Wall to Wall Coverage in Boston to Honor Former Mayor Menino's Life

It was just last week that former Boston Mayor Tom Menino announced that he was suspending his book tour and stopping his cancer treatments.

While we knew the time was coming, I don't think anyone thought it would happen this quickly.

All four news stations provided continuous coverage of the death of Mayor Menino, as well as New England Cable News.

Here is how the stations covered the story:

WBZ News broke into The Price is Right at 11:26am with Kathryn Hauser. David Wade, Lisa Hughes, Jonathan Elias and Paula Ebben picked up the coverage shortly after with political reporter Jon Keller, WBZ contributor Ed Davis and Centro host Yadires Nova-Salcedo in the studio. David Wade & Lisa Hughes and Jonathan Elias & Paula Ebben rotated anchor duties throughout WBZ's special live coverage, then anchoring their normal time slots at 5pm & 6pm. WBZ News was live until 6:30pm, then took a break for the CBS Evening News. WBZ returned at 7pm with David Wade & Lisa Hughes for another 30 minutes of special coverage and resumed regularly scheduled programming at 7:30pm. WBZ News at 10pm on MyTV 38 was almost entirely dedicated to Menino coverage, but took a few minutes towards the end of the broadcast for other news and weather. The first 15 minutes of the 11pm broadcast on WBZ was devoted to Menino, then they turned to the other news of the day and weather before returning to Menino. The sports segment was also dedicated to local reactions from the sports team on Menino's death.

WCVB NewsCenter 5 was first to break into regular programming at 11:21am, according to TVSpy, with anchors Emily Riemer and Erika Tarantal. Coverage continued with Phil Lipof and Heather Unruh.  They were joined by political reporter Janet Wu, former WCVB anchor Susan Wornick, political analyst Marianne Marsh and former city councilor Mike McCormick in the NewsCenter 5 studio. Ed Harding and JC Monihan anchored live from City Hall. WCVB stayed live until 7pm, and ran a special 1 hour edition of Chronicle until 8pm. At 8pm, WCVB returned to regularly scheduled network programming. NewsCenter 5 at 11 started remembering Menino with Ed Harding and Heather Unruh in studio, and Phil Lipof at City Hall Plaza. The Menino coverage lasted throughout the whole newscast with a break for some other news, weather and sports.

WHDH 7 News broke into The Todat Show at 11:22am with Christa Delcamp and Nancy Chen. Kim Khazei and Adam Williams took over when they got to the station. Political reporter Andy Hiller was also in the studio. WHDH was live until 6:30pm, then took a break for the NBC Nightly News. They returned for a half long special at 7pm, and resumed regularly scheduled programming at 7:30pm. 7 News at 10pm on CW56 was almost entirely dedicated to covering the death of Mayor Menino. 7 News did cover one other story and weather. 7 News at 11pm was also was almost entirely dedicated to the Menino coverage with a break for some other news and weather. The sports segment was also dedicated to Menino coverage and his impact on local sports.

WFXT FOX 25 News broke into The Wendy Williams Show at 11:31am with anchor Gene Lavanchy, who was joined shortly after by Maria Stephanos. When Mark Ockerbloom got to the station, he and Maria continued the coverage. FOX 25 stayed in continuous coverage until 8pm when regular FOX programming came on. The FOX 25 News at 10pm was mostly devoted to Menino, with other news of the day and weather mixed in. The FOX 25 News at 11pm was also mostly Menino coverage, with other news of the day and weather. The sports segment was also devoted to a Menino story.

All four stations stayed with live continuous uninterupted coverage for the first few hours before commercial breaks resumed.

Overall, the four Boston broadcast news stations provided great coverage to honor the life and memory of Mayor Tom Menino.

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