The news in local news these past months has been mostly behind the scenes.
Under new management, troubled WMAQ-Ch. 5 has finally severed its on-air ties to Jerry Springer, both as newsman and promoter of wrestling matches among the ethically challenged, and the station may need to install a revolving door to accommodate all the traffic in the personnel office.
Most prominent among those issued walking papers was Joel Cheatwood, who arrived some 15 months ago billed as a dark genius of television news and left as its court jester. As WMAQ’s vice president of news, Cheatwood oversaw an exodus of talent and viewers, sharp repudiation to those who claimed his tabloid-derived formulas, applied with success in Miami and Boston, could be exported nationwide.
As a result of the attempt to fix things at WMAQ, which began with radio executive Larry Wert taking over for Lyle Banks as general manager in January, popularity leader WLS-Ch. 7 has had to withstand a raid of some of its key backstage talent by WMAQ.
And management at WBBM-Ch. 2 must be asking itself how long it can go with an on-air lineup that does not appear to be capturing the attention of Chicago. With WBBM remaining firmly in third place, the three major-network stations all saw their viewership levels for the marquee 10 p.m. newscasts during May sweeps decline from the previous May.
In light of such turmoil, the producers of the city’s 9 p.m. broadcasts, WGN-Ch. 9 and WFLD-Ch. 32, should probably count their blessings that things have been relatively quiet for them. At upstart, news oriented CLTV, meanwhile, there is a rare opportunity to find viewership. Sports fans may be whining about the expanded Cubs schedule on the cable station this summer, but it does mean large numbers of viewers will be tuned in from time to time. The challenge is for the station to convince those viewers to give its newscasts a shot.
With all this in the air, it seemed a propitious time to take a look at one night’s main news programs on the six providers.
Tuesday’s news menu included a Chicago police shakeup, the death of the first baby beluga whale born at the Shedd Aquarium and the amputation of an ice cream truck driver’s foot after some undersocialized dullard tossed an explosive into his truck. More important to TV news, it saw a big fire in an easy-to-reach location.
All except one of the city’s six English-language TV-news providers led their broadcasts with the blaze in a hospital parking garage. Big story, right?
“This was a fire with the look and sound of a killer,” panted WMAQ’s Nesita Kwan. “Amazingly,” she added, “no one was hurt, although some people were seriously inconvenienced.”
The inconveniencing blaze, news of which would run on page 3 of Wednesday’s Tribune metro section, injured only some firefighters, in a minor way, and 40-plus cars, more profoundly. Sometimes smoke and fire still don’t equal news. But it started after 4 p.m., satisfying the late news demand for something recent, and it offered flames and charred cars aplenty, satisfying the even more intense demand for interesting video.
The station that did not lead with the fire was CLTV (a Tribune corporate partner), which showed almost epic restraint in placing it second.
The mostly-news cable channel began its 11 p.m. newscast with a report on a town meeting in embattled Cicero. For context on the suburb’s chronicle of woes, though, you had to go elsewhere, especially to the report of WLS’ Andy Shaw, who hustled to talk to the town’s fired top cops at a public appearance earlier in the day, and WBBM’s Carol Marin, who had more details on an insurance company charged with overbilling Cicero.
At WMAQ, Cheatwood may be gone, but some of his “innovations” and earmarks remain. The meaningless label “Data Center” can still be seen over a section of the newsroom. A helicopter is still called a “jetcopter.” And his replacement, Phyllis Schwartz from WLS, has yet to make changes in key on-air talent.
On the other hand, Schwartz, and news director Frank Whittaker, also hired from WLS, have apparently resurrected able WMAQ veterans Dick Kay and Phil Walters. They appear now on the 10 p.m. news again after they had been relegated to early-evening exile under Cheatwood. And it appears, based on Tuesday’s effort, that Cheatwood’s very silly “Night Team” designation, meaning “reporters who work at night,” has been dropped, while “Target 5,” the name for the consumer investigative unit, also has been resurrected. (Lisa Parker Tuesday had a decent Target 5 piece on the apparent fiscal perils of using the 10-321 discount phone service John Lithgow touts.)
Over at WLS, Schwartz’s departure from the news director post has led to no discernible decline in the quality of the news product. The station had exclusive 911-call tape concerning the boy who died of gunshot wounds after awaiting treatment outside Ravenswood Hospital, and it had a follow-up to its own story on a woman who died after Highland Park Hospital sent her elsewhere for treatment.
One of the nice things Tuesday was to see Ron Magers, filling in for John Drury, back in the 10 p.m. anchor chair. Longtime WMAQ symbol Magers is clearly the most polished anchor in town; a newscast instantly plays several levels smarter and more authoritative with him at the helm. The fact that he is now at WLS, and seems to fit in there, is only one of the most obvious signs of how much flux is in the air in Chicago television news.
