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This is a fine set for Spokane and market 73. Folks, I think we need to collectively come to the terms with the fact that the money is gone, everything is more expensive, and design trends are different than they were 20 years ago.

Broadcast graphic design has trended alongside popular web app/mobile phone UI for a while now, and that's also stagnated quite a bit from where it was 15 or so years ago. Remember how news graphics always had to be "shiny" when that was the Apple iOS look? That slowly died off as Apple and Google shifted away from that design language. The Apple design language itself has become a broadcast graphics package. The corporate design world has a lot of weird stuff going on right now, the kind of abstract 3D ribbon-y stuff and flowing photorealistic materials is popular, along with funky fonts (more the design in the article than what it's talking about), but I'm not sure how any of that actually translates into the apps that these companies using them make, let alone local news. There is a lot of reasons why news graphics have trended this way, and I think we're more or less stuck here for the time being. Money and talent are two major factors at the local level. You can't have the talent without money, and you don't make money if your expensive talented designers are constantly making news graphics, so templates it is! Go find an agency to develops a template-driven "design system," then keep it for a long time because it was expensive, and nobody's doing anything wildly different anyways. TL;DR: The era of "unique" broadcast design died when motion graphics stopped being almost exclusively broadcast-related. It shouldn't be surprising this happened as video ads on the internet became commonplace.

I genuinely don't understand the angst regarding Nightly broadcasting from Studio 1A. Is it just sentimental longing for a dedicated space? From a business perspective, it doesn't make a lot of sense to build a standalone studio for a show with a 22-minute runtime where the studio itself is on camera for a few minutes. The economic realities make Nightly's use of 1A completely reasonable. Heck, Nightly started switching the show from the 1A control back room during Brian Williams' tenure. I don't see the practical need for a big production space for a solo-anchored newscast like this. ABC World News Tonight uses a shared studio space, but outside of a bump shot, the show is mostly a static shot of David seated in front of an LED wall. And this is the top-rated evening newscast, and on occasion, has been the most watched show on television. So while the set in Studio 1A might be a little long in the tooth, it seems perfectly serviceable. Lester's ratings didn't drop when they moved to 1A. And I doubt Tom's would spike if they had their own space. When budgets are being slashed, the priority should be to keep investing in newsgathering resources. Building a new set to say you have a dedicated space doesn't seem like a good use of shrinking resources. But I might be missing something here.

This is textbook fascism in action. Use every lever of power to force the media into submission. Punish dissent. Stifle journalistic freedom.

No one’s gonna terminate their CBS affiliation because they chose to put an out-of-production Byron Allen show at 12:37 a.m. ET, BFFR. Considering the state of syndication these days, the current American network/affiliate programming model actually looks increasingly out of place, given that in most countries (as well as our Spanish-language networks and diginets), OTA broadcast networks handle most of their daily program output, fillling timeslots not occupied by first-run programs (e.g., dramas, sitcoms, reality series, lifestyle shows), news (local or national) and sports with acquired programming and repeats of current and past network shows. It kinda makes less sense now for networks here in the States to give lower-rated timeslots back to affiliates (the most recent occurrence being in 2021, when NBC gave up the 1:37 slot after A Little Late with Lilly Singh ended), given the downturn in the syndication market and stations’ tendency to just expand local news usually using an already stretched staff, rather than invest in other types of programming. Plus, CBS’s affiliates probably aren’t clamoring to take back the 12:37 a.m. slot. It’s too late for live news (outside of the occasional overrun during March Madness), and Big Three stations don’t run syndicated sitcoms and dramas in late night like they did through the 2000s (thanks largely to CBS and ABC making valiant challenges to NBC’s once-powerhouse late-night lineup with the Late Show, The Late Late Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live!). If CBS had turned over the timeslot, it’d probably be filled by lower-rated first-run syndies (as was often the case until the 1990s), newsmagazines (either second runs of shows like Inside Edition and ET or lower-rated shows like Extra that the station might already air in a later slot), second runs of daytime talk shows (KOCO, for example, has done this since the early 2000s starting with Oprah and now Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson), or late news rebroadcasts. You’re likely not going to see the types of suited-for-late-night first-run syndies like Arsenio, Love Connection or Blind Date that did well in the past.

Honestly, it would not surprise me in the least if this hypothetical new 3A set ended up being for Nightly, NBC News Now, and Today. Not only is a bunch of studio space and newsroom space about to open up, but technical spaces as well. It would not shock me at all if NBC chose to consolidate everything inside 30 Rock. The streetside studio thing has to be becoming more trouble than it's worth, and they're about to have at least two full control rooms open up.

That WNBC set was the one in 6B before Fallon took it over. 3K is something like 3/4 to 2/3 the size of 6B. There's going to be a glut of extra space on the 3rd floor once MSNBC moves out. I'd suspect they'll refresh/replace the set in 3A once that happens and hand it over to Nightly.

Hello, everyone. I have an update regarding LocalNewsTalk and our partner Discord server The NewsCenter. On Monday, The NewsCenter announced that it will be merging with the Broadcast Plaza Discord server. Emma's announcement to The NewsCenter follows. There have been a few questions as to what is happening to LocalNewsTalk following this merger. The answer is: not much! LocalNewsTalk will continue to exist, and we are working with Broadcast Plaza to continue the partnership we started with The NewsCenter. We will be updating our Discord page and adopting some Broadcast Plaza co-branding in the coming days and weeks. While the best place for questions about this merger remains the #repack channel mentioned above, I will do my best to answer any questions that this side of things may have below.

What I will give them is the "local" accent is instantly recognizable to anyone who has spent time in Spokane as the Monroe Street Bridge. For market 70-something in 2025 it's not bad, and in fact pretty good. It will resonate with a local audience. Some of these other "we took design cues from local architecture" sets use a slightly different color faux brick and expect people to get it.

You read that right. KWQC commissioned it (thanks to Cyle Dickens' help nonetheless) and will debut on June 10th.

Between here and the Discord, we've seen multiple people confirm that this is a new package for the group, so there's been a thread title change.

Having been to that area, like you said, police shoe people away from that view of the window (W 49th Street) and everyone is told to stand behind the barricades on the side of studio (Rockefeller Plaza), so it's comparatively empty today. Having gone to the Plaza myself, the audience experience is pretty lackluster. The anchors barely come out onto the plaza except for the 8 AM introduction and an occasional weather hit from Al. I think an outdoor audience presence is still cool if utilized properly which Today doesn't really do anymore.

IMO it's no issue that they share a set, the problem is that the set sucks.

The Fleur de Lis is probably the most sacred of all above being referred to "Fox 8". It was a brilliant move by the Bensons when they bought the station, and carried on to this day. And after reading the comments, potentially losing the "Fox" branding is causing some viewers to lose their minds, because they tie it with a certain "news" channel.

That and their iconic FOX 8 with the Fleur de LIs O

Every step and element of a set- from the first design meeting through the final light being plugged in is about money. Larger owners, like Nexstar for example, can get away with the same "set in a box" being mass produced which allows for some of the little design touches to become attainable in the budget. A much smaller company like Cowles, the owner of KHQ, has to pick and choose with the budget they likely have. They chose tech and an overall set that they likely hope will last as long as the old set did for them.

I was told by the assistant news director at KJRH back in April that Scripps was working on a new graphics package and looks like Tampa Bay is the first to get it.

At least Larry Tisch managed to give CBS the image of a pristine broadcaster. CBS looks so much like a network that rests on its laurels, just like all the other networks that Paramount Global owns. I really believe CBS will be the first broadcast network to cease operations at this point, especially considering the turmoil that every department in CBS is going through. CBS News has always lagged behind it's competitors but never has it been this desecrated and ruined. There's no "pride in it's coverage, history and integrity" anymore, all because Paramount Global couldn't manage itself to save it's own life and now needs to merge with Skydance to survive. ABC and NBC have been affected by Trump but never have I seen so much damage done to them than CBS. Disney and NBCUniversal have made wise decisions when it came to cable negotiations and shutting down cable networks that dragged down the company in the US at least. NBCUniversal also made the wise decision to spin off their cable properties except for Bravo as Versant. Paramount Global has not bothered to shut down any of it's vast amount of cable networks that barely matter or do well at all. Even flagship cable channels like Nickelodeon are not given the care or attention they need at all. I don't think any of the new shows that Nick has announced will make it to a second season, it's all SpongeBob now and that has been milked to death but it refuses to die. Sure there's The Loud House and various preschool programming but how long can they milk it for really? Even Warner Bros. Discovery is highly considering spinning off their cable networks as well. Never have I seen a company so grossly incompetent and mismanaged than Paramount Global. I don't think Shari should of taken on the job at all.

WFLA Newschannel 8 1994 WPVI Action News 1990 WJZ Eyewitness News 1993 (clip starts at 14:11) WRC News 4 1993 KNBC Channel 4 News 1995 WHBF 4 News closing at the beginning of the clip. 1985 WTSP 10 News 1994

The streetside studio was an interesting concept when NBC brought it back in 1994. But, it's no longer 1994. It says a lot that everyone else has abandoned/is abandoning their streetside studio concept. It doesn't magically make the show better, or increase ratings. It has become a magnet for weirdos and people with an axe to grind, and that can be seen by how the area outside 1A's home base has been filled with a bunch of giant planter boxes over the last decade. The only way you can end up on TV now (and that seems to be a lot fewer people clamoring for that than before) is by being in the area that their security and/or the NYPD can shoo you away from the window. Look at the stark difference between this pic from a 1999 wild feed and nearly the same anchor position from this morning, and another similar one from this past week. You can't even see across the street anymore. Are they in New York City? Can't tell, it's entirely obscured by plants (and not even an actual plant in half of the second image, it's a screen showing a plant). The shots have all been adjusted too, go back and look at late 90's/early 2000's clips and match them up with the modern look... New York City is hidden from view. So, I ask, what is the point?

I actually applaud when ND's/AND's step in when needed... I think it gives them new perspective that many times they forget about.

There are multiple factors to blame if we're going to do a full accounting of what killed traditional TV. I agree that greed is definitely one of them. Overpriced cable/satellite bills, extreme and intrusive levels of advertising, etc. It simultaneously got more expensive and more monetized while being less worth it. You could argue that the introduction of ads to cable TV, even though the original premise of paying for cable was that you were paying to avoid advertising, was the "original sin" that doomed the future of television. I posted this theory a few months ago, and I still believe it: I also think the historic laziness of American TV presentation is a big part of it. Compared to other countries that had idents, live announcers (sometimes on camera a la MTV's VJs) and all sorts of other extras that made TV feel like a big event, the presentation of American TV has always been minimalist and impersonal. In the long run, I think it's cost the networks dearly since they never developed the same brand loyalty as, say, the BBC that might have helped them hold out for longer against streaming and make the eventual transition more graceful. That laziness and lack of ambition extended to the programming, too. Networks started cancelling shows before they could even find an audience because it was safer to just recycle the same formats over and over again. Cable networks that started out with specific visions all drifted into being the same general-entertainment channels with the same programming before decaying into a worse version of Netflix binge-watching with ads every five minutes. And of course, the lack of local programming besides news doesn't help either. Most broadcast stations' schedules are full of syndicated crap that clearly nobody misses on streaming. Streaming is already heading in the same direction. It's becoming more expensive and fragmented, more encroached with advertising, too quick to cancel shows, and so on. It shows that the real problem was never traditional TV itself, it was the corporations behind it who simply can't help themselves.

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.

The comment section on @TheRolyPoly's FB link has some people calling out the dropping of FOX for the call letters already... And most are not kind. Hopefully someone is reading the early speculative feedback! Agree that when you're on top of the mountain, you need to indeed innovate and stay ahead of the game, but don't blow up what you're known for (read- the branding, the logo) Isn't a Fleur-De-Lis in NOLA like hiving a lone star on just about anything in Texas? Lots of local and regional pride that goes along with it.

Not surprised. I had an inkling this happened. Mostly because I was thinking recently of...

Lonnie Quinn returned to WCBS and CBS this evening. He announced March 14th that he was taking several weeks off to recover from a concussion that was later determined to be a traumatic brain injury. He returned to the newsroom to applause, hugs, balloons and cake today:

This. It's also not wildly technically complex. It's a bunch of big TVs, and that's perhaps one area where everything is not truly "more expensive"... Both consumer and commercial displays have come way down in price. A 75' Samsung 4K UHD HDR smart TV is slightly cheaper than it's commercial counterpart. The fabrication of the set probably cost much more than those displays did total. They also have like, a whopping total of 20 lighting fixtures, which is why it's lit so flat, and why it look underwhelming. Again, this is a trend, because good lights are still expensive (The new WABC set is lit with a lot of Skypanel S30s and S60s (linking the new version because the old version is on clearance sale), with the money WABC spent on just lighting their set, they could have probably bought the KHQ set 10 times over.) and KHQ doesn't have the money to do that. They seem to have dumped their conventional lighting fixtures (non-LED and non-Fluorescent) visible in that last broadcast from the old set, because those are also expensive to operate. Yeah, it doesn't look as good as it could if they had a massive big-market budget. But this isn't a big market, it's Spokane, and it's still a nice modern look.

It's not about money, as I said the tech is there. It's bland, lifeless set.

This seems a hard concept for many.

John Wheeler is only the second chief Meteorologist that WDAY-TV Fargo has ever had. Come May 16th, they'll have to look for a third once John decides to enter a new phase after 40 years there... retirement. https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1073102168184588&id=100064544448955

The new set debuts today at 5pm. It’s similar to sister station KESQ’s new set that debuted late 2024. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BvsvCdg37/?mibextid=wwXIfr

YES. This one (attached) is one of the arrangements (over a number of years) I did for my original 'WTNCF' theme that I composed for KCRA-TV Kelly Broadcasting in late 83 ... Thanks.

Here's another link via YT. Ellen and David were a great team. She will be missed. They remind me of the Kathy Brock/Allen Krashesky of Los Angeles.

So, she's outside now?

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.

A true end of an era is coming... The Queen of the Capital Region, WRGB's Liz Bishop, has announced her retirement. May 30th will be her last day and will mark the end of a 52-year era in Capital Region television news. It's the only station she ever worked for in her career, a RARITY in today's business. https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/cbs6-news-anchor-liz-bishop-announces-retirement-after-more-than-5-decade-career

Wow. She is one of the few anchors I've watched while getting WPTV in Northern Broward County in 2005 (alongside WPEC, WFLX, and WXEL), thanks to a robust analog signal at my grandma's (at the time) trailer park. Shannon Cake is hanging it up after nearly 30 years at WPTV, and this Friday is her last day there. Some of the last of the old guard are slowly leaving this heritage station, and I'm sad to see her go. https://www.wptv.com/about-us/wptv-anchor-shannon-cake-a-look-back-at-her-29-year-career-at-the-news-station

Mike was out covering the Diddy trial yesterday. Not sure about today but yesterday he did several reports for all evening shows.

Trust me, as long as Fox still has The Simpsons and company, Hulu will still continue to host ALL Fox shows. And with that renewal, it's clear they're not going away from Fox.

KEVN Newscast 1987 (clip at 25:00) WLUC TV 6 Early News 1991 WFTV Eyewitness News 1989 WBZ Eyewitness News 1986

They also have a 'malicious compliance' version of the logo where the ABC ball is still used...but for the Fox version they just replace the ABC text with the Fox logo. It's technically compliant for its use, but it feels like it's easier to just switch logos without the black ball being needed.

Apparently, it was shilling local food joints on his facebook page that got Mark Johnson canned.... https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2025/5/10/fired-in-cleveland https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2025/4/8/are-these-ads (posts like these) Seems more like a conflict of interest instead of a ethical matter to me. Perhaps WJW may pick him up after all and put him on "New Day Cleveland" once the dust settles. You know, because Nexstar and selling things....

This, and if you look at the tour of the building they give in the newscast, the logos on the glass panels in the production/weather/newsroom areas alternate "WVUE8" and "Gray". The same segment, I noticed "WVUE8" and "FOX8" were used almost interchangeably. Are they in tandem? It is transitionary? Not enough evidence to speculate long-term from what I watched.

The meteorologist named Majestic Storm joined WCNC as of yesterday: https://www.wcnc.com/article/about-us/majestic-storm-meteorologist-wcnc-charlotte/275-5fa6a77b-85c0-4680-829b-5db81fb12d6c

Yeah, I've been working on uploading the new opens over the last few days. (Playlist that I'll keep updating...) Meanwhile, it looks like they're trying to go toe-to-toe with WGN's morning after-show. Streaming at 10 (as I type this) is Chicago Now with Anthony & Kaitlin.

Geez Lonnie has been there for 18 years? Time has flown. Very glad to see him back and healthy!

The Allen Wisconsin network is having a meltdown; WAOW has been stuck having to cover WKOW's newscasts since yesterday (and having to present their news that's completely irrelevant to Madison to pad out shows), along with having to do their statecasts in the morning. At this point, you might as well consider Madison, La Crosse/Eau Claire and Wausau two-operation news markets because it seems like Byron doesn't even care about having a proper third news operation (and Rockford will be inevitably hubbed out soon enough).

Nah, this is a pretty terrible set and a downgrade from the previous one. Better technology? Yes. But at the sacrifice of fugliness.