Milwaukee station spotlights team, tools in promos

By Michael P. Hill February 20, 2023

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Hearst’s WISN in Milwaukee has been airing two promos that showcase various aspects of the station’s newsgathering team and resources.

One spot features anchors Joyce Garbaciak, Patrick Paolantonio, Kristin Pierce, Diana Gutierrez and Gerron Jordon, plus forecasters Mark Baden and Lindsey Slater and covers most aspects of the channel’s offerings — ranging from mornings to evenings, breaking news, investigative reporting and weather. 

A recurring visual theme is the use of clips arranged in animated grids with on-screen text. The grid approach allows the promo to incorporate shots of other station talent plus field footage, standups and live shots. 

“WISN 12 News is Milwaukee’s news leader,” says Paolantonio as co-anchor Garbaciak finishes with “… leading the way with important local coverage.”

Overall, this promo has the feel of being part of an image campaign.

A separate promo, meanwhile, focuses on two of the station’s newsgathering tools — News Chopper 12 and News Tracker 12, a helicopter and mobile broadcasting vehicle, respectively.

This promo has a distinctly different feel, using a combination of on-screen text and logos integrated with footage (including subtle shadow effects), to glassy “diagrid” elements from Heart’s group graphics package. There are also views of weather and traffic footage inserted into stock footage of living rooms. 

Much of the text is shown either in solid boxes or with lines above and below it, while some also includes “glitch” effects.

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The final shot of this second promo is a side-by-side view of the helicopter and vehicle, which has the unintended side effect of showcasing the outdated livery on the chopper, which includes Hearst’s previous font-of-choice, Bankers Gothic. 

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