Skin Cancer Special This Weekend

CBS 2 will air "Sunburned: Skin Cancer Exposed" this Sunday at noon. The special will take a look at the sun's dangers now that summer has begun. "Sunburned" originally aired last year on August 5th and is still available on wcbstv.com.

CBS 2 Promo Website

Bruce Erik Brauer, vice president of CBS 2's Creative Services, sends us a link to his website showing off some of his latest projects. He explains the black and white still photos campaign as a desire to stand out from what the other stations are doing. There's also some insight on the weather factoid spots, children's IDs and the year ender.

Weekly Q&A with New Mets Manager

Ducis Rodgers announced in his sportscast tonight that Jerry Manuel, interim manager of the Mets since last week, will join CBS 2 in a weekly question-and-answer session. It will take place on Fridays and will incorporate viewer questions submitted via wcbstv.com.

Carolyn Costello Reports on CBS 2 News

Eileen reports that a new face debuted on CBS 2 News last week. Carolyn Costello contributed packages to the 5:00 news on Thursday and Friday and at 6:00 on Saturday.

It looks like Costello was most recently with WNCN in Raleigh, NC where she was a reporter and weekend anchor. Her WNCN bio says that she is a Long Island native, having worked as an associate producer at News 12 Long Island and a reporter at WLNY 55. Before WNCN, she reported for WXIX in Cincinnati.

Producer's Father Profiled

On this day after Father's Day, the father of a CBS 2 News producer is profiled in Broadcasting & Cable. Bill Applegate, the vice president and general manager of WOIO (CBS 19) and WUAB in Cleveland, took the duopoly from sixth to third place in revenue, in part by building a news department and taking it in a tabloid direction. His son is Brian Applegate, producer of CBS 2's late news, but he's not the only one continuing in his father's footsteps; his sister is an executive producer at KTLA Los Angeles and a brother used to be an EP at KOVR Sacramento.

“I kept trying to tell them, why not architecture?” Applegate says with a laugh. “I guess they grew up watching me run news departments and thought, Gee, that's kind of cool.”

CBS 2 "At The Tonys"

CBS 2 will air its annual Tony Awards preview show this weekend. "At The Tonys," an hour-long broadcast, airs Sunday at noon and is hosted by Dana Tyler.

Here's the description of the program from wcbstv.com's programing page (from TitanTV):

Highlights and performers from this year's Tony-nominated shows are featured, including Patti LuPone, Laurence Fishburne, Patrick Stewart and Martha Plimpton. Also: a sneak peak inside the goody bag.

It also mentions that entertainment reporters Katie McGee and Megan Glaros will contribute reports in the special.

The Broadway-honoring 2008 Tony Awards will air later that night at 8:00 on CBS.

More of Those New Promos

The third batch of those still photos promos hit the air on Wednesday. One features the noon and 6:00 anchor team of Dana Tyler and Don Dahler, meaning that all three of the weekday teams are now been highlighted in these spots. The other shows Cindy Hsu and talks about her parenting reports.

"A Team You Can Trust"


"Your Family, Your News"


These spots began airing on April 29th and the second group debuted on May 21st.

In other promo news, as the heat wave gripped the tri-state area over the weekend and the early part of this week, CBS 2 debuted a few more summer-related weather factoid promos. Here are two: Summer Solstice and Hottest Day.

And in recent weeks, the station has been doing promos for the next day's 6:00 newscast, as is regularly done with the 5:00 and 11:00 newscasts.

Update: We hear that a promo for John Slattery has also been spotted.

Jim McKay Passes Away

Veteran ABC sportscaster Jim McKay passed away of natural causes yesterday at his Maryland home. He was 86 years old. He had hosted ABC's "Wide World of Sports" for over four decades and covered 12 Olympic Games, including the tragic 1972 Munich Olympics. He was the father of CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus.

McKay also had a WCBS connection and it's the reason his last name was changed, according to NPR:

McKay was born Jim McManus in 1921. He was working under that name in 1950, when he took a job hosting a sports show on WCBS in New York. A network executive wanted to call that show The Real McKay — so the host changed his name.

The New York Times has this piece of information:

The next decade brought more television stints at WCBS-TV and the CBS network as a weatherman, a public-affairs moderator, a game show host and a sportscaster.

Heat Wave Weekend NewsBytes

Here are a bunch of quick headlines for you as you try to keep cool in the tri-state this weekend... Feel free to weigh in in the comments section:

> For the first time since Christmas, Cindy Hsu anchored a newscast. The nearly 15-year veteran of the station filled in alongside Chris Wragge on CBS 2 News at 5:00 and at 11:00, and next to Steve Bartelstein this morning.

> A day after two climbers scaled The New York Times building in Times Square, Don Dahler tried to give viewers a sense of what the two publicity-seeking men were feeling. The anchor climbed a 25-foot wall in Chelsea Piers three times and said that, by the end of the climbs, his arms and fingers were cramping, even though he does rock climbing and has done 200-foot cliffs. "The physical feats these men accomplished are nothing short of astounding," Dahler said, adding that they were "very dangerous, illegal, foolish and they could have easily ended in death." Watch the video on wcbstv.com here.

> Megan Glaros filled in for Lonnie Quinn at 11:00 last night even though Quinn was on hand for the 5:00 and 6:00 newscasts. Quinn had to be in Newport, RI to do the weather live from the "Great Chowder Cook-Off" on this morning's The Early Show.

> And speaking of CBS 2 News at 11:00 last night, there were no commercial breaks until 11:32. Hsu and Wragge did a ten-second tease just after "NUMB3RS" and this is usually followed by a 60-second commercial break. Instead, there were a few seconds of black and then the newscast started up. After the one break at the end, Glaros was called on to give another look at the forecast and Hsu and Wragge chatted about it for a few seconds. In the close, Wragge mentioned that it was a "commercial-free edition of CBS 2 News." Was this intentional?

CBS 2 News Covers Second Times Building Climber

Just minutes after reporting about the "French Spiderman" Alain Robert, who climbed the 52-story New York Times Building earlier today, Dana Tyler announced that it was happening again. Yes, a second man was scaling the building's wall. CBS 2 was the first station to report the news at 6:05 and immediately tossed to shots from Dave Carlin's position on the ground. Pictures from Chopper 2 followed soon after and Joe Biermann provided additional information. At one point, an "exclusive" graphic was put up but that was quickly discontinued after it was clear that the other stations had joined in the live coverage of the odd scene.

CBS 2 went to a commercial break at 6:12 and returned with some of the day's other news, weather and sports (which was reduced to just a story about the Yankees) mixed in with additional live coverage. Tyler explained to viewers that the station did not want to follow it continuously because of the possibility that it could end tragically. At 6:17, Biermann noted, "He is getting tired."

At the end of the 6:00 news, Tyler said that they would have more on the climber at 11:00.

WCBSTV.com has a story about the incident here.

Update: WCBSTV.com has the video of the initial breaking news report here... and here are some snapshots:


Tagging the story about the day's first climber with some video of other notable NYC stunts.


CBS 2 had a live shot almost immediately because they had been covering the first climber.


Chopper 2 and Joe Biermann on the scene.


The 52-story New York Times building in Times Square.


A police officer tells Dave Carlin to move out of the way.


The "exclusive" graphic did not stay on the screen for long.

Guzman Returns to Work

Pablo Guzman filed his first report today since being injured in a car accident early last month. His story, featured toward the top of CBS 2 News at 5:00, was about the families of Friday's crane collapse victims.

Update: Eileen writes in to report that Guzman actually returned to the air last week. He filed this report on Thursday and this one on Friday.