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11 Alive Puppy Watch

jal41

jal41

The new WXIA/WATL news director is apparently an animal lover...and it is showing on air.

The station is letting viewers pick the name of Paul Ossmann's new golden retriever puppy. They are down to 11 names (is the number a coincidence?), and they are letting viewer vote online.

In addition, viewers can text a message on their cell phones, and in return get video of the puppy playing around the newsroom.

Every evening newscast for the past two weeks has had mentions of Paul's puppy and video of the puppy romping around on the grass.

As an animal lover...I like seeing cute puppies...but I think they are severly overdoing it. WXIA already has a reputation as a soft news station...and they might gain another reputation as the "puppy station"...and the jokes that come along with it.

It looks like this new ND basically is like Cal Calloway (the old ND)...so I am not expecting any changes at all.
 
KVBC-TV meterologist John Fredrick's has made his dogs a part of his gig for decades. His first golden made hundreds of appearances with him and was on the set and on camera every weekday morning. The dog passed earlier this year and the memorial service was attended by thousands. Now, "LJ" (Little Jordan) is the new mainstay on the Channal 3 morning news program in Las Vegas.

Early in my career, we had a station cat at a radio station. His name was "Mic." Often when people called in on the talk show, the caller ended the call with, "....and how is Mic tonight?"
 
I no longer get 11 Alive (left Georgia before
the switch), but the "puppy name" stunt sounds
cool to me; I can't say anything bad about animals.
And if people start making jokes about it, well,
11 Alive has endured worse (I got the station in
the Gail Janus/Steve Somers/11 Alive Newshawk
era, so I know whereof I speak).
 
Hah! Isn't Steve Somers the one who attempted to jump a motorcross bike over the goalposts at one of the infamous Supercross events at old Fulton County Stadium? (And if I recall correctly, the stunt ended badly.)
 
Did someone say Steve Somers?

Yep, he was to make his jump on a Saturday night in March of '77 at the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. After much jawing about it on air for weeks, he feebly attempted to do the stunt but he choked. As a teenager, I was amused at his sportscasts. He once compared the play of the Atlanta Falcons to a bunch of Peachtree Street prostitutes. He was a far cry from Jim Viondi on 2 or Harmon Wages on 5. Steve lasted only two years and was replaced by Art Eckman in the fall of '78. I still have an "I Like Steve Somers" t-shirt and an 11Alive "Hey, You Can Feel It" shirt. No, they don't fit but they do show the original blue and green 11Alive logo.
 
I remember the first night I saw Somers; he was showing
highlights of a typical (for 1976) Falcons-on-the-losing-end-
of-a-blowout. Harmon Wages throws an incomplete pass
and Somers says, "There's Minimum Wages, thinking about
his next sportscast on Channel 5."

Somers appeared on Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" show in 1980
and accomplished the impossible: he was outtalked by Bill
Currie, the Pittsburgh sportscaster who got a reputation in
the '50s as the original "Mouth Of The South" when he worked
in Raleigh.

I wish I'd had one of those "11 Alive Hey You Can Feel It"
T-shirts, though.
 
Why all the fuss over a puppy name. In my opinion Ch. 11 needs to teach Paul Ossmann how to do a better weather forcast. Have you ever noticed how he only does the basics when it comes to his weather reports. NO graphics or weather maps just temps and lake levels. All the other's on ch. 11 have nice weather graphics and do a nice job with the weather but Paul's is the same tired routine.
 
amlover said:
Why all the fuss over a puppy name.
Click to expand...

Sweeps month! But then again...WXIA is not know for doing anything different during sweeps months that it does at other times.

In my opinion Ch. 11 needs to teach Paul Ossmann how to do a better weather forcast. Have you ever noticed how he only does the basics when it comes to his weather reports. NO graphics or weather maps just temps and lake levels. All the other's on ch. 11 have nice weather graphics and do a nice job with the weather but Paul's is the same tired routine.
Click to expand...

WXIA has a laid back approach to the news...there is a lot of chatter during all of their newscasts. The new news director is continuing what Cal Calloway started. While the other three are in and out of a story and keep chatter to a minimum...WXIA is doing something different.

If you haven't noticed the new "Forecast First" format...where the next day's forecast is presented at the top of the newscast, and the five day forecast is presented at the beginning of the weather segment (the full seven day is still presented at the end). That is clever. At least they are not making people wait for the weather.

WXIA is doing things differently...less "it bleeds it leads" and more good stories.
 
I don't like all the chit chat between anchors, it's a waste of time. Brenda Woods yaks way too much. I'm not a big fan of ch. 2's news but at least they get to the news without the bable between anchors. Maybe that's why they are #1
 
So how's the puppy situation coming? I
haven't seen a new posting in nearly a month.

Again, for those who are critical of some of
the things Ch. 11 does on its newscast, remember
that this is a station that has lived in Ch. 2's shadow
(figuratively and, until recently, literally). They tried
a no-nonsense approach to the news from 1972-76:
"Pro News," with Virgil Dominic and Ron Becker; after
strong opening ratings, people decided it wasn't
radically different from 2 or 5, which is when 11 started
that "11 Alive" newscast I think I've already referred to.
11 (and perhaps 46) has always been in the position of
the kid who has to scream to get attention (and with NBC
in the shape it's in, 11 may need to scream louder).

But each to his or her own taste. In my 20s I watched 11;
today, in my 50s, I'd probably watch 2, especially since I
got "Action News" on satellite for a few years and became
comfortable with the people.
 
Doppler was on last week. He's grown since the week of the name contest. They even did a segment on answering dog training questions during the 7PM news show. They had Doppler's trainer answer the questions. Kind of sad that I submitted the name Doppler and it won. Not one mention from anyone at the station that I submitted it online on their entry template. They had my e-mail address, mailing address, and phone number. Why ask me for those things if they had no intention of contacting me? Even if I wasn't the only one to enter the name Doppler, they could have mentioned the people who had it as their entry. I never expected a prize but a mention on the air would have been the decent thing to do. I still like their news but it would have been nice to get credit.
 
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