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CBS is moving away from Enforcer for exactly that reason. It’s dated and doesn’t fit the direction of the network/O&Os. It’s been around long enough. It’s time for something refreshing and new. The graphics are modern and clean. They look good on mobile and streaming, which is the future. They’re far better than the current iteration of the O&O graphics. Overall, it appears this is a solid upgrade for the CBS O&Os. Despite some stations keeping calls or channel numbers (for now), I think this is a step in the right direction. I for one am happy to see some of the nostalgia go to the wayside.

I think people were wondering why CBS is calling it “KCAL News” when the whole point is to unify every station around CBS News (especially in big markets like LA). Even on streaming, there are barely any visual references to CBS News Los Angeles (at least, not yet). If the goal is building around a strong local brand, this is a success. If the goal is brand unification w/ CBS, this fails. Furthermore, the KCAL News brand does not translate well cross-platform; the website and app are built around CBS News, but there are barely any references to CBS News on the newscasts themselves (outside of KCBS newscasts). That being said, KCAL is the stronger brand, and it’s much better to build around “KCAL News” than have two separate names for the same product. On its own, it’s a great (and sensible) rebrand, but if the goal is to build around CBS News, it doesn’t accomplish that.

Branding issues aside, from every clip I've seen so far, what would make KCBS/KCAL unwatchable if I lived in Southern California is every single anchor sounds like they're cold-reading their scripts. It comes off as disjointed, cold, and robotic. When KTLA is a few clicks away, the choice would be obvious for me.

I was literally just thinking this. There are plenty of CBS 2’s across the country, but only one KCAL and CBS Los Angeles. I don’t know how much more unique and local you can get than that.

Most viewers probably don't care, they're turning on one channel or the other and see the same faces they usually do. Folks were complaining about "CBS News (city)" not being "unique" enough and whatever, and then when given "KCAL News" are upset about that. It's a good brand. It translates well cross-platform, and there's no other "KCAL News" out there. KCAL was seen as the stronger brand and there's nothing wrong with that.

Wait until the ABC O&O graphics launch.

WBNS used to be tops in Columbus, but now that honor goes to WSYX.

I wish there was an ability to downgrade the terrible WRNN-owned stations to 200-watt AM daytimers instead of giving them better UHF signals. Also this 'upgrade' applies to share/sister station WMFP, so yay, clearer ShopHQ and OnTV4U farther away, Boston! I do wonder if KENV's upgrade would bring back a major network to that station, or at the very least making it a KMYU satellite. As for WMC, as Lizzo would say, 'it's about damned time'.

I'm surprised they haven't figured out a way to move WKRC to UHF, or at least provided a massive power boost. That is one crappy signal.

Well, there's another unlocked childhood memory I completely forgot about...

I don't care for their newscasts anymore with the flashy graphics and the longtime theme music gone. The current music just sucks. I don't know why they don't just use the Eyewitness News theme if they aren't going to use News Series 2000 Plus that they had for 21 years. It's not the same without Linda, Sylvia, Ron, Kathy, Jerry, or Mark. Alan leaving was the last of the great legends the station had. I don't know why they don't put Ravi and Karen as their lead weekday team. They are the best they've got, but they can't seem to figure out who to put in Alan's position.

I’d like them to come to some solution sooner than later. Radar and Variety are reporting that GMAers don’t want Amy and TJ back. We shall see what happens but Rhiannon Ally and DeMarco Morgan are making a nice competitive pairing as the replacements.

I think Tucker was yammering on about this, a couple weeks back. Something about non-whole numbers being a part of the "liberal gay agenda." /s

The producer brain drain is going to force stations to make a lot of difficult decisions moving forward. After I left my last newsroom to make a career change, I received so many unsolicited inquiries asking if I had any interest in getting back into the business. I was surprised we didn't hear stories of stations scrambling to keep newscasts on air or abrupt one-day cancelations of some shows when Southwest had its operational meltdown after Christmas. Staffing levels are already low, and at least when I got time off during the holidays, I did not book flights with any room for error.

Just saw a promo for "Weather Command" where one of the claims is they might even "debate the data". Oh boy, wonder what THAT could mean. /s

I don't mind Norman Lear's old shows. Sanford and Son is hilarious, and All in the Family was funny regardless of some of the controversial content they covered. But TV wasn't in decline back then. There was still lots of pure TV entertainment and fun. Bob Hope's specials, Johnny Carson, Happy Days, etc. It was definitely an awesome time for television. And yes, the remakes of movies and TV shows proves that Hollywood has ran out of creative ideas, unless they are political in nature. For the most part, remakes are not as good as the original thing. Murphy Brown proved that. Instead of hosting a newsmagazine, she was a news anchor for a cable news channel in the revival, and Rolling Stone and Variety panned the revival.

Simple takeaway from this week: - KPIX showed us how to rebrand their newscasts the right way - KCAL showed us how to rebrand it in the most throwback, independent, weirdest way possible I mean, for those who worked with KCAL before moving to KCBS, this is a nostalgic moment for them. For the viewers and some here, it's either bad, or could've been better. For me: Well....good thing I don't live in California.

I'm going to guess that KCBS hasn't had a problem attracting viewers to network fare in primetime, daytime, late night, etc., but viewers have seemingly gone out of their way to change the channel when CBS2 News comes on. No need to move affiliations, as CBS programming surely does just fine. KCAL has been the more successful news brand, so they're leaning into it.

Dude no offense, but one rando on Facebook isn’t evidence that the whole thing is a disaster. It’s day 1. Look, they had a rough start this morning, but these things don’t always start smoothly (look at KOTV a few months back.) The assignment desk isn’t perfect, but as I said elsewhere, at least they’re peeling back the curtain on news gathering and trying something no other station is doing. That’s how you stand out. Keep in mind that the alternative was a morning newscast that got 0.0 in the ratings and a network that was airing morning infomercials instead of live programming. I’m happy to point out some flaws, but this is an improvement by every stretch of the imagination, and I think we’re overreacting if we say otherwise.

As an aside, you know it's gotten bad when you're actually excited for the fact that over on B&B, Brooke and Taylor finally both kicked Ridge to the curb. The writers must've finally taken notice that we're sick of watching these two now-grandmothers battling each other over that man. 30+ years of it was more than enough.

So much of TV news is just political propaganda. It comes from either party operatives or their deep state sources. Maybe it was always this way, but it has never been more obvious that most of it is propaganda. I've completely tuned it out, which I probably shouldn't be doing, but what's the point of watching right-wing, deep state or left-wing Pravda on the tube anymore? It's just talking points repeated over and over again doing the whole Joseph Goebbels thing of repeating lies over and over again.

MSNBC and Tiffany Cross have parted ways

Didn't MSNBC see ratings imporvement in 2015 when Andy Lack lessened the opinionated programming and ran with more (albeit biased) news. Seems backward that they would move in the opposite direction. I guess they're trying to be the leftist answer to Fox News but it hasn't worked for them when they stray too far off from news. I loved the olden days when Alex Witt took up like 5 hours on wekends with "MSNBC News Live". Back when they were partnered with msn.

When was the last time Kendis was on Miami's airwaves?

Should've stuck with more news, less opinion, but no. They decided to go the opposite way and guess what? Its now costed them ratings BIG time.

Especially, with the fact that more and more people are dropping cable/satellite on a daily basis. This is why CBS, and ABC launched 24/7 OTT streams instead of a 24/7 news channel. I know that Nexstar had "Dead Space" with WGN America, but they should have launched NewsNation as an OTT product in this day an age, and sell WGN America to recoup some of their losses but at the same time Nexstar is behind the times when it comes to digital. It wouldn't shock me if the endgame for NewsNation is to become Nexstar's version of NewsCentral.

The seeds of WGN (America's) decline were planted long ago, and are mostly rooted in the changing times of cable television. The big draw of WGN to begin with was the Cubs/White Sox & Bulls telecasts. Then the sports world got too expensive, and these games began slowly slipping away. Also, WGN itself as a SuperStation was just happenstance, since it was another company that distributed the signal nationally, and SyndEx took some of the local flavor out of it. Flash forward to around 2008 and the privatization of Tribune by Sam Zell, that's when the deliberate destruction began. The "eye" logo and the antics of Randy Michaels coupled with a long and twisted trip into bankruptcy. Then came the "original programs" that came and went, and until Sincl....I mean Nexstar took over, WGN was a shell of its former self. I'm sure had Sinclair gotten WGN America, they would have done the same thing, but would have been a little less restrained about the slant than Nexstar was. It's just a boring time right now, given all we've been through over the past year or four.....