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WBZ announces new morning team
Paula Ebben is set to join Chris Tanaka to co-anchor a revamped 4:30-to-7 a.m. newscast.
Following the departures of hosts Liam Martin and Kate Merrill, WBZ-TV announced this week that Paula Ebben and Chris Tanaka will be the faces of a revamped morning newscast.
Tanaka has been anchoring the 4:30-to-7 a.m. show since March, and Ebben is set to join him on June 17. The pair are reuniting after co-anchoring the 5:30 p.m. show in the past.
Ebben has been with WBZ since 2002. In a recent interview with The Boston Globe, she said that she is looking to offer viewers a peek behind the curtains through segments highlighting how the station’s reporters cover the local news of the day.
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“Viewers love a behind-the-scenes invitation into, ‘Hey, did you see this story that our colleague did today? And what’s happened since?’” she told the Globe. “I think viewers in our area really appreciate the depth of that knowledge.”
Lighter topics will serve to balance out the broadcast. There will be more weather segments, and the “Question Everything” segment will also be added to the show. “Question Everything” dives deep into answering questions like “What’s behind the Stanley Cup craze?” and “Is there a way to fix the pothole problem in Massachusetts?”
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WBZ is looking to make up ground in a competitive market. The early morning newscast lagged behind broadcasts from WCVB and WMUR in New Hampshire in total viewers last month, according to Nielsen data obtained by Globe. WBZ’s show did still outperform WHDH, Boston 25 News, and NBC10 Boston.
Martin announced his departure in March and explained his reasoning for leaving his “dream job” in a follow-up essay for Boston magazine. Despite achieving career success, the nature of being a news anchor caused Martin to sacrifice valuable time with his family. Martin described suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, “crippling” anxiety, and major depression.
“I had been agonizing over the feeling that I couldn’t be the husband or father I wanted to be. With an overnight schedule, I was gone by the time my kids woke up and often in bed before they went to sleep. And when I was present, I was too tired to be truly present. That came with guilt. And more anxiety. And more depression,” he wrote.
Martin is moving to the public relations firm Newsmaker Marketing, teaming up with former news anchor Jackie Bruno. Now the CEO of Newsmaker, Bruno explained how her old job led to depression and burnout in a Boston magazine essay of her own last year.
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Merrill last appeared on a WBZ broadcast in mid-May. After more than two decades at the station, Merrill’s departure was officially confirmed by WBZ earlier this month. No reason was given, and she has not spoken publicly about leaving.
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