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Inquiring minds want to know: What happened to meteorologist Mike Cejka on Channel 4’s “Wake Up”?
Viewers have noticed that he hasn’t been on the morning program for the last few weeks.
According to sources, Cejka has been moved to weekends for the foreseeable future. The same sources add that the 25-year veteran of the station found out when the schedule was posted and was never talked to about the switch.
His place on “Wake Up” has been taken by meteorologist Amelia Segal, a younger pretty face who has become more impressive on-air recently.
It is unclear if the switch is permanent, but station sources note that temporary changes often become permanent at the CBS affiliate.
* Buffalo always has considered itself a baseball town, but you wouldn’t know it by the ratings for the first game of the World Series on WUTV, the local Fox affiliate.
St. Louis’ win over Texas in Game 1 had a 6.5 local rating, about 30 percent lower than last year’s Game 1 in the series between San Francisco and Texas.
CBS Wednesday lineup of “Survivor,” “Criminal Minds” and “CSI” averaged in double digits and soundly beat the game here. ABC’s “The Middle” and “Modern Family” and NBC’s “Harry’s Law” and “Law & Order: SVU” also beat the game. But for the night when other programs are included, the game averaged about the same as ABC and NBC’s programs.
And just think, it wasn’t that long ago that network competitors would avoid going head-to-head with original programming against the World Series.
* In case you haven’t heard, ABC’s Thursday night series “Charlie’s Angels” with Minka Kelly (see above) is the latest freshman series to be canceled because of low ratings. It was a stupid idea to do a revival of that show.
Alan Pergament was the television critic for The Buffalo News for 28 years. He currently is an adjunct professor at Buffalo State College and Medaille College, teaching courses in communications. He also writes a monthly column on the media for Buffalo Spree magazine.
I was told he was sent an e-mail after he left for the day on a Thursday, and when he came in on Friday, both the News Director and GM were off. Real class acts.
Honest question, does he get paid the same amount of money either way? Is this like less work for the same pay then?
Classless station. Watch out,Don & Jackie.
Channel 4 needs an enema… With Mylous gone, there isn’t much of anyone on that station that I have a desire to watch. I don’t like the Wake Up team at all… I am not crazy about any of the anchors… The weather coverage takes itself too seriously and is too doomsday for me… My go to station is Channel 2, which is pretty hollow, but I at least like the anchors, most reporters and the more stylish presentation.
All good points. Channel 4 was the king but after everyone left in such a short period of time it is brutal to watch. Rachel Kingston scares the cr** out of me. My carved pumpkin looks better than that!
I agree with what you think about the looks of Rachel Kingston. An OK reporter but someone you don’t want to see on tv.
UMMM.. I am officially done with Channel 4! Amelia is fine but is absolutely not as good as Mike. Are they purposely trying to piss all of their viewers off or what? When Mylous left that was bad enough, and then Lisa Flynn left and now I am officially, permanently watching Channel 2 from now on. Hopefully, those at WIVB will read this and actually care about their viewers and put Mike back where he belongs. I guess that is how you treat loyal employers these days.
sorry i meant “employees”.. I am so mad right now I can barely write!!
This is basically a repeat of how Mary Beth Wrobel got ran out of there. Only difference was that she had already been working weekends. What’s next? Cejka gets canned after 25+ years?
Even though Amelia Segal is actually pretty good (better than Lindsay Schwarzwaelder who helped bring her to the station, and light years better than the new guy Bryan Shaw), Cejka still has done much more for the station in his time there.
It definitely seems that Musial and LIN Media are making all the wrong moves. Gannett seems to be making all the right moves with 2 lately and adding HD in the next few weeks in my view will move it over the top.
I can honestly say that Mike Cejka is the only meteorologist that I really listen to. Don’t get me wrong I love Don Paul but Mike is never over-the-top,doesn’t exaggerate forecasts and is usually spot on.
Mike always struck me as a bit of a pessimist when it came to the weather, forecasting it to be colder and rainier/snowier than it actually would be, or at least portraying it as worse than it needed to be. In fact, I had a joke about his forecasts: “locusts at noon, water turns to blood at five.”
The only meteorologist that I listen to is Channel 2′s Andy Parker. He is very authoritative, love his outreach to the community. He really is a perfect ambassador for Channel 2.
I think Channel 4′s Don Paul knows his stuff, don’t get me wrong. But I feel like he takes too much pleasure in telling people about storms, and all the power outages, flooding and other things that go with them. It must be nice for him to flash that shark smile as he tells us we’re doomed.
Channel 2′s Kevin O’Connell is too busy trying to come up with a food reference or a clever transitional quip. It becomes distracting and annoying.
I liked Channel 7′s Aaron Mentkowski, even though I know some people think he’s boring… But I so rarely watch Channel 7 now, since I have stopped watching “Good Morning America” that I never see any of their people anymore. Is he even on anymore?
I absolutely agree with your thoughts on Andy Parker. Whenever it is time for O’Connell to leave, Ch 2 needs to make Parker the chief met. Then make sure that MB Wrobel stays permanently. Either her or Autumn Lewandowski would really fit weekday mornings well. As for Maria Genero- I have to say she would be the most unwatchable of the bunch because she tries to go a little over the top like Don Paul likes to do.
Dave- Aaron Mentkowski moved to afternoons, doing the 5, 5:30, 6, and 11pm shows. Mike Randall moved to mornings. In fact, 7 last night put together some commercial about how they think it’s important to have the Chief Met on in the mornings now.
As a meteorologist myself, about Segal’s age, let me attest to a couple of things:
1) It wouldn’t surprise me if Segal herself sought the change. Working Saturday nights all the time is murder on a young adult’s social life, especially in a place where there’s not a lot to do.
2) Cejka has a history on weekends, and had quite a bit of success there the last time he was there (before he moved to replace the long-departed Chuck Gurney on mornings). I’m thinking this may be an effort to shore up the station’s reputation as a “Kiddie Corps” on weekends. Being older, and settled down, the weekend shift would be a decent fit for him.
All in all, it’s not necessarily a bad move for either one (Cejka has a lighter schedule, and Segal gets weekends off), but at a time when channel 4 has been trimming its corners, swapping a veteran meteorologist’s longer shift with a newer one’s shorter shift screams of being cheap, at the risk of sounding obvious. Weather is one of the toughest departments to cut corners, and outright cutting to three would leave them shorthanded with their current staffing levels (which would also harm their reputation as a weather station quite badly).
More Amelia works for me
This just seems like a ploy to get Mike out the door to make room for the younger, cheaper employees. I can only imagine the money they are saving by hiring all of these kids straight out of school with absolutely no experience. It is sufficient, sometimes, but most of the time the quality is extremely bad and unwatchable.
Tina, that’s not quite true. Amelia and Bryan both had at least two years experience before coming to Buffalo. Channel 4 will not hire a meteorologist straight out of college (they will with a reporter, but not a meteorologist). Believe me, I know.
Did Channel 4 even review Bryan Shaw’s demo tape before hiring him? He seems to be trying to explain way too much in a forecast, stammers way too much during his shows, and doesn’t seem to really know this area well yet. Examples: “We have a little precip, say near, umm, Ellicottville.” That “say near umm” or the “say near” with a pause definitely is not good delivery. In contrast, Amelia has gotten a lot better and has a smooth delivery in her shows. Definitely better than Lindsay’s entire time with the station.
I disagree. I thought Lindsay Schwarzwaelder had more personality and was much more of a natural in front of the camera. She’s way better than any of Ch. 4′s Kiddie Corps hires.
I wouldn’t think so. I think they saw Bryan’s résumé, saw “Lyndon State” on it, noted it was Cejka’s alma mater, and gave him the job. A lot of stations do that (PA stations, for instance, show heavy favoritism to Penn State grads).
Lindsay was NOT natural in front of the camera when she started. She was unwatchable. She stumbled, said a lot of “umms,” had a very awkward delivery style. That said, when she left, her improvement was very noticeable. She really had improved and gained confidence in those 2 or 3 years. Channel 4 weekend viewers went through the growing pains, then she left. But good for her, whatever extra work she did to work on her delivery paid off.
I thought Amelia was hired straight out of school. Don Paul kept talking about it and how she was a Penn State graduate. Lindsay was not camera ready when she was hired but learned fairly quickly. Bryan is just too hard to watch/follow because my attention span doesn’t allow me to sit through the “umms and uhh’s” for very long, exactly like Tom was saying. I still think Mike was demoted no matter how you look at it and it seems like a sneaky ploy to get him to leave.
That’s showbiz.
I acutally got a chance to see some of the newer weather videos from Lindsay’s new station LEX 18. Comparing now to her entire time at Ch 4, she definitely has come a long way since moving on. It could potentially be that her new station has longer weather segments than we have which allows her to explain things better and not rush through. Also, she doesn’t have to be a reporter during the week like she was here in some cases.
However if she had stayed here, I would easily watch her more than Bryan Shaw. At least she did get better over time.
As for Mike Cejka, I would not be surprised if it’s to try and force him out the door. 25+ years at a station is a long time. With LIN’s budget issues, it would save them a lot of cash compared to one of the new people coming out of school or their first tv job. Loyalty to a station or ownership means nothing anymore in most cases.
What 4 should have done is similar to what 2 has been doing for a while: hiring a mix of solid veteran reporters and then introducing the younger reporters into the fold. They seem to have struck a good balance and their consistancy/professionalism definitely outshines the other stations right now. On average, I think 2 has the best tenure among the actual reporting staff since most have been there at least 3-5 years or longer.
A good way to put it is that 2 is now what 4 used to be. 2 in the late 80′s/early 90′s kept having the revolving door while 4 kept rising to the top and eventually got there. Now, 2 is rising to the top while 4 is in a freefall with the revolving door.
I watched Mike last night. I must say it made me feel sort of bad for him after being with the station for so long to then be told “hey. you are now on weekends whether you like it or not”. Amelia is good but does not deserve to get the full time shift so soon.
Channel 7 might need a meteorologist, maybe he should do that and let Channel 4 try working with just 3 meteorologists again…we all know how well that worked out.
Mike could do well at 7, but they’re in worse budget shape than 4. However, with Jennifer Stanonis leaving, they only have 2 meteorologists right now, and a regular reporter who does the forecasting on weekends in Mike Spong.
As for 2, Maria Genero’s contract should be coming up for renewal in January or February so who knows at this point (she had signed a 2 year deal). My guess is if she were replaced, it could likely be by Mary Beth Wrobel who has been filling in and doing weather production at 2 since being canned by 4. Since they have 5 on their weather staff (counting MB). I don’t think that Cejka would be filling a position there unless they want to expand to 6 on their staff.