Best Comeback (Tie)
It’s good to see newshound Brandon Roth
once again on the beat for WSTM-Channel 3 and WSTQ-Channel 14; he
temporarily left the area last November when he was called up for
active duty as an overseas military journalist with the Army Reserve.
And while we still haven’t seen tip-top anchor Maureen Green since her
mysterious exit last December from WTVH-Channel 5, she more than merits
her latest honor: induction onto the Syracuse Press Club’s Wall of
Distinction, with the ceremony to be held Thursday, Oct. 23, at the
Mulroy Civic Center.
Best Broadcasting Overhaul
WSTM-Channel 3’s Weekend Today in Central New York, the a.m. news show telecast before and after NBC’s The Today Show
on Saturdays and Sundays, received a huge pick-me-up with the new team
of perky anchor Andrea Bullard and debonair weatherdude Matt Stevens.
Meanwhile, former Weekend anchor Christina Chatalian left the market and returned to Boston.
Best Disappearing Act
Where did WSYR-Channel 9’s Dan Cummings
go? Presumably to buy a new alarm clock: The former afternoon anchor is
now doing dawn-patrol duty alongside Christie Casciano and Dave Longley
for Channel 9’s 5 to 7 a.m. slot prior to Good Morning America.
Maybe Cummings can get some wake-up tips from rival Don Lark, who’s
been anchoring that same morning shift for more than a year on
WSTM-Channel 3.
Best Peepers
Look into her eyes. Those deep pools of
beguilement, at once utterly sincere, adorably sweet and yet with a
hint of mischievous twinkle. Suddenly the news about that pesky Dow
Jones seems mighty trifling, as the warmly piercing stare of News 10
Now’s nightly anchor Kate Welshofer reassures Time Warner Cable viewers
that things are going to be all right. Recent newscasts have her now
being billed as Kate Parker, a hint that she’s saving her most personal
gazes for one lucky spouse. For sure, however, the eyes have it: She
could read the phone book during an hour of prime time and still draw
ratings.
Best Excuse to Join a Book Club
WSYR still doesn’t quite know what to do
with its digital Channel 9.2, broadcast on channel 890 on Time Warner
Cable. When it first popped up in summer 2007, Channel 9.2 was a gold
mine for nostalgia-minded viewers thanks to its kitschy slate of
public-domain TV sitcoms and dramas as well as ancient movies from the
Variety Channel. Then WSYR began to “repurpose,” to coin an industry
term, weekend repeats of the daily gabfest Bridge Street and
its morning and evening newscasts, in the process dumping more of the
Variety Channel’s programming. Last month the station dropped the
Variety Channel feed entirely and now features, in addition to Bridge Street and the news, endless hours of a Doppler radar weather map, perhaps because those Indian-head test patterns no longer exist.
