All Activity

Everyone is compensated. No work happens for free. Having not worked there, I can't speak specifically to CBS. But I know when WNBC talent filled in on the network (either news or sports) they were paid as a freelancer. Typically a day rate. Don't get hung up on the name freelancer. They aren't an outside freelancer in a traditional sense, but they aren't network on-air talent. They are employees of the local station. There are also union rules and talent contracts to take into account. First, union rules differ by shop but it is highly unlikely that any union would permit a member to do additional work for something as arbitrary as an "extra day off" or "national exposure". The reason? The networks could begin to staff positions by offering national exposure. This isn't a work-study internship. I mention contracts because some local talent might be able to negotiate the inclusion of some national hits into their contract. But again, they would be paid for this work. Opportunities for local news talent to fill in at the network have slowly evaporated. WNBC talent occasionally appeared on the now-defunct "NBC News at this Hour" updates and filled in as the newsreader on TODAY. The newsreader position no longer exists in the same form. And when Craig is out, one of the other TODAY personalities fills in. Same at ABC as both shows have large "enable" casts compared to the past. The biggest opportunity for network fill-in work is weather-related. CBS doesn't have a network weather staff like NBC and ABC, so they lean on their local meteorologists regularly. Long way to say, every person is PAID. Heck, every guest on a talk show is paid. When Chuck Scarborough recently appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show, he was paid.

I don't get what's crazy about that. Comp days for working additional days as a salaried employee is pretty standard. I'm salaried. If I work an additional day, I get a comp day to use either in that pay period or in the future. My paycheck doesn't change. Working late or long hours because of breaking news or elections is one thing – everybody more or less expects that. But I can tell you that people are not coming in on their days off to do extra work for whatever reason without getting compensated for it at all. There are all kinds of work agreements out there. It's hard to know the exact details of anyone's agreement if you don't at least work for the same company. I do know of full-time on-air staff in big markets who are paid hourly. I don't think I've ever heard of an anchor in a big market who isn't salaried, but it's possible that there may be some out there. The point is that people like Maurice and Kristine aren't coming in on their days off to do network news just for the exposure and without anything in return. They are, at minimum, getting paid like it's any other day of work for them. I would imagine they have smart agents who ensure their contracts state that they might get paid a little bonus for doing network anchoring, but I can't be sure of that.

Yeah becasue its almost impossible to get a network job, especially if you want to go local to national from the New York market, almost every person I've talked to either turned it down or didn't get picked, so it must be fun occasionally filling in. I was talking to Michelle Charlesworth on Instagram she told me she was offered a network job but turned it down becasue she was afraid she wouldn't see her family. Only journalist I've seen who was in the NY market that got a network job was Weija Jang. And I found out Marci Gonzales worked at channel 7 before going to ABC News. And ofc Sam Champion went to GMA. Besides that they just seem to be uninterested.

I remember when WTVD kept ABC 11 but briefly rebranded to “Channel 11 Eyewitness News” in 2005, but the annocuer still called it ABC11 Eyewitness News but it was brief by the end of 2005 reporters stopped saying that and they returned to “ABC 11 Eyewitness News”. KTRK in 2015 became “ABC 13 Eyewitness News” and after being “13 Eyewitness News” but kept in general ABC13. Here a brief look at “Channel 11 Eyewitness News”.

That seems crazy to me. They're salaried employees. It's not like they're paid by the hour. Do you think they get compensatory time off when there's a major news event and they need to be on the air for extra hours or anchor on the weekend after a big event? Wouldn't only freelance reporters by paid hourly? Certainly not their main anchors. I can't speak for Maurice and Christine, but I can tell you that reporters like Jenna DeAngelis and Lisa Rozner post on IG and always seem to be thrilled when they do the hourly CBS Newsbreak segments on the weekend. I doubt it's because they get a day off during the week for doing it (if they do at all) or get paid extra for working overtime. Seems like they like the exposure.

Because at the time, ABC was a strong network and often finishing #1 in primetime thanks to hits like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and then Desperate Housewives, Lost, etc. a few years later. WABC was also trying to climb back to the top spot in news ratings after falling behind WNBC at 5pm and 6pm for the first time since the 1980s. (WNBC has just picked up Judge Judy from WCBS and Judy on Ch. 4 began beating Oprah on Ch. 7. As a result, WABC’s lost its longtime grip on the 4pm, 5pm and 6pm time slots.) Co-branding with a strong ABC made sense, and Disney/ABC wanted their owned stations branded as ABC. Eventually, ABC’s prime time hot streak ended after Millionaire was over scheduled and research found that New Yorkers never warmed up to identifying Eyewitness News with “ABC7”… it was and is identified with “Channel 7”. So, WABC reverted to Channel 7 for news branding and held on to ABC7 for non-news branding, thanks in part to Disney/ABC forcing the ABC co-branding. Because at the time of website launches, KABC was better known as ABC7 by LA area viewers. “ABC7” never existed nor caught on with New York area viewers, hence why WABC launched as 7online.com.

Back in February, Trish Hartman co-anchored the Sunday morning news with Nydia Han for 2 weeks. They've definitely been trying things out.

He’s probably there as long as he wants to be but must figure he has more work to do or he’s having fun while it lasts. They won’t cut him unceremoniously or anything.

Agreed I suppose they initially wanted to emphasize network branding more, then opted to return to their roots. Instresting observation. The the flagship NYC ABC/NBC and CW stations really don't verbally emphasize network branding. In PIX's case not even the network logo. But NYC has long been like this. Look at WABC, it barely featured the abc logo until the mid 90s. Desite the current ABC O&O streamlining they're still less identical than the 80s when they all had nearly identical sets.

Trish Hartman co-anchored all the Saturday evening newscasts with Walter yesterday. Wonder if they are testing pairs with him to give him a permanent co-anchor or if this was a one off.

Yea, bit that's an example of "cable-only in that market station" Also, Cable providers are probably not going to spend time putting the CW+ and put WTVX from Fort Pierce-West Palm Beach or WXCW from Naples-Ft. Myers in Miami, Florida cable systems. And in Tuscon, it'll put KAZT from Phoenix-Prescott, Arizona.

They’re relaying that means not in-market.

Since the NYC weekday edition of NewsNation Now debuted last year, they kept this strange dichotomy where the Chicago edition with Nichole Berle features a logo with white text on a blue background, while the NYC edition with Connell McShane features a logo with blue text on a white background. I figured they might go for a unified look on the weekends, but nope. The NYC edition hosted by Anna Kooiman uses the blue text w/white background logo, while the brand-new Chicago edition hosted by Adrienne Bankert uses the white text on blue background logo, despite the fact that the NYC/Chicago timeslots are reversed on weekends. Looks like it's the originating city, and not the timeslot, that determines the logo.

Glendive relays on TV station in Billings for ABC, Fox (and MyNetworkTV) and The CW+ (That and PBS, but we're talking about Commercial stations.) Even KXGN-TV has some newscasts from KTVQ (Q2) on 5.1 and KULR-TV on 5.2 Both KTVQ and KULR are in Billings. The networks are probably more smarter than in 1994 surrounding ownership-induced affiliation swaps.

Yeh no networks and markets are gonna go through that chaos for some low rated network to have some visibility. Shot Dignets like Bounce TV, Grit or other probably get better ratings then then. Tucson and Miami just won’t have affiliates.

Okay? Mostly what I said was more of a rant because I don't understand the hate against Nexstar. I am sorry for some of the stuff I said and yes, you are entitled to your opinion. But no seriously, I don't think the FCC would waste time forcing cable providers to put the CW+ as part of the Must-carry rules. That's probably not the choice the FCC facing. I also don't think anyone (WBSF, WLAJ-DT2) is going to put an translator in the Detroit market (How would that work?) Mostly, I'm saying the more viable option is though WDIV-TV 4.2, it might not work, but it could work. Also, they only got into the larger markets around 2017-2019 with the Media General deal in 2017 and the Tribune Media deal in 2019 so that could be the reason. That or he's lazy.

Spanish-language networks and some dignets have that all the time. Shoot Monterrey-Salians after KNTV dropped ABC and got merged into San Fran, Monterrey Bay was without ABC until KSBW got it in 2011. I think Glendive doesn’t have an affiliate.

I just still am amazed they broke tradition to do that. I just wondered why.

As someone in a "12 News" in my town with WISN, I can't object to this, it was known as Channel/TV 12 a whole lot longer on Fox, and as you said it's branding poison. At least for their roster of stations that moved to the Fox with the NFL in the 90s and the charters this might be harder to stomach like KVVU, WXIX and WHNS, but after 2000'ers like KPTV with that longboy logo are probably happy to let it go. They've done a great job transitioning WBRC to call letters first so I expect the same care to be taken with some of these stations, though the subs like WGGB-DT2 and WOVA-LD will be a bit harder to reconcile.

What do you make out that Devin Scillian didn't take the buyout? Will he get renewed on the next contract cycle? He been a mainstay for 30 yrs.

Scripps punted the CW to KNXV's Antenna TV sub and Nexstar couldn't wait to get out of there. There is no reason why Graham would stick it in the middle of a plug-and-play national diginet, nor any reason why Nexstar would accept such an offer in a top 20 market. I am entitled to my opinion. And my opinion, BTW, is NOT that Nexstar is "the devil" (that I even have to explain this is utterly embarrassing). I view Nexstar as a cheap-as-hell company that bought out the competition because interest rates were non-existent. They still to this very day act like the small-market small-minded bush league operators of WYOU and WBRE in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Not an actual owner of a television network or of prestigious stations like KTLA or WGN. It might actually surprise you to find out that there exists no mandate for a network to have an affiliate in every market. That does not exist. If no station in Detroit wants to affiliate with the CW, that's totally on them and it's because they saw it as something not worth pursuing. Welcome to the free market. I am replying to correct the record on things you said about me that are heretofore untrue, and I have every right to do so.

I could care less about news branding, but maybe WABC in New York felt more like going back to tradition considering their history & decided against ABC network branding. Not the only ones in NYC doing it as WNBC does it opting for "News 4 New York", sister NBC O&O WRC in Washington, DC does the same with "News4". Also notice the websites for the 2 ABC flagships, you'd think abc7.com would be for their main flagship, but it actually goes to KABC in L.A. while it's abc7ny.com for NYC.

KXMD KX11 Eyewitness News from 1983. WOW! It's awesome to see this very small-market footage pop up. Makes me have faith that we will find some vintage KXGN Glendive clips soon, too. That's one of my holy grails as a VHS collector - an entire primetime schedule and news from market #210. Anyhow... WQAD NewsChannel 8 Nightside from December 1993 A KNDO Saturday newscast on 1/24/1998, originating from KNDU and Tonya, Tonya, and Tonya are the themes of this KGW clip from 2/8/1994.

I realize but I think they and he want to forget that part… I didn’t think it was quite that long a stint…

When did WPCH-TV launched separate SD feed on 17.4? According to Wikipedia it aired almost same 17.1 content with no local news and CW programming, which is as same as the Canadian cable viewers gets.