Radio Bloomington Website Relaunch

Radio Bloomington (WJBC, WBNQ, and WBWN), along with sister station WJEZ in Pontiac, all relaunched their station websites this morning.

The new website design is part of the total relaunch of station websites under the Cumulus Media brand name and company, which includes WABC in New York, WLS in Chicago, and KABC in Los Angeles.

The new site is similar to the old Regent Communications/Townsquare site format of which Radio Bloomington stations were a part of until four years ago, when they were sold to Cumulus.

The top of the website features a banner with the station logo on the left. Links can be found to the right, showing the different shows, weather, sports, and other information. One change from the old site is that there is no definitive show schedule listed.

Directly below that is news headlines with banner photos that flip across as needed. News is listed in sections.

Full showings of station Facebook and Twitter pages can be found near the bottom of the page. This is similar to what many other pages do as well.

Here are the links to Radio Bloomington websites:

WJBC-AM 1230 www.wjbc.com
WBNQ-FM 101.5 www.wbnq.com
WBWN-FM 104.1 www.wbwn.com

UPDATE: Dave Benton Stepping Away from Anchor Chair

The last time viewers got an update on Dave Benton's health, it was beck in September, when he announced that his cancer had returned and that he had only a few months to live.

Earlier this year, Dave began cancer treatments to hopefully shrink the tumor which has made its way into his brain.

Unfortunately, the treatments have not proven effective, and the tumor has expanded. Dave has been seen looking in poor health. He has been seen only a few days each week.

Because of the problems he is facing, Dave will be stepping away from the anchor chair following the 6:00 newscast tonight. An announcement will be made in the second half hour, with a statement as well from co-anchor Jennifer Roscoe.

Here is Dave's Facebook post from tonight:

I want to update all of you on what's happening with my health. The last time we talked was about five months ago. I found out two weeks ago that the tumor has grown. The treatments aren't working and it's affecting my ability to anchor the news.

So today I'm stepping down from the desk. I hope to still be a part of the newscast a little longer with my Crime Watch stories at 5:00.

Jennifer and I will be making the announcement on the 6:00 news tonight.

Thank you for all your support, prayers, and well wishes. It's been an "interesting" year and a half. My goal was to be in the anchor seat and do a good job. I hope I've done that. Now it's time for the next step.

Dave

Bob Schieffer Retiring from CBS

Longtime CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent and "Face the Nation" moderator Bob Schieffer, a fixture on the network dating back decades, is winding down his career.

The 78 year old Schieffer, who has been with CBS for over 45 years, will retire from the network this summer. He announced his impending decision while hosting his annual news symposium at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

A native Texan, Schieffer served as a public information officer in the US Air Force before joining the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He first became known to many during the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. While at the paper, he received a phone call from the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald. Because of this, he was able to stay in touch with Mrs. Oswald throughout the waning hours, creating several new stories in the paper, as well as other networks, including CBS.

Joining CBS News in 1969, Schieffer became the Sunday anchor of the CBS Evening News in 1973, later adding Saturday duties as well. But perhaps his most well-known position came in 1982, when he became Chief Washington Correspondent for the network. There, he has seen numerous airtime on many CBS News broadcasts.

One of the most significant roles he has played has been as the moderator and host of the Sunday politics show "Face the Nation", since 1991. On the show, he has interviewed many of the country's top newsmakers and politicians, never backing down on a question.

Faced with a massive fallout from the Killian documents scandal that threatened to take down the network, Schieffer replaced Dan Rather as host of the weeknight edition of the CBS Evening News in 2005. Though it was only an interim, he led great success. Within a year, ratings had improved in all categories at a time when both ABC (Peter Jennings' death) and NBC (Tom Brokaw's retirement) were experiencing drops in viewership.

Bob Schieffer leaves behind a legacy of superior journalism that will likely never be truly replaced.

WCIA Expands News Coverage; Inside Edition to WCIX

Beginning tonight, WCIA 3 News will be expanding its news presence by a half hour.

Tonight's 6:00 news will be expanding to one hour, from 6 until 7 p.m. The new, expanded newscast will cover stories in a larger length than previously put. This will mean longer news stories, plus an expanded sports and weather report.

Inside Edition, the daily tabloid news headlines show, will instead be moving to WCIX Channel 49.

The Death of Channel 15

As many central Illinois TV viewers have already heard by now, or maybe haven't heard, Channel 15 will be no more after Friday evening.

Actually, it's not exactly a true "death", as the station will still be on the air, just not airing any local-oriented programming. (Local as in Champaign-Urbana, Danville, and the rest of east central Illinois.)

Starting on Tuesday, election day, WICD-TV will no longer be producing any newscasts of its own. Instead, news will be provided via a simulcast of sister station WICS in Springfield. This means that the long history of NewsChannel 15 will be no more. Channel 20 programming will be a complete simulcast of Channel 15, as the two will have exactly the same programming 24/7.

Now, C-U news from the Sinclair station will not go away completely. In the words of the station, it is just "moving". WICD has a sister FOX station (WCCU 27) that is a basic simulcast of WRSP 55 in Springfield. Also beginning Tuesday, Channel 27 will break away from its 9:00 newscast to air a separate "NewsChannel at 9", which will encompass Champaign anchors and reporters. The news will be an hour long, running until 10:00.

The move next week brings an end to a tradition of newscasts and history at WICD. The operation has been around in the city since the early 1960's, first beginning at the Inman Hotel (now Inman Place). In 1978, growth took the station west to Country Fair Drive, where it sits now in a former green stamp building. Multiple names have gone through the building, including legendary weatherman Keith Page, who was well-known throughout central Illinois.

It is hard to describe the history of WICD without its drawbacks. Competing with WCIA was the hardest that Channel 15 had for itself. Obviously, Channel 3 has made a name for itself even today with the public image it provides and the news anchors and reporters who are very active in the community. I'm not implying that WICD personnel have not, but it is less than WCIA. Even back in the day, Channel 3 was the go-to source for Fighting Illini football & basketball, plus local news at 6:00 and 10:00 with Jerry Slabe, Marta Carreira, and Judy Fraser, who were all household names in the area. The strong UHF signal of WCIA also brought it over a wide margin of homes, and it is a few years older than Channel 15, a stonghold at that.

Probably the biggest downfall that has been suffered for WICD folks is the shared ownership with WICS and the neglect that Channel 15 had to endure. Beginning in the late-1980's, the two stations were sharing news departments. WICD had a declining news department, without any live news capabilities, and it was operating on minimal staff. Channel 20 in Springfield has always maintained a strong news department and a station image and reputation that is stellar for the capital city citizens. The two stations shared resources, and unfortunately WICD 15 was the second of the two stations. Having no satellite coverage for much of the last decade hurt the Champaign operations even more, and it is still not available on DirecTV (and may soon be dropped from Dish).

The combined news department has been evolving over the past five years, and shared resources have happened a lot recently. WICS began sharing its weekend newscasts with WICD in the spring of 2011, and WICD did not broadcast in HD until last fall. Now, the new news set will only be used one hour per day.

The final WICD-TV newscast will be tomorrow. The "Sunrise" morning program, midday, and 5:00 newscasts will occur. To close up shop, "Nightside" will be presented at 10:00, with regular anchor Doug Quick with anchors and reporters. It will be the end of an era in central Illinois television news. One that has seen its ups and downs. One that has seen many staffers go on to bigger careers. One that had a life with the popular NBC lineup in the 1990's and continuing with ABC in the last decade.
One that has been a fixture in the community. One that will forever be remembered.

At 10:35 p.m. tomorrow (Friday) night, WICD-TV news will officially come to a close.

Condolences to Tim Lewis

Condolences to WJBC afternoon host Tim Lewis and his family. Tim's father, Marlin Loosle, passed away on Saturday in Utah, after a long illness. Marlin was an engineer for Morton Thiokol for many years, receiving several awards. He was an Army veteran, serving during the Korean War.

Surviving Loosle are his wife Theresa, six children, 18 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held on Friday in Utah.