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Katie Raml said farewell to the Valley today at the end of tonight's 6PM KNXV (ABC Phoenix) newscast after nearly a quarter-century there, seeing it rise from the bottom all the way to pretty the top if not close to it now. Considering how some of the corporate owners, particularly KNXV's owner, Scripps, have been handling things, we're lucky in this market that there hasn't been the craziness that has dumbed down news operations as we've seen elsewhere. And nice to see when the network acknowldeges it too seeing World News Tonight anchor David Muir recording a "Thank You" video for Katie, it's one thing if it's for a local anchor in NYC, where you might as well be a part of the network knowing how their news dept. operates, but another if it's for a non-O&O affiliate. https://youtu.be/DQpKmEIP6u8?si=m_yWzUOvx2wLBqTt https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DfzqbwpFU/

Some things of note that may or may not have already been mentioned: The Lightning are joining the Panthers and moving to Scripps Sports next season from Fox Bally FanDuel Sports Network Sun; WXPX is going to shift from Ion to an independent to become its flagship station Something odd I've noticed in Sportsnet's Stanley Cup coverage is that very recently, the network has switched to using a bug of the Rogers logo instead of the Sportsnet logo during Stanley Cup coverage. No other changes to the graphics (which are still primarily branded with Sportsnet logos, with the Hockey Night in Canada brand heavily downplayed despite the CBC simulcasts; the previous graphics package/Stanley Cup logo had a Sportsnet/HNIC co-branding on either side), and all of Sportsnet's other programming/broadcasts still use a Sportsnet bug. The CBC simulcasts also still use a CBC bug.

These screenshots of their new 30 rock studios are from the TELEMUNDO47 YouTube channel

Normally, WDAY-TV articles online are paywalled. Not this one... ... because it's John Wheeler's last newscast in full from earlier tonight. They did it really well, especially the last half hour. https://www.inforum.com/weather/live-at-6-p-m-john-wheelers-farewell-forecast-on-wday?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_WDAY_TV_News&fbclid=IwY2xjawKUv7JleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHvvOecBRlSRqTZZ59Cd_QvD3OmUjzp5nX2HUKKtqhWK07SMhHOVgq-0kaBdp_aem_8vAtR7vvhikBVT2OdA7nJQ

Shannon Cake's farewell. WPTV spared NO EXPENSE in going all out for her. Even former colleages like Michael Williams, Roxanne Stein, and Jim Sackett all came by to wish her a farewell. These videos aren't embedded so you'll have to go to YouTube directly for them: https://youtu.be/lSpGIFe7leo?si=qajbgy50Vupj6Bw6 https://youtu.be/geVGcK5GUkk?si=dxUMy25Kv_FQBnnl https://youtu.be/wXnXlRURwuw?si=m_jMgV7XIKJLctHR

I’ve watched Wheeler for years and the special one-hour farewell is more than fitting. Included a proclamation and key to the city of Fargo from Mayor Mahoney, a city snow plow plow being renamed the “Wheeler Weather Peeler”, and the entire current weather team on hand in the studio.

Even WISH-TV's look keeps it alive after Nexstar traded over to WTTV/WXIN. And WXIN's new look looks like a more refined GrayOne. GrayOne hasn't even made it's way around the country yet and it's getting stale. I wonder if they ever intended to take it national after it debuted at WANF.

Today's the last day for SportsCenter L.A. and next week is the last for the legendary Around The Horn. My ESPN childhood is slowly going away.

Canada Good 'ol Frankie is retiring from Citytv's BT Toronto. After 20 years, Frank Ferragine is retiring from the morning show and his last day is May 30th. https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/television/breakfast-television-s-frank-ferragine-a-k-a-frankie-flowers-to-retire-after-20-years/article_7bc7c4f4-5943-4b1a-a061-45178044e2b2.html

Reminders for tonight for those of you who want to record final newscasts of these folks for prosperity and historical reference: • WPTV's Shannon Cake at 6pm ET after 29 years. • WDAY's John Wheeler's last newscast at 6pm CT after 40 years. • KNXV's Katie Raml's last newscast at 6pm MT after 24 years (actually longer, working in promotions before leaving, then returning in 2002). Also, next week... Wednesday, May 21st: • WRAL's Debra Morgan at 6pm ET after 32 years. • KENS' Deborah Knapp at 5pm CT after 38 years with the station and 50 in journalism. • WHIO's Cheryl McHenry at 6pm ET after 44 years (she already no longer does the 11pm). • WXIX's Steve Horstmeyer after 17 years there, but 48 in Cincy TV (delayed from March). Friday, May 23rd: • WBAY's Bill Jartz at 10pm CT (1983-1990 and since 1993). These are all I can find for right now but there's a lot of them coming up due to the end of "sweeps."

Noticed Cox customers in SoCal, North of San Diego County, don't get the Dodgers RSN SportsNet LA, so Dodgers fans unable to switch last few yrs. to DIRECTV or Spectrum, will soon able to get SNLA.

Also of note, the Nexstar package has been around waaay longer than GrayONE

Happy for Leon’s sobriety and praying it last his lifetime

Mark Johnson's talent agent (also an attorney) could be filing suit against Scripps and WEWS over his termination... https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/05/attorney-for-mark-johnson-calls-wews-meteorologists-firing-unjust-and-disappointing.html

Last week's Madison meltdown had a positive effect in Allen ending their hubbing experiment. Outside the 11am and 4pm shows, the Wisconsin stations now originate their own newscasts, but the audience reaction to it in a negative manner certainly didn't help with the advertisers.

I'd put this in the category of "Things You Didn't See Coming". I'm not exact shocked that this happened, especially because of all of these media conglomerates merging or acquiring each other quite frequently. Out here in the West, a Cox-Spectrum merger give them practically total control of service in all of Southern California (from Bakersfield on south to the Mexican border), the Las Vegas region, and most of Arizona (particularly the Phoenix and Tucson DMAs). I'm in a Spectrum service area (Los Angeles), but there are also of pockets of the DMA that have Cox as their main MVPD, such as the beach cities in southwestern L.A. County, the Harbor area in the city of Los Angeles (San Pedro, Wilmington), and the southern half of Orange County.

Johnny Archer had been doing the 11AM weekday news recently, but he did the weekend evening news after Frances Wang left. I don't know if Keith & Erin will continue with the 11 AM.

Really surprised they are keeping the Cox name, but with Spectrum being front-facing for the last decade, it makes sense to abandon Charter (which always sounded similar to a drug rehab center that existed until 2000). Besides price though, Spectrum is rock solid for me and I rarely lose service, so I must be in a good part of their service area (originally Marcus). It's just sad to see Cox in so many aspects wind down, though.

Leon Harris went on former colleague's Daryn Kagan's podcast about his alcoholism and how that led to his departure from WRC-TV:

While the Spectrum brand will remain, the Charter name won’t (per a CNBC report): Cox Enterprises will also own 23% of the shares in the new Cox Communications, which will maintain Charter’s existing Stamford headquarters and old Cox’s existing offices in Atlanta post-closing.

Alex Wilson posted on Facebook that she and Mike are alternating weeks and wont be together until some time in June. This is due to severe weather and one of them would be on after Weather Unfiltered for coverage when needed. They're basically in standby mode. The schedules day to day have been crazy. I believe this is due to the simple fact that people are taking time off. With Chris and Jacqui's exit that leaves them a little short so there has been a lot of shifting around when one is off or they just go to a 2 anchor format.

No more advanced talks. It's official: Charter has agreed to buy Cox for $34.5 billion. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-16/charter-agrees-to-combine-with-cox-in-34-5-billion-cable-deal-maqpb06a

Oof. Those poor Cox customers. I've heard nothing but awful things about Spectrum. Maybe Xfinity can put Mediacom out of its misery too. They're so bad they won't even hook up my street, leaving AT&T fiber as my only option.

It looks like Cox Cable could go bye bye as Bloomberg News is breaking a story this morning about a potential deal to merge with Charter a.k.a. Spectrum. Wow. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/charter-advanced-talks-combine-with-cox-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-05-16/

If there's a positive on TEGNA, its that it allows stations to create their own original programs for their streaming channels, KTHV Little Rock being one of them. Chief Meteorologist Tom Brannon now has his own show on THV11+, The Tom Show. In this one excerpt from episode 2, the morning show crew of Tom, B.J. Sams, and Robyn Richardson got together for the first time in nearly two decades to reminisce about their time together on what was a 5:30-8:00 a.m. weekday morning show that, at one point, was #1 for a decade in the morning.