Cleveland’s Best News Anchors

In the past, I’ve rated Cleveland’s morning news shows, weather forecasters, and the stations’ web sites. But it’s time to get down to business and talk about the best news anchors in town. It’s a short list, divided mostly between two stations, WKYC Channel 3, and WJW Fox 8. Viewers may think that news anchors are only as good as the copy they are given and their ability to read a teleprompter, but it is more that that. There has to be a certain “something” that an anchor has in order to keep viewers tuned in. After all, the news content is the virtually the same for every channel.



Image WKYC
Cleveland’s Best News Anchor - P.M.
Romona Robinson, WKYC Channel 3

I started writing this blog yesterday – in my head – as I was tuned in to the 6:00 PM news, watching Romona Robinson. I found myself wondering what must be going through her head, sitting up there doing the news all by herself, since Tim White left the station. In fact, it stuck in my mind so much I had a dream last night that Romona was complaining to me that she was worried she wasn’t doing very well. I’m here to tell her, and all my other readers, that Romona is doing a great job sitting in the big chair all by herself. Frankly, while I enjoyed Tim White, I always felt that Romona was the star of this newscast.

Romona delivers the news in a very deliberate, no-nonsense way. She maintains a professional demeanor, and even when a humorous moment breaks out, she still maintains her poise. But for the most part, Romona is all business while she is delivering the news, and her steady style can be calming even when the news isn’t all that good. She also isn’t one prone to overly editorialize about the news she’s delivering, a habit of which many other anchors suffer. When I turn on the evening newscasts, I want the news and I want it quick and to the point, and Romona fits that bill perfectly. While I do not know Romona, she seems to be a class act. And that’s the kind of personality a station should want in the anchor chair.


PM Runners Up
Bill Martin and Stacy Bell, WJW Fox 8

Bill Martin and Stacy Bell may actually have the best chemistry of any anchor team in town. They deliver the news in a crisp, yet light manner. Their best trait as team is their witty dialog between stories, with Stacy often looking at Bill with half condescension and the other half disdain, while Bill looks back at Stacy like she’s got a few screws loose. It’s almost like a married couple. But they know when it’s right to be serious and when it’s OK to take a jab at each other. Why didn’t I make them #1? It’s because viewers can’t always rely on one or both of them to be doing the news when they tune in to watch. It’s so bad that Bill Martin is often ribbed on-air by his co-anchors and letters from fans about his frequent absences. Of course, Stacy has missed her share of time as well. At first blush it sounds funny, but trust me, it really does annoy the viewers when they turn on their news and get stand-ins more than they get the leads. Still, when Bill and Stacy are both on the air, viewers are guaranteed a good dose of the news with some entertaining levity mixed in. It's a real treat.


Cleveland's Best News Anchors - A.M.
Wayne Dawson and Tracy McCool, WJW Fox 8

Despite the fact that they make sure that their on-air clothing matches each other, one may think that this is the biggest mismatch of anchors in town. Wayne Dawson sometimes seems too stuffy and Tracy McCool sometimes seems a little too cheerful. But, over the years, this has formed a perfect balance for the delivery of the morning news, with a fast pace that gets you up and gets you going. They seem very comfortable working together, and that can make even the most hurried morning rush seem a little more calming. Some of their best moments, though, are unscripted and impromptu. For example, in a perfect example of teamwork, in this video below, Wayne steps in to save the day when Tracy loses her “McCool” while reading a news story that is too funny for her to handle.

Tracy Loses her McCool On Air



AM Runner Up
Mark Nolan– WKYC Channel 3

Mark Nolan took over the morning anchor desk at WKYC Channel 3 a little over a year ago. The role fits him well, much better than his previous role of forecasting weather, where it seemed he couldn’t wait to be done with his segment. But Mark seems quite at ease having to sit still for a few hours weekday mornings to do the news segment from 5:00 – 7:00 AM, and he brought the spark back and some needed energy to the morning news on Channel 3. His co-anchor Abby Hamm, however, still seems a little stiff and isn’t quite the right balance for Nolan to make this a real winning team.


Honorable Mention
Ted Henry – WEWS Channel 5

Ted Henry has been on Cleveland TV news almost forever. Based on information from the WEWS web site , he’s been at the station over 36 years. Herein lies the problem. Ted has been around so long that he blends into the woodwork. It could be that he’s taken for granted, both by the stations and the Cleveland viewers. Still, Ted’s delivery of the news is reliable and comfortable. But the excitement of the Ted Henry/Dave Patterson days (video below) are long gone.



Missing in Action
Channel 19 has no standouts in the anchor category. The big problem is the tabloid style reporting of the station, which sucks any credibility out of any news stories they present. Even Walter Cronkite sitting at the anchor desk couldn’t be considered a contender.






Classic Video – Dave Patterson and Ted Henry



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Cleveland’s Collection of Children’s Shows

Back when there were only a handful of TV channels from which to choose – Channel 3 (WKYC/KYW), Channel 5 (WEWS) and Channel 8 (WJW), locally produced programming for the kids in town was a very big deal. Cleveland had a whole litany of stars for the kids: Captain Penny (Ron Penfound) with Jungle Larry; Mr. Jingeling (played by Max Ellis, Carl Mackey, and Earl Keyes); Barnaby (Linn Sheldon) and Woodrow the Woodsman (J. Clayton "Clay" Conroy; Miss Barbara (Barbara Plummer) the local host for the nationally syndicated/franchised Romper Room; and Franz the Toymaker (Ray Stawiarski).

Looking back on these shows (there are some clips below), they were amateurish and frankly, not that great compared to today’s standards. But, they served their purpose; they kept the kids captivated and hopefully out of mom’s hair for a while. Since there were six children in my family, my mother had to keep these shows just to keep her own sanity. I think she had a crush on Captain Penny, though.

And who can forget some of their tag lines or themes:

Captain Penny:

You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool Mom. She's pretty nice and she's pretty smart.

Barnaby:

“If anybody calls, tell them Barnaby said 'hello, 'and tell them I think you are the nicest person in the whole world…just you.”

Mr. Jingeling

Mister Jingeling how you tingeling
Keeper of the keys
On Halle's seventh floor we'll be looking for
You to turn the keys

Miss Barbara at Romper Room

“Romper, bomper, stomper boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do. Magic mirror, tell me today. Have all my friends had fun at play.”

Rating The Web Sites for Cleveland’s TV News Channels

Just what you've been waiting for - my review of the web sites for your favorite local news channels. One of them gave me a migraine. Each channel's home page can be accessed by clicking on the channel name/station.


WOIO Channel 19
This web site screams cheesy and sleazy. When I looked at the home page early this afternoon, on the upper right side, there was a video that touts “ Hookers, Johns, Busted During Prostitution Sting”. A photo for the video shows a woman with her flimsy T-shirt pulled over her head, exposing flabby, saggy belly fat. Sorry, but I really don’t need to see that. The web site is also heavy with ads, which seem to be scattered all over the page, taking up what seems to be 75% of the space. There are so many things on the page that it’s hard to find any meaningful information quickly. One can get the weather and headlines if you look around for it, and there are drop down menus to access other sections. Clicking on the “news” drop down menu gives one too many choices – I counted 32. Contact information for station employees can be found at the “contact” tab, with bios and email information for on-air reporters and anchors. I spent some time looking at the weather page and I swear I started to get a migraine from all the boxes and color and business of the page. This layout and color scheme doesn’t make one feel like lingering.

If you come to the site for news, you’re better off going somewhere else.

Grade: F (and don't forget your Imitrex)


WKYC Channel 3
The home page is very easily navigable, with news headlines, weather, traffic, and school closings immediately visible in the top half of the page. Ads are minimal. Scrolling down brings sections for other news, local news, Akron-Canton news, etc. and it’s easy to identify the headlines within each section. Besides being able to navigate the site via tabs near the top of the page, there is a side bar to the left for other key topics or for user tools.

The Sports section looks a little too generic. In fact, all the pages beside the home pages look like they were put together years ago when stations first had web sites. The weather pages are only marginally better, with very little imagination used in layout and color. This was the biggest drawback with WKYC’s web site. They need a major update of their site to something that looks like it was actually designed in this century.

I looked for bios for the on air people but couldn’t find them easily. I finally located them on the “contact us” page, by clicking on the link “Want to send an e-mail to a reporter? Get their addresses here.” By the way, it was easier to find the sex offender link, which is on the same “contact us” page.

Always a sore spot with me is when, during a newscast, you’re told to go to the station’s web site for more information. For some channels, that’s like falling into one of Dante’s circles of hell. But, WKYC actually has a heading on the left side for links mentioned on the news.

Grade: B (Update May 23, 2008: WKYC has since changed their web site - it's much better.)


WEWS Channel 5
The home page is well organized, with top stories clearly evident and accessible. Ads are on the page but are not overpowering and seem off to the side of the main content. There are many areas to access headlines for news, entertainment, videos, and weather at a glance, and it proves easy to find what you want and to navigate. There are also tabs near the top of the page to help reach the web pages for more detail on things like weather, video, and Akron-Canton information. These tabs are sandwiched between a row above and below of other buttons which seem to link to glorified advertising pages (example, the Travel tab). I couldn’t find a tab for traffic information, and I even looked on the weather page. I could be there somewhere staring me right in the face but I couldn’t find it. There is also a link to contact information for people at the station at the top of the home page, but I couldn’t find links to bios for the on-air people, only finding their email addresses.

For a station that touts “The Power of Five “ and seems to love cutting into programming for weather news, I found their weather pages disappointing. It just seemed so…so… average.

Sports has very detailed coverage, with top line local sports news at a glance, and tabs for national news by sporting category.

Quite a few times my browser had trouble loading pages for this site. It was the only site of all the local channels where I had repeated problems, and this isn’t the first time this has happened to me here.

Grade: B+


WJW Channel 8
Fox has the advantage with a web site that is standard across all Fox stations, so no matter what Fox channel you’re on in the U.S., you should see pretty much the same format. It's crisp, clean, and well organized, with colors that are very easy on the eyes.

Advertising is present, but is not intrusive. At the top of the home page, you can actually close or open the banner ad space. But, there aren’t many headlines on the main page, so one has to click on one of the tabs at the top to get the news headlines. One can also use the horizontal scroll for the headline box on the left of the page, but sometimes I found the scrolling speed to be too fast. Maybe it’s my heavy-handed mouse clicking? It seems too cumbersome, though, as I don’t like to do too much work to see the main headlines.

The one nice thing about the Fox site is it has blogs for viewers, allowing them to have their own content and photos on Fox’s site, and also to be able to comment on blogs written by on-air personalities. It’s a great way to get viewers to interact. I couldn’t find this feature on any of the other web sites, so if I missed them I am sure someone will let me know.

Weather and traffic are both easy to find. The weather page provides probably the most information of any other local web site, and I like the 8-day forecast in pictures. It just makes a boring topic look more interesting.

The Sports section included the top headlines has sub sections for specific sports. All we need is the video of Tony Rizzo slipping on the ice and it would be perfect.

Grade: A-


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Cleveland’s Local News Commercials

Newscasts in Cleveland are a competitive business. With four major networks in town (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC), there is an on going battle to draw viewers to local programming. Viewers often remain steadfastly loyal to their on-air news talent, until something nudges them to make a change. For me, I used to watch Channel 5 (WEWS) a lot, but something happened several years ago – maybe the overkill on weather, maybe I became tired of Ted Henry – but now I’m pretty much a Fox 8 and a Channel 3 viewer. Sometimes WOIO gets in there at 4:00 PM, but only when I really really really really have no other options. OK, I actually like (a little) Jeff Tanchak’s weather. That could be considered an illness in some circles.

The sad thing is that even with the struggle for viewer’s eyeballs being so fierce, the station news promotions have gotten pretty boring. So I thought I’d go back and see if I could find some of the real “oldies but goodies” that were interesting. I apologize in advance for some of the video quality – I’m just using the best I can find.

Enjoy the trip down memory lane!


This is probably the best news promo that I can recall. The quality isn’t great, but you’ll get the point. It’s a promo for WEWS featuring Ted Henry and Dave Patterson. There are actually two promos here, the first being the original and the second, I believe, aired later as a spoof of the first. The second commercial really was actually more impressive and funny.


Here’s one from WJW for their City Camera News, where they spoof the character "Mother Nature" from the Chiffon Margarine commercials:


“Catch 5” from WEWS, probably from the early 1970s. It reminds me a little bit of a bad migraine I had, but featured the talent on the channel at the time. Of course, when you look at the set and the weather “graphic”, the on air talent is all they could feature. Dull by today’s standards but flashy and eye catching for it’s time.


And despite that I don’t have a high opinion of WOIO’s 19 Action News, I do like these two relatively recent spots (from about 2 years ago) that featured Jeff Tanchak. They were creative and amusing.






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Cleveland’s Local Mid-Morning Talk Shows: A Waste of an Hour

Remember the 1950s-1960s “glory days” of Cleveland’s locally produced television shows? There was The Gene Carroll Show, Polka Varieties, Mike Douglas, Captain Penny, Barnaby, The One O’clock Club, etc. Of course, we only had three to four channels to choose from (if antenna reception was good) so we took whatever we could get and learned to love it. And even though they called it the “glory days”, it didn’t mean that the programming was very good (I was young, I hated most of it).

In the 1970’s, there was the Morning Exchange on WEWS, which provided quality local interest programming. And then…NBC’s Today show kept expanding its time slot, and cable happened, with almost endless channels choices. Local programming seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. It should have stayed there.

Both WKYC Channel 3 and WJW Fox 8 have two mid-morning talk shows, Good Company (WKYC) and That’s Life (WJW). Both really are nothing but time-fillers, although one of the two programs is marginally better.

I’ve watched both shows a few times over the last few months. I have to admit that I had to force myself to do it because these types of shows don’t interest me to begin with. But after hearing so many negative comments about them, I had to see them for myself.

Let me get this out of the way right away: Good Company is probably THE most boring hour of television I have ever seen. The primary hosts, Andrea Vecchio and Michael Cardamone, are stiff and bland. When I looked at the bios for both hosts on the WKYC website, I didn’t see a lot on on-camera experience, and I think it shows. It is hard to explain, but I almost felt uncomfortable while they were interviewing people. They didn’t seem relaxed themselves and everything seemed forced. The set itself is dull, lifeless, and visually uninteresting. Yes, I know we’re talking a local show, but it always looks like this show is “local done cheap.” And the hour.just.drags.

That’s Life, on the other hand, is a little better, but not by much. Robin Swoboda has a lot of on camera and on-air experience, so she seems much more relaxed, in fact, she’s sometimes a little too loose. She is better at improvising, and seems to be a little quicker with the wit, but at times seems almost too happy to the point of phoniness. A plus for That’s Life is that they seem to get out on the road and out with viewers. It could be that I picked the wrong days to watch Good Company, but for the several times I watched, they never left that awful studio. On the flip side, it seems that every cooking segment I watched on That’s Life seemed poorly planned and sloppily done. Good Company’s are much better; part of it may be the set, and part of it may be more qualified people doing the cooking segments.

Generally, both shows had uninteresting subject matter. There have got to be more exiciting things happening in Cleveland and in the surrounding area. I find myself wondering to what demographic they are trying to attract? It's hard to tell by the subject matter and guests. It would be interesting to know what demographic they ARE getting.

If I had to watch one of these shows again – if, for example, my TV would only tune to one channel at 10:00 AM on a weekday and I was tied to a chair in front of it – I suppose I could suffer through That’s Life. I wonder, though, if local programming like these shows are even relevant any more. Most channels have morning news on from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM at minimum, and they seem to work in a lot of non-news segments.

I would think that both WJW and WKYC could put the money spent towards "talent" and producing these shows to better syndicated programming. It may be time for these two local programs to drop off the face of the earth. If they do, “that’s life,” but they will be in “good company” with those other old local shows.


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Rating Cleveland’s Morning News Shows

The one thing of which Cleveland has no shortage is morning news shows. Between 5:00 AM and 7:00 AM, you’ll find news on channels 3, 5, 8, and 19. And each show has a personality all its own. Since I’m a frequent watcher of “Fox 8 News in the Morning” and a former frequent watcher of “Channel 3 News Today”, I spent the last few weeks watching all four channels to get an idea of who really has the best morning news show in town.

On the days I watched the shows, here are the names of those appearing for each channel. I did not list the names of individual reporters involved in the newscast:

WKYC Channel 3: Mark Nolan and Abby Ham, Hollie Strano (Weather), Pat Butler (Traffic)

WEWS Channel 5: Paul Kiska and Kimberly Gill, Jeff Mackel (Weather), Traffic - anchor coverage plus phone in

WJW Channel 8: Wayne Dawson and Tracy McCool, Scott Savol (Weather), Pat Brady (Traffic)

WOIO Channel 19: Brian Duffy and Tiffani Tucker, Jenn Harcher (Weather), Rick Abell and Nicole (Traffic)

Just like the Academy Awards, I’ve created a few categories, and the award is the Golden Alarm Clock. Here we go!

Morning Anchor Desk
This was a category that was tough to measure, since sometimes one half of an anchor pair was either strong – or weak.

I could not warm up to channel 5’s Paul Kiska and Kimberly Gill. Kimberly seemed to stumble on her words a few times, and Paul just seemed flat and unexciting in his delivery. Channel 19’s Brian Duffy and Tiffani Tucker were only marginally better, but they seemed a little livelier and snappier than 5’s coverage. I think there are other problems with both these channels that make these anchors less than interesting, which will be covered in later categories. For both anchor pairs, there seems to be little chemistry.

Channels 3 and 8 are in a virtual dead heat in this category, but both anchor pairs have a weak partner. Tracy McCool has returned to 8, which brings the energy back into the show. Wayne Dawson, however, is the weak link. Because I watch Fox 8 so often, I’ve seen Dawson’s frequent stumbles, one of which that resulted in a brief appearance on YouTube and Dawson’s seeming disappearance from the show for a few days. But, the biggest drawback is his attire. In the never-ending quest for Wayne and Tracy to match clothing schemes, he sometimes wears some ludicrous colored and patterned attire. It can be distracting and actually detract from the news.

Channel 3 has revitalized the show by moving Mark Nolan to the anchor seat, Mind you, I watched 3 for many years when John Anderson and Carole Sullivan were paired, and they made a great team. But, that seemed to break down when Carole left. Nolan is very well suited for his new role; he’s confident and comfortable, and he’s able to ad lib and be spontaneous probably better than anybody on local news right now. I have been watching more of channel 3’s news in the morning since Nolan’s anchoring, but there are other reasons why I haven’t completely switched back. One of those reasons is Abby Ham. She seems inexperienced and sometimes clueless about the news she’s reading. Sometimes it may be better for her not to ad lib or ask questions, because in doing so, she often shows that while she can read the news, she may not have a good grip of the content.


The Golden Alarm Clock for Best Morning News Anchors goes to:
Tie for channels 3 and 8


Morning News Coverage
All the stations covered the local and national news well. Fox 8 seemed the most consistent in having reporters out of the studio covering stories. They all had outside local coverage at some point, but 8 had someone out every day that I watched, which was not the case with other channels. Channel 8 also seemed to deliver more news stories in the time allotted. I tried to count the number of separate news stories for each channels, but the number varied by day, and by the type of news being reported. Unscientifically measured, channel 8 seemed more consistent in delivering the most news in the first 10 minutes than the others.

The Golden Alarm Clock for Morning News Coverage goes to:
Channel 8


Morning Weather and Traffic
This category doesn’t cover weather forecasting accuracy, because that would take more time than I’m willing to invest. Instead, it rates the delivery of the weather, graphics, and the frequency of weather updates.

Since all of them basically have access to the same weather data, the delivery and graphics are critical. Channels 5 and 19 seem to be very basic in this category, with fairly standard graphics and rather dull and uninteresting weather forecasters. It seemed as if both weather forecasters were going through the motions. Channel 3’s Hollie Strano puts a little more personality and lots of energy with her presentation, but she loses points with me when she begins banter with the anchors. Channel 8’s Scott Savol seems to have the right mix of an interesting presentation, great graphics, and a very pleasing personality.

Traffic coverage may not sound like a big deal, unless you’re going to be driving in it. Channel 5’s was clearly THE WORST every time I watched. Maybe I got them on bad days, but when I watched, it was the anchor that went through traffic conditions, with sometimes a call in from another news (radio?) office with traffic information. They also didn’t seem to cover traffic frequently. Channel 19 was marginally better, with two people covering traffic at times, but not always with a traffic helicopter. Rick Abell, however, should stop the editorial comments; while they may fit 19’s tabloid style, sometimes they border on unprofessional. Channel 3’s Pat Butler does a great job, sometimes inside, sometimes outside in the helicopter. Tops is Pat Brady on 8, who delivers traffic in an informative, professional manner, with just the right amount of energy, and she gets in the helicopter - I think - more than any others.

The Golden Alarm Clock for Best Morning Weather and Traffic goes to:
Channel 8

Set
It seems that Channel 19 is undergoing a set change, which hopefully will bring them up to the newer HD look that other channels already have. Channel 5’s looks unimaginative and cold. Channel 8 unveiled their new HD several months ago, and it is a great improvement from their previous set. The lighting is fantastic and really brings out the best in the on-screen people. The fake Cleveland skyline behind them, however, still leave me cold. Channel 3, who I believe has had their current set longer than the other stations, has the best look and open feel. The weather desk and special reports areas are very visible when cutting away to these special segments. It gives the news much more cohesive energy than other stations.


The Golden Alarm Clock for Best Morning News Set goes to:
Channel 3


Commercial Breaks
I know all the stations have to pay their bills, but some channels show more commercials or break earlier for commercials. Channels 5 and 19 broke for commercials at 5:06 AM, with 8 breaking at 5:08 and 3 breaking at 5:09. Channels 3 and 8 got in more critical news and weather in the first minutes of the show, with 8 getting a quick weather and traffic blurb out virtually at the start of the show. Unscientifically measured, it seemed that channels 5 and 19 had less time for news, with more commercial breaks.

The Golden Alarm Clock for Morning News Commercial Breaks goes to:
Tie channels 3 and 8


Best Overall Morning News Show
The Golden Alarm Clock for Best Overall Morning News Show goes to…Channel 8. They seem to pack the most news, weather, and traffic in each hour, and consistently deliver interesting field reports. The anchors, reporters, weather and traffic people have fantastic chemistry. A close second, though, is Channel 3, who is poised to overtake 8 if they get the right mix of morning personalities on the show.

The “Snooze Alarm” award goes to channels 5 and 19. These shows need a personality infusion with their on air people, and some set changes to make watching the news a more visually interesting experience. They also need stronger - and consistent - weather and traffic reporting. So these channels can take their extra snooze for now, but they’d better wake up soon.


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Is it time to crown a new King – or Queen – of Cleveland weather forecasting?

I’ve lived in the Cleveland area all my life, and I’ve seen a lot of weather – and weather forecasters – come and go. I’m of the opinion that many people are loyal to a particular channel for only a few reasons, and one of those reasons is the credibility and likeability of the on-air weather talent.

I came to a conclusion last night watching the weather on Fox 8 during the 5:00 hour: It’s time for Dick Goddard to go.

Now that I’ve said it, let me qualify the statement. I have watched Dick on local TV since I was a kid in the mid-1960s, when he was with KYW (now WKYC, channel 3). He has been with channel 8 probably since the ice sheets started to melt. OK, that’s exaggerating but he’s been here forever. I own two of his books and find his weather forecasting on target and probably the most reliable in town. But watching him yesterday, I realized that I just don’t like him any more. He sometimes seems all over the place while delivering the forecast. It may sound like a minor thing, but I find it distracting.

I think it’s time to recognize some of the other Cleveland weather forecasters in town and identify those that I think are the best. Some of this is not based solely on my own opinion. Having friends and family in town, and since weather is always such a hot issue here, the subject of who is delivering the forecast comes up frequently.


Here’s my forecast on who is tops in Cleveland Weather:

1. Betsy Kling – WKYC Channel 3: Betsy has been with this channel since 2003, working mostly weekend evening weather, and recently moving to the weekday PM slot. Besides having great screen presence, she probably has the most informative weather segment in town. It’s not just informing of the forecast, but she has a way of explaining the weather that makes it very interesting. I also believe she is the best dressed of the lot, and possible maybe of any person in local news. Of course, it has nothing to do with the fact that I wish I had one-tenth of her wardrobe. Seriously, I’ve had others comment that Betsy dresses classy and professionally, and also that they just plain LIKE her. You just can't buy that kind of compliment.

FORECAST: 7 Sunny days in a row

2. Scott Sabol – WJW Fox 8: Scott recently moved from the PM slot to the lengthy AM slot. I’ve seen Scott in both time slots and while I think he was great later in the day, he made the move very well to the morning. Scott’s weather delivery is relaxed, and he relays confidence in his forecasts. I think when he first made the move to the AM time he seemed a little out of sorts, as if he was shocked with the "looseness" of the show, but he seems to have fit into the spot very well.

FORECAST: 5 Sunny Days in one week

3. André Bernier – WJW Fox 8: While his weather forecasting is always solid, I am not quite sure that André fits into the PM slot as well as he did in the AM. Sometimes he has a little bit of an unusual fixation on poking fun of Bill Martin. I think Bill Martin and Stacy Bell have the best anchor pairing in town because they seem to have great chemistry and have fun together, but sometimes what André interjects into the mix seems a little – off. He also seems too fixated on cheesy special effects that distract more than add to his weather segment.

FORECAST: 3 Sunny days, with clouds forecast for the rest of the week.


And now – other notable mentions, both for good reasons and bad:

1. Jeff Tanchak – WOIO Channel 19: I may take some heat for this but I actually like Jeff Tanchak. But, I like him in smaller doses. His forecasts seem reliable, and he’s got good energy, but he sometimes moves around so much on screen that it makes me a little hyper. Oh yeah, and he works for Channel 19, not a very respected channel, in my opinion. He would work better at any other channel in the area.

FORECAST: Party Sunny, but with foggy mornings

2. Hollie Strano – WKYC Channel 3: I used to watch Channel 3 in the morning much more often than I do now, and my reason for defecting to another channel was because of Hollie. It wasn’t her forecast, it’s that she has become a little to sugary sweet for my tastes. While other channels have worked hard to feature local weather pics, Hollie would rather see dog pictures for the dog-gone weather segment. And frequently there is goofy music playing over her forecasts. It seems like her audience is geared for kids.

FORECAST: Party Cloudy

3. Mark Johnson – WEWS Newschannel 5: Best known for his never-ending interruptions to programs for severe weather alerts. I used to have more respect for him, but his “the end is near” style of forecasting has driven me away from Channel 5 news altogether.

FORECAST: TORNADO WARNING! SEEK COVER IMMEDIATELY!

That's my long term forecast for Cleveland weather on-air talent. Here's hoping that the "butterfly effect" will bring some needed changes in some cases.

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