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DPG Media from Belgium has been approved by the Authority for Consumers & Markets to take over RTL Nederland, as announced on the Noedoleckin YouTube channel. https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/acm-stelt-strenge-voorwaarden-aan-overname-rtl-nederland-door-dpg-media

Saw this posted online: Made a few bucks from ABC when WABC-TV legend Al Primo plucked part of Schifrin’s COOL HAND LUKE (1967) “Tar sequence” track to be the new theme for “Eyewitness News” here in NYC and on ABC’s (then) 5 owned tv stations … you know the rest! https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/lalo-schifrin-dies-mission-impossible-204407328.html?

My money’s still on FOX snatching up WPLG and makING it an O&O when Fox’s affiliation contract expires with WSVN.

Bill Moyers, former White House press secretary turned acclaimed public TV journalist, dies at 91

Frank Gari brought Lalo's Cool Hand Luke into the 80s and early 90s with NewsSeries 2000. I remember hearing that Gari version on KRDO ABC13 in Colorado Springs (my hometown) when I was a kid. I didn't hear the Lalo Schifrin original until I was a senior in high school and the internet came along. We'll miss Lalo a great deal. Oh, and say Hello to Al Primo for us. Schifrin is now up there with Primo. in the Eyewitness Newsroom in the sky.

I wonder if they'll relocate to some of the space that CNN just vacated downtown...

Here's something new... a physical weather team still in Cedar Rapids, but now using TWC graphics. What an odd mix. Again, its Allen.

I wonder if any of the stations that used that theme will cover this.

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Entertainment/wireStory/lalo-schifrin-composer-mission-impossible-theme-dies-93-123252064 Lalo Schifrin, the legendary Argentine–American composer, passed away today at age 93. Among his many influential scores, the “Tar Sequence” from Cool Hand Luke (1967) found a second life far beyond the silver screen—it was adopted as the signature news theme by numerous ABC-owned stations (and some affiliates) from the late 1960s into the 1990s, and even inspired later Eyewitness News packages—a testament to its driving rhythm and broadcast-ready punch.

Looks like they’re building a full-fledged news operation in Atlanta. I wonder where they’re going to house all those people in WUPA’s current facility.

Good luck with that. WDFL's signal is very weak and unless they significantly upgrade it, more people will access ABC Miami via WSVN 7.2 than WDFL 18.1.

Over 17.1 million Americans watched a national evening newscast last week. In this fragmented media environment, that is a sizeable audience. What's your source on this? Have you spoken to his successor? Is he set on selling to Nexstar, or will he entertain offers from other groups?? I'll put my sarcasm aside to say, I don't understand this overly dramatic doomsday prediction for WPLG. Dropping a costly network affiliation is a "self-destructive" effort that is a"recipe for disaster" and "the biggest blotch" on Warren Buffett's career (as if he made the decision himself). The people who made this decision at Local 10 have a wealth of data to consider. They know what they are paying to ABC. They are aware of their news production costs, syndication programming costs, and so on. In short, they have made a business decision that leaving a 70-year partnership is the more financially beneficial path. Now, not all business decisions work out for the best. WPLG may very well come to regret this decision. But it may be a success. Remember, you don't have to be #1 to be a financial success - owning all of their inventory sure makes that revenue column balloon. I'm not trying to force anyone to root for WPLG's success or failure. I just think it is a bit extreme to make such a bold prediction of a catastrophic collapse without knowing the business factors and fiscal numbers that went into this decision.

I don’t think it’s a bad idea for WPLG. I mean, what else can they do when losing network affiliation other than fill up on news and syndications?

Los Angeles is the market that can sustain such ludicrous amounts of newscasts (and that's including stuff not really news i.e. police chases with people doing it solely for the attention). And it's not like Nexstar wants to use KTLA to actually develop non-news shows, that's crazy talk.

ABC Miami will also be offered on channel 18.1.

And now two years later a new deal has been reached; all those networks are actually coming back to Spectrum, along with Hulu with ads access. I think we can easily see that Spectrum held out and Disney realized that fewer children watching their channels did make a difference in depressing their other properties, like Elio's box office performance last week; kids are not watching interviews with the adult voice actors on Good Morning America and certainly not The View (the only real prominent promotion I saw for the film).

That story is a very interesting way to spin away from the fact that they've just lost half their weather staff, and Tyler and Kristen felt so underappreciated (you can easily argue Kristen was doing so much more work/shifts than the actual chief, and Tyler basically ran the day shift all by himself), that they just gave up and looked for other opportunities. The days of Paul Joseph and John Malan keeping that station the market's gold standard are truly over.

TMJ4 meteorologist Brendan Johnson is being bumped up from weekend mornings to weekday morings. He replaces Tyler Moore who is leaving. Meteorologist Kristen Kirchaine is also leaving the team.

Does all this affect Glendive's status as a Nielsen DMA? It would be interesting to see how ownership changes, loss of NBC, and viewership there makes Nielsen feel about the Glendive area.

Surprised this wasn't posted yet. Former WCAU reporter Orion Reid passed away last week. https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/orien-reid-philadelphia-wcau-tv-channel-10-reporter-dies/4213726/

Spain (using a bull because its something synonymous with Spain, plus the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona is next month. Its almost that time once again) RTVE is making changes once again to its flagship news product, Telediario. Marta Carazo will leave her duties as presenter of the 9pm edition after just 18 months at the helm in September (she originally took over for Carlos Fraganillo when he left to helm the 9pm edition of Informativos Telecinco). This article states that it'll be Lluis Guilera from Canal 24 Horas. There were earlier reports that Silvia Intxaurrondo could've taken over the role (where she would've been moved over from the morning program La Hora de La 1) but several journalists were discontent over that choice, so nothing is certain as of right now. https://www.esdiario.com/chismografo/medios/250622/161681/tve-encuentra-sustituto-marta-carazo-frente-telediario-2.html Also, Sirun Demirjian will be leaving her post hosting the morning edition of Telediario after a five-year run of doing so. Cristina Pampín from Canal 24 Horas was given the position, but she has flatly rejected it. The only certain thing coming in September is that Alejandra Herranz will continue to anchor the 3pm edition of Telediario who she took over from Ana Blanco when she stepped down from the desk after a 30+ year run back in 2022 to work on other projects and programs for TVE (Blanco is now retired). https://www.eldebate.com/cine-tv-series/20250620/malestar-dentro-tve-ante-posibilidad-silvia-intxaurrondo-presente-telediario-2_309138.html One more thing, they're making these changes to better compete against their main competition, Informativos Telecinco, and the undisputed leader right now (and my favorite), Antena 3 Noticias. For example, last Thursday, Juneteenth here in the U.S., the 9pm edition of A3N (anchored by Vincente Valles, himself an ex-Telecinco and TVE anchor) got a 22.2% share, well past TD2 (11.2% with Marta Carazo) and I5 (7.5% with Carlos Franganillo). This article also states that Marc Sala, who also anchors La Hora de La 1 with Silvia, is looking to possibly leave the program in favor of hosting some sort of program on Radio Nacional de Espana (RNE; Spain's public radio broadcaster). https://www.eleconomista.es/informalia/television/noticias/13425333/06/25/tve-ultima-cambios-en-los-informativos-pero-silvia-intxaurrondo-esta-descartada-para-el-telediario-2.html

If you click on the picture, you can see a bit inside the store, but unfortunately, there's no WRAL merchandise. Its just a marketing purpose with no real merch for us fanatics of WRAL-TV, which kinda stinks because I'd wish they did have some so I can buy some whenever I'm in the Raleigh market.

WRAL has a store in the Raleigh-Durham airport. It’s just a market with supplies for travelers. I assume its real purpose is just like any other form of advertising. It exposes newcomers and visitors to the WRAL brand. https://www.rdu.com/wral-travel-store/

That’s probably going to happen within weeks. It underscores how much of a contradiction Miami is. One half is extremely superficial and transient, the other half are the deeply paleoconservative Cuban emigres for which WPLG was blatantly pandering to with the “no bias” tagline. Neither of those groups would seem receptive to national and world news (the latter likely only regarding Cuba and for the most cynical of reasons). Unlike others here and elsewhere, to me, this feels like a recipe for disaster for WPLG. I can’t exactly give them or WANF any real chance for success when the industry is encountering so many headwinds and with syndication becoming extinct.