What is with this weird fetish for speculating about transactions that never could have / never will happen?
Edit: Might as well contribute my two cents to the ANF conversation: what they just did is one of the reasons behind why I left local TV news in 2020. So many that have ascended the ranks of local news management have absolutely no idea what a “brand” is. It’s so much more than a logo. No one is addressing the issues with content. Look at a newscast from 1980 and compare it to one today - the format is almost identical, even the presentation… and that’s a huge problem. You want a younger audience? They don’t want to hear a 4 minute weather forecast from a guy older than their grandfather.
There’s a station in Milwaukee that’s running a promo that says “DON’T WATCH US” and claims that they aren’t going to cover the car crashes and endless crime stories and they’ll focus on local storytelling… but guess what, I watched them and that was a lie. They can’t live up to that brand promise.
I had the same reaction as some who saw the lead story on Atlanta News FIRST was the hurricane that was not coming anywhere close to Atlanta. So what does that new branding even mean? I don’t think there’s anything deeper here than just dropping a ridiculously high channel number. Changing call letters is incredibly stupid. I mean, go ahead and do it, but I don’t think it’s worth mentioning.
Working in TV news was my dream, but looking back on it… I look at the product the stations I worked for put out and I ask myself: “Who is this for?” I give ANF a couple years before it’s dropped for another meaningless rebrand.