I've been subjected to the absolute lamest publicity segments on the Channel 5 news this week. They built "Studio5" which is one of these studios that's on a plaza with glass around the studio down on Michigan Avenue - think Today Show in Chicago. They've been promoting this damn thing for well over a week. I really don't understand how this is going to help the local early morning news market at all. Well, they finally opened it this morning. Two things jumped out at me - they don't have a clue on how to light the set. I mean Andy Avalos was in from of a chromakey-green backdrop to do the weather and he had shadows all over him, not to mention the anchors being underlit (and shadowy) against the bright plaza behind them. It's awful. The audio levels were all over the place or non-existent. It's not like the audio guy doesn't know how to run a board... does he?

It's all a case of making the studio a news story, which I just hate. They even had Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Mayor Richard M. Daley out in the alleged "crowd" outside on the plaza (along with Rev.Jesse Jackson, who and former POW Shoshona Johnson, who was in town).

Ugh.