Channel 7

Reporters in the rain

adamg — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:46:03 +0000

Includes the now infamous death-defying rescue of a Channel 7 reporter's hat from the angry seas in Marion Harbor.

It's not 1979 and Carson Beach isn't the Bronx

adamg — Tue, 31 May 2011 12:03:36 +0000

Anne Allred at Channel 7 tweeted this morning:

1,000 teens show up on Carson Beach to watch rival gangs fight. I just can't get over that.

Really? Word got out on the street a major showdown was on and everybody dropped what they were doing and rushed right over to Carson Beach?

I don't buy it. There is no Cyrus of Boston gangs Pied Pipering everybody to a war council.

So why would 1,000 teens show up at Carson Beach? Because it was hot. And a holiday. And you can get there by subway.

Were there troublemakers getting into fights? Yes. Did a lot of the kids stand around and watch? You bet. Does Boston have a gang problem? Yes.

But when some moron runs onto the field at Fenway, we don't accuse all 35,000 people in the stands of being complicit, even though a lot of them are cheering him on. We shouldn't demonize every last person on that beach yesterday. Where is the outrage about the two young men who were shot to death and the four others who survived getting shot over the weekend?

There's a reason our on-air talent starts out in smaller markets

adamg — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:43:22 +0000

Let's them work the kinks out. Here's Channel 7's Matt Lorch from his days at KHQA in Quincy, IL:

Via Deadspin.

Plow drivers are being mean to Pete Bouchard

adamg — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 03:31:18 +0000

After the computer models changed, again, and weatherfolks said we were no longer facing another perfect storm, the Channel 7 weatherman tweeted:

Let's see ... been called a moron, goat, loser ... all in one night. (Plow guys are a little bugged.) And winter hasn't even started!

Channel 7's response to Pete Bouchard video no laughing matter

adamg — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:31:43 +0000

Justin Silverman discusses the legal banhammer Channel 7 is using to try to remove every last copy of the infamous Pete Bouchard measurement video - the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act:

... Under the DMCA's safe harbor provisions, websites are protected from copyright liability for hosting videos posted by users so long as they promptly remove the infringing material when notified by the copyright holder. WHDH didn't want its weatherman creating a storm, so as the copyright owner of the news program it could request that YouTube pull the video from its site.

The DMCA's notice-and-takedown mechanism puts the onus on the individual who posted the material to send a counter-notice asking that the material be put back up and usually raising some defense to copyright infringement, such as fair use. In this case there's a fairly strong argument that the 27-second clip of Bouchard is fair. The amount of the original broadcast used is very small, the purpose of the clip is to spur public discussion, and there is arguably no effect on WHDH's news market. It's likely WHDH either didn't consider fair use before ordering the clip's takedown, or it simply didn't care.

He notes there's currently a YouTube fair-use case in federal court.

Somebody's giving Pete Bouchard a hard time

adamg — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:21:55 +0000

California Fire News tries to get a rise out of Our Pete with this message on Twitter:

Boston weatherman Pete Bouchard we wish you well in your new endeavors at WalMart

Pete refuses to swallow the bait:

Stick to the flooding and fires folks.

Earlier:
In case you missed it.

Channel 7: Bouchard wasn't boasting

adamg — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:40:18 +0000

The Herald catches up with Channel 7's general manager, who says what appeared to be a Magnum moment was actually Bouchard getting tripped up by a technical glitch:

... "It clearly wasn't intended the way people are portraying it," Wayland said. ...

Is that a weather map in Pete Bouchard's pocket, or is he just glad to see us?

adamg — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:41:16 +0000

UPDATE: YouTube has taken down the clip because of a "copyright claim" from Channel 7. Fail Blog still has it up, link in the comments, but in case it disappears from there, it's a capture of Bouchard talking about snow totals on Jan. 18. He points to a listing for Princeton and says "the biggest amount that I could find, almost as big as me, about nine inches." And then he glances off to the side, as if he's expecting a giant hook to come pull him off the set.

Pete Bouchard puts together a pretty impressive weather package:

Via Wicked Gay Blog.

Best weather forecast of the year

adamg — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:30:43 +0000

As I type this, Channel 7 STORM FORCE warns:

Light snow will literally materialize overhead this evening.

Now that is scary stuff! Why can't we just have some nice figurative snow, materializing right on the ground?

Channel 7 reporter learns what happens when you stand on the beach at high tide during a storm

adamg — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:22:27 +0000

We're still waiting for the day when a reporter is swept out to sea, though:

Via Jessica Heslam.

Web-site news: whdh.com gets a makeover; Libertarians set up a Mass. Group

adamg — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:17:05 +0000

New at 7The tabloid-news station ports a much cleaner look this week, no doubt in preparation for the impending landing of NBC Boston, which will compete with its own affiliate because, well, you know about Ed Ansin and Jay Leno and all that stuff. Interestingly, they seem to be downplaying their on-air personalities: Old at 7No more pictures of Kim and Frances right at the top - and the toolbar puts the "Flu Team" ahead of the "News Team." They're enabling comments on news stories (hmm, will they get a different brand of commenters than, say, the Herald?) and getting all socialish, with Twitter and Facebook badges all over.

Meanwhile, there's a new addition to the local political blogowhatchamacallit.

Channel 7 now six times worse

adamg — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:02:23 +0000

Rob Sama is one of those outliers who still relies on a traditional antenna to pull in TV. So he was surprised to discover that Channel 7 is moving to Channel 42:

... None of this bothered me terribly, except for the fact that I now had to reprogram my DVR to record off of 42 instead of 7. But it also seems as if at the same time they made this announcement, they turned down the signal strength on channel 42, so that now it doesn't come in smoothly like it used to, but cuts out periodically, making NBC basically unwatchable. ...

NBC might be getting ready to compete with its own affiliate online

adamg — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:52:34 +0000

Interesting: Max Slocum talks to the folks at NBC affiliate WHDH and reports they have nothing to do with the brand-new local news site that NBC is building for Boston and, in fact, have no intentions of shutting down their existing whdh.com. Slocum adds NBC officials declined to comment.

You might recall there's little love lost between NBC and Channel 7 - the former threatened to pull the latter's affiliation when it seemed it wouldn't run Jay Leno's 10 p.m. show.

nbcboston.com is registered to General Electric, i.e., NBC, although there's no site there yet.

NBC looks to take on boston.com

adamg — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:21:54 +0000

UPDATE: Could be that NBC is going to compete with its own affiliate rather than revamp the Channel 7 site.

Looks like a major overhaul is coming for Channel 7's Web site. NBC Local is advertising for a city editor for an entirely new Web site that will look something like this:

News you can use: Channel 7 warns illegal fireworks can kill you

adamg — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:40:32 +0000

But just in case, keep a bucket of water handy.