WLS Chicago

Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project will place fellows at three major-market stations — WCBS New York, WCVB Boston and WLS Chicago — for a year-long effort to build radically new models for digital news storytelling.

General managers say there are some 77 distinct neighborhoods in Chicago, from River North to Pilsen to Bronzeville, and it helps to have reporters — not to mention producers, news directors and general managers — who know the market’s political layout, weather and customs.

WLS (ABC 7) Chicago has debuted the long-anticipated ABC Owned Television Stations group graphics package, marking the first appearance of the new design. The package has been in development for nearly four years with extensive market research from SmithGeiger guiding the overall rebranding effort.

Technology executives from Sinclair, Gray, WLS Chicago and Dalet shared some of the more enduring remote workflows holding over from the pandemic in a TVNewsCheck webinar last week, noting that improvements in IP connectivity and public cloud technology are pushing innovation even further.

Executives from Sinclair, Gray Television and ABC-owned WLS Chicago will address innovations in remote production and their knock-on effects for storytelling, new facilities and studio design in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch webinar on Sept. 29. Register here.

WLS, the ABC O&O in Chicago, has quietly switched over to new weather graphics that are the first pieces of a new overall graphics package redesign for the station and a jumping-off point for its sister stations. The new ABC Owned Television Stations package is the product of three years of development with consulting firm SmithGeiger, which conducted extensive research for the redesign effort.

Still reeling from a massive decline in ratings, the firing of sports anchor Mark Giangreco, the cancellation of Windy City Live and the layoffs of more than a dozen staffers, ABC-owned WLS Chicago just lost its No. 2 news executive. Sarah Dunlap Burke resigned Friday after seven years as assistant news director at ABC 7. She is expected to be named vice president and news director of WCBS New York, where she once worked as executive producer.

Tamron Hall’s syndicated daytime talk show is moving to ABC-owned WLS Chicago, where it will air in place of Windy City Live at 1 p.m. Monday through Friday, starting Sept. 6. Soon to kick off its third season, the New York-based Tamron Hall has been airing on Weigel Broadcasting’s WCIU and The U since 2019.