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Chuck and Sue were WNBC; and NYC Broadcast Legends. Ever since that duo was broken up; WNBC hasn’t been the same. Some say it’s Karma, But they just haven’t found the right anchor teams with that unmatched chemistry that Chuck, Sue, Len, Al Roker later (Janice Huff) had that made them #1.

I agree, and I don’t think CBS is expecting to cut into KTLA (that would be more of an added bonus than a realistic expectation.) I think it’s mainly about putting on programming that’ll at least get better ratings than morning programming they currently offer on 2/9. And if KCBS takes a ratings hit (as if it hasn’t already,) it doesn’t matter. They’re all under the same umbrella anyway.

Good points all. (As for running network news twice, true. KABC puts on "World News Now" at 3:30 and then again at 6:30. Or at least last I saw. More important, besides the channel position and newscast name, there is no difference at all between CBS 2's and KCAL 9's content. As for the field reporting, the only difference is which way the reporter turns the mic flag, the "9" instead of the "2." All anchors appear on both stations anyway. But it's a lot to ask for KCAL to do much cutting into KTLA's ratings right off the bat. KTTV and "Good Day LA," which once dominated in the heyday of Steve Edwards, Jillian Reynolds, and Dorothy Lucey, has been playing catch-up with KTLA for some time. "The KTLA Morning News" is a pretty strong brand.

Tonight they are devoting the whole show to one night of gun violence in America. They had Kate Snow and other reporters around different cities showing things that happened last night.

If my memory is right, a few weeks back both Soo Kim and Deborah McDermott have made statements in response to the some of the criticism. Including investing in news product, not cutting as well as clarifying Apollo's limited role as a funder and not involved in any part of the operation. I'm sure they have had to file and answer directly to the FCC much of this in more detail that may not yet be public. As I read earlier, the FCC giving this more scrutiny vs. the previous FCC regime that except in the Sinclair/Tribune fiasco, rubber stamped most mergers quickly is not a bad thing, but may not indicate a deal is dead. There can also be negotiations of how to build the wall to prevent Apollo input and if there are any station swapping or selling needed. It's still playing out, so making conclusions yet is premature.

Bill Ritter does the 5, 6 and 11pm. He actually added the 5pm to his schedule just 3 years ago when Diana Williams retired. He’s done the 11pm since 1999 and the 6pm since 2001. Bill Beutel was a phased retirement plan. Stepped down from 11pm in 1999, stepped down from 6pm in 2001 and then fully retired in 2003. With Chuck, yes, it seems like they’re just letting him hang on to the 6pm until he’s ready to call it quits on his own terms.

KCNC has been using a hodgepodge of 4 different graphics packages for the last few years. It's a design mess.

The difference I remember hearing, when compared to Chuck, is that Sue wasn't as willing to do more than just the 11, whether it was adding a show, filling in, or other programming. Chuck was willing, as he was still doing 2 shows.

A lot of different stories and pieces of information out there in this. What we do know is she was initially offered a buyout in 2008 and refused. Sometime after that, she signed a new three year deal set to expire in 2012 and it was made clear then that it would be the last contract WNBC would offer her. She hoped WNBC would change their mind along the way but in the final year if the contract when no renewal talks were offered, she began telling close friends it was her last year at NBC. She was being paid upwards of $2 million a year (some estimates say $5 million) and, in her final year, was anchoring just one 30 minute broadcast. Some reports say she seemed to have lost interest in the job, started phoning it in and NBC execs were not thrilled. Other reports say it’s just a classic case of a woman not being able to age gracefully on television. As we can see, her coanchor of the same age is still with the station in a high profile role.

It’s not that Tegna is full of sinister suits that want to see their employees lose their jobs (though they make up for their lack of cynicism with their incompetence at running their stations.) Tegna wants the deal done ASAP for a much simpler reason. Dave Lougee and company are getting golden parachutes if this merger goes through, and there’s a significant termination fee if they cancel the deal. Why terminate the deal when you have everything to lose if you do? And it’s not evil at all to want the thing dead. This deal kills competition, and in turn kills local stations. While someone like Byron Allen would probably just do nothing with the Tegna stations, that’s still better than a hedge fund operating on a “cut, cut, cut” philosophy.

The only way this deal gets done is with Hearst, Graham, Allen, or O&Os getting involved to buy stations in conflict markets. You have to prove that Tegna and Cox won't be the same company. According to the language in the deal currently, it suggests they are. The best thing that Standard can do is Do a full merger of the Tegna and Cox stations and have the companies mentioned above get involved and buy the conflicts.

The 7-9am block was pretty much identical for all the stations as the 6am hour. The thing that's a little shocking to me about the LA ratings is just how low the share is across the board – so much competition I guess, not just from all the other news options, but just everything else that's on the air too. I can't see the Spanish stations, but maybe those take most of the viewers, perhaps? I suppose you could say that KTLA and KABC are the leaders, but neither of them seem to have anything that's a dominant news hour over everyone else like what you see in other markets. KTLA stays a pretty constant .5 rating / 12 share in the demo all morning long, which isn't bad, but not a runaway. Compare that to the Bay Area market, for example, where KTVU averaged a 1.0 rating / 23 share in the 7 and 8am hours. Another insight I saw is that I can see why they'd want to do more with KCAL. The primetime block is actually quite strong. KCAL's 9pm hour last week averaged a .6 rating / 4 share in the demo, which was not only the best rating of any KCAL/KCBS newscast, but also one of the better ratings of any English language newscast in LA. I think trying to do something local on KCAL in the morning while leaving all the network garbage on KCBS is a pretty good idea. That doubles the ad inventory, and it at least gives them a chance at maybe siphoning some viewers away from KTLA and KTTV. What KCBS is currently doing in the morning clearly isn't working.

Easy money on Standard General’s legal counsel being that bad. Soo simply thought he could buy Tegna out of sheer hatred for Dave Lougee, and the details didn’t matter.

According to the SEC filing there is a termination fee of $163 million and to address @GoldenShine9's question about when Tegna could terminate this deal, the earliest they could get out of the deal with Standard is in May of next year.

Wasn’t there some sort of termination fee associated with the deal though? That may be why they’re hoping the deal goes through, despite all the obvious issues with it.

Which could renew interest for Allen Media.

WHBQ's Mearl Purvis will retire on July 29 after 29 years in Memphis. https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2022/07/01/mearl-purvis-retire-fox-13-july-longtime-anchor/7793108001/

The new "3" look doesn't seem to hurting viewers who read Scene magazine. Its readers voted the station as "Best Newscast" with some of the people there getting some honors. Betsy Kling, Russ Mitchell and Maureen Kyle all made top five Best Anchor/News Personality (Betsy was #1) and Jim Donovan made top five as one of the best sports anchors/reporters. Fellow "3" anchor/reporter Mike Polk, Jr. got Best Comedian. https://www.wkyc.com/article/entertainment/television/cleveland-scene-honors-3news-best-local-newscast-individual-awards-in-best-of-cleveland-2021/95-4429a51b-2320-4872-ac32-4ea058fe5f9f

Resurrecting this topic after a year to report that WKYC seems to be going with a more “traditional” (and very blue) open for its 6pm newscast. (The name remains…as does the circle 3 and in-newscast graphics.) Are bigger changes coming?