Today's News 12.30.09

Time Warner Cable rates going up [WTEN]

THE DECADE FROM HELL [WRGB]

Soldiers sue over alleged toxic exposure [NBC Nightly News]

Did the digital decade make us impatient? [NBC Nightly News]

A Local Look Back at the Decade That Was Pt.1 [WRGB]

A Local Look Back at the Decade That Was Pt.2 [WRGB]

Toll Hikes for the New Year [WRGB]

Promising new job outlook for 2010 [WNYT]

Today's News: 12.29.09

Baby & mom brought back from death [KOAA]

Saved By The Badge [NBC NEWS]

Moving Movie Seats [NBC NEWS]

The Wildest and Wackiest pictures of the year [NBC NEWS]

Local entrepreneur introduces NEWS10 to her award-winning hot sauce [WTEN]

Audio of Obama's speech [MSNBC]

Pine Hills burglars break in during school break [WTEN]

What are you saying 'Good Riddance' to in 2009? [WRGB]

Obama blames 'systemic failure' for bomb attempt [NBC Nightly News]

Security turns air travel into space odyssey [NBC Nightly News]

Lake Champlain Bridge demolished: The Lake Champlain Bridge has been demolished [Capital News 9]

Afghanistan army flunks Pentagon report card
[NBC Nightly News]

A fond farewell: Notable deaths of 2009 [NBC Nightly News]

Christmas Day TV

This Friday is Christmas, and nothing says Merry Christmas more then watching television, with –or without your family. Here’s a look at what’s airing on local Capital Region channels, as well as what movies will be airing on cable.

Local Channels:
WRGB/CBS6 will be airing Melodies of Christmas at noon and 5pm, meaning there will only be a local 6:30pm newscast on CBS6. At 1:30 CBS6 will be airing An All Dogs Christmas Carol.

On WTEN, The Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade will be seen at 10am. There will be no local evening news on WTEN, because of basketball, starting at 2:00pm with the Boston Celtics at Orlando. Then at 5pm the Cleveland Cavaliers will play the Los Angeles Lakers. World News will air at 7:30pm. ABC will be airing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at 8pm.

On WNYT there will be no morning newscasts, which is smart because who is up at 5am Christmas morning. Scratch that, who is up at 5am to watch the news. At 5am WNYT will air Christmas Mass from the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. At 6am WNYT will air Happy Holidays America. There will be no newscast or Friends on WNYT, as the Northway Fellowship Church Special will air starting at noon. Starting at 3pm, NBC will air a Skating Special: Improv On Ice. Oprah will air at 5pm, which means there will be no 5pm newscast; only a half hour 6pm newscast on WNYT. At 8pm NBC will air SNL Presents A Very Gilly Christmas.

On WCWN, the Capital Region’s CW will air the Northway Fellowship Church Special at 8am and noon. The CW has CBS6 News scheduled at 9am, however I have a feeling that my not be a live newscast, but a re-air of Jerry Gretzinger‘s Take A Break Special that aired on Thanksgiving. At 9:30am and 6:30pm Melodies of Christmas will air. The Holiday River Parade will air at 11am. At 9pm the CW will air Grandma got Run over by a Reindeer.

(The above listings come from online guides, and are subject to change.)

Christmas Movies: The following is just a sampling of what Christmas movies will air Christmas night.

TBS:
A Christmas Story Marathon will air all day.

AMC:
5:45pm: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

FX:
7:30pm: Home Alone
9:30: Deck the Halls

USA:
8pm: Elf

Disney Channel:
6:45pm: Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas
8:05pm: Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas
ABC Family:
4:00pm: Miracle on 34th Street

In Case you missed it: Christmas Edition...

Christmas is one week away, and already there have been some great storiesand I wanted to make sure you didn't miss any of them.

Wierd:
A deer with lights tangled in his antlers, a drunken Santa and even a drunk 4 year old, that stole presents (story here from NewsChannel 9 ) are just some odd stories making the rounds this Christmas season.

Keep Christ in Christmas!
First this, from Ashland Oregon. A school takes a Christmas Tree down and replaces it with snowmen, thinking they are doing the 'right' thing, only to have the parents complain...forcing them to put the tree back up. NewsWatch12, kdrv.com has the story.

Now to Kokomo Indian, where there's no sign of a baby Jesus, but plenty of dinosaurs, whales and fire trucks. The Indy Channel has more here, as does FOX59 here.

Deck the Halls!
NBC DFW has the story of a women who starts to decorate her house for Christmas as early as July. Take a look at some pictures here, or watch the story here.

Then there's this, from NBC Houston, a women has turned her car into a snow globe, yes a snow globe. Watch the story here.

The Capital Region's News Leader is....

The ratings for the Albany, NY television market came out yesterday. And, WNYT, who is arguing the ratings results, is apparently being pushed down a cliff by High Definition, Lydia Kulbida, and advocacy journalism. The ratings only represent one month –November, and because of that it’s important not to look too much into them.

It is not as clear cut, to me, as who exactly won the November ratings. WTEN won the (what is to me) the biggest, most important time -6pm. But, WRGB won 5:00, 5:30 and 11:00 news times. There are some reasons that people, including myself, have pointed to; to explain why WRGB is doing so much better then WNYT.

First, CBS is the most watched television network. Fact. And WRGB is a CBS affiliate. Because of this they have a better lead in then the mess that is Jay Leno at 10pm on NBC/WNYT. Every NBC station seems to be hurting because of Jay Leno. Back to WRGB, they have decided to broadcast in High Definition; which, according to many of the comments on the Times Union Business Blog, is the sole reason why some people watch CBS6 News. Another reason WRGB may have won at 5:00 and not 6:00 is because of the anchors. Liz Bishop is a staple in the Capital Region, and Dori Marlin is not. The fact that WRGB hired Dori and put her at 6:00, and moved Liz to 5:00, may be the reason people are turning away from CBS6 at 6:00.

Comments on the Times Union Business Blog also talk about the lead-ins for the 5:00pm newscasts. While I do not know who exactly is winning –Oprah or Ellen– at 4:00, it would appear that people are sick of Oprah, and are turning to the always exciting Ellen at 4:00, this maybe another reason CBS6 winning at 5:00.

The fact that WTEN won at 6:00 is still quit befalling. Because, I thought, many people got air sickness from the flight of the anchors, from Elisa at the desk, Steve at the monitor, and Christina in the newsroom. However, maybe people watching are getting use to it. Or maybe it has something to do with Lydia Kulbida working at WTEN. While she does not host the 6pm newscast, she does report for it. Another factor could be that WTEN has the region's best meteorologist, Steve Caporizzo.

So why did WNYT do so badly? Well we’ve already blamed Jay Leno, and the fact that Lydia Kulbida was fired. But, perhaps it’s the stale newscasts? Yes, the set that WNYT has had sense the 90s, the fact that they don’t dig deeper like CBS6 does, and the overabundance of national –not to mention world news on a supposed local newscast. These reasons along with the poor Leno-lead in and Kulbida’s firing have undoubtedly lead to WNYT’s demise.

Again, it’s only one ratings period. So things may change. And they probably will. Oprah is leaving daytime TV, leading who to lead into “Live at 5,” Sarah Palin? Perhaps, now that Comcast has bought NBC, the channel will start to resemble more of its cable channels (USA, SyFy, etc), get ride of leno at 10 and become a stronger network for WNYT.

Christmas Eve TV

This Thursday is Christmas Eve, and nothing says Merry Christmas more then watching television, with –or without your family. Here’s a look at what’s airing on local Capital Region channels, as well as what movies will be airing on cable.

In Albany, you can enjoy the first airing of Melodies of Christmas, at 5pm, then again at 7:30pm on WRGB. At 8pm you can catch an airing of the classic It’s A Wonderful Life, on WNYT. Or catch Disney’s made for ABC 30-minute animated movie Prep and Landing. If you haven’t watched enough parades this Christmas season then WNYA (MY4-Channel 4) is where you’ll want to be at 8pm; they are airing the Hollywood Christmas Parade, which was held on November 29th in Los Angeles.

After the late local news (at 11:35pm), WNYT and WRGB will air Christmas mass. WNYT will air Christmas Eve at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. And, WRGB will air Christmas at the Cathedral Beacon of Hope.

Christmas Eve on Cable has some great Christmas movies! Here is just some of what’s on:

FX:
4:30pm Christmas with the Kranks

AMC:
A White Christmas (all day starting at 9am)

TBS:
8pm: A Christmas Story (24 hour marathon)

The Disney Channel:
4:00pm: Santa Claus I
5:50pm: Santa Claus II
7:45pm: Santa Claus III

ABC Family: Movies all day. For more information, click here.