WDIV News LIVE Studio

[DetroitPlanner]

With 3 local stations producing news, there is room for more than one downtown studio.

No love for WTVS, Channel 20 or Jim Maddus on WWJ 62?

[313WX]

Applaud the spirit of this idea.

I think it would really work out well if, over the years, Detroit TV production wasn't gutted. I'm imaging what Kelly and Co. would have looked like with this type of approach.

However, 2, 4 and 7 have a lot of work to do. All three are really weak when it comes to providing content. Folks like Walker are irritating at best -- I don't know whose idea it was to bring someone in to coach 4's talking heads in their cadence and enunciation but it really sucks and they should loose their job. Friggin' Podell is like nails on a chalk board now. These late morning local shows look forced, have ZERO chemistry and lack quality content.



Bring up production quality and folks other than Richard swingers will be outside the window waving at Mom back home in Bloomfield Hills. Until then, let's just sit back and watch the 4th Estate in this town slowly crash and burn ....

Metro Detroit's no longer the top 5 market it was when Kelly & Co., Soupy Sales and Sir Ghastly Graves were on the air and the talents of Bill Bonds [[who was recruited to substitute for Peter Jennings on ABC World News back in the 1970s) and Mort Crim were at the anchor desk.

[gthomas]

Good idea!! Too bad the new building that will be built on the Monroe Block has not taken this into consideration. There could be a studio over looking Campus Martius like Columbus Circle in New York City.

I've always loved this building, great example. We have so much potential but lack of creative minds in this region. We need to step our game up.

[DetroitPlanner]

Metro Detroit's no longer the top 5 market it was when Kelly & Co., Soupy Sales and Sir Ghastly Graves were on the air and the talents of Bill Bonds [[who was recruited to substitute for Peter Jennings on ABC World News back in the 1970s) and Mort Crim were at the anchor desk.

Thats nothing, Bill Bonds was in the Planet of the Apes movies! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFDh9-v7wiw

[downtownguy]

Good idea!! Too bad the new building that will be built on the Monroe Block has not taken this into consideration. There could be a studio over looking Campus Martius like Columbus Circle in New York City.

In fact, WTVS/Channel 56 was considering a site on Campus Martius when they were facing the digital upgrades. The former Hudson's Warehouse in Ford Field was another location. But they went for Wixom instead.

[Gistok]

I had always thought that it was because former President Steve Antoniotti lived out in the burbs, but that's only part of it....

They also picked Wixom because the owner of the studios they are now in, donated half of the building's cost to the station....

[DetroitPlanner]

I had always thought that it was because former President Steve Antoniotti lived out in the burbs, but that's only part of it....

They also picked Wixom because the owner of the studios they are now in, donated half of the building's cost to the station....

To expand,

The building they are in was originally a small manufacturer/technology company. It was Riley Clover Technologies owned by an irish family. When the company went out of business, the building was donated to TVS. The only reason I mention that it was an irish family was because the building retains its shamrocks and is called Reilly broadcast center. http://www.dptv.org/support/georgeriley.shtml

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

No love for WTVS, Channel 20 or Jim Maddus on WWJ 62?

None of these stations has a significant daily commitment to live broadcasting like the other 3 do. Of course, I'd still love to have 'em downtown. I am still a little peeved at 50/62 for canning Amyre Makupson [[I know, they ended newscasting, not specifically firing her). She was a top notch broadcaster. I am still surprised another station didn't scoop her up.

[NickM]

I believe there's a chance this could happen but it'd be so expensive. The only reason networks in Chicago and New York could do it is because they're owned and operated by their networks, NBC, ABC etc. and they take the bill. but the one thing I wish was that ABC didn't sell off our ABC 7. It was one of the original owned and operated by ABC. It's rare but if population increased enough id love to see our stations be given back to their parent companies. The only one O&O is Fox 2 as of now.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

I believe there's a chance this could happen but it'd be so expensive. The only reason networks in Chicago and New York could do it is because they're owned and operated by their networks, NBC, ABC etc. and they take the bill. but the one thing I wish was that ABC didn't sell off our ABC 7. It was one of the original owned and operated by ABC. It's rare but if population increased enough id love to see our stations be given back to their parent companies. The only one O&O is Fox 2 as of now.

The FCC limits the amount of stations the can be owned [[not by number, but by percentage of US households reached), which puts a crimp in the plans to have the networks acquire more stations [[although NBC & ABC are currently under the cap). I kind of like not having the networks own 4 & 7. Stations owned by the same station group tend to be nearly identical in programming and style/quantity/quality of news production. Fox 2 is more similar to Fox 5 in NY or DC than 4 or 7 are to their sister stations. The networks- at least for the last 10 years- have been about downsizing the operations of their O&O stations, not investing in them. The exceptions to that are Fox [[where is many big markets they have added early evening newscasts) and CBS where in NY & LA they are putting back together news operations that had been badly slashed years earlier [[ask Bernie Smilozitz about that). The cost is the biggest reason not to move the stations. The tech requirements vastly increase the cost of just moving an office. But I think network honchos would be less inclined than other owners to do that. When the Today Show became the modern pioneer of "window" studios, it was imitated in other places, with the hope or expectation that crowds would throng to new studios. That has largely not panned out. I think the reason to open downtown "visible" studios is to tie them into the community, making them stand out, and having a live view on the pulse of the city. It should be noted that the Today Show gets poor ratings in NY, finishing always way behind GMA and usually behind the local Good Day, NY on Fox 5. It's tourists who visit the Today Show in NY, not locals.