Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

Hard to believe it's been 30 years since one of Channel 3's most successful morning programs went off the air. "AM Cleveland" was launched as a challenger to WEWS Channel 5's "The Morning Exchange" when the show debuted on May 9, 1983, with newcomer Scott Newell who joined WKYC from WXIA-TV in Atlanta. The show aired weekdays from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. with a live studio audience and periodically would do remote shows from various malls around northeast Ohio, many of which no longer exist today. Newell reminds us that Pierce Brosnan from "Remington Steele" and "James Bond" fame was the very first guest on the show in 1983 from the studios at 1403 E. 6th Street. By 1986, AM Cleveland surpassed "The Morning Exchange" in ratings. However, the show would end its run on March 31, 1989, after 6 terrific years and thousands of guests. Recently, a 30 year reunion was held at the WKYC Studios now located at 1333 Lakeside Avenue...

By Frank Macek It's time again for an edition of "Notes from the Newsroom" as your blogger shares some of his thoughts on our little corner of local broadcast television. --- WKYC is gearing up for our station wide event called a "Heroes Help Northeast Ohio" that will benefit several different groups this holiday season. From 5 am until 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, you can stop by the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center to make your donations to help benefit the Cleveland Foodbank, Salvation Army and Coats for Kids. WKYC will broadcast live throughout the day on WKYC and SportsTime Ohio's "All Bets Are Off with Bruce Drennan" show. We'll even have the Perry High School Marching Band to play for us during the morning hours. And, you'll be able to see our live, all day web stream at http://www.wkyc.com/video/livestream/channel3news.aspx . Please come and make this year's outreach to the community our biggest yet! WKYC, WVIZ/PBS & 90.3 WCPN...

From: Chuck in Cleveland Q: Did Scott Newell leave your station? Lydia said that Chris Tye is her new co-anchor on the weekend news...I loved Scott! A: As we mentioned in an earlier posting ( Chris Tye named weekend anchor ), Chris Tye was recently named new weekend co-anchor replacing Scott. Scott was offered a different position with WKYC, but decided his true love is freelancing and working for the networks as a producer which gives him the chance to travel. So, unfortunately, Scott's last day with us was last week. We'll all miss him greatly. You can email your questions to me: fmacek@wkyc.com