WALB Albany (property)

[gartv]

Just driving past the WALB studio site in Albany
It's a rather small building surrounded by lots of trees and in an residential area in North Albany.







WALB also has a small studio in downtown Valdosta and a doppler radar atop the terminal at the (Albany) Southwest Georgia Regional Airport.

[newsdudeatl]

Nice pics!

Is Yolanda Amadeo still at the station? She is one of my favorite personalities! I have a lot of family in the Bainbridge area, and ever since I was very young I can remember Yolanda doing the weather for WALB.

[gartv]

Yes, she is still at the station as the chief meteorologist.

[extvtog]

I have lived in this market and I have to say that Channel 10 still has a lot of catching up to do to get to the 21st century of news. It seems when they take 2 steps forward they end of taking 4 steps back. Their new set is hideous. Their main female anchor is old. They are only number one because their main competition, FOX 31 is not really any competition. Let me say I think they have kept up technolically. They have a new sat truck, e.n.g truck. I believe they have new cameras. I just think their news product itself is tired. If they had real competition, I think that it would change. Channel 10 is complacent.

[gartv]

Unless Albany gets their own ABC and CBS affiliates, and the market supports the stations enough for a newscast or other offerings, WALB will never seem good enough since the choices are very limited. But for a small market with one major station for so many years, WALB is much better than what I get to see in Macon.

I don't think the age of the anchor should be an issue. What if someone said that about Monica Kaufman? If she is good at her job and she serves the community well, let her stay where she is.

Of course I say this without really knowing the WALB anchors well enough. But they seem ok to me. Yes, their set is not as attractive as those at their corporate sister stations. But seeing their rather small studio building which is in a residential neighborhood, I can understand their having a more basic look.

Maybe they should consider building a new facility in the downtown area. Maybe renovating a vacant building near the river.

Check out either www.wistv.com or www.wsfa.com or www.14wfie.com These are all owned by the same company that owns WALB. And they are all the leaders in their community.

[extvtog]

I have to say that I think WMAZ is waaay better than WALB. Without even seeing a newscast, I would say that it is probably safe to say that WMGT is better than WALB. The reason why WALB's sister stations look much better is because they have real competition in their respective markets. WIS TV has WLTX. WSFA has WAKA and WNCF. Because WALB have no real competition, viewers really have no choice when it comes to news. WALB's ratiing are high because the viewers do not have a chance to make a choice on a news product. As a result, WALB does not have any reason to make strides to improve its product. Let's say if the Barrington, the new company that bought WFXL Fox 31, decides to put lots of money and captial into WFXL's news product and offers competitive newscasts, I can bet you that there will be viewers who switch because they have never had a real alternative to WALB. That would force WALB to make some much needed changes in how they deliver their newscast. I am not downing WALB as a station. I just think that WALB has a lot more to offer, but it does not because they are complacent.

[tv man]

I have been in WALB's studios and its not that small for news sets

[extvtog]

If you ever go to albany again, take pics of WFXL. They are on the same road as WALB. They moved to their present location a couple of years ago. I believe it was a bank. They used to be on Slappy Drive in an old car wash. The news room was located where cars used to come through getting washed. In fact the newsroom window was once a window where someone would have stood watching their car go through the car wash. I would love to see what their present building looks like.

[gartv]

The day I took the pics of WALB there was some heavy landscaping work being done in front of WFXL. And there were a lot of people standing in the parking lot.

I will try again and hope that the area is clear. I do work in Albany a few times a month. It would have been cool to see WFXL at their car wash location.

I will tell you some points about WFXL. It is a nice building and looks like a bank. and they have a huge sign in front that reads "Fox 12"/Fox 31". The "Fox 12" refers to their digital broadcast channel.

Their trucks were all late 1990's Chevy Tahoe's and Vans with more modern logos.

I never mentioned in the postings about the Macon stations that many of the current WFXL anchors and reporters were part of the last failed news attempt at WPGA. In this case, Macon's loss was Albany's gain.

[extvtog]

I believe the old address for WFXL's old studio was 1211 N. Slappy. That was my second TV job. My best friend was the anchor there before getting out of the tv biz. Also I worked with Diane McInerny now anchor of Inside Edition Weekend. I was also there when they bought those Tahoes. They were a treat from having to drive the "Mystery Machine" van that you probably also saw.

That station still has a long way to come!

[gartv]

extvtog said:

The reason why WALB's sister stations look much better is because they have real competition in their respective markets. WIS TV has WLTX. WSFA has WAKA and WNCF.

IN Montgomery Alabama, WNCF "ABC 32" cancelled their newscast a couple years ago. WSFA simply had more viewers than anyone there. Funny how WNCF changed their call letters in 1999 to promote themselves as "(W)here (N)ews (C)omes (F)irst". They kept those calls after the news was dumped.

ABC-32's former calls were WHOA (Heart of Alabama) and WKAB.

I mentioned in another thread that I spent my summers growing up in South Carolina and watched Augusta, Greenville and Columbia stations. and WIS was the only station I knew of to have a 7pm news. That always sounded great for those who were commuting home from work and preparing dinner for their families at 6. And so few stations at that time offered a 7pm news. Now a 7pm newscast in east coast markets is a growing trend.

WIS did not have a 6pm news in the 70's and 80's for a long time. Probably because of the 7pm. WNOK-19 (Now WLTX) did have a 6pm news but not an 11:00 news back then and Ch 25 WOLO's news was off and on. It seemed like one year they had news, next year they did not and I am sure they are still the lowest rated in the area today.

I do have to say that WLTX's big boost was being purchased by Gannett in the 1990's. And therfore WIS stepped up their already good product.

Note that Adam Murphy of WGCL was part of WLTX's news for many years prior to coming to CBS 46. He left WMAZ in Macon for the capital of South Carolina.

[extvtog]

WLTX now has what used to be WIS TV's prized meteorologist Jim Gandy. I know that has helped their rating in the past 6 years.

[extvtog]

I noticed WALB has updated or replaced their set. I have to say that I like their weather center, but I hate their set. It is so generic. It does not make sense. Am I alone here? At first, I thought it was just a temporary set, but then I realized......that's it!