Houston Sports Anchor Says He's Gone from the Station

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Houston Sports Anchor Says He's Gone from the Station

Longtime KTRK Sports Anchor Tim Melton suffered a stroke back in October 2011, yesterday he that his contract with KTRK has expired and that he is no longer with the station.

Melton, who joined the station in 1981, said he continues to recover and hopes to return to the air but is not yet prepared to do so.

“I can do a lot of things, but not everything the job requires,” Melton said. “I still hope to get back on the air. That’s always been my plan. The problem is that you never know how things are going to play out, and while the recovery process has been good, it has taken longer than I would have imagined.”

MOre after the jump  ​

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Big Easy Station to Dump Newscast

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Big Easy Station to Dump Newscast

Starting Monday, WWL will scrap the 9 p.m. weeknight newscast it has produced for sister station WUPL and will launch “The 504,” a new interview-focused show hosted by Melanie Hebert, in its place. The show will be recorded each morning so Hebert can continue her role on WWL’s morning-news block.

“I think we’re looking for a chance to do something original, and that would allow us to have a little bit more depth,” said Bill Siegel, WWL’s news director. “It can be a wide range of topics. One night, we might do a half-hour on Orleans Parish Prison. Another night, we might do education (or) Jazz Fest.

Read more after the hop  ​

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O-Town Ratings Race Will be a Nail Biter

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O-Town Ratings Race Will be a Nail Biter

As we enter into the very important May ​Book, one ratings race that promises to be a close one is in the Orlando Market.

Just look at the numbers from April and you can see just how close it is.​

April ratings show how tight the race for Central Florida viewers has become and how the competition is challenging longtime leader WFTV-Channel 9.

In the April ratings period that ended Wednesday, WESH-Channel 2 and WOFL-Channel 35 overtook WFTV in the 5 p.m. half-hour. 

More after the bounce ​

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Gawker Refuses Judges Order to Take Down Sex Tape Post

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hogan-sex-tape-web.jpg

Gawker is defying a Florida Judge's ​order to take down a post about the Hulk Hogan sex tape on their website.

Gawker writes that Yesterday the Hon. Pamela A.M. Campbell, a circuit court judge in Pinellas County, Fla., issued an order compelling Gawker to remove from the internet a video of Hulk Hogan fucking his friend's ex-wife, as well as a 1,400-word narrative of the video written by former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio and 466 user-submitted comments. Here is why we are refusing to comply.

More from Gawker ​

Poll Shows CNN Least Believable with Bombing Coverage

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Poll Shows CNN Least Believable with Bombing Coverage

A poll finds that CNN lost much of their credibility while covering the the Boston Marathon bombings.​

In a poll conducted by the Huffington Post and YouGov twenty-one percent of respondents rated CNN's coverage of the events as either "not very believable" or "not at all believable" -- a higher percentage than any other cable or broadcast news network. And among those who said that the media as a whole behaved irresponsibly in its coverage, 47 percent said CNN was either not very or not at all believable -- more than any other organization.

More after the bounce  ​

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"Special Message" for Ratings

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"Special Message" for Ratings

As we pointed out, Today is the first day of the May Book, so it's the time for TV Anchors to air their illnesses, dirty laundry or whatever else they need to say.​

Because of course it's all about them.​

Let's head to Atlanta and WAGA Fox 5.

Viewers maybe wondering what's up with long-time Fox 5 anchor Amanda Davis? Or maybe they have really just forgot about her entirely.

For the first since her arrest for an alleged DUI last November, she is finally going to speak in what Fox 5 is touting is a "special message" at 10 p.m. Thursday.

What she will be able to say specifically about her legal case?

More after the bounce  ​

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Fired F-Bomb Anchor Continues Magic Carpet Ride

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Fired F-Bomb Anchor Continues Magic Carpet Ride

FTVLive continues to shake our head over how an anchor that never should have been put on the air in the first place, is being booked all over national TV.​

It says a lot about TV now-a-days.​

A.J. Clemente's TV anchor career blow up ​in the first 10 seconds of his first show. Clemente opened the newscast for Bismarck's NBC affiliate KFYR by saying "Fuckin' Shit".

He was abruptly fired for violation FCC rules and basically for not having a clue as to what he was doing.

But, thanks to YouTube, Clemente's awful anchoring went viral and because today's television doesn't do anything that isn't on the Internet first, the talk shows lined up to book the foul mouth ex-anchor.​

He did the Today Show, Live with Kelly and Michael and Letterman. ​

More plus how Letterman tried to get him his old job back after the jump  ​

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Former Norfolk Anchor: I Didn't Quit TV, I Quit Life

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Former Norfolk Anchor: I Didn't Quit TV, I Quit Life

The May Sweeps is getting ready to start and it's time for anchors and former anchors to disclose their illness and or other battles, because of course it really is all about them.​

First up, former WTKR Anchor Les Smith.​

Smith was the longtime anchor at the station until he disappeared from the airwaves without explanation. No one knew why. One day he just didn’t come back to work.

“I didn’t quit the news business; I quit life,” says Smith.

“I ended up in a hospital in NYC, where I was working, and I really wanted to die. I was trying to die, because I was that depressed. I didn’t want to go on anymore,” says Smith.

Les was pulled back from the brink of self-destruction and now he sits down with his old station on the first day of the May book. 

The video and more after the jump  ​

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CNN Let's Ex-Ricin Suspect Sing a Little Randy Travis

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CNN Let's Ex-Ricin Suspect Sing a Little Randy Travis

Maybe this was CNN's way of saying sorry.

Jake Tapper had Paul Kevin Curtis on his show. Curtis is the Elvis impersonator that was accused of sending ricin-laden letters to President Obama and others, until all the  charges dropped.

Federal authorities said they'd found "new information", and Curtis was free to go.

No one was happier with that news than Curtis. He went on Tapper's show to express his excitement and relief.

After a boring interview in which he basically said he's hoping to parlay his poisoning charges into a life of celebrity, Tapper then asked Curtis if he wanted to do one of his impersonations?

Curtis he wanted to sound like Randy Travis and broke out into tune. Since we personally have no a frickin clue what Randy Travis sounds like, we'll let you be the judge how he did.

Oh! And remember this is CNN...

The video after the bounce ​

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TV Captioner Regrets Naming Zooey Deschanel a Boston Bombing Suspect

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TV Captioner Regrets Naming Zooey Deschanel a Boston Bombing Suspect

Toward the end of last Friday's manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, actress Zooey Deschanel suddenly found herself being named as a possible accomplice on live TV.

Surprisingly ​the mistake was not made by CNN, but instead by a smart ass employee of the Kansas-based TV captioning service Caption Solutions, which was providing real-time closed captioning for the Dallas-Fort Worth Fox network affiliate KDFW.

In the midst of KDFW's coverage, viewers suddenly noticed Deschanel's name running along the lower-third of their screen, and quickly began circulating a capture of the entertaining gaffe.

​What the caption company had to say about this, after the skip 

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NBC Looking Outside 30 Rock for Next News President

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NBC Looking Outside 30 Rock for Next News President

NBC has been without a News President ever since they pushed Steve Capus out the door.​

But, it looks like the Peacock might be doing the wise move and looking to fill the job with someone outside 30 Rock.​

Among the more interesting names to surface as a successor to Capus is Deborah Turness (pictured), the news editor for Britain's ITV Network. People close to the search said NBC News Chairman Pat Fili-Krushel is intrigued by Turness.

​Turness is the latest executive to emerge as a potential Capus successor. There were also brief talks with Jon Banner, the former senior executive producer of ABC's "World News Tonight," about taking the post. Banner is now a senior vice president of global strategy and planning for PepsiCo Inc. and told NBC he was happy there, two people with knowledge of the situation said.

Another name that has been discussed inside NBC is CBS News President David Rhodes. However, Rhodes is also under contract and not seen as available.

More after the hop  ​

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The Today Show Wanted to Swipe Robin Roberts

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The Today Show Wanted to Swipe Robin Roberts

As NY Times Reporter Brian Stelter continues his book tour, he dropped another juicy tid-bit.

NBC's Today Show was looking to steal Robin Roberts away from Good Morning America.

“NBC had done a lot of research about Robin Roberts and they found she is by far the most popular female morning show host,” Stelter said about the plot in a recent interview.

“One person in a focus groups told me,  ‘Robin can do no wrong.’”

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Nexstar, Mission By 19 Stations

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Nexstar, Mission By 19 Stations

2013 is shaping up to be the year of the TV station sale.

​The station buying spree continues, Nexstar Broadcasting Group said today that its long-rumored acquisition of Communications Corp. of America is indeed a fact.

The Irving, Texas-based station group said today that it and duopoly partner Mission Broadcasting have agreed to pay $270 million to CCA and its duopoly partner, White Knight Broadcasting, for 19 stations in 10 markets.

So that Nexstar can operate duopolies in seven of the markets in compliance with local FCC ownership limits, Mission will hold the licenses of eight of the stations.

Mora after the hop  ​


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This is Soooooo Wrong

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This is Soooooo Wrong

​What the hell has gone wrong with a world when a rookie anchor violates FCC rules by being totally unprofessional, dropping the F-Bomb and getting more pub than all the hard working anchors out there?

If you're an anchor in a small market, quit the hard work, quit the long hours and just strip naked on the air and throw down as many cuss words as you can.

FTVLive told you that A.J. Clemente the Fired anchor from BumFuck, ND...was on the Today Show.​

Now look where he's headed?

Find out after the hop ​

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Bumped up in St. Louis

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Bumped up in St. Louis

It's now official: After a couple of months of "filling in," Steve Savard is now the co-anchor of the 10 p.m. newscast at KMOV in St. Louis.

Savard has been chairing that show with Sharon Reed since February, when Larry Conners took some time off for medical reasons.

Savard said in a Facebook posting Tuesday, "And thanks to everyone who has been so supportive and receptive in my transition from Sports Director to News Anchor."

More after the leap  
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How does this Happen

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How does this Happen

An anchor goes on the air for his first show. The first words out of his mouth are "Fuckin' Shit."​

By the end of the week, he's sitting on the Today Show set reading a story and talking to Matt Lauer and Savannah ​Guthrie. 

Only in TV!​

A.J. Clemente is the Bismarck anchor that muttered those words on NBC affiliate KFYR. That job didn’t last very long, as Clemente was quickly fired.

“Gut-wrenching” was how Clemente described the mistake, noting that he wasn’t aware that he’d uttered those words on camera until the third break. 

Clemente, who was in the TV business for about a half hour says “You’ve got to have a tough skin in this business.”

The video after the jump

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