This is what I’m thinking:
WGRZ-TV (Channel 2) is responding to the negative community reaction to the key departures of personalities Kate Welshofer, Maria Genero, Michael Wooten and Heather Ly by running extensive promos highlighting all the veteran staffers that remain on the channel.
It is a smart move, though less than subtle and unlikely to immediately improve the perception that the station isn’t a happy place to work.
As the promos illustrate, the station has numerous veterans remaining on staff, including anchors Maryalice Demler, Scott Levin, Claudine Ewing, Melissa Holmes and Pete Gallivan and meteorologists Patrick Hammer and Kevin O’Neill.
By the way, Channel 2 also recently announced the promotion of Judy Moore as assistant news director. She replaced Adam Shapiro. A SUNY Buffalo State University graduate, Moore joined WGRZ from WIVB-TV (Channel 4) about six months ago as executive producer of the 11 p.m. newscast. She started her broadcasting career at Channel 2 in 1997.
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Remember when Channel 2 was off DirecTV for several weeks ending in January in a national dispute over how much the satellite service would pay Tegna, the station’s owner, to carry the channel?
Now DirecTV has announced it would let subscribers opt out of receiving local stations and reduce their bill by $12 a month.
That must frighten station owners, which get a significant amount of revenue from satellite providers and cable companies to carry local stations.
Just look at your Spectrum bill.
The broadcast TV surcharge to carry local stations in 2024 is $25.75 a month.
Andrew Catalon, who has worked Buffalo Bills preseason games for several seasons, deservedly is getting rave reviews for his work on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament alongside analyst Steve Lappas.
Catalon called three of the most exciting games in the opening weekend – Oakland’s first-round upset of Kentucky, N.C. State’s overtime victory over Oakland and Creighton’s double-overtime win over Oregon. In the 2023 tournament, Catalon called No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson's historic upset of top-seeded Purdue.
Catalon is as enjoyable to listen to as Ian Eagle, who became CBS’ No. 1 play-by-play announcer on college basketball this season after Jim Nantz stepped down from his basketball duties and now is openly rooting for his alma mater, Houston. Catalon and Eagle are Syracuse University graduates.
Another sign I was wrong about how popular the new Justin Hartley series, “Tracker,” was going to become ...
CBS is promoting it during the NCAA Tournament as the “most-watched show in the country.” They aren’t calling it the highest rated. “Tracker” did have the advantage of getting a huge lead-in by premiering after the Super Bowl. That undoubtedly helped it become the “most watched.” “Tracker” was the No. 9-rated series in Western New York during the recent February sweeps. “Young Sheldon” was No. 1. More on what Western New York is watching on network television later this week.
From “Oppenheimer” to “Law & Order.” That’s the story of actor Tony Goldwyn, who became the district attorney who succeeded Sam Waterston’s Jack McCoy this season. He had a relatively small role in “Oppenheimer” as Gordon Gray. His “L&O” character, Nicholas Baxter, has had an interesting early combative dynamic with Hugh Dancy’s character, senior assistant district attorney Nolan Price, in the first two episodes he has been in. The dynamic has brought me back to the long-running series that premiered in 1990.
I detest the “yada, yada, yada” commercial for a cellphone company. It is the most annoying ad on television, just behind just about any Rob Gronkowski ad. The expression should be restricted to “Seinfeld,” which made it famous. I’m also not a big fan of the car advertisement in which a mother says she was never happier that she bought the vehicle than when her family walked away unhurt from a terrible car accident. I know a car’s safety record is a big selling point. But the ad seems a little grotesque.
Please, make it stop. Last week, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe were among those weighing in on whether the Buffalo Bills should trade Stefon Diggs. Any time anyone wants to discuss the topic, they should note how unrealistic it would be to trade Diggs because of salary cap considerations. The only experts who cite that issue are those in Buffalo who cover the Bills. The rest of the experts are just making noise.
As the golf season approaches, I highly recommend the second season of the Netflix series “Full Swing.” It has a couple of local angles. The Oak Hill Country Club outside Rochester is prominently featured because that’s where the PGA championship was held last season.
But the local highlight came from one of the two young sons of golfer Keegan Bradley. A big fan of the New England Patriots, Bradley asked his son who his favorite NFL team is. Of course, the kid responded, “the Patriots.” But then he added “the Buffalo Bills.” His father wasn’t happy about that. I’ll eventually have more to say about the full season of “Full Swing.”