Mark Zinni debuted on WFSB

Mark Zinni debuted as the new 5:30PM co-anchor on WFSB the CBS affiliate in Hartford Connecticut last week. Zinni is a former anchor at WPRI here in Providence.

Zinni and meteorologist Michelle Muscatello  launched channel 12's weekend morning show back in the early 2000's. The pair was promoted to anchoring the weekday morning show with Pamela Watts later that decade.

Zinni left WPRI in 2009 to return home to Cleveland where he started another weekend morning show for FOX8 news. Zinni made national headlines at WJW when Today Show anchor Matt Lauer tweeted at him after hearing Zinni may not have found him friendly during Zinni's internship with the Today Show.

Zinni also battled Thyroid Cancer while working at FOX8. WFSB welcomed Zinni last week with a packaged story highlighting Zinni's career, charity work, and his personal life. FLTV reported that it was a history making story because it introduced Zinni as gay. However many chastised the article pointing out that several stations have openly discussed gay anchors personal lives including WFSB.

Click here to see a weekend evening newscast Zinni anchored in 2003, it is a pretty cool look back and even uses video from WPRI's old helicopter.

Weekend of November 1-2 Regional TV Listings

The following are the listings for sporting events in the Providence-New Bedford TV market that vary by market such as network regional MLB or NFL broadcasts.


Saturday November 1

College Football
ABC6/WLNE-TCU vs. West Virginia 3:30PM (Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit)
*NOTE: Purdue vs. Nebraska can be seen on ESPN2

Sunday November 2

NFL Football
CBS12/WPRI- San Diego vs. Miami 1:00PM (Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts)

NFL Football
CBS12/WPRI- Denver vs. New England 4:25PM (Jim Nantz, Phil Simms)

NFL Football
FOX64/WNAC- Arizona vs. Dallas 1:00PM (Joe Buck, Troy Aikmen)

NOTE: Subject to change, all other sporting events available nation wide.

Weekend of October 25-26 Regional Sports TV Listings

The following are the listings for sporting events in the Providence-New Bedford TV market that vary by market such as network regional MLB or NFL broadcasts.

Sunday October 26

NFL Football
FOX64/WNAC- Detroit vs. Atlanta  9:30AM (Thom Brennaman, Troy Aikmen)- National Distribution (but not part of a technical doubleheader)

NFL Football
FOX64/WNAC- Chicago vs New England 1:00PM (Sam Rosen, John Lynch)

NFL Football
CBS12/WPRI- Baltimore vs. Cincinnati 1:00PM (Greg Gumbel, Trent Green)

NFL Football
CBS12/WPRI- Indianapolis vs. Pittsburgh 4:25PM (Jim Nantz, Phil Simms)

NOTE: Subject to change, all other sporting events available nation wide.

WPRI and WNAC Off The Air for an Hour During Storm

Even as this post is being written the wind is whipping and the rain coming down in sheets on the Providence-New Bedford TV market. Like the rain WPRI (CBS) and WNAC (FOX) both saw their signal go down during the storm. At about 11PM Wednesday WPRI/WNAC posted this message to Facebook. Signal was lost during the 10PM hour.

"Due to technical difficulties related to the weather, WPRI 12 and FOX Providence are currently off the air. Our staff is working feverishly to resolve the problem and hope to be back online within the hour. We apologize for the inconvenience."

This loss of signal comes at a most unfortunate time, WNAC was in the middle of airing game 2 of the World Series, and WPRI 12 had a newscast scheduled to start at 11. Losing the world series signal is bad for the obvious reason, it is a live sporting event, and when or if it comes back there will be a whole chunk of the game missed.

Being off the air for news is equally bad because in the middle of severe weather at 11 at night people are likely to be in bed and looking to get the latest on the weather from the TV. When you are not on viewers will go somewhere else and usually stay there.

WPRI and WNAC were back on around 11:30, and we are not in a ratings period so no true foul for the Providence Lin properties. It is also fair to mention that in two hurricanes (2011 and 2012) WPRI never lost signal. WLNE lost signal during Hurricane Irene in 2011, and was off the air for several hours.

Tatevik Aprikyan Joins WPRI

Tatevik Aprikyan has joined WPRI as a reporter. She will also be required to shoot and edit many of her stories. She most recently worked at KIDK in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Aprikyan certainly has a more unique background than other reporters in Providence. She was born in Armenia and moved to Seattle, Washington when she was five years old. According to KIDK she is able to speak four different languages. She went to broadcasting school in Chicago and interned at KING-TV, the NBC affiliate for the Seattle Market.

Here is a link to one of her stories from Idaho.

Weekend of October 18-19 Regional Sports TV Listings

The following are the listings for sporting events in the Providence-New Bedford TV market that vary by market such as network regional MLB or NFL broadcasts.


Saturday October 11

College Football
ABC6/WLNE-Rutgers vs. Ohio State 3:30PM (Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman)
*NOTE: UCLA vs. California can be seen on ESPN2

Sunday October 12

NFL Football
CBS12/WPRI- Cincinnati vs. Indianapolis 1:00PM (Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts)

NFL Football
FOX64/WNAC- Carolina vs. Green Bay 1:00PM (Sam Rosen, John Lynch)

NFL Football
FOX64/WNAC- New York Giants vs. Dallas 4:25PM (Thom Brennaman, Troy Aikmen)

NOTE: Subject to change, all other sporting events available nation wide.

ABC6 adds Rebecca Turco

ABC6/WLNE has added Rebecca Turco as a reporter. Turco comes from fellow ABC affiliate WOAY in Oak Hill West Virginia, (DMA 158), during her time there she wrote, shot, edited, produced, and anchored newscasts.

At ABC6 she will be responsible for writing, shooting, and editing her own night side packages, as well as running her own backpack live shots.

Turco is being added to the roster after a summer full of changes at ABC6. In June 6 and 11PM anchor Karen Meyers was released at the end of her contract. 5 and 5:30 co-anchor Alexandra Cowley moved into Meyers role and weekend anchor Liz Tufts was promoted to 5 and 5:30. Night side reporter Mike Lacrosse moved into the weekend anchor chair which resulted in the need to hire a new reporter.

Jared Pliner Promoted to Weekend Anchor at WPRI

WPRI reporter Jared Pliner has reportedly been promoted to weekend anchor at the CBS/FOX affiliate. Pliner said the anchoring would be a "regular gig" in a tweet to a viewer. 

Pliner will anchor the Saturday 6 and 11 on WPRI-12, the Sunday 6:30 and 11 on WPRI-12, and weekends at 10 on WNAC FOX Providence. Pliner joined eyewitness news earlier this year and already has a reputation as a solid reporter who is very comfortable in front of the camera both live in the field and in the studio.

Before coming to Providence Pliner worked for two years at WVII/WFVX as a weeknight anchor and a reporter.

WJAR Alum Back in New England

Erin Cofiell has returned to New England and has taken a job as sports director at WNVY-WFFF the ABC and FOX affiliate for the state of Vermont.

Cofiell worked as a sports reporter and producer for WJAR from 2010-2011.

After WJAR she worked in Baton Rouge as a sports freelance reporter for several companies, as well as a sports anchor/reporter for WAFB

Weekend October 11/12 Regional Sports TV Listings

The following are the listings for sporting events in the Providence-New Bedford TV market that vary by market such as network regional MLB or NFL broadcasts.


Saturday October 11

College Football
ABC6/WLNE-TCU vs. Baylor 3:30PM (Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge)
*NOTE: Michigan State vs. Purdue can be seen on ESPN2

Sunday October 12

NFL Football
CBS12/WPRI- San Diego vs. Oakland 4:00PM (Kevin Harlan, Rich Gannon)

NFL Football
FOX64/WNAC- New England vs. Buffalo 1:00PM (Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, Tony Siragusa)

NFL Football
FOX64/WNAC- Dallas vs. Seattle 4:25PM (Thom Brennaman, Troy Aikmen)

NOTE: Subject to change, all other sporting events available nation wide.

FOX 25 No Longer an O&O

The swap of WFXT in Boston for KTVU in San Francisco closed Wednesday. WFXT will now be owned by Cox Media, and KTVU by FOX Television Stations. Several KTVU managers will move to Boston to replace FOX O&O execs and FOX has already announced managers from other O&O's will move to San Francisco. This means there is one less network owned and operated station in New England.

The deal is fueled by FOX's desire to own the stations in markets that have an NFC NFL football team as FOX has the rights to the NFC. The Patriots in the AFC meant FOX would only get about 2 games to air on WFXT per year. FOX also announced plans to purchase a station in NFC market Seattle in the last week.  This is a new desire for FOX, in 2008 they sold St. Louis (NFC market) FOX owned station KTVI, and may now buy it back.

Still FOX's desire to own more local stations is bucking a trend in television. In fact this post is about the dwindling number of network owned stations in New England in the last decade.

In 2004 New England had the following major network Owned and Operated Stations.

Boston
WFXT- FOX 25
WBZ- CBS4
WSBK- UPN 38 (CBS OWNED)

Providence 
WJAR- NBC10
WLWC- UPN28 /CW28 (CBS OWNED)

WJAR news open from 2005-2006-Final O&O graphics package

Hartford
WVIT- NBC 30/ NBC CONNECTICUT

Today 10 years later...

Boston
WBZ-CBS 4
WSBK- 38 (CBS OWNED)

Providence 
None

Hartford
WVIT- NBC CONNECTICUT

While viewers never notice a change right away, they usually see one over time. For example here in Providence NBC owned WJAR enjoyed the perks of sending Frank Carpano all over the world for live Olympic coverage every two years, live shots from NBC network reporters, and NBC designed graphics.

As soon as WJAR was sold there were no more sports trips to Europe or custom live shots from Washington D.C, those no longer came standard. O&O's are typically fancy looking stations because for the networks running them they are a small expense, but as we have also seen they do not bring in as much money as other ventures for major networks so for most markets they are slowly becoming a thing of the past.

In fact in late 2013 there were rumors that Disney (owner of ABC) was exploring selling all of there O&O stations. In 2008 NBC put WVIT in Hartford and WTVJ in Miami on the market. NBC nearly sold the Miami station to a competitor (which would have eliminated a newsroom), and did not get interest in WVIT. Luckily for the two NBC stations Comcast decided to make major investments in all NBC Owned stations in 2012.

Credit: New England One

What does the future hold for FOX 25? Its hard to say, FOX stations are run in a uniform fashion, and viewers are used to that look and operation. Unions can only fight major change for so long, and many owners can make major changes without changing union contracts.

Bottom line: The next six months will be very telling for what the new era of FOX 25 will look like.

Note: This blog covers primarily Providence TV news, however Boston is a top 10 market less than a half an hour away. Boston stations are still frequently viewed in the Providence market. 

Shareholders Approve Merger

According to a release shareholders have approved the merger of Media General and Lin Media. Lin Media is based in Providence and owns WPRI. Media General is based in Richmond Virginia and owns WJAR. Under the new company which will be called Media General, WJAR will be sold to Sinclair and WPRI will stay with the newly merged company.  Lin CEO Vincent Sandusky will become the CEO of Media General based in Virginia.

The FCC must still approve this merger. Red more from TVSPY by clicking here.

Perry Russom Joins WPRI

Perry Russom has joined WPRI 12 as a reporter. Like most WPRI reporters he will also shoot and edit many of his stories. Russom comes to Providence from WBNG in Binghamton, New York (Market 159) where he was a reporter, and fill in anchor for over a year and a half. Russom attended Syracuse University.

His reel can be seen here 

Welcome

For several years now the television markets bordering the Providence-New Bedford DMA have had blogs dedicated to updating people as to the comings, goings, and the general happenings at their local TV stations. Now Providence the 53rd largest television market in the United States will have the same.