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I have a rolling list of stations that have yet to switch to GrayONE. 52 news departments have yet to switch. KOSA/KCWO has somewhat soft-launched with their logo but still using old graphics.

Knew it was coming and I understand his reasoning, but I'll miss Bill and Sade working together. As of tonight, they've also updated the 11pm thumbnail with Mike:

With CBS moving to channel 69, their unrealized attempt at moving to that station in 1994 will finally be realized, bringing those plans "full eyeball" (a reference to the CBS Eye logo)...

This is from 1994 when CBS originally accounced that they purchased WVEU with the intent of making it the CBS affaliate in Atlanta. This clip was from WAGA, which was in the process of leaving CBS for FOX.

This is an exclusive from Front Office Sports regarding how Inside the NBA on ESPN and ABC will operate next season. I will do a list, so apologies, but its to drive the bullet points home from this article... TL;DR: The show will lead ESPN's pregame and halftime programs. There will be an extensive postgame show, which ESPN wants to run as long as it has been on TNT. They'll be on Opening Week, Christmas Day, all ABC games after Jan. 1st, and the final week of the season. The show will air live during their biggest NBA events, including the playoffs (like before), conference finals (like before), and, for the first time, the NBA Finals. https://frontofficesports.com/inside-inside-the-nba-transition-to-espn/

Since the NFL still requires streaming-exclusive games to have a local broadcaster air them, that would be an easy gain for Falcons games on Gray, without CBS prices.

They are this year

More changes in Atlanta. WXIA's much promoted 4pm team of Johnathan Martin (formerly KRIV) and Faith Jessie is no more. He swaps places with morning anchor Cheryl Prehiem. Rachael Cox Rosen is the new traffic anchor. I liked Jonathan and Faith together. https://www.11alive.com/video/news/local/11alive-morning-team-says-goodbye-to-cheryl-prehiem-and-julie-smith/85-fb635351-f770-4419-bb36-f875d32729de#

Gray doesn't really have a choice. To be fair, neither do any other broadcasting companies. They can't cut the cord and abandon traditional broadcast TV because that's where they've tied up their money, by investing in infrastructure and technology, and by relying on retransmission fees and --- to a lesser extent for some companies -- advertising revenue. Broadcasters missed the boat when it came to adopting a digital news and programming strategy that could also be effectively monetized. I also think what Gray is doing at WANF is a sign of what's eventually to come for broadcasters. Networks really don't need affiliates anymore. Certainly not as great a need as what existed in decades past. The time will come when the networks get rid of affiliates and rely solely on their streaming platforms. Affiliates will then either sink or swim. Those that do swim will rely on a heavy mix of local news and local programming. But the long-term sustainability of such a plan is in doubt. In 2029, the NFL can opt out of most of its TV contracts, and if it does so, then so goes what is perhaps the biggest reason why people still watch broadcast TV.

I miss the availability of raw numbers like those listed. Yikes.... So only about 9% of households in the Atlanta DMA were watching local news at 11 PM. Despite the overall low numbers it is impressive to see WSB's audience share dominance in 2023. Action News had 24K more households than their closest competitor Fox 5 News and double the audience of Atlanta News First.

What about KXII?

It's not like Gray has a regional sports channel in their cluster that could be accessed for programming...

An unexpected lowpoint from what used to be a respectable network. What is the purpose of this video anyways?

CBS is gonna make ASMR popular.

Yes, this is a real YouTube video, but I didn't have this on my bingo card. Days ago, CBS News released a YouTube video of... Walter Cronkite and the CBS Evening News from June 1971, set to ASMR on a rainy night in New York City. The video is nearly 3 hours and 20 minutes long.

What choice do they have though? It's either that or paid programming. I would say color bars but I doubt it would turn a profit.

Glad he’s not retiring I’ll give him to 2035. But I’m glad he’s staying.

I composed two themes that are used daily; the entire QCL package, and the tease and talent themes, Plus, several handfulls of suplimental cuts, which will still be used.

The difference between WSVN in 1989 and WANF in 2025 is viewers. WSVN succeeded because the "if it bleeds, it leads" format was unique, and it drew in plenty of viewers during a time when you had few other choices for news. Today, you can get your news from almost any local source on your phone. Who needs to watch traditional TV news anymore? Very few people do, and the ratings prove it. Here's what Broadcasting & Cable had to say about Atlanta ratings in 2023: That's pretty bad when you realize that Atlanta has, per Nielsen, 2.7 million TV households. I've no doubt that WANF will do fine in a post-CBS era. Gray has an incentive to ensure the station succeeds. My point is that WANF and Gray are doubling down on more news in a legacy format that is losing viewers and revenue.

I don't see CBS buying KIRO (they couldn't for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with Brendan Carr). At the very least it heavily influences Apollo's attempt to sell off Cox Media and makes it very very hard to sell a station that might be stripped of a network affiliation. Especially if CBS extorts the buyer to make massive reverse compensation payments in order to keep the affiliation, that would make KIRO radioactive to anyone not a competing network. And since Nexstar can't legally buy into Seattle at this time...

With ESPN in the family you would think they’d figure something out as a workaround. It always annoys me when I dip into a newscast from an ABC O&O.

At the rate CBS is heading, WANF and Gray are the winners in that they don't have to pay CBS anymore for less and less content. CBS has done nothing but shoot themselves in the foot for the last several years, especially on the news side. Losing the SEC was another blow, and primetime keeps getting worse and worse. Now that WXIA gave up on the primetime news on WATL, I totally expect WANF to bring it back. And given Gray's great OTT platforms, the reach is far beyond Atlanta as cord cutters and watch WANF virtually anywhere. Since ratings and revenue don't matter anymore, CBS took their ball and went home. They'll be the 5th place operation but as long as people are paying for CBS somehow (through cable, satellite, OTT or Paramount+), they'll get all of the money from that now.

It’s something the ABC stations have done since they broadcasted online. I assume they’re fearful about rights but other chains have no issue.

Top Story is really good. Was hoping he would hand it off to Ellison Barber so he could focus full time on Nightly.

I wish I could say I was shocked but as I've said for years, without the SEC and with CBS becoming what Moonves feared would happen under Viacom's rule, Gray wasn't going to keep paying them for a third-place product at major-market prices. They get a clean slate and now it's all CBS's problem. Like I was saying on the After Midnight thread, replacing it with Byron Allen repeats won't cause affiliates to dump the network, but underinvestment across the board and settling 'that lawsuit' and intefering with news judgement certainly doesn't help. These groups are not willing to pay for content like formless reality shows and Hollywood Squares that only a decade ago were full-on MTV2 and VH1 product. This was where WSVN was on January 1, 1989 and I feel like this is a similar situation, where the network felt no loyalty and was happy to let them go their own way, and it really didn't work out well for CBS, which is de facto irrelevant in Miami. It's never felt like they cared any way or the other for WANF. And yes, we're in an unknown, but TV has adjusted before. Gray has the Braves and the Hawks will eventually come to their own crossroads with FanDuel, and who knows what happens with United and Apple TV; they could offer more games from them, and I feel like in a few years if they keep on this track, they could be at parity with WSB news-wise. Meanwhile, WUPA is just...nothing. It has call letters from a network that died twenty years ago, a lousy lineup and all of its news product has been worse than if they did nothing at all. I don't think they're going to invest a lot in Atlanta; maybe ramping up their sports coverage as the Falcons official station (speaking of cursed entities), but they'll probably do enough to look relevant and not much more than that.