuesday:

Noon: Soloed with Pamela Watts. Previously co-anchored by Pamela & Mike Montclaveo.
5PM: Mike replaced Steve. Karen Adams still co-anchoring that shift.
5:30: The same, Mike & Erin Kennedy still co-anchoring.
6PM: Now being soloed by Karen Adams. Previously anchored by Karen & Steve.
10PM: Mike replace Steve. Erin Kennedy still co-anchoring this shift.
11PM: Same as 5PM

Morning, Weekend Mornings & Evenings still the same.

WNAC: Will be eventually be launching a morning newscast at 8AM in Jan 09. It will be eventually be expanded to 2 hours.

WTIC: Has added a lot of newscasts lately. The station which had only one 10PM newscast a night (and still does on weekends) but they have finally added more. But the station first added a morning newscast from 6-8AM with Logan Byrnes (formally of WVIT), and Rebecca Stewart (formally weekend anchor). They then recently extended the show to 4:30-9AM and added two anchors Joy & Jeff, to anchor as well. The station also launched a 11PM show last week with Erica Arias as solo anchor. They will be adding a noon & 5PM show next year. They also dropped The one & only for the FOX O&O news graphics and music.

WFSB: They will continue to solo anchor the 11PM newscast 7 days a week. Erica Arias left 3 after the end of her contract and is now anchoring at WTIC at 11PM. Kevin Hogan will continue anchor the weekend evenings solo. Dennis House is soloing the 11PM on weekdays as well as anchoring the 6PM with Denise.

WVIT: Got a completely new graphics package which NBC O&O's are getting (they are still up for sale). Weekend Evening anchor Lauren Petty continues to be on maternity leave, and Andrew Pergam has been filling in despite Lauren not even being officially named weekend evening anchor. Darren Sweeney moved from WFSB to WVIT to be there new weekend morning meteorologist.

WCSH: Made a couple changes; weekend noon newscasts were dropped, but the weekend morning newscasts were kept with Brian Yocono, they are the only weekend morning newscasts in Maine (simulcast with WLBZ in Bangor). They are also not filling the open news director slot.

WGME: Added the first and only 7PM newscast in Maine on September 2 with two men and a more political edge then other shows.

WABI: Made two anchor changes not too long ago. Sharon Pelletier was dropped from the noon show while keeping the 6PM, and long time morning co-anchor Allen Grover left the staion and was replace by Wayne Harvey.

WAGM: It always has a few changes currently the station is revolving the Sat night and 5:30 slots (the sat after Jaimarie Ely left for WVNY). Laura Thomas, Tyler Pyburn, and Angela DiMillo have been added as reporters and fill in anchors especially the 5:30, Tyler is also a sports reporter.

WGGB: It has had some many changes since the new ownership. Dave is one of the few stable people. Sabrina went from 5PM and filling in on the evenings to weekends. Marci went from anchoring the main shifts to only the 5PM and not the 11PM surprisingly. Kathy Tobin came back to anchor 5:30 & 6PM from doing behind the scenes in the past few years.

WSHM-LP: the station which only did only a 6 & 11PM until recently has added a 10PM on its weather subchannel which runs 20 minutes. They went from having Doug & Jennifer co-anchoring the 6 & 11 to having Doug only doing the 6PM with Jennifer, while Jennifer solo's the newly launched 10PM and 11PM show.

WCAX: is one of the most stable station in NE. The only change was sports. The station which until recently had different people anchoring the 6PM and the 11PM. The 6PM & 11PM sports guys left the station. So the weekend sports Guy Mike McCune was promoted to the sports director. Shawna which is the only morning sports anchor in NE stayed in her slot. The newcomer Seth was promoted to the open weekend slot.

WFFF: They are probably the 2nd most expanding news production in NE. The station which produces a 7PM Mon-Sat for sister WVNY, and a 10PM on WFFF 7 days a week, Added a morning newscast from 7-9AM on weekdays on August 18. They are slowly adding people as well.

Welcome to the blog

Welcome to Television News Media New England. This blog is devoted to what is happening in New England News television markets, especially Providence/New Bedford. Also Portland, Bangor, Presque Isle, Burlington, Springfield, and Hartford/New Haven. Boston news won't be covered because of the many sites already devoted to it. My main market is Providence/New Bedford so I will mostly be covering there. Hope you enjoy the blog.