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Please don't encourage people to call newsrooms, even if you're not serious. Frankly, I suggest you lose that number, as well. Nobody should be calling a newsroom line (what was posted above was a public NEWS tipline), whether publicly-advertised or not, for any trivial shit, like weather graphics. If you don't like it. Don't watch. It's that simple. Frankly, I'm getting tired of this discussion, no matter someone's opinion on this matter. That means that no response to this post is necessary. Failure to restrain from reiterating the same tired points could result in...well, let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Very shocked and sad to hear this tonight. I was an intern in the summer of 2007. There had recently been a piece in one of the papers about all the new weather hires (I believe three -- Elise, Lonnie and John -- had all just started within the previous few months). It was somewhat critical of the others but lavished praise on Elise. I ran into her in the hallway shortly after that came out, introduced myself, and said something like, "Congratulations on all the kind things said about you in the paper!" She said hello and kindly accepted the compliment but also noted how she didn't feel good about it because her colleagues didn't receive a similar response. I know it's a quick story but I was just impressed as a young intern at her humility and truly feeling like a member of a team. Elise leaves behind her daughter Grace and her husband Graig, who is a photojournalist at the station. https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/remembering-our-beloved-colleague-elise-finch/

CBS is reportedly sunsetting News Now at the end of next month. The weekend editions of the show have been cancelled, which gives credence to this.

KPIX finally updated their mic flags yesterday.

Very happy to hear this, hopefully WCBS just regains control of the full 9pm hour and does a traditional newscast again. Preferably reinstate Dick and Alice and the WLNY branding

Looks like they're no longer doing the 9pm news broadcast on weekends. The schedule shows Magnum PI on Saturday and SEAL Team on Sunday. It's still on the weekday schedule.

The desk is almost a replica of the WTTG desk. The rest... not so much.

Oof. Kinda looks like a temp set.

Looks like Diamond dropped their lawsuit trying to block the Phoenix Suns from going OTA:

Just heard about this on the radio. Longtime DFW anchor John Criswell has passed. He anchored at WFAA for 17 years, then moved to KDFW and anchored there for 7 years. Criswell is likely the most notable for starting WFAA's regular feature "Wednesday's Child", where a child is profiled who has been fostered and would like to eventually be adopted. "Wednesday's Child" is still a weekly feature on WFAA. Criswell was 83. https://www.wfaa.com/amp/article/news/local/wfaa-anchor-john-criswell-dies/287-84a009b0-db4e-4457-a2f5-22416b476aba

Raycom was producing the ACC games that aired on Bally, they just used Bally’s onscreen graphics for presentation purposes Interesting that 2 ACC homes markets (Pittsburgh and atlanta) don’t currently have a CW affiliate….Nexstar better start making some calls

Nah, for the most part this is returning quite a few stations to the Saturday status quo they had for at least a couple decades where they'd carry ESPN+ (the old regional sports version) or Raycom coverage. This should have been done back to when UPN was carrying XFLI games but the weekend syndie hour show market hadn't yet hard-crashed. They might be the thinner matches, but it's still college football on Saturdays and basketball on weeknights. It's better than Nielsen scratch-athons the 55th episode of dead sitcoms or Byron Allen filler... ...and this package will affect his HBCU coverage for the next season. Expect that to bump exclusively to MyNet affiliates and subchannels if it was on a CW station last year. Of course this is contingent on the CW renewing SInclair, which is still quite in limbo.

The joke’s on them. This actually makes the games more accessible than they were on Bally

Adding more fuel to the question if the Murdoch family and Fox Corp are fit to have public television licenses, are two events from yesterday. One is the defamation suit by Ray Epps, a private citizen who took part in the 1/6 insurrection at the US Capitol, who Fox News & Tucker Carlson have continuously brandished as a FBI plant. He is not, nor ever an employee or associate of the FBI. He points out Fox's disinformation and impact on 1/6. The second is this opinion by those who were with Rupert Murdoch from the beginning of establishing Fox as a fourth TV network, and their current feelings. It makes for interesting reading. The issue is not how the local stations operate, it is whether ownership is a fit license holder. https://boulderpreston.com/2023/07/12/how-our-efforts-to-bring-competition-to-television-unknowingly-helped-create-the-fox-disinformation-machine/

I somewhat understand this opinion, and also acknowledge that it’s possible for some shows to use swearing as a bit of a crutch, but to me, that’s a problem of bad writing, not the existence of swear words. You could also argue that a complete ban on swear words makes certain shows unrealistic. Can you really suspend your disbelief about the average CBS police procedural when you don’t hear the occasional F-bomb flying around? I understand having no explicit content before, say, 9pm, but I still think a complete ban is unrealistic in 2023. Although, given the fact that we’re about to experience a drought of scripted shows, this is probably a moot point. Oh well, get ready for Deal or No Deal: Electric Boogaloo.

A look at the logo (courtesy of The Other Site). I like this a lot. I wonder if the new studio will look similar to this (‘Studio 7’ circa 2010, designed by ClickSpring). Ideally, it would fit perfectly for what they’re going for with News Central.

This was already posted in the WCBS topic but might as well post it here: morning meteorologist Elise Finch has suddenly passed away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPXWRsRpOt4&pp=ygUMY2JzIG5ldyB5b3Jr https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/remembering-our-beloved-colleague-elise-finch/

Oh my, I certainly was not expecting to hear Jessica Moore announce this on the news at 6:30 tonight. Elise Finch has passed away. https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/remembering-our-beloved-colleague-elise-finch/ Prayers and condolences to her whole family. WCBS will probably have more of a tribute tomorrow morning

That was just one small point I was making, and you ignored every other one: The bigger point was that a graphic at GMA couldn't even fit triple digits, their high pressure symbol doesn't have arrows around it, but it has a useless circle around it, and there is no word "HOT" or red color gradient on the graphic, it doesn't say "heat dome" or anything else. Thus, it's a poorly done graphic I'd expect to see from a small market station in the middle of nowhere, not ABC News. It's too basic. You don't need a red H. You need something, anything at all, that conveys that it will be hot. Why don't you call the Eyewitness Newsroom at [redacted] and ask why they have a red high pressure symbol? They aren't going to tell you it was for the fun of it. Some other stations just take the H symbol away and put the words HOT or HEAT DOME in place of the H symbol. That's enough arguing over that. Just to let you know, I've spoken to some current and former meteorologists at two Owned Stations and none had anything good to say about the VividZero weather package. Maybe this is the greatest thing WLS has ever seen, but it certainly isn't an improvement in other markets. It's not even good. At WPVI, they got dozens and dozens of negative comments once the change was made, and still, months after the debut, still get negative feedback about the package, especially the forecasts. That's what I care about more than a red High. Clear, unique, and easy to understand graphics that appeal to everyone--not just people who like weather apps.

Some news station workers, especially news production staff, are part of SAG-AFTRA and will be walking out. Voice Actors are striking too. I have family striking as both members of WGA and SAG-AFTRA. Most game shows are union as well. I think things like Survivor and unscripted reality programming are the only shows that really aren't, but it depends on the production houses.

I believe game show hosts, news personalities, and sports anchors can continue to work. That's a different contract that is good through 2024. See this link: https://www.vogue.com/article/sag-aftra-strike-explainer HOWEVER...would reality shows be considered "game shows" in this case? Terry Crews may elect to walk out with SAG-AFTRA before the live shows air.

Just read this from a small market station and it will help you understand the difference: https://abc17news.com/weather/2022/01/26/insider-blog-what-is-arctic-high-pressure/ Let's get back to the new graphics... Just compare these risk outlooks from KTRK and WPVI. Which one is a better visual representation that viewers can remember more easily? The 'improved' version isn't listed in ascending order, isn't color coded, and has bar graphs that are all over the delineations.The isolated tornado bar looks like a mid-to-high end low risk, damaging winds could be a lower-end high risk or a high-end medium risk, etc. It's just poorly done and much harder to remember at a glance. KTRK's way is labeled on each bar, color coded, listed from highest to lowest risk, and each bar goes the full length of the delineations (4 vs 3 for new package). This isn't an improvement. It's a downgrade. I should correct something: Hothaus Creative didn't not make the weather graphics for KTRK; they made current and prior news packages. It was their former Chief Meteorologist Tim Heller who designed the weather graphics. Tim used unique color gradients for radar, enhanced satellite, rainfall, dust-casts, etc. (I don't know who made the red High though). The package made by VividZero uses the same green, yellow, and red color tables for almost everything. It's just too basic.

Disney is exploring the sale of its linear TV stations including ABC. This does not include ESPN. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/13/disney-ceo-iger-opens-door-to-unloading-tv-assets.html

Here is WCBS's report Dana Tyler, John Elliott and Dick Brennan on Dr. Frank Field