WMAR-TV / CH.2 /(ABC)
Baltimore's ABC affiliate WMAR ABC2 has greatly improved over the last few years. WMAR has been consistantly in third place in the ratings was against WBAL and WJZ for about as long as I can remember. Last year they finally did some much needed changes. WMAR added better anchors to their roster - giving the station a much needed community connection. They revamped the stations graphics and even changed the identity of the station to "ABC-2". WMAR now has a sharp looking newscast along with talent that people in their area know and trust. ABC network programming has also improved over the last year, so the timing was perfect to rebuild the station's on air look. WMAR also has a great website, complete with a live 5PM feed of their news. WMAR's weather radar is the only TRUE LOCAL (WJZ gets theirs from intellicast.com and WBAL gets theirs from wx.com) radar provided on the internet, and it's updated every 3 minutes.
WBAL-TV / CH.11 / (NBC)
WBAL-TV is a Hearst owned and operated NBC affiliated TV station. Hearst owns a bunch of TV stations around the country (along with radio and newspapers) and most of their TV stations use the same, or very similar news graphics. Closest to Baltimore, Hearst owns WGAL-TV, channel 8 up in York/Harrisburg. The look of their news is very similar, right down to the news open (with the camera lens turning to face the screen). What WBAL has over WGAL, and over the other TV stations in the Baltimore market is top-notch talent. Their isn't a hokey small town feel to them like WJZ-13, for example, just a straight ahead prefessional news delivery. WBAL-TV offers a polished newscast with solid reporting on both local and national news. Most reporting seems to be done in house, with not a lot of feeder services supplying news. Watch WBFF/WNUV and count the number of CNN (CNN NewSource) reporters on there. WBAL uses some NBC feeds, but mostly stays with their own reporters. The break-ins for local weather and news on the "Today" show are equally professional. There isn't a drop in quality like on other stations that take local breaks from a network show.
WJZ-TV / CH.13 / (CBS)
WJZ billes themselves as "Baltimore's Favorite Newscast", and they do have a dedicated following. WJZ is usually the news ratings winner in Baltimore in most time slots. WJZ revamped their set not too long ago, which was long overdue. They now have a rather standard set with Baltimore city in the background, some monitors behind the anchors, and a standard bookcase set. It's a newscast in your living room type set. WJZ was still using a chroma blue set up until 1998! They still have ugly graphics, especially the solid blue and gold wedge "WJZ 13" bug. They shoot the talent way to close up, so you can see their eyes reading the prompters, which looks really bad. As an outsider to the market the talent may seem real hokey. The guys in the morning have accents, they gab a lot, etc....but the locals love that. The talent have also been at WJZ a long time, giving the station a real local community feel. WJZ was the first station to get a helicopter in the Baltimore area, beating out WBAL by a few days. Now they have the right ingedients for a good newscast, they just have to get better graphics, lose the bug, and back off on the close ups. Hey, at least they now look equal to the rest of the competition.
WUTB-TV / CH.24 / (UPN)
UPN-24 is the areas newest station. It used to be a Home Shopping Channel affiliate until the Winter of '97, when it became a UPN affiliate. They do absolutely no local productions. They run the station out of Secaucus, N.J. and fiber it down to the Baltimore transmitter. They show a mix of "Vintage" TV (old shows) and UPN programming, a double bad mix! I can't bash them too much, because they are still new. I really don't like the idea of running the station out of NJ's WWOR-TV studios. It should be a local Baltimore station. Is it really cheaper to run "Good Times" out of New Jersey?
WBFF-TV / CH.45 / (FOX)
WNUV-TV / CH.54 / (WB)
These two stations have the same newscast. WNUV has local news at 6:30pm, and WBFF has an hour long 10pm newscast - which explains the hour long 10PM re-runs on WNUV. Most of their news is done by outside sources, like "CNN Newsource" and "Fox News Edge". The set is pretty bad. The Anchors sit at a round table that looks like an extra from the set of Star Trek. The lighting is bad, shadows are everywhere- probably no dimmer panel. I was told by a producer that they don't have a digital clock in the control room! A real low budget operation! Lots of technical problems plague this newscast. Every day there are head clogs on taped bumpers and packages, and they must use old tape because I always see beta drop out. With all of that in mind they do actually pull off a decent newscast. The anchors are pretty good, even the fill-ins are good. The station doesn't do any local productions that I know of, and that's probably a good thing. FOX-45 will be launching a morning newscast soon, and they are spending a good deal of money on it.
MPT / Various / (PBS)
Maryland Public Television covers the entire state, both over the air and on cable. They don't do a lot of local productions, and when they do - they don't look very good! Pretty much a low-rent version of DC's WETA. MPT is a pretty basic PBS affiliate with a bunch of simulcaters around the state.
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