Wjz

In the new world of endless channels and multiple ways to watch TV, you almost never see as dramatic a change in viewing as the one unfolding in Baltimore this fall. After a year of speculation about how the end of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" would affect the fortunes of local stations, the October "sweeps" ratings period shows WJZ surpassing longtime ratings champ WBAL in the afternoon and early evening. Call it the aftereffect of the legendary Oprah Factor. Even if she hasn't yet found a way to translate her ratings magic to her new cable channel OWN, Winfrey still has an impact on local TV. Last October, WBAL, Baltimore's Hearst-owned NBC affiliate, was drawing 74,700 total viewers from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

Glenn H. Lahman, a pioneering television broadcast chief engineer who never lost his affection for old tube radios, died of cancer Oct. 10 at his Annapolis home. He was 86. Born in Bucyrus, Ohio, he left a farming community for the Valparaiso, Ind., Technical Institute, an engineering school. He then joined the Army and served in Europe during World War II. He landed at Normandy in July 1944 while in the Second Armored Division and later fought in the Battle of the Bulge. In later years, Mr. Lahman wore his original master sergeant uniform in the St. Patrick's Day Parade and in the Annapolis Memorial Day Parade.

Kevin Cowherd Sunday's games Panthers at Falcons Colts at Bengals 49ers at Lions Rams at Packers Bills at Giants Jaguars at Steelers Eagles at Redskins Texans at Ravens Browns at Raiders Cowboys at Patriots Saints at Buccaneers Vikings at Bears Monday night Dolphins at Jets Edward Lee ...

Kevin Cowherd Ravens 31, Rams 7 Cam Cameron doesn't have to change his phone number this week as Ravens reassure their rattled fans with an offensive outburst. Edward Lee Ravens 20, Rams 16 The Ravens catch a break with the Rams coming off of a short week, losing their top running back and wide receiver to injuries, and fielding the worst rush defense in the league. Mike Preston Ravens 20, Rams 10 Ravens have to make up for last week's disaster.

It was deja vu all over again for viewers of WJZ-TV's 11 p.m. news who had watched the "CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley" earlier Tuesday. Instead of seeing the Baltimore faces of Denise Koch and Vic Carter at 11 p.m. after a night of CBS new-season programming Tuesday, viewers found the station running seven minutes of Pelley's network broadcast that had aired at 7 p.m. How does that happen at a network-owned station? Here is the explanation from K.C. Robertson, WJZ spokesperson: “The station's main production switcher experienced a critical failure late Tuesday evening," Robertson said in an email response to the Sun. "The equipment failure prevented the news broadcast from starting on time at 11p.m.  Between 11p.m.

As reported yesterday, WBAL's new afternoon strategy of "Ellen" at 4 p.m. opened strong on Monday. And it did well again on Tuesday in Oprah's old spot with viewers 25 to 54 years of age. But WJZ, which had tennis on Monday, came roaring back Tuesday with the premiere of its afternoon lineup to dominate in overall afternoon viewership. From 2 to 3 p.m. WJZ's "The Talk" more than doubled WBAL drawing 53,300 viewers to 20,500 for Anderson Cooper's new show. Meanwhile, Jerry Springer drew 31,900 viewers for WBFF, with WMAR getting an audience of 13,200 for "One Life to Live.

WBAL-TV likes what it sees from the early returns on "Ellen" as its replacement at 4 p.m. for "Oprah. " Monday's premiere opened 64 percent higher than the premiere of the last season on "Oprah" in September 2010. Perhaps, most impressive is that "Ellen" was up 43 percent over Oprah in women 25 to 54 years of age, the kind of demographic the station can sell some ads on. The number of total viewers for "Ellen" was impressive. WBAL had 59,153 viewers, which almost doubled its nearest competitor, WBFF with 30,195.

For stations in Baltimore and across the country, Monday is the first day of the post-Oprah Winfrey era. Llike their counterparts nationwide, stations here will be trying new and (allegedly_ improved shows to grab a piece of the huge audience that the queen of daytime television held for 25 years. Baltimore's late-afternoon TV landscape will include a new talk show featuring what syndicators describe as a more personal Anderson Cooper, as well a new time slot for Ellen DeGeneres' "Ellen" at 4 p.m weekdays on WBAL — Winfrey's old Baltimore home.

All of Baltimore's TV stations deserve some credit for trying to provide area residents with the information needed Saturday to make sound decisions about how to best to deal withHurricane Irene. But once again, there were two tiers of coverage, and, as usual, the top one belonged to WJZ and WBAL, and the other to WBFF and WMAR. The latter two rarely make the same commitment to major stories as WJZ and WBAL. And I have to say, WJZ really went all out on Irene, getting on the air first and staying straight on without any breaks since at least 2:30 p.m. Saturday, according to my viewing log. Much praise to Denise Koch and Adam May who stayed strong from 2:30 to 9:10 p.m at the anchor desk.