WLWT-TV

Why did WLWT-TV hire Seton High School graduate Alanna Martella to replace traffic reporter Vanessa Richardson after only two years?

Longtime WKRC-TV anchor Cammy Dierking has told her bosses she's leaving the station at the end of her contract in December, multiple sources tell me.

For a fourth consecutive year, WKRC-TV will telecast the annual Western & Southern/WEBN-FM Riverfest fireworks at 9 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 1.

Wednesday 10:45 a.m. June 19 update:  WKRC-TV General Manager Jon Lawhead says the station wanted anchor Rob Braun "to stay, but he decided it was time to move on."  The station is starting "an immediate search – both internal and external – to find our next main evening anchor," Lawhead said.

As I reported yesterday, Braun told the newsroom Monday he was leaving WKRC-TV after 35 years when his contract expires June 28. WKRC-TV posted a story Wednesday morning with these comments from Lawhead:

Pittsburgh native Kelly Rippin, a reporter at WXIX-TV five years ago, returns to Cincinnati in June to take Lisa Cooney's chair on the weekday News 5 Today anchor desk with Colin Mayfield and meteorologist Randi Rico.

Since Cooney retired after 30 years on April 5, weekend anchor Megan Mitchell has worked weekday mornings with Mayfield.

What happened to Barak Shapiro? Where's Aly Cohen? How will WLW-TV fill Lisa Cooney's anchor job? And who are all these new TV reporters on Cincinnati newscasts?

Before May ratings' sweeps start Thursday, here's a look at the major changes and new faces on TV since last May:

Update 8:45 a.m. Thursday April 18:  Clyde Gray says he's "blown away." Carol Williams quoted a Macklemore/Kesha song. Here's what the former WCPO-TV news co-anchors told me about heading into the Greater Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame June 27:

Jerry Springer's new fall court show will air on WSTR-TV (Channel 64), which broadcast his daytime talk show for years.

Play ball! Fox Sports Ohio's Opening Day plans again call for the 4:10 p.m. Thursday game to be simulcast on WKRC-TV (Channel 12).

WCPO-TV, WLWT-TV, WXIX-TV and WKRC-TV will provide extensive Opening Day coverage on their morning newscasts. All four stations, plus FSO and CitiCable, will air and stream the noon parade.

Courtis Fuller hosts a town hall-style broadcast called Where We Stand 2019 with Cincinnati city leaders 7 p.m. Thursday, March 14 (Channel 5).

The discussion, part of Hearst Television's corporate-wide Project CommUnity announced in December, will focus on four main topics -- crime and justice; employment; poverty and health; and education.

Fifty years ago today, WLWT-TV broadcast one of the most memorable telecasts in Cincinnati history: the wedding of two rubber chickens.

On a live broadcast of the Paul Dixon Show.

Update at 5:30 p.m. Friday, March 1:  This just in from Branden Frantz, WLWT-TV general manager, about Let's Talk Cincinnati, premiering 7:30 p.m. Saturday March 2 on WLWT-TV (Channel 5) with Courtis Fuller and Alexis Rogers:

UPDATE AT 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 28:  Jeff Hirsh's coworkers praise him for being able to do it all. And he did.

In 40 years of Cincinnati television – 21 years at WKRC-TV after 19 years at WLWT-TV – he did breaking news; features; live shots; taped packages; stories about long, tedious court trials and complicated government issues; and wrote and produced several one-hour documentaries.

Thursday April 4 update: Lisa Cooney anchors her final News 5 Today morning newscast on WLW-TV Friday, April 5.  

Original post Jan. 17, 2019: Forget what Lisa Cooney told me last month about how she loved the mornings, as she was celebrating her 30th anniversary at WLWT-TV.  

No better way to remember Cincinnati TV entertainer Bob Braun on the anniversary of his death than to enjoy this 1984 Bob Braun Show clip when Columbus zookeeper Jack Hanna let goats run wild through the WLWT-TV studio while singer David Cassidy looked on.  

Braun died on Jan. 15, 2001, at age 71.

With Braun's live noon show, you never knew what could happen… or who would show up. Braun hosted a live weekday noon variety show on WLWT-TV from 1967 to 1984, taking over from the legendary Ruth Lyons.

With WLWT-TV news anchors Sheree Paolello and Mike Dardis announcing their engagement, I asked married morning radio hosts Chris O'Brien and Janeen Coyle to provide some advice for a long, happy marriage.

In the process, I inspired their song parody, The News 5 Bunch, adapted from TV's iconic blended family, The Brady Bunch. In less than 15 hours, it was on the air.

Being a 25-year TV veteran, Mike Dardis certainly knows about TV's revolving door. After all, he became Sheree Paolello's fourth co-anchor in three years when hired by WLWT-TV from Seattle in 2012.

But after Channel 5 offered him his second contract renewal, Dardis figured he was here to stay for a long while – and could take the risk of dating his co-anchor.

Thirty years? Really? Lisa Cooney has been living on the air at WLWT-TV since 1988, mostly as a morning news co-anchor on what was the city's top-rated morning newscast during November sweeps.

"I love the camaraderie among the team in the mornings. We are a different breed. We come in the night before or in the middle of the night," says Cooney, a Northern Kentucky native.

It's official: Jerry Springer, whose daytime talk show ceased production last spring, will debut next fall as TV's Judge Jerry, and likely air on Cincinnati television.

In late October, I reported that Springer – the former Cincinnati attorney, mayor and news anchor turned TV talk host – had taped a TV court show pilot for NBCUniversal, which produced and distributed the Jerry Springer talk show, which ended production earlier this year.