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Cleveland TV Revolving Door

Matt Wright has left WJW after he got done anchoring the Sunday night 10pm news. He was with the station for eight years. He mentioned on his Facebook fan page that he's taking a job outside of TV news.
 
Ujek and family will still live in the Cleveland area to work on stories via extensive travel to a number of states for the national network and sister network MSNBC.
 
WEWS ABC 5 has brought in Carly Mascitti as their new weekend sports anchor, coming over from WHEC NBC 10 in Rochester.

With that, here's a rundown of who does sports in Cleveland TV, just to give an overview:

WKYC NBC 3:
weeknights - Jim Donovan
weekends - Nick Camino
backup - Al Pawlowski

WEWS ABC 5:
weeknights - Jon Doss
weekends - Carly Mascitti
reporter - Camryn Justice

WJW Fox 8:
weeknights - PJ Ziegler (4 and 10p), Ken Carman (5 and 6p)
weekends - John Sabol
contributor - Andre Knott

WOIO CBS 19/WUAB CW 43:
weeknights - Mark Schwab
weekends - Ballie Burmaster
backup - Anthony Lima
 
In an era where the "Sportcenters" and the internet have long taken over the need to fill our sports news interests. Is it even worth having local sports desks anymore? I would think the news departments could find better use for those dollars elsewhere.

The only time I really stick around for the sports on local news, is to see how little they actually tell us. Which is basically "names, ranks and serial numbers" of todays Guardians, Browns, Ohio State, or Cavaliers game. And a little bit of national teaser (Not to mention the usual drama that seemingly never ends in the local sports backdrop. And a few local commentaries that I'd just as soon not hear)

I haven't paid attention lately, but do any of the local's even show and out-of-town scoreboard? I would kind of like to know how the Dodgers, Pistons or Blackhawks game is going without having to go to the cell phone during the time I set aside for local newscasts. (Although with the amount of time locals allot for commercials, I obviously have time distract myself from the T.V.)
 
Yeah, it was nice when they showed the out of town scoreboard accompanied by some music. "Bev Bucci, a little travelin' music". But why spend a minute showing scores when they can squeeze in a couple more commercials?
 
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I haven't paid attention lately, but do any of the local's even show and out-of-town scoreboard? I would kind of like to know how the Dodgers, Pistons or Blackhawks game is going without having to go to the cell phone during the time I set aside for local newscasts. (Although with the amount of time locals allot for commercials, I obviously have time distract myself from the T.V.)

3, 5, and 8 (and I believe 19/43 as well) all have scores scrolling on the bottom of the screen during sportscasts - especially on the late news when most games have concluded.
 
Yeah, it was nice when they showed the out of town scoreboard accompanied by some music. "Bev Bucci, a little travelin' music". But why spend a minute showing scores when they can squeeze in a couple more commercials?
Long ago, but I remember in the Casey Coleman WJW days. The scoreboard would also be accompanied by the observation "NIT Champions name is #65" under NIT Championship game score.

Your reference, to Wayland Boot. Also reminds me of one of the more legitimate "Sunday Sports Wraps" in our market. (I wonder whatever happened to that "Burnt Biscuit Award"...). His, was also "The Big Blue Scoreboard".

Now, we get irrelevant commentaries and that guy on 43's idiotic "See ya!!!" sign off...Hence the reason I have no idea if 19/43 shows a bottom of screen crawl (Haven't hung around that late in a 43 newscast in years). What they call a "Sports Extra" was equal to LeBron James calling himself a manicurist when he used to chew his fingernails.
 
I don't bother with the "sports" news on TV stations. They only cover baseball, football, basketball, an occasional NASCAR race if there's a spectacular crash. Couldn't give a crap about those. Sports I'm interested in gets nary a word mentioned for months, sometimes years, on end.
 
I don't bother with the "sports" news on TV stations. They only cover baseball, football, basketball, an occasional NASCAR race if there's a spectacular crash. Couldn't give a crap about those. Sports I'm interested in gets nary a word mentioned for months, sometimes years, on end.
Well, football is king in Cleveland (Browns, Buckeyes, high school), Cavs and Guards coverage goes hot and cold depending on how the teams are doing, and CSU/Monsters/Charge get quick mentions (though CSU gets extra love if they're in contention for March Madness).

If you don't mind me asking, what sports are you interested in that don't get covered?
 
If you don't mind me asking, what sports are you interested in that don't get covered?

Soccer, Wrestling [not that WWE or F or whatever letter they're now using at the end of WW]. Soccer might get a 3 second blurb if a local team, meaning one within 20 miles of the station [or so it seems] wins a state championship but as far as professional teams, forget it. They might have it on a crawl at the bottom of the screen. I do remember a local newspaper-remember them?-did about 1-2 stories a week on a local private school's sports teams. Turns out a couple of the paper's big shot's kids was going to that school as well as a sportswriter's kid.. You would have thought they were the only high school in a 50 mile radius.
 
For better or worse...Cleveland has an indoor soccer team that gets almost no coverage (They won the MASL2 Championship in 2021).

For the amount of overkill that High School Football gets. I'd like to see the majority of High School Basketball Scores (Used to be on the "Big Blue" but I haven't seen it in decades.) and a few more highlights.

Also, we get very little Monsters, Charge and local Minor Baseball League teams covered. All of these things might make for a more reasonable accommodation of sportscasts, and less of the weekly "Browns Player Turnover and Crime Report" along with the teasers that usually go nowhere.
 
What's the obsession with high school.football coverage? I don't get it.
Channel 8 (Was it still CBS then?) started it with "Friday Night Touchdown" long ago and other stations followed (Which is difficult as 3, 5 and 19 all have 11:35 network programming which the networks, "kinda hate" to see compromised especially if it's new.).

In WJW's case...I think they cotton up to schools which in turn, the millennial parents loyally watch their news. (Especially in the Morning). I'd also imagine "Who you know" falls into place with the different High Schools they feature.

This is one case where downsizing might be in order (Only if the sponsors go away, so never going to happen). I remember when WVIZ used to feature one tape delayed game on Friday night and it was a big deal if your school was featured.
 
What's the obsession with high school.football coverage? I don't get it.
It's Cleveland/NEO...football is king - always has been, always will be.

Fall weekends are for pigging out on pigskin - high school on Friday (with powers like St. Eds, St. Ignatius, Glenville, Mentor, and Akron St. Vincent St. Mary...where that LeBron whatshisname guy used to be a pretty decent tight end truth be told), college on Saturday (with our neck of the woods being major OSU and MAC country), and NFL Sunday (the gentlemen in the orange helmets in particular).

Stations go gaga for guys like Denzel Ward (played high school football at Akron Hoban, then went to OSU, and got drafted by the Browns in the 1st round). They get to play the "watched him grow up" card.

But back to the point - it's all about football, football, football.
 
It was just announced that WUAB CW 43 will have a new 2-hour newscast from 7-9a weekdays beginning on June 20.

This is basically an extension of the morning show on WOIO CBS 19, so essentially Reserve Square will now have a 5-hour morning show (4:30-7a on 19, 7-9a on 43, and back over to 19 from 9-9:30a).

This now gives channel 43 4 1/2 hours of news per weekday. Added in with the 7 1/2 hours on channel 19, this now means Reserve Square will be pumping out 12 hours of live and local newscasts every weekday (albeit across 2 stations).

This eclipses WJW Fox 8's output of 11 1/2 hours of weekday live and local news.

And this is NOT factoring in sponsored chat shows like New Day Cleveland or Cribbs in the CLE, nor any late news replays.

And for comparisons sake, WKYC NBC 3 cranks out 5 hours of live/local weekday news (not including the sponsored chat fest Good Company), and WEWS ABC 5 churns out 6 daily hours of live/local news M-F.
 
It was just announced that WUAB CW 43 will have a new 2-hour newscast from 7-9a weekdays beginning on June 20.

This is basically an extension of the morning show on WOIO CBS 19, so essentially Reserve Square will now have a 5-hour morning show (4:30-7a on 19, 7-9a on 43, and back over to 19 from 9-9:30a).

This now gives channel 43 4 1/2 hours of news per weekday. Added in with the 7 1/2 hours on channel 19, this now means Reserve Square will be pumping out 12 hours of live and local newscasts every weekday (albeit across 2 stations).

This eclipses WJW Fox 8's output of 11 1/2 hours of weekday live and local news.

And this is NOT factoring in sponsored chat shows like New Day Cleveland or Cribbs in the CLE, nor any late news replays.

And for comparisons sake, WKYC NBC 3 cranks out 5 hours of live/local weekday news (not including the sponsored chat fest Good Company), and WEWS ABC 5 churns out 6 daily hours of live/local news M-F.
I thought about starting a new thread about this, but you beat me to mentioning it. Odd that Channel 19 was quiet about this up to this week (unless I just missed the announcements prior).

The best thing to come out of this, is Fox 8 now has competition in the news field while other networks traditionally have national feeds that take precedence to our other local news channels. It will be interesting to see if Channel 43/19 "Circuses up" the 7 to 9 a.m. news. Or if Channel eight finally has to rethink it's "Have fun/less news/more laughter"...Later morning newscasts.

At any rate, CW43 brings a welcome addition to the local morning news landscape (for now).

I do recall a time when 19 News aired a block from 7 to 8 a.m. on Channel 43's Bounce (43.2) Sub-channel. Which, I think, was new but may have been a repeat of 19's 6 a.m. feed.

Anxious to give it a few months (and rating periods) to see what changes we may see.
 
I thought about starting a new thread about this, but you beat me to mentioning it. Odd that Channel 19 was quiet about this up to this week (unless I just missed the announcements prior).

The best thing to come out of this, is Fox 8 now has competition in the news field while other networks traditionally have national feeds that take precedence to our other local news channels. It will be interesting to see if Channel 43/19 "Circuses up" the 7 to 9 a.m. news. Or if Channel eight finally has to rethink it's "Have fun/less news/more laughter"...Later morning newscasts.

At any rate, CW43 brings a welcome addition to the local morning news landscape (for now).

I do recall a time when 19 News aired a block from 7 to 8 a.m. on Channel 43's Bounce (43.2) Sub-channel. Which, I think, was new but may have been a repeat of 19's 6 a.m. feed.

Anxious to give it a few months (and rating periods) to see what changes we may see.
WUAB used to have news from 7-8a during the bulk of its "My 43/CLE 43" era. That news hour was briefly jettisoned to 43.2 in summer 2018 when the main channel picked up the CW and had to do some shuffling to accommodate it, and was then just quietly abandoned shortly thereafter.

Fox 8 News in the Morning ain't gonna change - why fix what ain't broke?

This town stays loyal to radio/TV institutions, so any other morning newscast is fighting for 2nd, as nothing's knocked F8NitM off it's perch for over 20 years, and it's not gonna start now.
 


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