Caterina Bandini and Chris May Leaving WHDH

[MaxBTVN]

As you may have heard, WHDH's Caterina Bandini is pregnant with twins and has decided to leave the station permanently after she gives birth.You can find more on this in the Herald, the Globe, the Phoenix, and on BTVN.net.More surprising news - which at present is only being reported on BTVN - is that secondary anchor Chris May has confirmed he is to leave the station when his contract finishes later this year. So that's not one but two big changes to 7's line-up. What would I do now?Weekday AM: Juli Auclair and Phil Lipof2nd team (4pm): Lauren Przybyl and Jonathan Hall1st team (6/11): Frances Rivera and Randy PriceWeekend AM: Christa Delcamp and Steve CooperWeekend PM: Nichelle King and Jeff Glor

 

[radiodouble]

:Didn't she just marry a sugar daddy a year ago?

 

[MaxBTVN]

Her "sugar daddy" happens to be a very nice guy, and not nearly as "sugary" as people think. Plus, they are relatively the same age.As for plugging my site, that was not my direct intention... and it's certainly not spam, whatever way you read it. This news simply hadn't been posted yet and my site had more about it... so why not throw people the link while telling them what has happened and make a substantive contribution by suggesting a new line-up?As for the changes...Cat made the decision on her own and has gone to great lengths to stress that it wasn't a Kim Carrigan-type situation.Chris... well, yeah... 7 did their usual dumb thing and dumped a valuable talent. I'd pretend to act surprised but I'm not. Just praying they don't get rid of Randy.

 

[MaxBTVN]

Just so you know... portions of my previous post where I talk about spamming now don't make any sense. That's because the poster who accused me of it has now had their post deleted. My apologies for any confusion.Anyway... constructive stuff... what does everyone think of 7's newfound yet seemingly familiar situation?

 

[Blackrock]

I think the site needs a edit function. As far as the lineup goes, does it really matter? I never had the feeling ch:7 much cares who they have fronting their newscasts. Maybe they will stay in-house with Crista or Frances but I have a feeling they won't. Depends on who is available. A name: how about KJohnson who has worked in Providence and now anchoring "Early Today?"Without any disrespect at all, I don't think this is a big loss. Losing an anchor used to be a big deal: they are still important but the emphasis is waning.

 

[MaxBTVN]

Oh when... oh when... will this madness cease! Now I'm hearing Juli Auclair is out too... though curiously not Phil Lipof!

 

[radiodouble]

Oh when... oh when... will this madness cease! Now I'm hearing Juli Auclair is out too... though curiously not Phil Lipof!

Oh, well, there's always NECN for those who can read the teleprompter.Turnover is nothing new in TV business. Every station seems to go thruthe process every 5 or 6 six years. This happens to be 7's big year for staffchanges. Losing Harvey to 5 was big. But shedding May, Ryan Owens, Julie A.,etc doesn't seem like a big deal. Viewers may not really care as much as TV junkies.

 

[MaxBTVN]

I'll agree with you up to a point. Owens, Auclair, even Windler... nice people and competent professionals, but you wouldn't bat an eyelid if they weren't there.However, I think viewers will certainly notice the departure of May and Bandini, even if they don't personally care for them. He's been a big presence on the 11pm news (both as a reporter and substitute anchor) and she - thanks in large part to her chemistry with Randy Price - will also be conspicuous in her absence, even to the casual viewer, quite simply because she is the main anchor.

 

[odomski]

Juli Auclair

FTVLive is reporting that WHDH's Juli Auclair is the latest on-air talent to be shown the door. Her last day is reportedly May 28. She's among the many on-air talent to either leave the station or be canned. Chikage Windler, Ryan Owens, Chris May, Caterina Bandini (who's leaving on her own), and now Juli. On the topic of the reporters/anchors to be fired, what in the hell is going on up there at Channel 7? It's a real shame to see quality news people simply told "we don't need you anymore." It's bad enough this business is full of incompetent people. This is just proof that management doesn't want or need people who actually know what the hell they are doing. In my opinion, if management doesn't renew your contract, they are firing you. It's disgusting.

 

[MaxBTVN]

Shawn,Totally 100% agree with your opinion, however, if you look up-thread, you'll see the news about Juli is not new. BTVN and then TVSpy reported it as a rumor early yesterday - the Herald confirmed it today. Scott must've used the Herald as his source. Also, I'd like to take a moment to address the rumor that the Herald printed that a "TV news gossip site" (logically either TVSpy or BTVN) was responsible for Chris May hearing of his non-renewal before management broke the news to him. This is simply not true.The Herald story quotes "Boston TV web sites" (BTVN is the only site dealing specifically with Boston) as reporting Wendi Nix's departure from Channel 7. This is taken from ONE POSTING, which has been subsequently ignored for lack of evidence. As far as I know, and as Wendi herself has stated, it does not appear she is leaving the station. I will not report a rumor unless I have corroborating sources, and I did not in this case.Things got rather more complicated, however, when Mike James of Newsblues took the Herald's claim that Chris had heard the news of his departure online, and attributed that particular claim to his own site this morning. Again, this is simply not true, as the senior source who gave me the information late Friday also informed me that Chris had gone around to each of his close workmates and thanked them. As far as I'm aware, BTVN had the information first, and certainly AFTER Chris was notified, therefore he couldn't possibly have found out about it online, as it hadn't even been printed yet!So essentially, what Mike James is doing now is gloating about how poor Chris found out through him - he didn't - Mike James is telling a bold-faced lie. I am not responsible for Chris finding out, either, and I would certainly never have the audacity to boast if some some unfortunate anchor or reporter were to hear of their ouster through my site. Were that to happen, and my editorial policy means it probably never will, I would regret it immensely, and would apologize to the person in question.

 

[radiodouble]

Shawn,Totally 100% agree with your opinion, however, if you look up-thread, you'll see the news about Juli is not new. BTVN and then TVSpy reported it as a rumor early yesterday - the Herald confirmed it today. Scott must've used the Herald as his source. Also, I'd like to take a moment to address the rumor that the Herald printed that a "TV news gossip site" (logically either TVSpy or BTVN) was responsible for Chris May hearing of his non-renewal before management broke the news to him. This is simply not true.The Herald story quotes "Boston TV web sites" (BTVN is the only site dealing specifically with Boston) as reporting Wendi Nix's departure from Channel 7. This is taken from ONE POSTING, which has been subsequently ignored for lack of evidence. As far as I know, and as Wendi herself has stated, it does not appear she is leaving the station. I will not report a rumor unless I have corroborating sources, and I did not in this case.Things got rather more complicated, however, when Mike James of Newsblues took the Herald's claim that Chris had heard the news of his departure online, and attributed that particular claim to his own site this morning. Again, this is simply not true, as the senior source who gave me the information late Friday also informed me that Chris had gone around to each of his close workmates and thanked them. As far as I'm aware, BTVN had the information first, and certainly AFTER Chris was notified, therefore he couldn't possibly have found out about it online, as it hadn't even been printed yet!So essentially, what Mike James is doing now is gloating about how poor Chris found out through him - he didn't - Mike James is telling a bold-faced lie. I am not responsible for Chris finding out, either, and I would certainly never have the audacity to boast if some some unfortunate anchor or reporter were to hear of their ouster through my site. Were that to happen, and my editorial policy means it probably never will, I would regret it immensely, and would apologize to the person in question.

Maybe James found out thru May's agent. Agents have a tendency to spill the news to different sites and newspaper gossip columns like the Track or Page Six to get their talent's name out there, for all the selfish reasons of course. Either way, a bummer for Chris. I agree with your earlier response - he's a talented guy.We shall see. Should be interesting to see who takes over Cat's seat - Frances? Christa?or a new face from Miami? I wonder if they'll raid Fox - I am sure Bianca and Maria are locked in, but Molly Line is still Boston-based.

 

[MaxBTVN]

Well, it turns out the real story was this...Last week, somebody on TVSpy posted a message in a thread about WHDH which said simply: "I hear Chris May is next" (and nothing more). Apparently, a newsroom colleague of Chris's pointed this out to him, but there was nothing at the time to suggest that it was anything more than speculation. So he DID find out - if you can call it that - online, but certainly not at Newsblues.

 

[rockababy]

Oh when... oh when... will this madness cease! Now I'm hearing Juli Auclair is out too... though curiously not Phil Lipof!

If AuClair is out, Lipof won't be far behind,,,,,didn't Julie come first and then bring Phil into the picture? If Julie is being canned, Phil will find another job where the both of them can be together, they have two small kids and needs their schedules to be insync.......