• 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

Why is there an “anchor downgrade” at 5 PM on WCVB?

K

kramie13

Banned
The past few days, I’ve turned on my TV at around 4:55 PM. I’ll see the “lead” anchors - Maria Stephanos and Ed Harding - delivering the news. But then, 5 minutes later at 5 PM, they suddenly take a back seat and Erika Tarantal and Ben Simmoneau are at the anchor desk.

Why is this? Maria and Ed are the “faces of the station”! Plus at 5 PM, the time of day matches WCVB’s channel number! So it seems so weird to have an “anchor downgrade” at this time!
 
What's surprising is that Maria and Ed are doing the 5:00pm tease, not Erika and Ben.

Then again, if Maria and Ed do the 4:00pm news, then that's why. They end the newscast with the tease, then toss it to Erika and Ben at 5:00pm, and then its Maria and Ed again for the rest of the night at 6:00, 7:00, 10:00 (Me-TV) and 11:00pm.
 
Why would the station “switch anchors” then “switch back” during the early-evening news block? Are they “putting a premium” on specific half-hour segments? It makes no sense to me!
 
Traditionally, newscasters would have their legally required meal break while Peter Jennings was giving "World News Tonight" and Pat and Vanna were spelling proper names.

Since WCVB has a 7pm newscast, they came to a different arrangement.

That's probably all this is.
 
It's been this way for quite a while. Before they had a 4pm newscast and before Maria came over from 25, it was Heather Unruh and Ed at 5, 6 and 11 while the younger golden team of Phil Lipoff and JC Monahan did the 530. Phil and JC knew and worked with each other previously and they really played that up. Eventually, the two of them left and were replaced by Ben Simmoneau and a woman who's name I can't recall but the two of them became the new younger golden team and 5 played that up just as they had done with JC and Phil. Then that woman whose name I can't recall left and Ben was paired with someone else (Erika Tarantal??) And before all of that, they had Ironman Ed doing the Eyeopener and then coming back to do the 6 and 11 (or maybe it was 5 and 11 or some combination thereof). And, not long after that, they had Heather doing the very same thing. Heather eventually left when Maria became the new face of 5 and then Heather was about to become the news when she sued actor Kevin Spacey for sexually assaulting her son. If you go back a few years on these pages, you will find posts and conversations about all of these anchor moves.
 
Last edited:
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom