TallyVision

[Beukeboom]

Good points bhNC! I agree w/all you say except personally I'd not put Frank R. in the "big city" category. Nothing against Frank or the job he does, but you just can't take Kentucky out of the man. Like GG stated, these programs are state-wide and I would ASSume that the work schedule has much less and better hours than being an anchor for a local station? That might be the real appeal for them?

For whatever its's worth, Frank has been offered anchor positions in much bigger markets over the years, but turned them down even though they offered more money, more prestige, etc. He has deep roots here in Tallahassee and he has stated he likes it here and isn't ever planning to move.

[poonther]

For whatever its's worth, Frank has been offered anchor positions in much bigger markets over the years, but turned them down even though they offered more money, more prestige, etc. He has deep roots here in Tallahassee and he has stated he likes it here and isn't ever planning to move.

I think that's great about Frank. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't saying Frank wasn't professional or good, just merely stating IMHO he doesn't remind me of a "big city" anchor. Nothing wrong w/that. Also I probably watch the 6pm news maybe 5 or 6 times a year maximum, so I rarely see Frank except in promos.

[frontogenesis]

I thought I'd check in since someone said he wished I would! (It's Ray Hawthorne...up in Madison)

I had to create a new username since I associated my older Urbanplanet username and password with my WCTV e-mail address. Of course, that's no longer active.

It's good to see that everyone is doing well in Tallahassee; having the usual discussions on the "goings-on" on the ever-changing market. Madison is a really a great town and truthfully wished I had a little more time to explore it. Thankfully, I had a friend down here from Minnesota a few weekends ago for a few cold beers (which are excellent up here, by the way) and some brats. I did forget the cheese curds, though!

Work has taken me all over the country, from as far west as Nevada to as far south as South Carolina and as far north as upstate New York...with several other places in between. Business has been very good since I arrived and being on the road is an incredible experience (especially when you're getting paid for it!)

As many of you know, grandpa (that would be my nickname for Mike McCall) are good friends and speak frequently. I was down there for the Florida State-Virginia Tech game last weekend with the great one (my other nickname for McCall). Not sure if I'll be able to get down there between now and year's end, but I probably will get down there early in 2009 when I'm sick and tired of the cold weather here! (And what the hell was Sims doing when he fumbled the ball into the bloody end zone... good grief)

Tallahassee is most certainly my second home (being an FSU alum and having worked at WCTV for several years) and it was great running into several folks who had remembered me. The city and surrounding area always treated me well and for that, I am forever grateful...so I'll be popping up here and there for years to come.

The local TV business sure is changing. You guys have always discussed the local Tallahassee market, but it's not just there. It's going on everywhere. I think local TV is much like AM radio in that it will "reinvent" itself, but so far it has failed to do so. In my view, it's a very "reactionary" business in that it adjusts to changing mediums (such as the internet) somewhat slowly. It's become an on-demand world now, and many folks on the go (such as myself) just want to download podcasts to their iPods, iPhones, etc. and listen to it when they have a few free moments. I still think local TV hasn't quite caught up to that reality yet. It's trying to say, "We have this story, but if you want to see it, you gotta sit down and watch us at 6 o'clock." Those days are nearly done...which is why you see such a push on the internet. Very interesting times for TV where you have basically several new ways of receiving information (i.e. internet, handhelds, etc.) but the economy is soft and resources (i.e. people) are limited.

Until the economy makes a significant recovery AND local TV news adjusts to new realities (it might take the latter to spur the former), medium to smaller market stations are going to have a rough go of the upgrades that many on this board yearn. I'm an optimist and believe these two things will happen, just will take some time...and 2009 may be a transitional sort of year.

Anyway, there's my 2 cents based on my experience in the business and having traveled the country and seeing what other challenges other local TV stations are seeing.

[user102929]

I thought I'd check in since someone said he wished I would! (It's Ray Hawthorne...up in Madison)

I had to create a new username since I associated my older Urbanplanet username and password with my WCTV e-mail address. Of course, that's no longer active.

It's good to see that everyone is doing well in Tallahassee; having the usual discussions on the "goings-on" on the ever-changing market. Madison is a really a great town and truthfully wished I had a little more time to explore it. Thankfully, I had a friend down here from Minnesota a few weekends ago for a few cold beers (which are excellent up here, by the way) and some brats. I did forget the cheese curds, though!

Work has taken me all over the country, from as far west as Nevada to as far south as South Carolina and as far north as upstate New York...with several other places in between. Business has been very good since I arrived and being on the road is an incredible experience (especially when you're getting paid for it!)

As many of you know, grandpa (that would be my nickname for Mike McCall) are good friends and speak frequently. I was down there for the Florida State-Virginia Tech game last weekend with the great one (my other nickname for McCall). Not sure if I'll be able to get down there between now and year's end, but I probably will get down there early in 2009 when I'm sick and tired of the cold weather here! (And what the hell was Sims doing when he fumbled the ball into the bloody end zone... good grief)

Tallahassee is most certainly my second home (being an FSU alum and having worked at WCTV for several years) and it was great running into several folks who had remembered me. The city and surrounding area always treated me well and for that, I am forever grateful...so I'll be popping up here and there for years to come.

The local TV business sure is changing. You guys have always discussed the local Tallahassee market, but it's not just there. It's going on everywhere. I think local TV is much like AM radio in that it will "reinvent" itself, but so far it has failed to do so. In my view, it's a very "reactionary" business in that it adjusts to changing mediums (such as the internet) somewhat slowly. It's become an on-demand world now, and many folks on the go (such as myself) just want to download podcasts to their iPods, iPhones, etc. and listen to it when they have a few free moments. I still think local TV hasn't quite caught up to that reality yet. It's trying to say, "We have this story, but if you want to see it, you gotta sit down and watch us at 6 o'clock." Those days are nearly done...which is why you see such a push on the internet. Very interesting times for TV where you have basically several new ways of receiving information (i.e. internet, handhelds, etc.) but the economy is soft and resources (i.e. people) are limited.

Until the economy makes a significant recovery AND local TV news adjusts to new realities (it might take the latter to spur the former), medium to smaller market stations are going to have a rough go of the upgrades that many on this board yearn. I'm an optimist and believe these two things will happen, just will take some time...and 2009 may be a transitional sort of year.

Anyway, there's my 2 cents based on my experience in the business and having traveled the country and seeing what other challenges other local TV stations are seeing.

Congrats once again on the Wx Central job in Wisconsin Ray. Glad to hear from you again.

[user102929]

.

[newsman]

IMHO--last night was a slam dunk for WCTV. Frank and Julie were flawless, professional and reallly seemed to know the races instead of just reading results. WTXL, once again, big F for failure. Lauren Elise stumbled through her reads and had no knowledge of the candidates or races. One fumble that comes to mind was Akin Akinyemi---who she pronounced as Akin-yummy. He may taste good

I'm thinking WTXL wants to maintain the least talented anchors, flawed with lisps and and lack of professionalism. Even when they start to show some stability, they upset the flow. As a result, we all watch WCTV where we get a confident, professional presentation every single day. Good work!

[Beukeboom]

I noticed a lot of new faces on the WCTV bios page. Must be the usual quarterly changing of the reporters/producers. That seemed to be the norm when I was working there. Not a big deal overall since most of those reporters & producers who leave move on to bigger and better things and on good terms with management.

[Beukeboom]

Well, Comcast removed another channel from its basic cable lineup and didn't replace it with anything effectively charging the same amount for a little less product. The channel they removed from the basic cable lineup was the Style Channel (basic cable 71) and won't be missed by many, but I wonder how much will Comcast take away from us basic cable subscribers? We tried their digital cable out here before and for some reason it didn't work well with a lot of sporadic digital freezes indicating problems with the system out here. I called Comcast on multiple occasions concerning this and they did try to fix it but were unable to do so. One of their repair techs told me he thinks it has something to do with a combination of the main conjuction (not sure if that's the right word) box, how far down the line my home is from it and the way the lines are set up in this neighborhood. In short he told me there wasn't much if anything they could do about it short of a complete rebuild which we both knew wasn't in the works. So I switched back to analog/basic cable. Since then, Comcast has slowly been removing various channels from the basic lineup and moving them to digital without replacing those basic cable channels. And mentioning this to Comcast directly doesn't help either.

[user102929]

Well, Comcast removed another channel from its basic cable lineup and didn't replace it with anything effectively charging the same amount for a little less product. The channel they removed from the basic cable lineup was the Style Channel (basic cable 71) and won't be missed by many, but I wonder how much will Comcast take away from us basic cable subscribers? We tried their digital cable out here before and for some reason it didn't work well with a lot of sporadic digital freezes indicating problems with the system out here. I called Comcast on multiple occasions concerning this and they did try to fix it but were unable to do so. One of their repair techs told me he thinks it has something to do with a combination of the main conjuction (not sure if that's the right word) box, how far down the line my home is from it and the way the lines are set up in this neighborhood. In short he told me there wasn't much if anything they could do about it short of a complete rebuild which we both knew wasn't in the works. So I switched back to analog/basic cable. Since then, Comcast has slowly been removing various channels from the basic lineup and moving them to digital without replacing those basic cable channels. And mentioning this to Comcast directly doesn't help either.

Just get satellite, Directv told me they would even start showing locals in HD around december this year. But 27 is the only hd station right now.

[DXV1]

Just get satellite, Directv told me they would even start showing locals in HD around december this year. But 27 is the only hd station right now.

My dad called DirecTV a couple of days ago and they told him that they would have to come out and put up another dish to get those local channels. What did they tell you?

[user102929]

My dad called DirecTV a couple of days ago and they told him that they would have to come out and put up another dish to get those local channels. What did they tell you?

I get local TLH Channels at my house with the same DirecTv satellite dish that we use to get all of the other national channels. We already have TLH locals, DirecTv just said they would start showing them in HD around December of this year. They said when that happens then on on the TV guide that we would have two WTXL Channels, one would be HD, and the other would be SD. They can't show us a local station in HD if the station doesn't even broadcast it in HD.

[MikeMcCall]

Watch the end of the 6pm newscast today (Monday 12-1) for a major personnel announcement (not me).

A bit shocking.

Mike

--

[Beukeboom]

Watch the end of the 6pm newscast today (Monday 12-1) for a major personnel announcement (not me).

A bit shocking.

Mike

--

I'll be unable to watch so will someone post the announcement here as soon as possible afterwards? Thanks.

[Beukeboom]

I'll be unable to watch so will someone post the announcement here as soon as possible afterwards? Thanks.

Got it. It's posted on WCTV.TV

It was bound to happen sooner or later that Frank would leave the anchor desk. I am glad it will be on his terms apparently. When I get a chance, I'll share a personal Frank story from when I was interviewed for the job I eventually got at WCTV back in the 90's.

[user102929]

It is sad to see that Frank is leaving the Anchor Desk, big loss for WCTV, but he has done a wonderful job over his past 36 years there. I took a picture of an old group photo at the station thats from 1973, not long after Frank joined the award winning news team.

">WCTV News Team 1973

[poonther]

Groovy photo awds, thanks for posting it!

Mike can you tell us who some if not all of those folks are? I know it was before your time (we were 8 in '73,) but hopefully you'll recognize more of the folks than Frank. Particularly who is the man in the hat, glasses and pipe in his mouth? What was his position? Who is the gal in the funky dress on the far right? Was she an on the air personality and if so, was the first AA or AA female in the Tally market? Schools here didn't integrate until '70, so I'd think the media would have also around that time. As always, thanks!

P.S. Love the weather board! Was it made of felt like the storyboards they use to teach us Bible stories in Sunday School?

[Beukeboom]

Groovy photo awds, thanks for posting it!

Mike can you tell us who some if not all of those folks are? I know it was before your time (we were 8 in '73,) but hopefully you'll recognize more of the folks than Frank. Particularly who is the man in the hat, glasses and pipe in his mouth? What was his position? Who is the gal in the funky dress on the far right? Was she an on the air personality and if so, was the first AA or AA female in the Tally market? Schools here didn't integrate until '70, so I'd think the media would have also around that time. As always, thanks!

P.S. Love the weather board! Was it made of felt like the storyboards they use to teach us Bible stories in Sunday School?

The guy in the hat, pipe and glasses is William "Willie the Weatherman" (he was on the morning show) Ragsdale who was quite the character on WCTV and very popular at the time. There are some more photos of him in the State of Florida archives online (http://tinyurl.com/5jesmv).

[user102929]

Groovy photo awds, thanks for posting it!

Mike can you tell us who some if not all of those folks are? I know it was before your time (we were 8 in '73,) but hopefully you'll recognize more of the folks than Frank. Particularly who is the man in the hat, glasses and pipe in his mouth? What was his position? Who is the gal in the funky dress on the far right? Was she an on the air personality and if so, was the first AA or AA female in the Tally market? Schools here didn't integrate until '70, so I'd think the media would have also around that time. As always, thanks!

P.S. Love the weather board! Was it made of felt like the storyboards they use to teach us Bible stories in Sunday School?

The only people I recognize in this picture are Willie the Weatherman, Frank Ranicky, Anna Johnson, and maybe John Phipps (back row at right)

[blueheronNC]

Wow, Frank Ranicky leaving the anchor chair is mighty sad news for me. As someone who was born and raised in Tallahassee, Frank Ranicky is the very first person I ever remember seeing on TV as a child. I remember the name Ranicky even before becoming acquainted with Mr. Rogers and Big Bird. Now I've grown up and have a family of my own, and Ranicky was the one constant (besides family) through all the change. The state of the news industry and Tallahassee's pecking order on it probably means we'll never see another Ranicky - someone who forgoes opportunities in larger cities to stay in the small town he knows and loves to provide stability to a news team for 36 years.

Once again Tallahassee will have to give up something it used to have and will never have again. Being able to forge that personal connection with your newspersons - something those in larger cities do with regularity - is a privilege we won't any longer have. The talent that now goes through our revolving door will be nameless fleeting faces. I know some complain about Ranicky's folkiness, but to those of us Tallahasseeans who have called this place home for a good long while, he was the perfect embodiment of Tallahassee, its people, and its values.

So who is now left whom we can truly say represents the community rather than just reporting on it? I'd say Julie Montenaro and Art Myers. That's it. Hopefully Lee Gordon continues to grow into the role, and hopefully he has loyalty to Tallahassee to the extent that the "new team" can provide a new source of stability to the evening news desk for years to come.

I for one am glad that I will be visiting Tallahassee before Dec. 31st and can watch him one last time.

[blueheronNC]

With the real estate market the way it is, any chance WCTV can coax Gary Bartlett back to the anchor chair for the big show. He'd be a much-needed infusion of gravitas that would make Ranicky's departure seem less stark.

[poonther]

Oh boy, the WCTV Christmas Serpent is back and this year it's an albino. I think it ate the birds from last year.

[Beukeboom]

With the real estate market the way it is, any chance WCTV can coax Gary Bartlett back to the anchor chair for the big show. He'd be a much-needed infusion of gravitas that would make Ranicky's departure seem less stark.

With the Gray Comm. budget so tight it would not be surprising if they just didn't replace Frank and kept Julie as a solo anchor for the indefinite future.

[cowgirl]

The only people I recognize in this picture are Willie the Weatherman, Frank Ranicky, Anna Johnson, and maybe John Phipps (back row at right)

Back row-far right, is the late Frank Pepper who was an anchorman in the 60's/70's, other than those mentioned correctly above -I'm a little fuzzy on.

The weathermap would occasionally lose whatever sun or cloud was stuck to it during a newscast, which was always a hoot. real hi-tech stuff!

Some schools in Leon County were integrated as early as Fall of 1966. My first grade class (public school kindergarten did not exist then) at Hartsfield Elementary was one of the first schools to test it out. We didn't know what the fuss was about, we were all 'just kids' full of giggles and ready to learn.

[Pistol Pete]

I have been curious with WTXL's decision to have only a solo anchor for the 6 and 11 news, ever since Rex was moved to mornings (A good move I might add).

So my question is, will WTXL take the opportunity to seize the moment with Frank Ranicky retiring and try and find a good male anchor to sit in the chair and improve the ratings?

WTXL has been given a golden opportunity to finally make some headway, but the station continues to appear as if it doesn't care to improve.

What do you think?

Also, when do you think Rex will bolt?

Pistol Pete

Wow, Frank Ranicky leaving the anchor chair is mighty sad news for me. As someone who was born and raised in Tallahassee, Frank Ranicky is the very first person I ever remember seeing on TV as a child. I remember the name Ranicky even before becoming acquainted with Mr. Rogers and Big Bird. Now I've grown up and have a family of my own, and Ranicky was the one constant (besides family) through all the change. The state of the news industry and Tallahassee's pecking order on it probably means we'll never see another Ranicky - someone who forgoes opportunities in larger cities to stay in the small town he knows and loves to provide stability to a news team for 36 years.

Once again Tallahassee will have to give up something it used to have and will never have again. Being able to forge that personal connection with your newspersons - something those in larger cities do with regularity - is a privilege we won't any longer have. The talent that now goes through our revolving door will be nameless fleeting faces. I know some complain about Ranicky's folkiness, but to those of us Tallahasseeans who have called this place home for a good long while, he was the perfect embodiment of Tallahassee, its people, and its values.

So who is now left whom we can truly say represents the community rather than just reporting on it? I'd say Julie Montenaro and Art Myers. That's it. Hopefully Lee Gordon continues to grow into the role, and hopefully he has loyalty to Tallahassee to the extent that the "new team" can provide a new source of stability to the evening news desk for years to come.

I for one am glad that I will be visiting Tallahassee before Dec. 31st and can watch him one last time.

[Beukeboom]

I have been curious with WTXL's decision to have only a solo anchor for the 6 and 11 news, ever since Rex was moved to mornings (A good move I might add).

So my question is, will WTXL take the opportunity to seize the moment with Frank Ranicky retiring and try and find a good male anchor to sit in the chair and improve the ratings?

WTXL has been given a golden opportunity to finally make some headway, but the station continues to appear as if it doesn't care to improve.

What do you think?

Also, when do you think Rex will bolt?

Pistol Pete

I would seem that 27's problems run so deep due to WWSB mismanagement that it will probably be impossible for 27 to make much, if any, headway in the ratings gap between the two. In fact it is entirely possible and also probable that 27 will actually LOSE ground.