• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

New morning program on PHL17 - "Eye Opener"

It seems that channel 17 has sorta soft launched this week a new morning news/magazine program called "Eye Opener" to air weekdays from 6-8AM. From what I've so far this morning, it's appears to be a version of the NBC Today program for the 20something set (skewing for a younger demo than stay-at-home moms, I think) and focusing on gossip news and fluff pieces (with a "what's cool in tech" bent).

This seems to originate from a sort of national feed with some local inserts probably every 15 minutes. The local cut-in spots appear to consist of a young newsreader Marlie Hall reads the news standing behind a podium with a Macbook laptop. Her delivery seems very hesitant and she tends to look down at lot as she reads text from news printouts while onscreen. There is some footage cut-in to hide some of these moments, but it looks like much of that footage is taken from shots used by NBC10 mostly from their newscast the night before. Some segments do use Tango Traffic feed cut-ins at times.

For the most part, I'm not sure if this is a real contender as altenative for morning news/info programs already out there. It looks very unpolished and way too modern/chic for its own good. Even the age of the hosts on this show (late 20s/early 30s, I think) seems to belie almost an inherent agenda on the presentation of this show. So far, I don't see this format as being very much of a great success.

Here's a short promo clip on the PHL17 site.
 
You'd think with Channel 57's synergy with CBS 3, "Eye Opener" would be the name of 57's morning show. Or, for that matter, CBS 3's. Heck, it would be a great name for the CBS network's show, as well.

By the way... Anyone remember "Wake Up News" on the old UPN 57?
 
No, with synergy the more logical thing is to extend the established brand from 3 to 57, which is what they've done.
 
Can't beat "Eyewitness News," that's for sure - but my point was I would expect a show with a title such as "Eye Opener" to come from a CBS station.
 
DToTheJ said:
Can't beat "Eyewitness News," that's for sure - but my point was I would expect a show with a title such as "Eye Opener" to come from a CBS station.

Can't beat Austin, Texas, circa mid-late 1990s, which had K-EYE Opener News. (Not sure when they dumped that title.)
 
Looking at this "Eye Opener" program from Tribune about a month into its broadcast time here in Philly...

This thing is still totally unwatchable (and I don't want to address the bad aliasing/image juddering problems I was getting from the OTA broadcast this morning). The fluff segments make the bulk of this so-called "newscast" and even then they're just plain godawful. These segments main cover entertainment gossip style reporting and boring "What's New in Tech/Gadgets/Toys". Any actual coverage of potentially relevant information about major nation/world happenings/events are basically reduced to back burner tidbits. Transitions between segments are forced and plain unprofessional looking. The only good thing about this is the utilization of traffic report segments from "Tango Traffic", but I can just switch my TV over to that channel if I really wished.

Overall, this inital assessment closes any doubts that another morning news program is really needed here...
 
Jefferson Lee Eng said:
Any actual coverage of potentially relevant information about major nation/world happenings/events are basically reduced to back burner tidbits.

Sounds exactly like hour two of Good Morning America!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom