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WALA Mobile 1982: evening edition from when Channel 10 was the NBC station of that coastal Alabama area; opening has visual billing of the talent, but no announcer (also, Glenn Robinson is in for Glenda Webb)

Technically, 75 years was back on December 31st, 2024, but its a recent celebration for Tulsa's KRMG Radio as the Cox-owned outlet celebrates 75 years on the radio. https://www.krmg.com/fp/celebrating-75-years-krmg-tulsa-radio/

Basically, the entire NewsNation network is this way. Get fired/quit from a major network (even for cause) and end up on NN because you're a recognizable name that could get them a viewer (or two). It's basically an added value on the whole game Perry Sook invented by shaking down cable companies for money. The stations suffer while the saved pennies all go towards NewsNation.

He was hired as damaged goods on the cheap. There is no way he's being paid what he made at CNN. Come on.

I don't see Apollo being anywhere close to that smart, they'd rather take Cox off the market entirely than concede the bloody obvious that no one wants the whole group as-is. And even Connoisseur's purchase of Alpha is fraught with a lot of problems; Jeff Warshaw is either going to have to shut down a lot of small-market stations (many of which Alpha destroyed entirely) or sell them for a pittance just to make it work.

I wonder if WOIO has any desire to hire Mark Johnson once his non-compete is up. WKYC too. Not sure if WJW would take him, even though they are a vastly different place with Scott Sabol as the oldest one there after Andre's retirement. In this post-Goddard (and even post-Bernier era), Mark Johnson was the senior meteorologist for the market, starting at WEWS in 1993. He took over the chief position at WEWS 10 years later after they demoted Brad Sussman, who had taken over for the legendary Don Webster. Enjoy this YouTube video that's aged a little poorly over the last day or two. It came out 9 years ago.

Sheri Jones has retired from WLNS Lansing after a 37-year run. The announcement was back in March, but last night's 6pm news was her last. https://www.wlns.com/news/local-news/6-news-at-6-celebrating-sheri-jones/

This, and it's been this for almost a year. If you look at the KOTA Facebook, they have used an affiliate-less logo in the profile pic since August 2024, around the same time they folded the KEVN/"Black Hills Fox" branding into the KOTA Territory banner. Looking on Wayback.org, I had to go to June 2024 to find a KOTAtv.com homepage that had the ABC logo adjoining the call letters.

Being New Orleans, WVUE is the Saints' station, so FOX may be taking issue to any deviation by Gray. I doubt Fox is shopping themselves to the other stations in the market, but that could be a possibility one day. The arrangement should be a boon for everyone involved, but FOX may feel otherwise....

I'm sure something will come to light about Mark Johnson's firing, but it may be tied to him hawking merchandise on the side. This is scuttlebutt based on Reddit and should be taken with a grain of salt. Makes me wonder what it would take to get James Spann canned. He has enough of a following that would riot in the streets if anything happened to him. But he is very good at explaining all sides of an issue, whether it's weather related or not, and does a good job trying to tow the line and/or staying neutral on controversial issues. Good meteorologists often negotiate the leeway to market themselves outside of their news roles, especially if they have existing speaking or educational arrangements in place. Whatever Mark Johnson may have done was probably out of line with his contract and Scripps exercised their right to terminate for cause.

I'm willing to guess that these removals are contingent on affiliate renewals. Gray probably has many of them all over the place due to acquisitions over the years. Even though some like WBKO have adopted the new ABC logo, it's probably staying around for this agreement until that expires. Fox is likely the network that will hold them to some form of dual-branding.

Meteorologist Colton Williams is heading north. As I previously mentioned he left KTUL at the end of April and was helping KJRH and still is until the end of the month, then he will be heading up I-35 to Wichita and joining the KAKE First Alert weather team and will start in June doing the 4pm newscasts Monday through Friday.

And now Rhiannon Ally filling in for Pedro this Saturday with Michelle. Just realized that they use white chairs at the desk for the AM shows and the dark blue chairs for PM shows.

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/headlines/connoisseur-to-acquire-alpha-media https://radioinsight.com/headlines/299963/connoisseur-media-to-acquire-alpha-meda/

Or other companies.

WSTM 3 News 1986 WJW Newscenter 8 1992 WTMJ News 4 1985 KTBS 3 News 2001 WXIN FOX 59 News 1997

Whoa -- haven't really seen any news outlets do a quick story like this... He really must've done something wrong for them to post something like this...

Jessica Ralston goes from interim in the evening to PERMANENT in the evening at WSYX. https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/jessica-ralston-moves-evening-nightside-news-abc-6fox-28-newscasts-anchor-anchorwoman-newscast?fbclid=IwY2xjawKLcNNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHqSse7THvXrTdy_zTeA6OlfOX8m1lfo9nVpOALS56aQvHkqE5CtB2JIq8ZPf_aem_1y3Q70Q029vAVvXxCSyxgg

Woah. Scripps continues to go to the gutter. WEWS' longtime Chief has been fired. After 22 years, Mark Johnson is OUT. https://www.news5cleveland.com/about-us/mark-johnson-no-longer-at-news-5-cleveland#:~:text=Meteorologist Mark Johnson is no,to the highest ethical standards

I wouldn’t put it past them, but it could also support their group wide initiatives like Local News Live or InvestigateTV.

Gray has a job opening that may suggest the company might pull a TEGNA and consolidate its creative services marketing departments. The job opening is for a video editor/producer for Gray Creative Group, which “handles the marketing and content initiatives support for all Gray-owned and operated TV stations.” I’m not 100% convinced that Gray will pull a TEGNA here. When Gray bought out Meredith, the company had to rebuild the local creative services departments that Meredith eliminated in a “make ourselves look better to prospective buyers” cost-cutting move prior to the buyout. It makes me wonder if Gray Creative will just fill in gaps at local stations that can’t hire marketing producers.

Two things of note involving TEGNA: The company has a job opening for a “director of content” to oversee its Florida stations, WTSP Tampa and WJXX/WTLV Jacksonville. FTVLive reported a few days ago that TEGNA planned to effectively merge both stations, so it looks like the company is making good on that plan. Another interesting note: WJXX/WTLV GM Tim Thomas’ LinkedIn profile shows he is now the GM at WTSP as well. Also, TEGNA CEO Mike Steib seems to be in a selling mood. In a phone call with industry analysts, he said, “We are buyers of anything that’s a fit for our mission and our company. And if there’s anything someone wants to buy from us at a price that is more than it is worth to our shareholders, we’re interested in selling it.” TEGNA might be in a buying mood if the FCC does loosen or eliminate the ownership cap, but I think TEGNA knows it can make more money by selling stations to the likes of Nexstar or Sinclair.

KLEW newscasts are now produced and anchored from Boise. The quality has always been high school/college/cable access quality. The station veterans were great but everything else was so blah. It’s worse now.

They're one of the very few, if not the only Sinclair station not to use the Sinclair music package. Been using Aerial since 2012, all the way back to the LIN days.

WLUK has pretty much escaped most of the Sinclairization and been able to shove it off to WCWF outside must-runs, which they burn off at the worst times possible. They're switching from their LIN era studio now, but being neck-and-neck with WBAY while WFRV and WGBA crash out towards irrelevancy from their own companies helps keep Hunt Valley from getting their way with 11 fully.